Today I want to talk today about how to help achy joints in dogs ?
You know it's always tough to watch our pets get older and start to show signs of soreness and pain but there are a lot of things that we can do just in a home setting that can make things easier for them .
Just like with people a lot of dogs that have arthritis or sore joints for other reasons they have a real tendency to get sore when they're laying down for a while particularly when they're sleeping and not moving much and then when they get up their muscles are tight and sore.
There's a couple things that we can do to help with that :
- Number one is to try and provide them with a place to sleep that is going to provide them some good support .
So getting them a really nice supportive dog bed can be really beneficial .
You can buy the dog bed but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to lay in it but we can't obviously tell them where to sleep but at least giving them an option in that regards can be very beneficial in addition there is such a thing as a heated dog bed or heating pads that you can put under dog beds with the goal of keeping their muscles a little bit warmer while they're sleeping so they have a tendency to not stiffen up quite so much that can be very beneficial although it's important to remember particularly for older dogs or dogs that have more severe mobility issues you want to make sure that that heating pad isn't getting too hot .
If they're so old or so painful that they have a hard time getting up ,that dogs actually can get burned by heating pads so it's very important to be cognizant of that and make sure that they're not exposed to high temperatures for too long.
Another thing that dogs often have an issue with is slipping on smooth floors like wood floors or tile floors their feet kind of go out from under them and really that's because they've lost muscle strength due to either their arthritis or whatever may be going on and it's hard for them to keep their legs underneath them ,so there's a number of ways to deal with that some people will go out and get carpet runners and sort of put them throughout the house to give the dog a little sort of pathway to navigate through the house and you'd be amazed to see how quickly the dog figures that out. They full well know that smooth floor is problematic for them and if you give them an option to stay off of it they certainly will and if that's not really a good option then the other option is to figure out what can we do to give them grip on their feet .
Now as a rule most dogs are not gonna wear sneakers you can get boots for dogs but a lot of them quite frankly really don't like them so you know some other options are there are products that are available that you can put on the pads of their feet to provide some grip.
There are options that you can put on their toenails that provide them with some grip as they're walking as well so there's a lot of potential options there to prevent them from slipping .
And if your dog happens to be one of these dogs that tends to have real furry feet like they grow a lot of fur in between their pads keeping that fur trimmed can be really helpful because if they're walking on the fur effectively in between the pads it's almost like walking on a wood floor wearing socks .
They just tend to be slippery so getting that fur out of there can be really helpful if that's not something that you're able to do at home you know either a groomer or your veterinarian can help.
Another thing that you can do for these guys is massage .Achy joints always love a good massage to a certain extent you really don't need specific training as far as massage goes you can kind of you know as they say let your fingers do the walking a little bit and just be very gentle massaging the areas where you feel like your dog is uncomfortable very frequently they will let you know what feels good and what does not feel good and I think you'll find that that really can provide a lot of relief for aching and sore joints as well and certainly if you were to consult with your veterinarian and they could probably give you some more directed tips about places that you can massage for whatever may specifically be going on with your dog .
Now remember achy joints frequently occur when it's colder so again keeping the house warm, maintaining a heating blanket if possible or even potentially putting like a coat on them even when they're at home just to keep them a little bit warmer can help prevent them from getting stiff and sore as well .
So you know those are a lot of things that you can do at-home setting to help and keep your achy dog comfortable and keep them moving a lot more easily .
So I hope that helps.
You know it's always tough to watch our pets get older and start to show signs of soreness and pain but there are a lot of things that we can do just in a home setting that can make things easier for them .
Just like with people a lot of dogs that have arthritis or sore joints for other reasons they have a real tendency to get sore when they're laying down for a while particularly when they're sleeping and not moving much and then when they get up their muscles are tight and sore.
There's a couple things that we can do to help with that :
- Number one is to try and provide them with a place to sleep that is going to provide them some good support .
So getting them a really nice supportive dog bed can be really beneficial .
You can buy the dog bed but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to lay in it but we can't obviously tell them where to sleep but at least giving them an option in that regards can be very beneficial in addition there is such a thing as a heated dog bed or heating pads that you can put under dog beds with the goal of keeping their muscles a little bit warmer while they're sleeping so they have a tendency to not stiffen up quite so much that can be very beneficial although it's important to remember particularly for older dogs or dogs that have more severe mobility issues you want to make sure that that heating pad isn't getting too hot .
If they're so old or so painful that they have a hard time getting up ,that dogs actually can get burned by heating pads so it's very important to be cognizant of that and make sure that they're not exposed to high temperatures for too long.
Another thing that dogs often have an issue with is slipping on smooth floors like wood floors or tile floors their feet kind of go out from under them and really that's because they've lost muscle strength due to either their arthritis or whatever may be going on and it's hard for them to keep their legs underneath them ,so there's a number of ways to deal with that some people will go out and get carpet runners and sort of put them throughout the house to give the dog a little sort of pathway to navigate through the house and you'd be amazed to see how quickly the dog figures that out. They full well know that smooth floor is problematic for them and if you give them an option to stay off of it they certainly will and if that's not really a good option then the other option is to figure out what can we do to give them grip on their feet .
Now as a rule most dogs are not gonna wear sneakers you can get boots for dogs but a lot of them quite frankly really don't like them so you know some other options are there are products that are available that you can put on the pads of their feet to provide some grip.
There are options that you can put on their toenails that provide them with some grip as they're walking as well so there's a lot of potential options there to prevent them from slipping .
And if your dog happens to be one of these dogs that tends to have real furry feet like they grow a lot of fur in between their pads keeping that fur trimmed can be really helpful because if they're walking on the fur effectively in between the pads it's almost like walking on a wood floor wearing socks .
They just tend to be slippery so getting that fur out of there can be really helpful if that's not something that you're able to do at home you know either a groomer or your veterinarian can help.
Another thing that you can do for these guys is massage .Achy joints always love a good massage to a certain extent you really don't need specific training as far as massage goes you can kind of you know as they say let your fingers do the walking a little bit and just be very gentle massaging the areas where you feel like your dog is uncomfortable very frequently they will let you know what feels good and what does not feel good and I think you'll find that that really can provide a lot of relief for aching and sore joints as well and certainly if you were to consult with your veterinarian and they could probably give you some more directed tips about places that you can massage for whatever may specifically be going on with your dog .
Now remember achy joints frequently occur when it's colder so again keeping the house warm, maintaining a heating blanket if possible or even potentially putting like a coat on them even when they're at home just to keep them a little bit warmer can help prevent them from getting stiff and sore as well .
So you know those are a lot of things that you can do at-home setting to help and keep your achy dog comfortable and keep them moving a lot more easily .
So I hope that helps.
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