Joint supps for dogs: What's doing a good job for your canine approaching a certain age?

[Renn_aissance]

10ish-year-old Finnish Lapphund might be a little stiff lately, and maybe wants to play just a little less ball. This presentation in a horse of a certain age would make me start omega-3’s, glucosamine/chondroitin/MSM/HA, try that for a month, see if it makes a difference, and keep her on it if it does. The vet sees nothing that contraindicates that course of action but her first recommendation was Dasuquin. I know that’s a good supplement and it’s done good things for Astrid’s cousin Chester, but sheesh, it’s expensive. So:

• are glucosamine, chondroitin, and MSM the right compounds to start with in dogs, or are there other ingredients on the market that have done better by you?
• I don’t see HA advertised in a lot of dog meds. It’s there, but not with the frequency that I see it in horse joint supplements, and where it is included (ex. in Cosequin) it appears to be at quite a low concentration. Not as useful in canines?
• supplements that you have found palatable and cost-effective for the ingredient quantity and quality?

[stb]

I have used Cosequin prophylactically and then switch to Dasuquin as the dog gets up in age. Honestly, I question whether it is worth the price or not. I fed it to my 13.5 year old Labrador for years, but recently quit it and saw no difference. I did recently give her a course of Adequan and I think that helped some, but couldn’t actually swear to it.

This particular dog doesn’t tolerate fish oil, so that is not an option for her. Honestly, the thing that has helped her the most is putting her on carprofen. She takes a low dose daily and I can definitely tell that it helps her. I generally don’t like to give that but at her age it is all about keeping her comfortable.

[Weezer]

I’m a big fan of an injectable called Cartrophen. Every old dog in my extended family has been on this for the last 5 or 6 years. I see noticeable improvement when the dog is on it and on the occasion when I forget the monthly dose, I am reminded when my dog starts getting stiff. It’s just a subcutaneous injection so I do it myself but my mom takes her dog in to the vet - they don’t charge to do the injections, just for the medication

[Mosey_2003]

The vet strongly suggested Dasuquin for our old Cocker, it really did make a difference. He had an incident where he must have leapt off the couch and hurt his back leg and I took him in, she said it was severe arthritis and he was just full of it. So we did a week of Carprofen tablets (helped a lot, as you’d expect an NSAID to do) and then the Dasuquin.

If you decide to get the Dasuquin, get it from Chewy or your vet, not Amazon. Amazon reviewers are sure that the stuff being sold is not genuine.

[swmorse]

Fresh Factors from springtimeinc.com

[RooTheDay]

I know you asked about supplements only, but I’m going to post meds as well because it took us some time to figure this out and it’s doing a great job for my boy! That way, when supplements stop working, you’ll have somewhere to go.

My 9 yo ex-racing Greyhound (around 80 lb), who has, honestly, had a hitch in his get-along since I got him at the age of 5, is currently being maintained on the following program:

• 3 scoops Welactin 1x/day
• One Dasuquin Advanced chew 1x/day
• 1/2 tablet Previcox (227 mg tablets) 1x/day
• 1 1/2 tablets amantadine (100 mg tablets) 2x/day
• 1.7 mL Adequan sub-q biweekly

A couple notes:

• I use the Dasuquin Advanced, not straight Dasuquin. I did a three-week trial of the straight Dasuquin chews and found they weren’t as helpful. I know they’re spendy, and it’s inconvenient because you can only get them from the vet (not Chewy), but I didn’t find the non-Advanced to help enough to be worth it.
• “Amantadine? What the heck is amantadine?” tl;dr mechanism similar to gabapentin, but actually works on OA (gabapentin does not help him)
• We did do the loading series of Adequan twice, but find that maintaining him on this off-label biweekly use keeps him consistently feeling good.
• While there are obviously concerns about consistent use of NSAIDs such as Previcox, the risk/benefit here in terms of keeping him feeling good is worth it. He gets regular monitoring bloodwork.

On this program, he’s happy, shiny, in good weight, sleeps well, plays enthusiastically (including bounding around a little too much when he gets excited, after which he is generally a bit sore) and happily goes for his walk. No one believes he’s a 9 yo large-breed dog when they see him.

[Posting_Trot]

I’ve seen the best response from using HA in gel form top-dressed on the dog’s food. What I’ve used is Trixsyn, which you can get from Amazon or from the manufacturer:
Trixsyn

I have a 14 year old border terrier who’s been on it for a year or so, and I found it made more of a difference for him than other joint supplements I’ve used.

[Renn_aissance]

Thanks for the recommendations!

I am looking for supplements at this point rather than prescription meds because the vet doesn’t think we’re at the prescription stage. Think “sometimes there’s less bounce in the lead change on the first try, but the lead change happens biomechanically correctly, back to front, every time.” She spends a little more time stretching when she first gets up, and wants to rest for longer in between ball chases, and if she slips on ice or something I think she takes a little longer to be completely sound. But she still covers the same amount of ground when taking a flying leap off the porch in pursuit of rabbits.

Sounds like we mostly agree that Dasuquin does what it says it will do.

@Posting_Trot Thanks for the recommendation for Trixsyn. It certainly meets the cost-effective criterion for my dog’s weight group. Do you use this in combination with glucosamine and chondroitin or alone?

[AllSport]

Sadly my girl left us just after Christmas. It’s been rough. She had TPLO surgeries in both legs at 4 and 5 yrs. I always thought it’d be her skeleton that would give out, not a brain tumor.

Anyway, minus the meds from the vet (Carprofen, Adequan, and Amantadine) we used a supplement called Synovi G3 (or G4, very similar). Her orthopedic surgeon sent us home with it after the first surgery and I kept her on it ever after. The Rx’s came later in life. Shockingly she was still able to do short hikes on rough, steep terrain even in her last week :o(

[Posting_Trot]

I’ve used the Trixsyn alone and, for a few months, with Dasuquin (spelling?) I’d had him on the Dasuquin before adding the Trixsyn, and found that the addition of the Trixsyn really seemed to improve his hind end strength or the use of his hind end. (Example: he had stopped jumping onto the couch and he resumed doing that).

When I ran out of the Dasuquin, I didn’t immediately re-order it, and the improvement seems to have held for over a month now without the Dasuquin. Maybe I’ll add the Dasuquin back in at some point, but for now, he’s good just on the Trixsyn.

[Marla_100]

I’ve had great success with 2 dogs using the hylaronic acid made by 100X Equine-
I used it originally for my horses and it was so effective I started my dogs on it and I also take it for my old broken bones.
It’s so much cheaper when you buy a gallon- $113. / gallon/free shipping.
I order it directly from 100X.

I also use Cosequin DS which also has Bromelain (pain relief) and like it too.

[Angela_Freda]

@RooTheDay

3 scoops Welactin 1x/day

What do you mean scoops? Intrigued because I hate that the caps I use are mint flavored.

I use welactin gel caps.
I also give my dogs Duralactin

[RooTheDay]

@Angela_Freda

What do you mean scoops? Intrigued because I hate that the caps I use are mint flavored.

They make a liquid too (which was specifically suggested by my vet!) Here’s a link. It’s out of stock right now, but it’s been coming back in and going back out for the last six months–I order a few bottles when it’s available. The scoops are 6 mL.

[walkinthewalk]

Another vote for Dasuquin:)

My Rottweiler was rehomed to me when she was 18 months. Vet and x-rays confirmed SI issues. Could have been genetic or from falling off the couch as a puppy, or? but she was never abused.

At the vet’s recommendation, she has been on Dasuquin daily since that initial diagnosis; she will be four years in March.

Another huge help is the horse chiropractor (DVM) whose specialty is agility dogs. She always works on my Rottweiler when she works on the horses - a good massage, if nothing else:)

[2tempe]

A slightly different suggestion: Glycoflex https://www.entirelypets.com/glycoflexi.html. It comes in three stages depending on the dog’s issues. Not terribly expensive. It also contains perna, from mussels which is anti imflammatory and antioxident.
I used this at vet’s recommendation a bunch of years ago on a chow mix that came to me at 7 months old with hip dysplasia. No real fault of the shelter, I first noticed when he bunny hopped up the stairs. Anyway he was on it for about 6 years and it never seemed go get any worse. Sadly I lost him to an autoimmune disease.

[avjudge]

We were trying Acti-Flex for the horses, and our first order came with a free 8-oz. sample of Acti-Flex K9, so we added that to our dog’s food. He’s not old, but had been limping for the first few strides after getting up from his bed on days following active days. A few weeks later, it suddenly occurred to us that he wasn’t limping on those days any more. So we kept him on it.

It has the usual array of joint-supplement ingredients - HA as well as Glucosamine, Condroitin, MSM, and a few others. I compared the amounts of the various ingredients and the level of HA relative to the others was higher compared to the horse version - at the recommended dose for his 70-pound weight our dog gets 300 mg.

[pony4me]

My older Golden Retriever did well on Cosequin until he recently passed at age 15. I have an unopened bag if you would like to try it. Just pm me your address and I will send it to you.

[Renn_aissance]

Thank you- that’s very kind. I sent you a message.

I’ve now decided the cat needs MSM too. At the rate we are going, I should start taking my own HA pills again!

[Dr_Doolittle]

On this recommendation, I ordered some from Big Dees - the chews not the liquid (more expensive, but they will definitely eat it, which is the important thing!)

I’ve been using the Hemp Hip and Joint Wonder Chews from wizardpet (off Amazon), and they been working well enough – but don’t have quite as many or as much of the key ingredients.

Bonus! Big Dees sells a lot of jump and ring equipment, so I ordered 10 jump cup pins; those little suckers are always going missing and I have had to use sticks, so this was a great find! $1.50 each. Score

[avjudge]

@Dr_Doolittle

On this recommendation, I ordered some from Big Dees - the chews not the liquid (more expensive, but they will definitely eat it, which is the important thing!)

Hope it works for you! We’ve had no problem with ours eating food with the liquid added (I think it’s “beef-flavored”) but it would take a lot to keep him from eating a meal. (It’s hard to imagine how unenthusiastic he was about eating when he was young.)