I work at a veterinary clinic, my wife’s a veterinarian, and I have had large breed dogs with orthopedic issues. Fish-oil/ omega-3’s seem to work well. Costco has a fish-oil that we use on our dogs. Glucosamine is also a recommendation. I have seen some glucosamine-chondroitin compounds work great in dogs as well-Synove is a good product. Science Diet makes a food called J/D that did wonders for our dog for a long time. Another consideration is that dogs tend to have cumulative orthopedic issues the same way that humans do. The veterinarian that you see will probably suggest a NSAID(use only what is prescribed by your veterinarian-human medications can be extremely toxic to your pets and may kill them) and taking it easy until the problem seems to remiss a bit. Another consideration is the general ease at which your dogs move around the house. Do you have hardwood floors? Any potential slippery surfaces can cause an unusual gate that will worsen arthritis and inflamed joints. Keep your dog lean. You can probably find a visual acuity scale for dog body composition. Any extra weight will make your dogs joints unhappy. If all else fails there is an orthopedic certification known as OFA that may provide a more information on hip health in your next dog. Hope it helps.
Anyone know of good supplements/herbs that help with canine seizures?
[quote]Bigg Nate wrote:
I work at a veterinary clinic, my wife’s a veterinarian, and I have had large breed dogs with orthopedic issues. Fish-oil/ omega-3’s seem to work well. Costco has a fish-oil that we use on our dogs. Glucosamine is also a recommendation. I have seen some glucosamine-chondroitin compounds work great in dogs as well-Synove is a good product. Science Diet makes a food called J/D that did wonders for our dog for a long time. Another consideration is that dogs tend to have cumulative orthopedic issues the same way that humans do. The veterinarian that you see will probably suggest a NSAID(use only what is prescribed by your veterinarian-human medications can be extremely toxic to your pets and may kill them) and taking it easy until the problem seems to remiss a bit. Another consideration is the general ease at which your dogs move around the house. Do you have hardwood floors? Any potential slippery surfaces can cause an unusual gate that will worsen arthritis and inflamed joints. Keep your dog lean. You can probably find a visual acuity scale for dog body composition. Any extra weight will make your dogs joints unhappy. If all else fails there is an orthopedic certification known as OFA that may provide a more information on hip health in your next dog. Hope it helps.[/quote]
thanks. We’ve lived in a house with nothing but hardwood floors for the past 4 yrs. 2 months ago we moved to a house with some carpet, mostly hardwood and tile.
Luckily, the house we moved from had a lot of stairs, now there are much fewer.
Just seemed like it came on out of the blue for this to be arthritis, but she seems to have a slow time getting up if lying down for a while. If she does pop up, seems a little stiff
had to make a vet appt.
Noticed some yellow/green eye discharge today. I tried to clear most of it out.
anyone give their dog egg yolks? Was thinking of 2/day to help eye health. Wasn’t sure if the yolk was beneficial for eye health for dogs like it is us. I would assume so though.
She’s now getting:
12g fish oil 3900mg EPA/DHA daily
800 IU Vitamin E daily
1500mg Glucosamine daily (pill, soon to be liquid with MSM and chondroitin)
2,000 IU Vitamin D per week
if the above doesn’t help the joint issues, it may be time to start with CLA then onto GLA
[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
anyone give their dog egg yolks?
[/quote]
Just give them the whole raw egg, shell and all. Cooked is good too, more bioavailable, most dogs love them any which way.
might seem odd I spend all this money on good food and supps, but am I the only one that doesn’t give their dog heart worm protection pills?
I’ve never given her them, started back when in college didn’t want to pay for it. I have the money now, but she’s done just fine without them.
though, it looks like they are much cheaper now. I thought they used to run like $40/month. Now I’m reading $6-8?
I have stopped,none of my dogs have been given Heartguard in 4 years and no issues, however, I believe an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure so to speak and since it is mosquito season I may start again.
yeah, doing some quick research.
Seems most places recommend year round protection, but digging deeper, may be due to wanting more $s.
Seems studies out of PA Vet school show that they need a certain temp and once temps fall below 62* the eggs die.
Looks like I’ll only do it from May-Aug/Sept then
I remember why I don’t take her to the vet, lol
$430, granted they did a lot of stuff.
Rabies, heart worm 6months worth, eye med, heart worm test, exam
she tested positive for Lyme’s at some point, so they had to send off bloodwork to see if it is dormant and no longer a threat or if they need to start anti-biotics.
everything else checked out good, not bad for an 8 yr old Dane.
anyone use Orijen dry food? Looks pretty decent from the ingredients, and the place is closer to us than the place I get Artemis.
I’m currently reading up on pet stuff and also raw foods, so I may get there eventually. Did pick them up some raw knuckle and marrow bones tonight. along with some canned rabbit and liver food for dogs, canned, but it’s a start.
[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
might seem odd I spend all this money on good food and supps, but am I the only one that doesn’t give their dog heart worm protection pills?
I’ve never given her them, started back when in college didn’t want to pay for it. I have the money now, but she’s done just fine without them.
[/quote]
We adopted a dog and found out it had heartworm after we adopted it. It’s not a pleasant thing to go through with a dog. I would be giving a dog heartguard long before any supps
She’s on heart worm now 
. My wife got on me for a long time b/c the female dane hasn’t been to the vet in years, no vaccinated. Doing some research, looks like I was doing my dog a lot of good. Vaccines are way over done and carry a host of complications. She did just get her rabies, I think the law in MD was changed to every 3 yrs, but studies show the 1st rabies vaccine give can last a minimum of 5-7 yrs. Crazy stuff.
Not to mention our vet I think is pushing for the Lyme’s vaccine (which I read is worthless especially once they have Lyme’s) and quite dangerous.
[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
She’s on heart worm now . My wife got on me for a long time b/c the female dane hasn’t been to the vet in years, no vaccinated. Doing some research, looks like I was doing my dog a lot of good. Vaccines are way over done and carry a host of complications. She did just get her rabies, I think the law in MD was changed to every 3 yrs, but studies show the 1st rabies vaccine give can last a minimum of 5-7 yrs. Crazy stuff.
Not to mention our vet I think is pushing for the Lyme’s vaccine (which I read is worthless especially once they have Lyme’s) and quite dangerous.[/quote]
good to hear. As far as the lyme’s vaccine, my neigbor is one of the few people I know who actually had their dog get the vaccine, and the dog ended up getting lyme anyway. I just use frontline.
I am very much against eating dogs as supplements.
planing on getting a siberian husky in next couple of weeks and was wondering if any of you dog lovers have some helpful tips about their nutrition. grew up with dogs all my life but never really paid attention to their nutrition just had them eat what ever type of dog food and didnt really give them vitamins. i want to do it differently now since i personally have learned so much about nutrition and how much it helps me in my life so i figured it should be the same for animals. any tips about the following would be really helpful
- type of food? (dog food or real food?)
- type of vitamins? (fish oil, glucosomine etc…)
- proper dosing of this vitamins ( gonna give him fish oil for sure just dunno how much )
2 ABSOLUTE must reads. get them now
“Food Pets Die For”
will go over in detail what is in commercial dog food and some better kibble options or cooking for your dog.
Also Dr. Goldstein’s book gives a great holistic approach to pet health Amazon.com
Well, had to take her back to the vet for swollen lymph nodes in the neck.
Vet discovered her HR at 220 but her pulse wasn’t as fast, so wanted to run numerous tests to check her heart.
vet bill today $1,000 ouch
chest x-ray
EKG
lymph biopsy
lyme blood test again to check her count
normal blood test
heart checked out ok on the x-ray and EKG was mostly normal, though the cardiologist recommended further exploration at $575/hr for a consult. Gonna wait on that one after all the blood work comes back
starting her on CoQ10 now and most likely Curcumin
Geez man, thats one hell of a vet bill, I do believe sometimes infections especially with the lymph-nodes can be transmitted to humans, may wanna load up on some zinc just in case. Best of luck bro.
I had a lab who responded well to glucosamine/chondroiten