Glucosamine Condroitin

[whippethaven]

I would definitely check with your vet about the Rimadyl. Between that and the glucosamine chondroitin, it definitely extended the years I was able to keep my very arthritic Doberman Pinscher.

I would stick with the doggie version of glucosamine. My vet sells it, but I get mine for my Lab at Walmart in the pet section. It has the identical ingredients, milligram for milligram, is less pricey and I have excellent results with it. It seems to appeal to even the finicky-est of my dogs...smells kind of malty. Good luck!

[doane]

Does your dog have kidney problems?

I went and looked up Prosamine, which I found to be a doggie arthritis formula which among other things, contains 650mg total of glucosamine (325mg gsulfate, and 325g ghcl), which is still maybe half of a real wallop-packing daily regimen This is not a miracle drug, and it takes time to build up any good.. Althought I am not a vet, apparently, your vet thinks? your dog has arthritis, so that's why he's pushing it (I hope).. The next step might be to talk about Rymidal, which is an anti-inflamatory like Celebrex, but for dogs...If you're vet is gone for two weeks, doesn't he have someone covering for him who can get the dog's records? By the way, I have arthritis, and it is hard getting started in the morning and dragging all those bones and joints back together, and I take an antiinflamatory every day. It takes a while to get "warmed" up.

I am currently dealing with an "issue" with my 9+ year old GH, Eddie, and the vet told me to give him Rymidal, which I conveniently had in the house. I totally agree with not "self-medicating", but we need to be advocates for our dogs. Nobody knows them as well as we do, and we need to voice all of our opinions and concerns and actually HELP the vet diagnose and treat our friends who can't speak for themselves.

Eddie just had bloodwork done, and his sodium came out a little high. After process of elimination and my being very forth-right about what I feed him, WE realized that the 26% protein kibble I've switched to is much too rich for Eddie's aging metabolism. So, he's now on "Senior".
(sigh) My heart breaks when I thing about him being "old" now, but I guess it's better than the alternative.

I just went through this with my Vet yesterday. Glucosamine is good for Artheritis.. sort of a joint lubracator and very safe. It takes a heavy dose for the first month to get going, so for our 25lb Raul, that ment about 1500mg and now we are giving him a pill and a half, about 700mg a day.

Rymidal should not be given with out a blood check to be sure that your dog has no problems with thier liver, kidneys, etc., because it is a Cortazone medication. Our Vet won't perscribe it unless there are real problems beyond artheritis, like Raul has just been diagonosed with.. calcium deposits on his vertabrae just above his hips giving him severe pain. We get the blood test results today and can hopefully start him on the Rymidal, but we wish we didn't have to. He is only 9 years old.

We were also told that a dog 8 years old is considered a "Senior" and should be switched over to a Senior dog food that has more easily digested protein.

[doane]

Just thought I would drop in and say hi to everyone.
Raul is doing very well. Vet prescribed Deramaxx 25mg 1x/day last year and it's sort of like a miracle. It, along with the Glocosamine has made a huge difference in releaving his pain. Only times he has trouble now is if we over do it at at the beach for too long.

[Whippet_Fan]

i don't know the price of pet quality glucosamine, but meijers vitamin section (for humans) frequently has "dollar day sales" where you buy one bottle regular price and get the 2nd for a dollar....the products on sale usually goes in some sort of rotation, but you can find the glucosamine/chondroitin at a pretty good deal that way.....

Glad to hear your buddy is doing so well Recovery stories are so uplifting!

[Keith]

We have used Glycoflex from www.kvvet.com . It is all natural green perna mussel. I even used it when I tore my ACL. It adds lubricity back into the joints. Keith