The weather finally cooperated and we made it to the vet today. She did a thorough exam and only thing she found was tight hips, she couldn't get full extension. She went over his back three times, first lightly then, by the third time, with considerable pressure. While he looked a bit annoyed, there was no response.

I did tell her he's not jumping up on furniture or the bed nearly as much as he used to, but i chalked up Archer and Z'ev being turds, not wanting to share. She started him on Dasuquin (crap that stuff is expensive!). And she wants him to lose some weight.

Wayne is not happy. Thinks the hips are an incidental finding. He won't full out tell to get an MRI but says that's what they would do with a human. (Keep in mind he's a retired emergency physician. Their job is to figure out the worst that can happen and rule out.

After the appointment, I started remembering little things. V like I walk around the property with the dogs, he goes back early and waits for us in the parking area. And then, he seems to mince his steps back legs. Which I thought was cause I'm old lady and can't keep up with him.

We'll see how he does 6 weeks Dasuquin.

No real help, so I'll share a possibly related story.

Our Aussie, Ginger, went through maybe a year or so where she had a lot of trouble just getting up after laying down. I have a video of her somewhere... I'll see if I can upload it. Today, she can *almost* keep up with Mika chasing the ball. We didn't change a thing.* We had her examined, x-rayed, put on Carprofen and something else. Nothing helped (at the time). No issues other than VERY slight arthritis.

The Vet's last idea was that she may have a torn ligament in her leg(s). Only way to tell, according to them, was to do surgery. I guess if there was no issue, they'd just sew her back up (?). We declined.

Today, you'd never know she ever had a problem. She's 12 so she's obviously not quite a spry as she was, but it's a 180 change from a year or so ago.

*The only thing that's different is we got the puppies.

I agree with Wayne. Does it have to be full out MRI or would some X-rays be sufficient? Torn ligament like Mike mentions seems plausible.

Xrays only show bones. Ligaments, tendons, discs are all soft tissue. He showed no pain throughout the exam, just the stiffness.

I would have at least run the x-ray to rule out large amounts of arthritis or cartilage loss in joints. If he has hip issues it would show if he has bone on bone rubbing. I would not have felt that a useful vet visit without it or the MRI.

Jenn - I'm going to pass on the x-rays/mri for now. At the moment, I think the risk of anesthesia outweighs the benefit of the exam/ I saw the back exam she gave Ami and if he had any pain in there, he would have reacted. (Wayne wasn't there, only heard my report.) Ami only looked faintly annoyed on her third pass so I'm comfortable there's not a whole lot, if anything, going on there. I specifically asked about either a subluxation, disc and she said that would have been elicited by the back exam.

As for the hips - the jury is out on that for me. Mostly because the dogs have had no routine, sustained walking in months, not because of them but me, my mom's illness/funeral, my foot problem, Wayne's foot problem, my illnesses, the blizzards, my hand injury. My hand is mostly healed now and the new hiking shoes I ordered seem to be doing the trick. So - first step is routinely walking to increase flexibility (if there really is a problem.) Ami gets up and down from the floor with ease (except in those 4 episodes over 2-3 years). He still does zoomies around the house if its been more than 4 days since Archer has stayed here. He walks up and down stairs with ease, hops in and out of the car without hesitation. I'm wondering if the bed and couch thing are either because the Archer and Z'ev are putz's. Or - Ami is very sensitive and frequently when he goes to climb on either the bed or the family room couch, I come running to pull up the sheets/blankets because Ami is all wet (the coverings are ALWAYS falling off, either the granddaughter, the dogs, husband's sleep schedule almost opposite of mine...etc etc etc

So its wait and see. I'll try the Dasuquin, see what happens after 6 weeks. THough it will be a tough call - 2 interventions at once (regular sustained exercise and the med)

Also, his weight is back up, that will be coming OFF!

Not sure which dosequin you are using but when I first got keno I had him on Flexadin Advanced and it did a good job getting him feeling good while I worked on getting him into shape and changing his diet for his HD. Not sure if it's any cheaper than the dosequin but if it is and you think you might need something long term it could be worth a try.

I'll have to look up the flexadin - never heard of it until a few minutes ago:  Just reread the whole Dakota's having trouble standing thread.  Funny - anytime anyone on any of the husky fb groups I belong to mention arthritis, I ALWAYS put up a link to that thread.  This time - I studied it.

The Dasuquin is just the plain one, no MSM.  Glucosamin, Chondroitin and the avocado/whatever sapro whatevers.  So..I will look up the flexadin stuff.

EDIT: Just looked it up. I'm faintly amused as I was wondering about adding chicken wings or feet as well as fish oil to his diet. The fish oil would be a tough one though - big boy is NOT fond of salmon at all! Hadn't thought about the Vit E though...

Mine get the fish oil pills and the vitamin E pills. They suck them down before they even know they've had them. I have done the bottled fish oil. It didn't bother them either but the smell wasn't something I personally was fond of. Mine also get chicken feet and I had done the inclover jump treats for a while but tried some cherry hip treat by hip flex this last time. They like it. As I have always used my joint treats as pill pockets for kye's pred the change in formula by inclover and the tablet form of the hip flex has not helped me much with that portion but all see to be liked by the mutts and I haven't noticed them go down hill from the switch.

Ami's surprisingly picky about treats. Unless it's real meat but even then not always. Which is why reluctant to get any med in a chew. Eats his kibble with alacrity, though.

we do Dasuquin MSM on amazon, and a ton of other supplements

do you have a canine PT in the area, maybe he just needs some massage work......

None that I know of, Jennifer. I've started myself. He luxuriates... As long as I don't get distracted a pull out a tuft of hair. We'll see how it goes.