Has anybody ever gone thru this recently that can give me some input? My
yellow lab is suffering from arthritis (I think), poor guy. He is only 6
and has had it since he was 3. We have had him to two different vets with
the same diagnoses. But we have been given nothing positive at all. They
say he has arthritis. So, okay, then what? We seem to get no more input
from the vets. Do we just let him suffer?

We have hesitantly tried the Rimadyl, only when we have to, but have had no
good results from it. We have had better results with one St Joseph's baby
aspirin a day (a very low dose). But then we have heard that is not good
for his stomach. What to do? I notice around his rear it appears he is
having black loose sticky poops. Because he is a yellow lab, it is quite
noticeable. Is that from the aspirin, or something else? THEN I noticed
a swollen something under his right front leg (gland?). It is about the
size of a half dollar and movable. Does he maybe have something else and
not arthritis? He has a hard time getting up, especially with his hind
quarters, and he licks his front "elbows" quite a bit. He has his good
days and his bad days. On his bad days, he can't even step up one step to
come into the house, so I bring his food outside and he eats it while
laying down. Those bad days are getting more and more common. On his
better days, he chases rabbits and digs in his hole (if he wasn't sick, I'd
hire him out for excavation work and get rich).

Okay, now another weird thing. My other lab, an overly huge 130 lb
chocolate about 3 years old, adores the yellow lab. But the yellow only
tolerates him on his bad days, usually just curling his lip to tell him to
leave him alone. The chocolate senses this and keeps his distance, tho he
always longingly watches over the yellow. The chocolate is ver-r-r-ry
affectionate and I think he hurts the yellow without meaning to because of
his size and by always nudging him or trying to snuggle. Anyway, when the
yellow lab is at his worse, the chocolate comes in the house and keeps away
from him. But lately, I have noticed the chocolate is constantly laying
next to the yellow, even at his worse, and totally ignores the curled lip.
And the yellow seems to be really bad lately. Am I being really stoooopid
and naive in thinking the chocolate knows something we don't?

Anyway, we have another vet appointment this week. I'll let you know what
we find out. Anybody else have any input on what they have done for their
dog that we can maybe do?

Thanks so much for any input.

Chocolic