Stiff mornings are not just old age

The description barely changes: fine once they get going, slow for the first ten minutes of the day, worse after a long sleep or a long car journey. Owners tend to file it under getting older. It is more specific than that.

Joint fluid thickens when a joint is still and thins when it moves. After eight hours lying down, a joint with some wear in it is stiff because the fluid has not been worked through it yet, and because inflammatory by-products have had all night to settle. Ten minutes of movement fixes both, which is why the dog looks fine by the end of the street.

That is also why the mornings are the first thing to change when something is working, and why they are the honest thing to watch. A dog that is comfortable at the end of a walk tells you very little. A dog that gets off the floor without a pause tells you more.

Worth saying plainly: stiffness that does not ease with movement, a limp that persists, yelping, or a dog that stops using a leg is not this. That is a vet visit, and no supplement belongs in the conversation until a vet has looked at it.