Many pet owners will at some point be looking for a pain reliever for dogs. Although canines generally handle pain in better ways than do humans, there is still often a need for relief in older dogs suffering from osteoarthritis.
If you believe your dog is suffering from joint disease, it is important to first take him or her to the veterinarian for a proper diagnosis. If dog arthritis is diagnosed as the problem, the vet will suggest several courses of action. Now days, many doctors will suggest a natural approach as the first line of defense against dog arthritis. However, too many still suggest prescribed medications as a pain reliever for dogs.
If a prescription medicine is suggested, always talk over with the vet the possible side effects and other consequences the drugs may have for the animal. Besides the vet's advice on this, it is easy to find information about the drug on the Internet. In fact, you may be surprised at what you find on the web about these medicines. There are many scary accounts of the damage and even deaths that have resulted from these.
Many times aspirin is also suggested. We have first hand experience of how aspirin for dogs works. We begin giving our old dog, Storm, aspirin for canine arthritis when he was diagnosed with osteoarthritis joint disease. The over the counter drug worked wonders for Storm! We could tell this common pain reliever for dogs was working great for Storm. He was suffering far less and getting around much better than before. For several weeks all was much better!
But then one afternoon Storm became very sick. In fact, he almost died that afternoon. It was extremely scary how rapidly his condition deteriorated that day. Come to find out, his near death experience was the result of an intestinal infection caused by the daily dose of the aspirin. It has created an irritation in his intestinal tract and allowed the bacteria to enter into his blood stream. This is a very serious result in some cases from using aspirin for canine arthritis. In fact, even many humans die from this type of infection caused by too regular usage of aspirin.
We have found that this common drug works very well as a pain reliever for dogs, but it should not be given on a daily basis because of the risk of gastric infections. We reserve the use of aspirin for our older dogs only occasionally. With only intermittent usage, there is little risk for the irritations which can result in infection.
If you do give your canine some type of anti-inflammatory drugs, be sure to keep a close eye on their poop. A darkened, almost tarry look to your dog's poop is a sure sign he or she may have an infection. If you see this, stop giving the dog aspirin and take them to the vet as soon as possible.
