I have a Golden ret I rescued from the pound 4 years ago. he is a member of our family now, my kids best friend. He now has hip dysplasia, anyone know anything to help besides surgery? Do not want to have to put him down.
by 
hazel1908
ANSWERS: 10
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Switch to one of the many natural or holistic dog foods. Many of those problems can be lessened. Most pet owners feed crap and that is the main reason for such problems. All the major foods are crap. Like major dog foods contain garlic and onion. Both poison to dogs. Corn is bad for dogs as is any grain except rice. The major brands use way too many carbohydrates, like cheap potatoes, beets and other garbage refuse. Look at the lable and instead of meat it says meat byproducts. That means anything left from the slaughterhouse that was due to be thrown away. When there is meat it is usually from dead or down animals unfit for human consumption.
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A few recommended foods are California Natural, Mother Nature, Karma and Healthwise. Also Innova Evo seems pretty good. There are many others as well. The bad part is you are highly unlikely to find any of these in pet stores. You pretty well have to Goggle and buy on line. I think you will see positive results. It won't cure the problem, bus expect your dog will have many years of life. Cortizone from your vet might help. One thing I am very opposed to is pain medications used for pets. They are all too hard on the liver. If pain medication does become necessary best to use a natural opiate in very low dose. It is most effective and the safest.
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I think it very likely you can expect a quality life for your dog till about age 12 with a good diet. More if you're lucky. For anyone with a elderly or sick dog that may not have much life ahead. I recommend getting a puppy of the same approximate breed.Let the older dog train and pas it's personality to the puppy and my finding has been the puppy extends and betters the older dog's life. I had a collie that was 17. Expecting him to have only about a year left, I got another collie pup. The older dog was deaf and arthritic and poor site. The pup took care of him and guided him around. The older dog lived to age 23. Surprisingly long life for the breed. And the pup learned every trick the older dog knew.
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Here is another recommendation on treating pain on a dog. It is still not the best thing, but better than most pain meds your vet will give. The thing is some beer. You want something low in hops, so any of the cheap standard lagers serves best. You don't want to do this too often. On a big 104 pound Yellow Lab/Pit Bull like I have a 12 ounce can is about right. You don't want them drunk. Just a slight amount of alcohol for pain. And don't even think of using hard liquor or wine. As grapes are deadly toxins to dogs. And a hard liquor will assault the liver. You want to use beer like this very seldom. Just when the pain really has them down. And in a dog the size of mine, a can doesn't work, don't give them a second. A second would most likely do more harm than good. Might want the beer decarbonate by setting. Dogs dont like the bubbles.
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I gave him a 81 mg coated asprin and he was up running in about an hour. Thanks for the info
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There's a product called Adizone that can help reduce pain, especially pain caused by inflammation and arthritis, that may help. I also came across a website a few years ago that sells an ebook about Hip Dysplasia. I've no idea whether it's any good or not, but you can check it out at http://www.mypoordog.com/
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Another note on that Adizone. I noticed it is made by Wolf Creek Ranch. I understand they also make excellent Natural and Holistic pet foods. What did I do wrong? I said NSAIDS should never be used on dogs. I guess I failed to mention NSAIDS include aspirin, Tyenol, Advil, all acidomyicins, Alka Seltzer, Bromo. In other words if it is an over the counter pain medication for humans, it is almost certainly an NSAID. DON'T USE IT! Even writing a book I seem to fail getting the point across.
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Same distributor of the Adizone sells colloidal silver. That too is an excellent method of treating many health problems as well as their sea kelp.
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Best thing anyone can do. Dog, cat, ferret, horse hamster, rabbit or other. Get the appropriate " _______ for Dummies" book. It's not perfect. But they have the best information in a single book I have yet found. What's more is with the table of contents and index you can quickly find any topic. I have found some misinformation. Like with ferrets they used to approve peanut butter and raisins for ferrets. A revision corrects that. BTW a single raisin has been known to kill a 90 pound Lab. They are still studying why and some breeds are more susceptible than others. So why do vets really come to me for ferret advice? I have had many live to 13 years. Nearly all past 10. Most of their clients lose them before age 5. So, they think I am doing the right things. Oldest ferret on record lived to 15. I am after breaking that record.
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Might interest you that a dog's skin PH should run from 6.2 to 8.62 depending on breed. while people run 5.2 to 5.8. This explains why human foods, medications or shampoos are not suitable for use on dogs. And it could be worth while getting litmus paper and test your dog's ph monthly. Not specifically knowing ph for your breed, mainly any great change should be looked for as a sign of poor diet. On human's if I remember correctly, women are closer to 5.2 and men closer to 5.8. Well guess that proves the old statement that "Men are Dogs." Closer to the ph anyway.
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