Had a peek at your pics and what a lovely girl she is, it is so nice to know she will spend the rest of her days happy in her new home My old dog was on metacam for about three years and he did fine on it and we could tell when his exercising needed cutting back as he did become a bit stiff and sore, its like with kids you just get to know your dog

That would have been useful information to include, sorry! She has arthritis.

Thanks a lot for that, I will look into those. We've been feeding oily fish with her kibble a couple of times a week, but I wasn't aware there were so any other supplements we could be using.

I took her in the river yesterday (I say "river", it's only a few inches deep where I took her in!) and she wasn't pleased. I would love for her to swim, but I don't think she's ever going to actively want to.. and we don't want to force her to.


Thank you. She's not limping at all any more, otherwise we wouldn't be letting her walk so far. She only limped a little the first couple of days after she came home. We're trying to work out how far she can walk without being stiff the next day, but she's so happy to be out and doing things we feel really bad cutting her walks short. She had two half hour walks today because the weather was foul, which included some off-lead time in a secure playing field which tired her out.. so maybe that's the way to go.

If you approach proper hydrotherapy pools, they'll have dealt with dogs who aren't keen on water and know how to introduce them slowly, could be worth a try. Bit warmer than a river at this time of year too!
I find this page a good read for arthritis (not that I've experienced it with any dogs but have been reading up on it as Rotties are prone to it apparently)
http://www.dogaware.com/health/arthritis.html

Bless you for taking on an oldie! It sounds to me that you're doing exactly the right thing with regard to exercise. My oldie lives for his walks and would be so depressed without them. You will know by intuition I'm sure when to cut down the exercise but for the time being....go for it! The natural remedies sound interesting and worth looking into don't they?! I already feed Fish4dogs Salmon Oil to my oldie for joint aid which seems to work a treat but the other natural remedies sound good too.