Arthritis help

[11bluewolf]

My 7/8/ year old GSD has been lame for the past couple of week. It is noticeably worse when she has been sitting down however some days its barely noticeable and others she really hobbles. Vet has said its arthritis of her shoulder. We've just started her on yumove however if bloods come back clear, vet has suggested anti inflammatories. Please can anyone with experience of this suggest what is the best course of action to take. I understand there are many side effects with anti inflammatories but surely keeping her comfortable will outweigh this? have been people yumove to be effective? or any alternatives?
Were also looking into hydrotherapy- is this likely to help? and what about physiotherapy or acupuncture?
Just as much advice as possible will be very much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[CorvusCorax]

Has she had x-rays? Was she hip or elbow x-rayed/scored or were her parents? Six or seven is usually the age for mild to moderate dysplasia to start showing (although I've seen middling scored dogs start to have issues in dogs as young as 3).
Hydrotherapy does help as well as keeping them lean and avoiding things like jumping and twisting, on and off furniture, in and out of car, up and down stairs. Basically anything that will put stress on the joints.

 

[Peter7917]

I found no improvement on yumove.

Yet the introduction of Trocoxil made an enormous difference.

 

[Cinnamontoast]

Saw no difference with Yumove, adequan injections or trocoxil. My issue with trocoxil is that they can’t have anything else on top of it. Green lipped mussel made a difference. Old dog is on permanent Rimadyl, which helps, yet Metacam didn’t (yes, I know they’re similar)

My dysplastic dog has limited exercise and is kept very lean. I echo the question re x rays. I think it’s worth the money to verify.

 

[Dobermonkey]

I use riaflex for my dobe who has visually arthritic joints as in very lumpy feet joint and reduced movement in a front paw due to bony overgrowth in his wrist and he has been sound on that up until recently (11 years old) and I think its time to start Loxicam or similar he has 'crepitus' in near fore shoulder (same leg as the bony wrist) from a very old injury which at his recent vet check the vet said it was prob time to start meds, which I agree with but I would thoroughly recommend Riaflex (the HA version) as its got him this far without any vet meds. Also a friends dobe (my boys brother) had started to go off his legs and has started this and she has said he has really improved (she also gives him the riaflex devils claw) if you compare the active ingredients per dose between Yumove and Riaflex the difference is massive