My stinky boy turned 15 a few days ago, and I notice he's been having more and more trouble with artritis. It's not extremely bad yet, but it's noticable that he struggles to get up after laying down, and he's been falling down a few times. He sleeps at my side on the bed and has done so for his whole life, but he's hesitant to jump up now, like he has to psych himself up. And I took him to a beach house in July and he had a ton of trouble with the stairs (although the water really helped him).
I've never had a dog with this sort of problem before, so I'm looking up ways to help him. I've already got him some chews that'll reduce the inflammation, but I was looking into more of a structural support. My dog has never been the kind who likes being physically carried, he's a medium sized dog so he is weird to hold. I was initially looking for a harness so that, if ever needed, I could lift him up easily, when I started looking into hip braces. Reading online, I see there are many types, from full back brace harnesses with leg braces, to ones you slide under your dogs belly to help ease pressure when you take them for a walk.
My main questions are A) Do these hip braces work well? and B) How long can my dog wear one? Should he only wear a brace when we go for a walk, or can he wear them all day long? He's at that age now where he likes to sleep a lot when we're not playing, and getting up from laying down is getting hard for him, so I'd kind of like a brace that he could wear while he sleeps to help him stand back up. Can you do that with a hip brace?
Anybody ever dealt with this? My dog's quality of life is still good, he still plays and runs and such, it's not like he's an invalid, I just don't want to ignore the problem and make it worse.