Glucosamine for dog's aging joints?

hazmat · Nov 10, 2004

Glucosamine for dog\'s aging joints?

Old man Wilson turns 9 this month. Vet thinks his joints may be aging & suggested a glocosamine supplement. I did a google search & was overwhelmed - can't seperate fact from fiction.

Can someone give me the lowdown - does it work? how it works, what kind of dose, any side effects...

johnday · Nov 10, 2004

Re: Glucosamine for dog\'s aging joints?

Stephen; Be VERY careful. We were giving my 8 yearold Malamute this stuff for the same reason. At first she seemed to be helped by it. After about 3 weeks she started going downhill big time! We were upnorth and had no access to a vet. We didn't know what was wrong but she was not good at all. She's my all time favorite and I was just an hour away from putting down. She was that bad. Luckily my wife the RN is smarter than me. She thought of any changes we made with Una. It was the glucosamine. We quit giving it to her, the next day there was a marked improvement and I still have her. I'll never recommend that stuff to anyone. We went back to giving her one aspirin a day, that makes a favorable change. BE CAREFUL, you don't want to feel as bad as I did when I thought of loosing her.

MarkLeininger · Nov 10, 2004

Re: Glucosamine for dog\'s aging joints?

Works great, our dog had joint problems at an early age and it really helped. You can get it much cheaper at a horse supply place rather than at the vet. Petsmart is a chain around here that has good prices. Get it as a complex of Glucosamine and Condroitin; you shouldn't give just one without the other for reasons I can't remember. I think it increases fluid in the joints. We give 1500mg Glucosamine/1200mg controitin a day to a 55 pound dog.

johnday · Nov 10, 2004

Re: Glucosamine for dog\'s aging joints?

Mark; We didn't give the cntroitin with Una. I wonder if that was what happened?

Bob_Skurka · Nov 10, 2004

Re: Glucosamine for dog\'s aging joints?

Glucosamine, when combined with Condroitin, has been proven in medical tests to improve SOME types of arthritis in people. Alone neither provides any relief. When stopped, the releif stops. Some people are suseptible to side effects. It is not effective on RA at all, but it does work to provide some relief for ostio-arthritis. I know nothing about giving it to dog. I know about it only because I am a serious arthritis sufferer, been under treatment by a specialist since 1982, have a family history of it, and have managed, through aggressive treatment, to supress most of hte effects.

gsxr1100 · Nov 11, 2004

Re: Glucosamine for dog\'s aging joints?

Wife does Rottie and Pit rescue. We use Bio-flex on our dogs So far on one of my rotties, after 2.5 years, the dog keeps up with my pits. She also has arthritis due to old age & is normal. My older rottie with double hip replacement the Bio-flex worked wonfers. Better then Glo-flex 3, missing link etc. No health problems either.

But so far after doing rescue for over 8-years on our dogs and never had any problems with any glucosamine. Even asked a family member (a vet) and glucosamine will not have any effects. Unless you are putting 10K mg into a 40 lb dog.

So yes it worked,side-effects is a Happier dog! We give out 82 lb rottie approx 2.5K mg per day

Freds · Nov 11, 2004

Re: Glucosamine for dog\'s aging joints?

According to what I've heard, there is no actual dosage per pound to give the gluco/chondroitin. It's also one of those things that appears to work and help dogs with joint problems, but they don't know why.
I have a lot of customers that give it to their older dogs and they seem happy with it. I also sell a dog food for seniors that has it included in the food (Canidae Platinum Senior Lite) and have had customers tell me that they can't believe how their dog's activity level increased. I've seen first hand that the dogs look and act healthier. In most cases if the dog food has it included you can stop with the additional supplements.
In my opinion it beats drugs that mask the pain, like Rimadyl, and doesn't have the side effects.

gsxr1100 · Nov 11, 2004

Re: Glucosamine for dog\'s aging joints?

I agree but I tried Canidae and my rottie got huge ear infections from it. So that food when to our shelter.

There is no one dog food for any dog. My pits were good on Pro Plan until they change something in the food. They both got rashes on the belly. Now use Chicken Soup and we are back to clean bill of health.

Also our vet stated Rimady DOES have side efects. It can cause Kidney or liver damage. I would just use aspirin since it is safer.

MarkLeininger · Nov 11, 2004

Re: Glucosamine for dog\'s aging joints?

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Mark; We didn't give the cntroitin with Una. I wonder if that was what happened? )</font>

Possible. The analogy I remember when we looked at this was Calcium and Magnesium supplements for people. If you give one without the proper ratio of the other it does something really bad, like suck the calcium out of your bones, or interfere with the TV remote.

Freds · Nov 11, 2004

Re: Glucosamine for dog\'s aging joints?

I agree about the no one food for all dogs. I have three dogs on the same food and if one gets even 1/4c more than usual she gets gas all day long, but the others have no problem if I give them a little extra.
Your vet is right about the Rimadyl. I said that "it", meaning the gluco/chon, didn't have the side effects that Rim has.