Has anyone heard of giving a senior dog, Gluclosamine Condriotin w/vit.D?

Answers:
However the newest study says it really doesn't do anything to help. But it won't hurt and I have talked to numerous people that swear it works.

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Yes, all my dogs get 500 mg of glucosamine condroitin daily as a preventative. My dog who's actually having minor problems because of arthritis gets 1000 mg daily. I don't know the size of your dog, mine are around 70 lbs, but your vet should have told you the correct dosage for your dog. They need to be on it for approx. 6 weeks for it to start to help.

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We give one of our senior dogs Flexicose which has Glucosamine, Chrondroitin and MSM. Has helped her tremendously. I highly recommend it instead of NSAIDS ..namely Rimadyl which I would never give. I would not give Deramaxx either. Those are 2 drugs vets over perscribe.

ETA: To the person who posted that Chrondroitin does not work and posted a link to the info... You did not read the whole thing and ignored the rapid responses at the bottom of the page. The findings in that study have been well disputed and I along with thousands of other people have seen the benefits first hand. It works! Do you really think thousands of people are just lying that their dogs are better on this supplement?

It's called the Placebo effect 'honey'?? Whats with the attitude? I'm not your honey. I have read the entire report and still believe it works. I see it working in my older dog and so do thousands of other people. I do not need a study to tell me it does or doesn't work.
By the way...You can find a study to support anything you wish to believe. This particular study was well disputed. I am not sure why you are having difficulty understanding that. To each his own.. You believe what you wish to believe and I will believe what I wish to believe as there is no concrete science to back either of our claims.

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Yes, this is also normally in Senior pet foods.

This helps their deteriorating bones. (Like peoples bones do as they age.)

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Yes, my mom has a 14 year old black lab who could barely walk. we took him to the vet and the vet told us to give him gluclosamine. he also gets a prescription for Rimadyl. He is doing great now and has no problems walking!

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Not to burst anyone's bubbles, but I think a new report has just come out which finds that chondroitin is pretty much useless for anything except improving cash flows.

Hey here you go, from the 'Annals of Internal Medicine':

http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/abstra...

in relevant part: 'Background: Previous meta-analyses described moderate to large benefits of chondroitin in patients with osteoarthritis. However, recent large-scale trials did not find evidence of an effect. '


Kim: "Conclusions: Large-scale, methodologically sound trials indicate that the symptomatic benefit of chondroitin is minimal or nonexistent. Use of chondroitin in routine clinical practice should therefore be discouraged."

It's called the placebo effect honey. I don't think people are lying, just mistaken. And I suspect that chondroiten is not the only treatment being used in many cases. I know people who swear that 'long distance reiki therapy' helps too.

Look, science makes mistakes. The initial reports showing that the stuff worked were wrong. Why do continue to believe those but not this?

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My daughter gives it to her dog on the advice of her vet! I don't know about the vit.D though.

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Glucosamine and Chondroitin is an absolute must in a large breed dog and older dogs. Now I dont know about the whole vit D thing though. I dont see how it could hurt as long as it wasnt to much. I would ask your vet if your concerned about it though. You can get a senior food that already has it in there. Unfortunately it doesnt have alot in there. I think they need something like 2500 mg or something like that. You can always get supplements though. The Missing Link Plus is awesome stuff. Its at PetSmart

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One of my girls was diagnosed with Hip Dysplasia at 5 months and the vet told me she wouldn't be able to walk by the time she is an adult, it was a severe case. Instead of using prescription drugs (poison) I educated myself and started searching. Long story short, I found something natural, very effective and very affordable. Sadie was 4 yrs April 19 and is still going strong. If Arthritis is your concern, they have something for that also. I get all my worm stuff and other meds and supplements there as well. I've seen it all work, it's amazing. My babies get a regular regimen as a preventive and all are healthy. The site also offers lots of information and free consultation. Wonderful people! Look around, shop around, research, educate yourself, and then make an informed decision. Good luck and good health for you and your pet!!

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Something else you might want to try is Vitamin E.

When growing up I had a dog that had arthritis, we tried Shark Cartilage Biscuits and Vitamin E. Both seemed to help but the Biscuits were to Costly.

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Glucosamine/Chondroitin yes. Vit. D, no. Glucosamine can have an amazing effect on joint ailments (arthritis, hip dysplasia) but may not work for all dogs. It's worth a try though and both of my dogs (my older dog has a bad hip...it's not debilitatingly awful and has never seemed to bother her, but it is a cause of concern for arthritis later in life. my younger dog had a lot of "growing pains" as a younger puppy and at one year old his hips didn't look great either) are on it as a preventative. If your older dog is already limping/painful, glucosamine with MSM may be more effective (MSM works as an anti-inflammatory).

I could not find any information about supplementing dogs with vit. D. The only articles I could find cautioned that oversupplementing can potentially cause vit. D toxicity (vit. D is a fat-soluble vitamin, any extra that the body doesn't use gets stored in the fat. Theoretically, if a dog is given an excess of vit. D it could build up over time and cause abnormal calcium deposits in the heart, muscle, and soft tissue. however, it seems to be pretty rare and it seems that a dog would have to ingest a rediculous amount of vit. D for toxicity to be a real concern).

Supplementing with vit. C however does seem to improve joint function in dogs (and people) with joint problems. It seems to work like an anti-inflammatory. My puppy improved on the glucosamine but would still occasionally come up lame for a little while (usually a sharp yelp, followed by holding one foot up for a few minutes, then either he would favor that foot or go back to perfectly normal activity). After adding vit. C supplement (ester-C is generally considered better than ascorbic acid because it is thought to be more effective and it carries less of a risk of causing upset tummies) he hasn't yelped or limped once.

Vitamin E also has anti-inflammatory properties that can help with joint problems. Plus it will also help improve skin and coat and can have a significant impact on allergies.

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Yes - Our vet just recommended it for our dog. She has a bad hind leg and said it would help her.