we have 2 Great Danes, soon to be 8 and 7 (getting old for Danes).
They both are doing well, though the one just started trying to avoid stairs the other day. Might be related to the 2 rough housing as I heard a yelp and the female crawled between my legs a day or two before.
anyways, I’m going to give it another week before taking to the vet and paying $500 for xrays or whatnot.
They both currently get 4g fish oil daily (was 2g until a few weeks ago) at 1200mg EPA/DHA. Will probably switch to liquid version and bump to 1500mg EPA/DHA.
Any other supplements that humans use that can be beneficial for arthritis and other inflammatory diseases in dogs?
What about CLA?
Curcumin?
wasn’t sure if either was appropriate for dogs. I assume CLA b/c it’s found in meat.
Danes are great dogs and we’ve had two in our family. Our last boy was a rescue and quite nervous and anxious in general.
We did give him Glucosamine as a supplement and his joints were healthy and he was extremely active up until the day we lost him. I don’t know if that is coincidence or causality but it’s certainly something that I found worth doing.
We did give him Glucosamine as a supplement [/quote]
I’ve done the same, but we stopped when the dog started getting raging hardon’s waiting for it.
He loves cheese, but not that much.[/quote]
sure you didn’t give him the NoXplode lol
going to also switch to a liquid fish oil, thinking of just pouring it over the dry food. anyone have luck this route?
Right now we use cheese for the one to wrap the pills and the other prefers PB
ages seem to avg 6-9 yrs from most reading I’ve done.
They both are doing amazingly well. We just got the male, but the female has gotten fish oil and good dog food for a few years, so I’m sure that has helped.
part of me is hoping she just got hurt when they were playing and it’s not a lasting problem like arthritis.
Just ordered some glucosamine + MSM and will be going with 3,000mg of glucosamine for 2 months, then reduce the amount.
I have a couple big dogs. The largest, and oldest, is a big 100 pound shepherd mix, she’s about 7 or 8. When she was younger, she used to run all over the yard, full of energy. She developed hip dysplasia, and it got to the point where she was hardly walking around, much less running. She started getting fish oil and glucosamine/chondroitin, and I have noticed a significant difference. She is still a little stiff, and as she gets older obviously it will get worse, but her quality of life has definitely improved significantly.
It’s too late to do much. We had a dane that lived 13 years. They need calcium injections early in life and loads of exercise to build bone density and ward off hip dysplacia later in life.
Make sure you’re supplementing Vit E along with fish oil. I feed a lot of raw chicken wings, grass-fed lamb necks and that sort of stuff. Lots of good fat.
ages seem to avg 6-9 yrs from most reading I’ve done.
They both are doing amazingly well. We just got the male, but the female has gotten fish oil and good dog food for a few years, so I’m sure that has helped.[/quote]
Both of our Danes were around that age but neither died from old age instead they fell victim to bloat. I think that the age average stats are a bit skewed perhaps from animals that die from those problems because they aren’t present in small dogs.
That reminds me to have our new Saint’s stomach tacked soon.
my sisters boarder collie was starting to really slow down due to arthritis and after giving him the vet recommended glucosamine / condroitin he came back to life and was a new dog… now he roughhouses with my 1 year old giant schnauzer like he was a puppy…
I add brewersyeast to my schnauzers food to help not kill my grass and I add 1.5 grams fish oil to his dinner bowl (liquid i pour over top)… he runs 10+ miles with me a week so im hoping to avoid a lot of problems later on… ill proly add the glucosamine and condroitin when he hits 5/6
[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
we have 2 Great Danes, soon to be 8 and 7 (getting old for Danes).
[/quote]
This is not a supplement, but have you thought about getting a pup? When my first dog, a short-haired pointer, got older we brought in a pup. This may seem cruel, like the old dog is being replaced, but it does have some great benefits.
the older dog teaches the pup how to behave; energy level, commands, respect.
since it was a hunting breed dog I wanted the older one to teach the pup what animals (pheasants) I was looking for and how to point/retrieve.
Most importantly for this thread is my older dog stepped up his energy level to be able to show the younger upstart who’s boss. These are animals after all and my pointer was able to hang on to his title as Alpha Male for 2 more years until we lost him.
When I finally lost my pointer I was devastated but knowing I had another dog who was shown the ropes by “The General” as he came to be called helped me. Even the way my current dog pats my pocket if he knows I have a treat is identical to how The General use to prod me.
My 15 year old border collie/retriever mix has intermittent trouble with her hips. Just last weekend, she couldn’t stand up at all on her own accord. She would bark and we’d have to go and hoist her backend up and position her back legs so she could start walking. I ordered a ‘sling’ so we can help her up like picking up a suitcase. Today, her mobility is fine…as if nothing ever happened. The sling will get delivered in the next day or two…typical.
Anyway, I tried giving her glucosamine from the vet a while ago but it gave her the squirts (diarrhea). I had to stop. So, I would recommend that you ease your dog into any supplements so that you can check for tolerance and minimize any disruption to the ‘ecosystem’.
By the way, I use Supple glucosamine drink for my own arthritis. That stuff is awesome and works within one week, just like they say. It works so well, that I don’t need to take it very often…only when the condition acts up. Wish my dog was interested in the drink, but its in a fruit-juice base and she won’t go near it.