Our dog has some kind of bone inflammation disease.  It appears to be kinda like rheumatoid arthritis - a mysterious auto-immune disorder that usually happens in young, large breed, male dogs.  They limp around for a few months and then it goes away. 

Vet gave us some doggie pain medication, which we tried to stretch but is gone now. 

We noticed immediately that when he had a pain pill, he'd be way more active - sometimes hardly limping. 

But - the best way for him to heal up is to stay calm and lay around a lot.  Being in pain helps him feel like doing that.  Taking a pill to make the pain go away only made him feel/limp worse when the pill wore off because he'd over done it while he couldn't feel the pain. 

So, is pain medication actually a good thing?  We were researching giving him aspirin, since we can't go back to the vet for more dog-specific pain pills. 

But if you can't explain to a dog that he isn't actually better, he only feels that way because of a pill, maybe he should just be in pain until he's actually better?  After a couple of days of actually really laying around he does seem to be improving. 

I can understand wanting to give an older dog with achy joints something to make them feel better, but in this case, I'm starting to think that no pain pills are the better way to go. 

Seems like your your wise to not give him the pain meds and keep him still.
Have you looked into herbs - maybe something to take the edge off the pain but leave him clam at the same time.

I haven't done much research on herbs.  I don't know very much about herbology and am even more ignorant when it comes to canine treatments.    I give glycerine echinacea tincture when he seems to need it. 

He is much much better than a few weeks ago.  He didn't used to be able to get up or lay down without whimpering, and now he hasn't shrieked for a few days - with no pain killers at all.  The pain must have been quite intense during the acute phase - he was shaking and couldn't put weight on his front leg, and would cry very loudly if you touched it at all, and he didn't eat for a day, which is VERY unusual.  We took him to the vet because we thought he had a broken leg! 

Any recommendations for safe herbal pain/inflammation relievers for doggies?  Something that would make him sleepy too would be great. 

A few people have recommended bone knit and comphrey root, but those are for broken bones, and that isn't what's going on with him. 

I'm glad he's doing better, hate to watch an animal in pain because we all know they are not exaggerating.

I thought of another thing you could try if you feel you need to give him a pain pill again. 
Splint and wrap his leg, maybe both legs, or make him some pants, whatever will greatly impede his ability to move.  Animals, unlike children, will tend to lay around when they are encumbered in some physical way.  Children on the other hand just crack their casts and braces.  Many times it doesn't take much wrapping/restraining to freak an animal out a bit, and stop all the running and jumping.  This gives their bodies time to heal.


Treatment of arthritis in a dog -

I would recommend you buy some MSM (for horses) and start giving it to your dog to help with the healing.  The kids and I take it, works great for so many things.  Really helps with their teenage acne.  Google for dosage.

And I found several websites that sell herbal combinations for this condition in dogs.
The pain relief product looks very good at this site.

Canine Herbals  Scroll down http://www.horseherbs.com/
    * Antioxidants
    * Anxiety & Stress Management
    * Diet Balancers
    * Digestive Health
    * Immunity & Health Care
    * Joint Care
    * Metabolic & Weight Management
    * Oils
    * Pain Relief
    * Power & Endurance
    * Topicals


I did a search at the Weston A. Price Foundation on arthritis and found much good info on what to eat and incorporated into a diet to help arthritis.  Consider modifying and applying this knowledge as part of your dogs treatment.  Mostly bone broth, rich fats, fermented foods and raw vinegar added to water -

http://www.westonaprice.org


looked in my Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable book and here is what it recommended:
Any of these can be added to food
a Tablespoon of paprika daily.
2 large T of these herbs - parsley, comfrey, ash, burdock, chickweed and celery.
raw cider vinegar in water (just like WAPF) 1 T to 1.5 pints of water.
a good sea salt

There were recipes for external rubs too.

Good luck Marina