Good morning. My 11 year old Lab, Ben is having a few problems. Stiffness in the back legs (when he is standing you can see one of the rear feet is pointing inwards and his back is arched), constipation (he does still managed to poo a few times a day but lots of attempts and also moves into an unusual position from a normal posture - never had this problem before), not wanting to eat his normal dry food (will eat it if adding some special to it or using it as treats during the day), weeing accidents overnight. In the last couple of years he has had dripping issue along with frequent weeing and vet has treated him for urinary infection and he has just finished a course of these. On our last visit to vets early August I mentioned the back legs and he suspected arthritis and gave him carprieve which after 5 days gave him violent diarrhoea for a few days so immediately stopped. We are seeing the vets again this afternoon. Ben has been neutered but suspect enlarged prostrate as they all seem connected. It is a shame as only 5 months ago Ben was doing 11 mile fell walking in the Lakes. He is still an alert dog and wants to do things. Regarding the food we have started to include joint aid. Has anyone had similar issues with their senior Labrador?
Yes, similar though we didn't have the dripping issues. Mine was diagnosed with inflammatory spondylosis last Christmas and responded well with medication.it Just lately I noticed that his left hind leg looked slightly different, sad to say his back gave out three weeks ago and he was put to sleep, aged just 11 years, he was very fit in every other way and the day before he had collapsed, he had a 1 1/2 hour walk with his friends and seemed fine. Oh, I don't want to be a Job's comforter, I am sure your dog will recover well, just see if the vet thinks it is a problem with his spine and not just arthritis.
