Wrapping a dog's knees (hocks) for arthritis support?

There's a variety of treatments that combined with meds that should help - either warm or cold wraps (you'd have to ask vet which would help your dog), acupuncture is a great one, massage or Tellington Touch, even some herbs help, but you'd need to work with a holistic vet. I've used Devil's Claw and have heard St. John's Wort helps dogs as well as people, though I haven't used it.

I'd talk to the vet about this, although if you have experience with horses and get the wrap on right, I'd suggest it's well worth giving it a try. You might also try acupuncture, and if you have access to a hydrotherapy pool this may well help too - it's helpful to keep the muscle tone going, if you can and swimming will do this, without putting extra strain on those poor joints.

Just make sure if you wrap her, you allow for movement - the anatomy of a dog is more 'confined' (smaller) than a horse, even if you have the rather longer-legged (than my Bassets!!) breed of dog.

Go to your local chemists .They carry so many different products that could help with your dads knee.Elastic knee supports are not to bad.I hope your dad gets better as arthritis can be very painful.

Whether your dog has arthritis or hip dysplasia you can help him. Here are several steps you can do to ensure your dog does not get bad joints and if they do what you can do to make them comfortable.

1.Glocusamine for dogs

Giving your dog glucosamine can really help them recover from and prevent joint problems. In recent studies it has been shown that dog foods only contain 25% of the required supplements for dogs to have healthy joints. It is for this reason that many pet owners have been turning to joint supplements like glucosamine to help. A dogs body makes glucosamine but as the dog gets older it stops making as much glucosamine. This glucosamine is used to form the molecules that form the joint cartilage. Often glucosamine and chondrotin for dogs are combined to have the biggest benefit for your dog.

If you decide to help your dog with glucosamine supplements it is important to ensure that you give them the proper glucosamine dosage for dogs. Giving your dog the right dosage of glucosamine is very important, there are some side effects with glucosamine so making sure you only give the require dosage is important.

2.Dont make your dog walk up and down stairs

By minimizing the amount that your dog has to walk up and down stairs will allow their joints to begin to heal and not get worse. There is no activity that is harder on your dogs joints than stairs, if they are regularly having to walk up and down stairs their joints will only get worse.

Try moving most of the activities they do to the same floor, hopefully you will be able to have one floor for their food, bed and door to go outside.

3.Make home made food

As mentioned above only 25% of pet food contains enough nutrients for their joints. However, you can easily make some dog food recipes which will allow your dog to get 100% of their daily nutrient requirements.

Some home made dog food recipes which are particularly good for your dogs joints include any recipe which has fish or chicken in it. Fish nutrients and oils are great for dogs hips.

Hope this helped you.God bless!

Your dog should be on medication. Talk to your vet.

ask the vet.