my labrador megan is 11 she has bad arthritis she is on meds for that she is over weight i have reduced her food no tit bits .for some time now we have been having a nice slow walk in the morning and if its warm she does some swimming but for the last week she will not go she even slipped her lead on the road not to go ,what do i do we have a large garden but shes happy just to sit down
Hi Suzy, sorry to hear your old friend doesn't want to walk any more. You say she is overweight, and that is likely to be exacerbating the pain from her arthritis. It's definitely worth contacting your vet to see what they recommend. They may want to increase her meds now. Just stopping tit bits may not be enough to get her down to a healthy weight. You might find this article helpful: https://www.thelabradorsite.com/fat-labrador/
Have you tried Golden Paste? A natural anti inflammatory based on turmeric that you make yourself. It gave my old lab a second lease of life for a while.
Thank you both for your replys i will be speaking to my vet about megs meds and her weight ,jd how do you make the paste many thanks sue
I don’t have the link to the recipe I used but found this online. Sorry it is in cups. Also be careful as turmeric stains.
I think you probably need to go to the vet, because the main reason a senior dog doesn't want to go for a walk, is pain. So you need to work with your vet to find some pain meds that are effective for her and enable her to have a good quality of life in her senior years. Losing weight would also really help, as it is proven to be a factor in arthritis and even in early death.
Hi jo we are working with our vet to keep meg as comfortable as possible plus working to get her weight down.she is your typical lab she loves her food but she has 2 med size meals a day .when we turn back when she dosnt want her walk she is very eager to go indoors because she knows she will get her breakfast .please dont get me wrong we think the world of her our children are all grown up she is very special ,we know she is in pain but she can be a little lazy and food crazy
To be honest, I would probably listen to what she is 'saying' and not take her for the walk. Instead, use the time you would be walking to play games involving scent and sniffing. Nosework would be great, but if that seems too involved to teach her right now, buy a Snufflemat and hide her breakfast in it and let her sniff it out. Once she's got the hang of this, you can hide bits around the house and even down the garden path on the way out to a walk. But really you need to first eliminate pain as a cause of her behaviour rather than work behaviourally to encourage her to push through her pain...
