Thanks Marcus. And thanks to everyone else for the kind words.
We had a pretty similar experience over the past year to what you are going through and took the exact same approach.
One thing I WILL caution you about is giving your pooch an injection of Labrella. Its a relatively newer treatment. Our vet recommended it, as he uses it on his own dog (a 15yr old Lab) and had really great results. Its a series of injections, every 6 weeks which is supposed to help with Osteoarthritis. I would caution you to do your homework on it before you give it to your dog. There have been a lot of side effects associated with it, and my wife and I believe that in Max's instance, it made the situation worse, not better.
We don't blame our vet for recommending it. He's been giving our animals great care for 15+ years. We actually saw improvement after the first shot, but there was definitely an immediate and severe deterioration in his condition after he got his second shot. Not sure if the injection was the cause or not, just do your homework if its something you are considering.
Our vet was concerned about it as well, and after we put Max down yesterday he asked us if we would consider taking him down to the Univ of Illinois (2hr drive south) and let their Veterinary department do an autopsy. He thought that there would be a lot of benefit in helping find out if this drug was the cause or not. He didn't pressure us and totally left it up to us if it was something we wanted to do. My wife and I talked it over and we agreed to do it, so we packed him up and my daughter drove him down last night. Hopefully some good will come from it.
I'll let you guys know what we find out.
We did Labrella for 2 months and saw no improvement and stopped. Our vet said it works on some dogs and not on others. 2 months should have shown some improvement. We've been using Rimadyl for 2-3 years with decent results, along with a hip and joint supplement and UCII collagen.
He's old and doesn't owe us anything, best dog, gentle, non aggressive, ever, no leash, stays in the yard. 7 years of letting him run up stair to sleep in our room(his desire to be with us) didn't help.
Films, 4 years ago showed significant erosion in the tops of his femur/hip socket, but you would never know it till last year.
We're in our mid 60's and this will most likely be the last one, so I'm in no rush as long as he is comfortable.
Once again, my condolences.
Please let me know what they find.