Hopefully your vets are more competent than the ones in my area. I’ve taken my 17.5 year old to several and not one of them could spot congestive heart failure or other problems she was having. All they could tell me is “she’s getting old”.
She’s outlived three vets. She’s had cancer since she was about a year old. All they vets can tell us is she’s going to die. (Duh!) But we’ve been keeping her alive, happy and active despite their prognosis.
We tried Cosequin for pain in her hind legs. It seemed to work at first but then it came to a point where we were getting her shots every week and finally had to go back to holistic solution. She’s done very well on Hyaluronic Acid. She’s up and walking around even with hip displasia, arthritis and DM, pain free. We also give her Yucca for pain inflammation along with a holistic cocktail which helps her quite a bit.
She also uses pure assayed Glucosamine and MSM. None of the health food store stuff was very helpful and the vet stuff was a waste of money.
I personally wouldn’t recommend ANY nutritional supplement unless I knew for sure it didn’t come from China. They’re placing all kinds of weird things in supplements. You can find some reports of what they’re doing to supplements online. I buy fresh products or assayed products whenever possible.
We also took her off dog food a few years ago when I discovered all the other crap (such as soy) and preservatives they were using as fillers. Now, I feed her pureed meats such as hamburger, liver and other organ meats as well as Quinoa. Cost about the same and she eats less. Much of her energy has returned. She’s bright eyed and alert.
I’ve had quite a few dogs in my lifetime. Usually around eight or ten they start to slow down and become more inactive. My Lab went strong for 15 years before things started catching up with her. Once we knew what the problems were we started taking care of her using holistic remedies. She’s still a very active dog.
I believe if you take care of your dog and give them what they need that they’ll stay as active and happy as they’ve always been.
P.S. We’ve also had some good vets. Don’t want to leave the impression they were all bad. Just the incompetent ones outnumbered the competent ones.