Gnu, I will try to remember and will search tomorrow morning to see if I have an old prescription paper. It was a steroidal compound mixed in a honey-flavoured base. Steroids aren't great but if the alternative is death... well. The vet said it also could reverse some of the damage. She had it so badly in spine, hips and right hind leg that she would just lay down and not move for hours, and cry terribly if forced to get up - heart-rending.

Once on the medication, with no pain and light exercise, she improved enormously, was her happy old self again. She was a seventy five pound mixed breed, started on the medication at eight and died of a common canine cancer at thirteen.

Your vet should know of it, anyway. It is expensive, but I reasoned it was a couple two-fours a month, eh?