There are. I will say the regulation and the studies behind those are kind of limited, so at the end of the day, I would recommend something medicinally prescribed by your veterinarian.

Absolutely. Just getting a good head-to-tail exam on these guys makes all the difference in the world to identify where the pain is at and how painful that pet is, and it's also essential because we can look for progression. Are we getting worse? Are we improving on the pain medication? Do we need more? Do we need less? We can store all of that information with regular visits by keeping tabs on all those things for you.

There are a lot of ways that we get pretty creative here. Many of you who are clients know that we love peanut butter and spray cheese. It's fabulous for getting pills in, and Buddy agrees. With many dogs, what we'll do is either hide it in a pill pocket—a little bit of peanut butter or a little bit of spray cheese. Unfortunately, some sneaky little dogs are very in tune and know that you're hiding stuff in pills or the pill pockets. Those little dogs, what we'll have to do, Buddy will be our little example here. He's like, "Oh no." What we will do as my poor Buddy dog is going to show us, is we're going to open their mouth, and we're going to pop that pill right down there, just like that. He's very embarrassed now. But there are a lot of different ways to get pills in their mouths. If you have any worries or any trouble, and it's just not working out in your household, certainly give us a call, and we can teach you some other neat little tricks that we have in getting medications in pets because it can be a chore sometimes.

There are several out there, and I would recommend talking with your vet to see if they're appropriate. It's more of a case by case, and again, we want to determine what's safe.

We calculate the dose, usually by body weight, and then we figure out how long the pet needs it. Is it more of an acute injury or more of a chronic, old-age type of deal where we're treating some osteoarthritis or something like that? Your veterinarian will calculate that dose based on those factors.

There are lots of NSAIDs out there. I would say that we stay away from human medications for dogs. We have a lot of veterinary-appropriate medications, so no Tylenol, no Advil, or ibuprofen. I would speak with your vet, and then we can formulate a good plan and discuss those options. NSAIDs in dogs can be tricky sometimes, and we want to make sure that it's safe for your pet. It might not be a good option for those with liver or kidney disease, but there are other options for those guys if they need it.