Hip Dysplasia Supplements

Buckeye_V · Post by **Buckeye_V** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 10:27 am

Does anyone currently give supplements to their dogs for hip dysplasia? If so, which ones and how much? The dog is 50-60lbs and currently shows no signs of pain or discomfort. However we are loooking to preventative measures at the moment. Thanks!

Post by **ezzy333** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 2:55 pm

Don't believe there is a thing you can feed that will make a bit of difference. The only thing I have seen is less feed and not an excessive amount of hard exercise during the fast growing period may be helpful but much of it seems to be genetic so feed won't affect that.

Many vets will argue there is nothing you can do so who knows for sure. I just know it wsn't a problem till we started with hi-powered puppy food that speeded up growth and weight on the joints.

Ezzy

Buckeye_V · Post by **Buckeye_V** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 2:59 pm

The dog is 3 years old, so I believe it is past the fast-growing phase.

Post by **ezzy333** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 3:02 pm

Save your money

Ezzy

jobird · Post by **jobird** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 3:28 pm

If you really want to, you can give your dog glucosamine, chondroitin and MSM. I have friends who take it for their own joints and swear by it and feed it to their dogs as well. A tablet a day for them and a tablet a day for the dogs. New human medical research is questioning the effectiveness of the products for people, thinking that there may be a placebo effect occurring, however, it isn't something that will hurt your dog and may give them the longevity you are looking for. I saw an article the other day that also touted elk antler velvet for healthy joints. That might also be something to try. There are worse ways to spend your money.
Janna

Post by **kninebirddog** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 5:31 pm

Glucsamine with chondritin and vitamin C and excersise it takes about 3 to 4 weeks for the glucosamine to build up....
this will help the joints also be sure to keep the weight down and also daily excersise aslo is very impotant in helping blood flow and fluids around the joints..doesn't need to be hard excersise but good walks and some runs veryday or swimming helps
I found this to help alot in a chronic HD dog with my Vets advice I did this ...like I stated it takes a few weeks for thing to build up but you will notice a difference...this helped my Mikey dog go till he was about 7 years before I had to break down and have surgery done.
Since mikey is a brittany after some research I elected to go with the Femoral Head Ostecomy as hip replacements most of your standard replacements are either for smaller dogs or larger dogs
and the other method which I do not remember the medical term for requires breaking and pinning and creating a socket which to me sounded worse then the FHO. My mikey dog has been back in action now 2 seasons since his FHO's and doing well

there is a process now which in young pups if they have the chronic version the vet has to do this before 16 weeks of age but they go in and do a series of cuts near the growth plates which help the socket grow pups are up and playing a day later still need to be fixed and not be part of the gene pool

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 5:43 pm

Janna I got that flier at work. I will steal one and post some info here.

Post by **Ayres** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 7:23 pm

I give "Joint Soother" and Ester-C. The joint soother has glucosamine, chondroitin and MSM, and the Ester-C has a balanced amount of Vitamin C and calcium for optimum absorption.

My dog hasn't been OFA'd yet and doesn't show any signs of hip dysplasia, but it's not that expensive to add a little vitamin to his feed.

whiteruger · Post by **whiteruger** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 8:29 am

We adopted a 10 year old GSP from the WGSPR. When we got Tucker on Dec. 10, 2005 he couldn't hardly walk, couldn't jump in the van and was very poor condition. Lisa from the rescue had started him on the glucosamine, chondroitin, & msm. Was also taking rimadyl 2x a day. I started giving him a fish oil tablet [ good for heart & coat] & a senior vitamin. Its been 3 months and you should see the old guy now! Runs all around, [ we have 40 acres] jumps in the van to go for rides, has the softest shiniest coat and everyone that has seen him says his eyes seem WAY clearer, they were kinda cloudy. he saw a deer across the creek while in the house one day!I am sure part of his recovery is due to the fact he is not laying on a cold cement floor[ he was at the shelter for 2 months! ] but the supplements have definitely helped. He is still stiff in the am sometimes and if he plays outside a lot, but he doesn't even take the Rimadyl anymore. We have started giving our 5 year old GSP the same stuff, It certainly can't hurt!

Buckeye_V · Post by **Buckeye_V** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 9:18 am

Thanks for all of the replies!

Wildflugel · Post by **Wildflugel** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 7:31 am

Buckeye_V:

You might check out the following web site regarding joint supplements. Doc E seems to be a very knowledgeable person and will be happy to answer any questions you might have.

http://www.DocsDogNutriceuticals.iwarp.com

Wildflugel

Buckeye_V · Post by **Buckeye_V** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 1:34 pm

Thank you. I will give it a try.