I'm looking to add some Glucosamine to my hound's diet. We had purchased some treats with Glucosamine in them a few months ago but Folsom didn't seem to like them much, they were tough and hard to chew. He's 3 and a half but broke his leg at the track, and recently has been having trouble on our hardwoods and slick floors and got a soft tissue injury to one of his front legs. Poor guy is doubly limping. Will Glucosamine supplements help with his limps? What's the most cost effective method of getting it into his diet because those treats we bought were EXPENSIVE! I've seen a big jug of powder at the pet store too, which is also expensive, but I"m not sure how long it lasts.

I don't know much about supplementing, I just want him to be comfortable, not limp so much. Thanks in advance for any advice you can give about joint/bone supplements.

Oh and I was wondering, can you bake dog biscuits with the powdered supplements? I'd like to make my own treats but I'm not sure if baking the powder would break it down in anyway...

I get my glucosamine from greyhoundgang.org (sorry, linky thingy not working for me at the moment). It's a powder (Get Up & Go) & I add it to their food. I don't trust too many products at the pet store, but the Gang's product is 100% glucosamine. As for baking it, you might ask Claudia at the Greyhound Gang. One would hope you could since there are many manufacturers selling it to us in treats & kibble, but you never know.

One other thing that might be helpful to add is fish body oil. I get mine from Puritans Pride (www.puritan.com - sorry about the linky again). It comes in 1000 mg capsules & I throw that in their bowls as well. It helps with inflammation anywhere in the body. And also good for the skin & coat.

I use Synovi G3 Chewable tablets. I get them at www.discountpetdrugs.com much cheaper than my vet. My mixed breed has been on it for years and she loves them.

Joint Oats


Http://www.crazyforcollars.com

I've started using Missing Link with Glucosamine to get a good round supplement for my senior with arthritis. I got it from dog.com. http://www.dog.com/item/missing-link-plus-with-glucosamine/
Its 1 lb for $18 and its certainly worth it for us! Its a 2 month supply for dogs in the 75 lb range.

I'm glad you asked this!!

Not to hijack......but, I've been thinking of adding it for my girl, too. She's only 3 and suffered a stress fracture on July 12th, ending her racing career. She still limps, especially after zoomies. I've read a lot about folks using glucosamine for older hounds......but, I was wondering if it would benefit her?? Or maybe I just need to restrict her exercise for awhile longer (although, any fracture should be healed by now!)??

Whatever you choose, remember it takes a while for it to help--if it's going to. It seemed to help George a lot--he had some sort of mysterious stiffness when he first retired. It did not help my last dog at all--he had a major orthopedic surgery, and they've finally done some long term studies, and apparently minor arthritis can be helped with glucosamine; serious conditions? Not so much.

I have arthritis, and asked my rheumatologist about taking something--and he laughed. Which was not very nice...

Anyway, it's worth a try! They ARE expensive. I get mine from vitacost.com and they're called ??? Drawing a blank here--but they're chewable tablets, and George seems to like them. You could just enter pet, joint in their search box, and I'm sure it would come up.

Thanks for the suggestions! I emailed Claudia at greyhound gang for more info on which supplements she recommends (I'm thinking just Glucosamine and Chondroitin, but there were a bunch to choose from). For a months supply of those two supplaments it works out to about $25 a month.

Black and Brindle: How long does the 10oz bag of Joint Oats last you? My pup is 75lbs so he'd need 2 scoops a day according to the information on that website.

The Missing Link works out to be about $9 a month.

The Synovi G3 Tablets start out with a high dose and then work on to a maintenance dose, so it would be $23 a month for the first 4 weeks then $11.50 a month after that, using the pricing from the website you gave me Jennifer. Do you trust discountpetdrugs.com? I overheard my vet telling another patient not to order flea and tick and heartworm meds from online sources because the less reputable ones package placebos and sell them as the real thing. She said you couldn't tell at all from the packaging. That makes me a little leary, but if you've seen noticeable results using products ordered from the website please let me know.

I'm still feeling very overwhelmed and unsure about what to give, how much to give... But thanks for the advice so far. Tell me about how you started supplementing your hounds :-)

i just pop a glucosamine pill from walgreens into my hound's mouth. i'm sure the greyhound gang vitamins are great but i'm sure the walgreens ones are fine too. i could be wrong, maybe the greyhound gang stuff has extra things in it? but if you're just looking for glucosamine, you can just get people glucosamine - it doesn't have to be for dogs, it's the same stuff. puritan's pride has great sales but when they don't have sales, i find drugstore.com or walgreens to be cheaper sometimes. i feed fish oil and glucosamine. they come in standard dosages for people and my dogs get one dose a day (one pill a day) of each.

ETA: yeah i'm also wary of ordering heartworm and flea/tick products online because of that rumor going around that there are counterfeits that don't work and could be dangerous, not sure if it's true but i'm paranoid so i don't. but as far as supplements go, i trust that big companies that make people supplements are fine, like puritan's pride, so i don't worry about ordering that stuff online - especially since i get the people version, i feel like with all the regulations, it's probably safe as it's for human consumption.

I have been ordering from them for 3-4 years now. They look the same, smell the same as what I got from my vet and are so much cheaper. My mixed breed has some early DJD in her elbow and was limping, she only limps when she has been laying for awhile on my bed and jumps off. She does have a limp if she is off the tablets for a few days.

Mutts are supposed to be the "healthy" dogs

ETA: My friend has an old arthritic mutt and she ordered some Synovi G3 from the discountpetdrugs.com and it really helped her dog a great deal.

My vet recommended Dasuquin when Emmet started limping--5 months of tablets for $90.00. You give them two tablets a day for the first month and then one tablet a day. We put a little peanut butter on it and call it peanut butter candy. Clearly there are less expensive alternatives out there--thanks for all the good suggestions.

When Flossie started limping from arthritis, I put her on Fresh Factors and Joint Health from Springtimeinc. She has been on them for about 4 years and hasn't limped since. When Kerri came to live with us, I put her on them also. and she seems to be doing fine.

Any food or supplements with the glucosomine, you would not be getting enough with each serving. ie missing link. I've been giving missing link from day one but never with glucosomine, it's a waste of money.

I do buy my glucosomine from claudia, greyhound gang. It's pure, reasonable and all proceeds go to the hounds. It could take up to 3 months to work and you may never SEE a difference, but she may feel somewhat better. I just keep giving it to them all!

You have had your pup checked out to rule out anything funky, right? Sorry if I missed it, I am dead tired and don't feel like looking!

Oh yeah, he went one vet about a week after we adopted him for his broken leg limping, and they manipulated his rear leg for a while and basically said he'd probably limp forever, gave us a weeks worth of pain medication and a bill for $200. When the limp on the front leg started we brought him to our new vet and she manipulated that leg, determined he hadn't broken any bones or anything, and gave him two weeks worth of pain medication. He's still limping pretty badly, we've just gotten really cold weather (in the 20s) and so when we go outside he'll hold up his rear leg high and hop along on 3 legs sometimes.

For my older senior dog I use the Joint Oats and DGP.

Dog Gone Pain

I'm not sure if they still do, but they used to send out samples with the information pack.

http://www.doggonepain.com/shopping/sample.asp

We carry it in the store for alot less than they have it online, but I haven't had time to get it on the site.

I get glucosomine and MSM from Greyhound Gang.
I have a friend who started her senior gal on DogGonePain and the difference in her dog is remarkable. She went from walking stiffly at her side to bounding around like a puppy.

We use Schiff glucosamine with MSM, which we get at Costco. Both our hounds have various ortho issues and are doing much better after two weeks of this. True, one of them is also getting acupuncture/chiropractic, but the other one isn't, and he has arthritis in all four paws! We've had one vet also say that she just goes straight to MSM and sees glucosamine as not so important maybe. And the acupuncturist recommends that whatever you get, it be human grade.

Good luck!

I'd see a different vet and get a firm diagnosis. And some x-rays of the "new" leg he's limping on.

If he's having trouble on your slippery floors, put some nonskid rugs down for him until you can get that resolved.

Dune wouldn't take pills and didn't like the treats we tried, either.

But he LOVED the glucosamine/chondroitin/MSM/herbal supplement called Joint Care 3 from Drs Foster & Smith. Smelled like bacon and apparently tasted like bacon or liver or something. We'd set them out every morning as treats.

It took a good month to see improvement, but then it made a HUGE difference with his arthritis and cauda equina pain. Gave him a few extra years of long walks, I think.

Good luck!

I really like Actiflex. It is marketed for horses but safe for dogs. My group gave me a jar to use with my foster boy and it has worked wonders. He still has a little limp but no longer has pain issues or recurrent stiffness.

FYI, My vet advised me to get glucosamine WITHOUT MSM.

A dog can take glucosamine for years with no ill effects, but MSM is metabolized by the liver and is NOT good for long term exposure.

I believe you are incorrect. MSM actually detoxifies the liver and is not toxic. A quick check turned up the following as to side effects:

"MSM is considered very safe. Toxicity is extremely rare. No toxic effects were shown in humans given up to one gram per MSM kilogram of body weight (70 Grams or more) per day for 30 days. MSM is generally non-allergenic." The link to this and much more info is http://falconblanco.com/health/msm/msm.html

Granted, this is about humans, but I've discussed this with three vets, and none of them said anything like what you did.

What dosage of glucosamine for what poundage?

Connie

My vet recommended it for Lola and said we could get it from Walgreens. Lola's been on it for months for a hip that was dropping while she walked. She's been on it for months and the hip has gotten so much better. I give it to both dogs and they seem to taste good b/c the dogs go nuts when they hear me take down a pill bottle. They eat them like their a treat.