How to reduce joint pain and protect your dog’s joints?
Does your fur baby have dog arthritis symptoms such as lameness and reluctance to walk? Degenerative arthritis is a long-term and progressive problem that is irreversible. In addition to seeking surgical treatment to relieve your fur baby’s discomfort and prevent further deterioration of the joint disease, daily maintenance is also quite critical. This article lists three ways to avoid joint pain and dog common health food recommendations to help you enhance the protection of your fur baby’s joints.
Six ways to tell if your dog has joint pain
Joint disease is a long-term injury and is difficult to cure completely. When a fur baby suffers from dog arthritis disease, there will be slow movement, stiff limbs, lameness, etc. If your dog has the following symptoms, it is recommended to go to the veterinary hospital for treatment as soon as possible!
- 1. Reduced appetite: appetite and water intake will both decrease.
- 2. Decrease in mobility: Decrease in walking time or walking frequency.
- 3. Staggering gait: change in speed, severe transient lameness, even with muscle atrophy.
- 4. Enlarged joints: Dogs may become angry, avoid touching specific areas, and keep licking or chewing on painful joints.
- 5. Defecation discomfort: The dog is in pain when squatting, so defecation behavior is affected.
- 6. Stiffness of the limbs: Movement becomes stiff and complicated, and in severe cases, the dog may be stiff and shaking while lying down.
What causes joint pain in dogs?
Understanding the causes of joint pain in dogs can help avoid the above symptoms and seek treatment earlier. The following 3 common reasons are provided for your reference. (What should I do if my dog has joint pain?)
1. Rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament
Ligament rupture causes in addition to the age of the fragile, obesity caused by the knee burden, by a strong external force, etc., may also lead to rupture, dog ligament damage, will appear walking abnormal phenomenon, but also easy to cause arthritis, joint deformation, and dislocation and other symptoms.
2. Degenerative arthritis
Due to age, excessive weight and congenital joint abnormalities, and other problems, resulting in long-term abnormal wear and tear, leading to soft tissue fibrosis around the joints, resulting in the inability of the joints to move and join usually, and therefore pain when moving the joints.
3. Hip dysplasia
It is a hereditary joint disease in which the bones in the joints are misaligned and cannot be joined tightly, and the symptoms may worsen with age and weight gain.
What should I do if my dog has joint pain? What can I do to relieve joint pain?
Symptoms of Arthritis in Dogs
Mild joint pain can be observed by signs of slow movement, while excessive pain may lead to more severe conditions such as general stiffness, lying down and shaking, etc. Therefore, if you find that your dog has joint discomfort and the above symptoms, it is recommended that you seek professional veterinary help as soon as possible so that the veterinarian can diagnose and take further treatment measures. Do not delay sending your dog to the doctor if the condition is minor. Otherwise, it may lead to a lifetime of regret. (How to prevent arthritis in dogs/cats?)
How to prevent joint pain?
To give your dog healthier joints and avoid symptoms such as hobbling and mobility problems, and eat dog health food, here are three key points to help you prevent joint pain in dogs.
1. Carry out weight control and avoid overweight
Being overweight quickly leads to long-term pressure on the joints, resulting in wear and tear and early aging. The following is a list of 4 weight control points to avoid overweight dogs.
To assess whether your dog is overweight, the owner can place the thumbs of both hands on the dog’s backbone and move the fingers along the rib cage of the chest.
Set a weight loss goal and plan a daily feed weight.
Take your dog’s weight once a week.
Calculate the daily calories. For example, for a 20 to 30 kg dog, the formula for calculating the calories needed is target weight * 30 + 70.
2. Avoid excessive and intense exercise
Going up and down stairs frequently can cause damage to your dog’s spine and limb joints, quickly causing bone spurs and weakness in the hind limbs, so avoid it as much as possible. In addition, if the dog wants to play games with the owner, such as catching Frisbee, catching a ball, etc., it is recommended to reduce the frequency of running and jumping to minimize the burden on the dog’s joints and avoid pain and discomfort.
3. Health food supplement
According to clinical trials, the intake of healthy food with anti-inflammatory effects can improve arthritis pain and reduce the discomfort of bone spur attacks, such as healthy food containing Omega-3 fatty acids, which can reduce the symptoms of abnormal inflammation in the body while having the ability to maintain and repair joint tissue.
