What is your experience with oral joint supplements for dogs?

[arapaloosa_lady]

[QUOTE=Hermein;8496918]
He´s a big boy–probably 80 pounds, has the body and ears of a Bull Terrier and is black and white. Very handsome. He once chased the wrong horse and was rewarded with a broken femur, which was repaired with a plate and 11 titanium screws. The vet expected he would have arthritis from this, if not from his size.

We love him and he loves us–happy ending.[/QUOTE]

How’s his weight looking? I would ask your vet if he could safely lose any weight to put less stress on his joints. The thin side of normal puts less stress on his joints than the fat side of normal.

I wouldn’t keep giving him Aspirin. That’s one of our oldest & cheapest NSAIDs, but it’s not ideal. Read up about COX 1 & 2 inhibition if you want to educate yourself on how they work and why people even bother to produce newer NSAIDs.

[bits619]

Does anyone have suggestions for dosing just one dog in a multi dog family with the powdered meds? My parents have two dogs but only one needs joint supplements. They’re good owners but I know they will only want to do minimal routine changes for medicating the stiff dog and both currently eat from each other’s bowls. Unfortunately the dog that needs the meds is extremely suspicious of pills and wrapped treats. I don’t know much about the various joint supplement forms. Are the flavored chews effective?
I’d like to suggest something that requires very little disruption in their routine. Any ideas?

[fourfillies]

My suspicious Corgi loves his Foster and Smith joint chews. Lines up for his 1/2 chew each night and looks very smug when the interloper puppy doesn’t get one. The ones I use are glucosamine/chondriotin with MSM. I’ll also put a plug in for Adequan, made a demonstrable difference for 3 of my oldsters over the years.

[caryledee]

I started my dog on Cosequin about 2 months ago. She was having a hard time getting up and going up and down stairs. I had her on Rimadyl for a while which worked great but I’d rather not keep her on that long term. Anyway, the cosequin has worked great. She still hesitates a bit before standing up but she is back to running the stairs instead of climbing one at a time and is overall much more active. I started with the maximum strength but have gone to just the regular version now. It is very cheap at walmart ($12 for a little over a month.) She eats them fine but she is not very picky.

[courtneykell189]

Trixsyn is great for arthritic dogs. Its a hyaluronic acid supplement specifically tailored to work with the canine digestive system. They have it broken down and specified into weight categories as well. Very gentle on their system. The company ships the product for free and one bottle will last for 36 days. They even provide you with a dosing syringe too. Very convenient and works great.

[chalice18]

My four year old with arthritis forming in his hips gets Salmon Oil and Dasuquin with MSM every day. I would also talk to your vet about starting Rimadyl or another NSAID as needed, as they are much easier on the dog than regular aspirin.

[vacation1]

My dog was on a glucosamine/chondroitin supplement for several years, before her arthritis cropped up and for a while after. I stopped in part because of how the evidence has been going on the effect of glucosamine/chondroitin on humans - ie, hasn’t been shown to have an effect. Also, at that point we were moving on to stronger medications. If the dog is showing physical signs of arthritis, it’s time to move on to an NSAID, if possible. They can be given as-needed, rather than every day, if that works for your dog.

[SpiritInTheSkye]

Good info.

My girl couldn’t tolerate any of the NSAID’s, they made her vomit especially Rimadyl.

[TheJenners]

I’ve been using the Cosequin from Costco, not spendy and works super for my 10 yo retired cow dog. He was showing signs of slowing down two years ago, didn’t want to jump down from the truck bed but up was still ok, that sort of thing. The Cosequin helped with that. The woman who does my equine and canine massage says she likes the Smartpak canine joint supp, fwiw.

[french_fry]

[QUOTE=vacation1;8732023]
My dog was on a glucosamine/chondroitin supplement for several years, before her arthritis cropped up and for a while after. I stopped in part because of how the evidence has been going on the effect of glucosamine/chondroitin on humans - ie, hasn’t been shown to have an effect. Also, at that point we were moving on to stronger medications. If the dog is showing physical signs of arthritis, it’s time to move on to an NSAID, if possible. They can be given as-needed, rather than every day, if that works for your dog.[/QUOTE]

Do you have any citations for this? I’ve been religiously giving my dog glucosamine/chondroitin and at first I thought it was making a huge difference (she had FHO surgery shortly before I got her) but recently I started wondering if it was just the combo of diet/exercise/salmon oil.

I get it for cheap ($10 for a two month supply at Trader Joe’s) so it’s not killing me to keep her on it but it is feeling a little unnecessary.