Now you are dealing with an area I feel confident advising, as I have personal and professional experience with this. If she is dealing with degenerative arthritis, start her on previcox (better than rimadyl). If you know a cool horse vet, you can get an equine version of previcox that is a fraction of the cost. You can supplement with glucosamine and chrondoitin too. These won't make her improve, but can help slow degeneration. If she looks depressed, you can get a scrip for tramadyl for "as needed". Finally, start her on fish oil as this is overall an excellent supplement. Also, if you can find a rehab place with an underwater treadmill, this is the best exercise to build muscle without impacting joints. Doggie acupuncture (especially if they can use hammer to break up calcifications) is great too.
This protocol gave my purebred intact male german shepherd a great boost when he was originally diagnosed with front leg deg. arthritis at age 9. When he started to fail on this program, we then designed a stronger end-stage program. He went strong until I finally put him down at 14.5 years old (and he still tried to bite my vet when the time finally came).
