Arthritis Of The Paws

[sandgrubber]

I took my old girl in to Liz Frank in Perth last week to see if she could do something to help the limping. Liz said she had a mixture of arthritis and muscle tension. The worst arthritis was in the front left paw. She gave me some non-steroidal anti Inflammitories to help with the arthritis, some messages to help with the muscles, and next week we go back for acupuncture.

It looks like the paw is going to be the last thing to improve.

Curious. How common is arthritis of the paws? My mother's old labbie had it so bad that by nine years she could barely walk and you could see it was painful and it eventually lead to her being PTS. So in my history, this makes two dogs with paw problems, one with elbow problems, and none with hip problems. Is this common? Are we, perhaps, screening the wrong joints? Is there anything you can do when the dog is young to prevent arthritic paws when it gets old.