The Dog Mom Gazette
Advertorial
The Rimadyl Trap: Easing The Pain on the Surface, While Wearing Down the Joint Underneath?
June 29th 2026 at 3:52 pm
The fix isn't pulling your dog off the meds. It's supporting the four layers behind your dog’s mobility problem which none of the pills and chews were built to reach. Until now.
By Susan Elizabeth. Retired Vet Assistant & Senior Dog Mom | 9 Years in Clinic
There are two things on my counter right now.
The first is a bottle of Rimadyl I've been giving Gus for two years.
The second is a tub of powder I started adding to his dinner eight months ago.
Last month at his checkup, his vet looked up from the chart and said the words I’d been praying to hear.
“His bloodwork looks stable. And I’m happy to see him moving like his old self again.”
Gus had been one of her first patients out of vet school.
She added, "The Rimadyl is helping him."
And she wasn’t wrong.
It was helping him.
But that wasn't the whole story.
Gus, my Border Collie, is nine years old.
And just eight months ago, I was getting ready to lose him.
It started with the leash.
He used to skid across the tile when I grabbed it.
Then he'd lift his head, look at the leash, and lie back down.
The stairs went next.
He'd stand at the bottom and stare up.
You could see him doing the math, deciding if I was worth the climb.
Even getting off the floor became a struggle.
Some days, if I needed to get him to the car or into the clinic, I had to clip him into a harness or lift him myself.
I worked in a vet clinic for nine years. I should have caught it sooner.
But you're just another dog mom when it's your dog on the floor.
So how does a dog I had to lift off the floor myself end up walking into the vet with the kind of energy I thought I'd never see again?
It started with a formulation that had the one natural ingredient dogs make on their own for pain relief and comfort.
Now, before I share it with you, I want to tell you something about pain meds like Rimadyl, Metacam, or Galliprant that nobody at that clinic ever told me.
Those pills can keep your dog comfortable while the problem underneath gets worse.
The shocking truth about NSAIDs nobody tells you.
The first thing I had to admit was this:
Rimadyl can work.
In fact, in one study of 805 dogs with osteoarthritis, Rimadyl helped a lot of them.
So no, I'm not here to pretend these pills do nothing.
But buried in that same study was the part nobody talks about.
Some dogs had to stop Rimadyl because of side effects. And some dogs relapsed when they exercised too much during treatment.
Then I found the older cartilage research in 1987 by Dr. Kenneth Brandt.
Turns out when an NSAID builds up in a sore joint, it actually slows down the cells that are supposed to be repairing the cartilage.
Dr. Brandt wasn’t alone.
I had to read it twice.
The pill calms the pain on the surface.
But underneath?
The research says it might be making the joint worse.
Now, I wasn't angry at my vet.
She's a good vet. She was doing exactly what she was trained to do.
I was angry that I'd had a bottle on my counter for two years and nobody once mentioned the second cost.
So I started looking for anything that could help Gus.
And honestly?
I just kind of decided to throw the kitchen sink at him.
I picked out a few things that dog parents were swearing by.
The green-and-white one every clinic sells.
The vet-formulated jar that cost more than my own vitamins.
The turmeric that stained my fingers orange.
The omega-3s someone in a dog group swore by.
I even tried red light therapy.
None of it seemed to make any difference.
That's when I came across something a holistic vet had written in a thread that stopped me cold.
The one thing nine years in a conventional clinic never taught me.
She was a holistic vet. You could tell she'd watched this play out a thousand times.
She wrote:
"The problem isn’t the dog. Every one of the solutions was aimed at the wrong part of the problem."
The wrong part??
I'd spent nine years thinking of dog pain as one thing.
You hurt, you get the pill, the pill helps or it doesn't.
But she was pointing at something I'd never had spelled out.
The four layers behind your dog's mobility problems.
Layer one is inflammation.
Your dog's body runs inflammation down two separate pipes, not one.
The drugs clamp the first pipe, called COX. And they're good at it.
But they leave the second pipe, called 5-LOX, wide open.
Day after day, it keeps the joint irritated, swollen, and slowly breaking down from the inside.
And almost nothing on the shelf was built to close it.
Until now.
Layer two is the cushion.
The cartilage itself.
This is the only layer that most cheap glucosamine chews go after.
But guess what?
A 2022 review of 72 clinical trials found glucosamine, on its own, showed no meaningful reduction in pain.
On its own is the key.
Because inside multi-ingredient formulas, glucosamine effectively reduced pain in the trials that tested them.
So the problem was never glucosamine. It's that most chews treat it like the whole answer.
Layer three is the spine.
Most joint chews are built like your dog's pain starts and ends at the hips and knees.
But the nerves that carry every pain signal travel down through the spine first, before they ever reach the back legs.
Support the ends of the wire and ignore the cable, and you've missed the full picture.
Layer four is the nerves.
I didn’t know cartilage has no nerve endings to feel pain from.
When a dog feels discomfort, the pain comes from the irritated tissue around the joint.
And when a joint stays sore long enough, those nerves get more sensitive.
More reactive.
Almost nothing on the shelf was built to reach this layer.
So I messaged that holistic vet and asked: is there even a real solution to this?
For a couple of days, there was no response. Then one evening a message popped up.
She messaged:
"I don't always recommend brands. But check out Good Stretch."
So I did.
The ONLY formulation designed to support all four layers… including the nerve-comfort ingredient that 99% of joint chews leave out.
A dog mom turned canine nutritionist had come up with a formulation that didn’t exist until now.
And it went after the whole problem at once: the inflammation, the cushion, the spine, and the nerves.
That's the powder I started putting in Gus's dinner. Because it had the one ingredient that help dogs feel more comfortable.
Plus 20 more actives. Most of them you'll never find in a standard joint chew.
What's actually in the scoop, and why it's built in four parts.
The nerves.
This is the layer that none of the joint chews go after.
You see… dogs produce a fatty acid that naturally turns their pain signal down.
The problem?
Most dogs just can't make enough of it to keep up.
It's called Palmitoylethanolamide. PEA for short.
In one recent study, 50 dogs with chronic joint pain got PEA. Most were moving noticeably better within six weeks.
And it's missing from 99% of the chews on the shelf.
The spine.
Vitamin B1, B6 and B12. Researchers call it "the neurotropic trio" - because they protect the nerves around the spine.
Good Stretch sources this trio from organic quinoa sprouts, not the cheap synthetic kind.
Plus magnesium, so the muscles around the spine can actually relax.
The inflammation.
Remember we saw the second inflammation pipe that’s left open by NSAIDs?
Boswellia, standardized to 60% AKBA, closes it naturally.
The cheap brands don’t come with 60% AKBA. (the active compound in boswellia with the actual anti-inflammatory effects.)
It also has high potency, 95% curcumin paired with BioPerine® (black pepper extract), which helps your dog's body actually absorb it instead of flushing through.
The cushion.
Glucosamine, chondroitin, and MSM form the base.
Then the premium stuff most chews skip... two kinds of collagen, a real 400mg of green-lipped mussel, and hyaluronic acid that keeps the joint gliding instead of grinding.
Plus bromelain, natural vitamin C, vitamin E, zinc, D3, and taurine for full-body mobility support.
21 actives. Four jobs. One scoop.
Week one nearly made me quit. But then…
I'll be straight. Good Stretch almost lost me.
For the first week, it was just soft stools and not much else. I nearly binned the tub.
Then around week three, I'm waiting on the coffee and I hear it.
Nails on the hardwood.
He came down the hall without the usual pause.
The hesitation went first. He stopped doing the math at the stairs.
Week four?
The mornings got easier.
He wanted the long walks again.
Week five got me good.
He dropped that slobbery tennis ball in my lap. The one he'd ignored for a year.
Then I went away and forgot the tub for five days.
The stiffness crept back.
Put him back on it and within a few days he was right again.
You don't get that from a placebo.
A placebo doesn’t switch off when you stop, then switch back on when you restart.
How Good Stretch replaced the whole shelf.
Once I added it up, it was almost funny.
The hip and joint chews.
A multi-collagen blend.
A turmeric and boswellia inflammation pill.
A separate PEA.
The B-complex.
The odd vitamins and minerals.
Buying all that separately ran close to $180 a month.
But you can get Good Stretch for a fraction of the price.
Because it’s about a dollar a scoop.
Less than a dollar on subscription.
My counter went from a row of bottles to a single tub.
What the label on most joint chews is hiding.
Nine years behind a clinic counter taught me one habit: flip the tub over and read the back.
Here's what the label on most joint chews looks like:
➜ Glucosamine at half the studied dose
➜ Generic turmeric and boswellia... the low-potency kind that mostly passes through
➜ "Proprietary blends" hiding doses too small to matter
➜ Synthetic vitamins where natural ones should be
➜ Targets just one layer. Three ignored.
➜ No Third Party Testing. No Certificate of Lab Analysis Report
Now flip Good Stretch over:
➜ 21 actives across all four layers... the nerve, the spine, the inflammation, the cushion
➜ 40mg of PEA, studied in dogs. The one thing 99% of chews leave out
➜ Boswellia standardized to 60% AKBA. Turmeric at 95% curcumin with BioPerine®... the forms a dog's body can actually use
➜ Real doses: 600mg glucosamine, 400mg green-lipped mussel, 800mg Type I & II collagen
➜ Made in Vermont, USA.
➜ Exactly one inactive ingredient: flaxseed.
➜ Third-party tested, with the Certificate of Analysis published for every lot
But let me be upfront with you about Good Stretch:
It’s NOT for you if you want:
➜ The cheapest tub on the shelf... a $20 chew is a biscuit with a little joint powder hiding in it
➜ One more glucosamine-only formula with a new label
➜ A reason to quit your dog's meds on your own. That's a vet conversation, every time.
But if you want:
➜ All four layers covered... and support the real reasons behind mobility decline (not just the joints)
➜ Real doses, in forms your dog's body can actually use
➜ The nerve-comfort ingredient 99% of chews leave out
➜ Your dog doing the little things again... and feeling like you got them back, like their younger self
Then this is the one thing I wish I'd found two years sooner.
Your dog's future good days start with the decision you make today.
If your senior is showing the signs... hesitating at the stairs, turning back halfway through the walk, struggling to get off the floor, leaving the toys where they lie...
Please don't wait it out.
And please don't let anyone tell you it's "just old age."
Because it isn't.
Underneath the slowing down is a dog who still wants to move. Who still wants the walk, the ball, the jump up onto the couch beside you.
They’re just waiting on you to reach the part of the problem nothing on your shelf was built to reach.
Good Stretch gave me that dog back.
The one who meets me at the door now. The one who dropped a slobbery tennis ball in my lap after a year of ignoring it.
And it could do the same for yours.
One last note before I leave you to it
For the first couple of weeks, I honestly couldn't tell whether Good Stretch was doing anything. The difference just wasn't obvious yet.
It can be different for your dog. You might even see it sooner.
But for Gus, it was around week three before I heard those nails coming down the hardwood without the usual pause.
That's the whole reason I put Good Stretch on Subscribe & Save.
When you subscribe, you get their lowest price too. You can pause or cancel anytime.
One heads-up, though: Good Stretch is made in small batches here in the USA, so availability can sometimes be limited.
And here's the part that takes the risk off your shoulders.
It's backed by a 90-day money-back guarantee. If you decide it isn't right for your dog, you can simply email the team and get your money back. No shipping the tubs back. No hoops.
So you're not really deciding whether to spend the money today. You're just deciding whether to give your dog the chance.
Good Stretch can't promise to turn back time.
But it can give you a more complete way to support the mobility behind the little things that still matter... the walk, the ball, and the dog who meets you at the door.
Oh, I almost forgot…
For a limited time, first-time buyers get up to 32% off with code STRETCH.
Check Availability & Claim Up To 32% Off With Code STRETCH
P.S. Remember, the whole 90 days is covered by the money-back guarantee. The only thing you've got to lose is your dog facing more of those stiff mornings... and you're already living with those.
P.P.S. This 32% offer is only available right here, on this page. You won't find it on Amazon, in stores, or even on their regular website. Click here to claim the discount while it’s still available.
Check Availability & Claim Up To 32% Off With Code STRETCH
References:
[1] Mansa S, et al. Long-term treatment with carprofen of 805 dogs with osteoarthritis. Vet Rec. 2007;160(13):427-430. PMID: 17400900.
[2] Brandt KD. Effects of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on chondrocyte metabolism in vitro and in vivo. Am J Med. 1987;83(5A):29-34. PMID: 3120584. DOI: 10.1016/0002-9343(87)90848-5.
[3] Hauser RA. The acceleration of articular cartilage degeneration in osteoarthritis by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Journal of Prolotherapy. 2010;2(1):305-322.
[4] Mabry K, Hill T, Tolbert MK. Prevalence of gastrointestinal lesions in dogs chronically treated with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. J Vet Intern Med. 2021;35(2):853-859. DOI: 10.1111/jvim.16057.
[5] Clegg DO, et al. Glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, and the two in combination for painful knee osteoarthritis. N Engl J Med. 2006;354(8):795-808. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa052771.
[6] FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine. Dear Veterinarian Letter notifying veterinarians about adverse events reported in dogs treated with Librela. December 16, 2024. https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/product-safety-information/dear-veterinarian-letter-notifying-veterinarians-about-adverse-events-reported-dogs-treated-librela
[7] Briskey D, Craddock E, Rao A, Mills PC. Levagen+ (palmitoylethanolamide) alleviates joint pain and reduces the impact of joint pain in canines and felines. Front Vet Sci. 2026;13:1703143. DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2026.1703143.
[8] Lo Verme J, et al. The nuclear receptor PPAR-alpha mediates the anti-inflammatory actions of palmitoylethanolamide. Mol Pharmacol. 2005;67(1):15-19. PMID: 15465922. DOI: 10.1124/mol.104.006353. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15465922/
[9] De Filippis D, et al. Palmitoylethanolamide reduces granuloma-induced hyperalgesia by modulation of mast cell activation in rats. Molecular Pain. 2011;7:3. PMID: 21219627. DOI: 10.1186/1744-8069-7-3.
[10] Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1986; Aloe L, Leon A, Levi-Montalcini R. A proposed autacoid mechanism controlling mastocyte behaviour. Agents Actions. 1993;39(Spec No):C145-C147. PMID: 7505999. DOI: 10.1007/BF01972748.
[11] Reichling J, et al. Dietary support with Boswellia resin in canine inflammatory joint and spinal disease. Schweiz Arch Tierheilkd. 2004;146(2):71-79. PMID: 14994484.
[12] Serra Aguado CI, et al. Effects of oral hyaluronic acid administration in dogs following tibial tuberosity advancement surgery for cranial cruciate ligament injury. Animals. 2021;11(5):1264. DOI: 10.3390/ani11051264.
[13] Khawaja AS, et al. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs influence cartilage healing. The Knee. 2025;52:121-130. PMID: 39577110. DOI: 10.1016/j.knee.2024.10.021.
[14] Barbeau-Grégoire M, et al. A systematic review and meta-analysis of enriched therapeutic diets and nutraceuticals in canine and feline osteoarthritis. Int J Mol Sci. 2022;23(18):10384.
This is an advertisement and not an actual news article, blog, or consumer protection update.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Good Stretch is a nutritional supplement and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Good Stretch is intended to support your dog's wellbeing alongside, not in place of, veterinary care. Always consult your veterinarian before changing your dog's treatment plan, and never stop a prescribed medication without veterinary guidance.
Results described are illustrative and individual results vary.