My dog is not that old- only 4 1/2, but she gets very lame after even light exercise. The vet was not able to detect anything wrong with her hips or rear legs by palpating her while under anesthesia (while getting porcupine quills pulled). I guess the next step is to get her x-rayed, but in the meantime I was considering Glucosamine supplements.
Have any of you seen positive results from the use of Glucosamine supplements?
Glucosamine supplements can work very well for some dogs and not at all for some dogs. Most dogs do seem to gain some benefit from glucosamine and it does not have any known negative side effects (so the worst possible outcome is that it simply doesn’t work). The other caveat for glucosamine supplements is that they are not regulated by the FDA. This means that the company is not legally obliged to list the ingredients or guarantee that the ingredients on the label are what’s actually in the product. For the consumer, this means you have to beware of deals that seem super-fantastic because the price of that product might be so much lower than another product because there is less glucosamine in it. But for the most part I would guess that most companies are pretty good about putting what they say the do into their products.
My personal experience…I’m a huge fan. My older girl has arthritis and a few weeks ago she took off into the woods after some woodland creature and came back non-weight bearing on a front leg. At that time I decided to go ahead and start her on glucosamine (I get Dasaquin from my vet…dasaquin and cosequin have done clinical trials that prove efficacy even though they are not required by the FDA). The change in personality is amazing. She spends more time out and about with us and less time hiding out in her crate and she initiates play time by shoving her toys at us much more than she did before starting on the glucosamine. From what I can tell by her change in behavior, she has been in chronic pain for about a year but it was so subtle that I hadn’t noticed any change in behavior.
A co-worker of mine has a dog with severe joint damage from a traumatic injury as a puppy. She KNOWS when he isn’t getting his glucosamine because he limps horribly when he doesn’t but hardly limps at all when he does get it. When our vet switched from cosequin to the dasaquin (which has MSM and other components that improve the body’s ability to absorb glucosamine) she noticed an even bigger difference. She went from having to give two pills a day (on bad days) frequently to hardly ever having to give more than one pill a day.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
I work for a vet and we haven’t seen any resuts from Glucosamine the dr. says the body absorbs it before it gets to where it needs to help
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yes, my last dog had glucosamine for several years and it seemed to help. my vet suggested it.
+ she also told me what dosage to use of human supply glucosamine.also suggested using fish oil capsules not cod liver oil capsules because of the high amount of a viamin (A i think) in cod liver oil. chondroitin also good. any one know about msm supplement?
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Some dog foods for senior dogs are supplemented with glucosamine.
I use glucosamine tablets and it helps.
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My greyhounds have been on them for years just as a preventative – they’re about 70 pounds and get 500 mg glucosamine chondroitin with MSM daily. When they have a problem – the vet’s had them on higher doses for up to 6 weeks.
According to my vets and from what I’ve seen over the years, they definitely work.
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I have used them on myself and on dogs. The dogs are older and have joint issues, but I have seen improvement. It takes about 3 months before you begin to notice any improvement (based on my own experience). You can buy the kinds for dogs specific in petsmart or online. Good luck…
I do not think they will do any harm anyway……………..
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my own experience
I have always supplemented my larger dogs after seven years of age with Glucosamine chondroiten tablets. It seems to help a fair bit with the ones that have hip dysplasia. I know a couple lab owners who have sucess with it aswell.
Try talking to a holistic vet. There are alot of supplements are diet and exercises that can help hip and joint issues. They often have soloutions a regular vet doesnt even know about. I have seen GREAT results from accupuncture treatments in dogs. They can be costly though
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Owned a collie with hip issues
Glucosamine in feed, not so much, though there are injectable joint supplements (Pentosan sulfate, trade name cartrophen) which work amazingly well for arthritic dogs.
If you want to try some sort of joint supplement, the greyhound vets I’ve worked with all recomend fish oil capsules (1000mg, in the vitamin section of the supermarket). They’re cheaper than canine glucosamine supplements, and do seem to work.
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vet student.
I have had excellent results for my highly active Corgi and my 14 year old cat. The Corgi has some mild leg and hip issues and it seems to have helped because she hasn’t had the problem since the Vet recommended Glucosamine and she can still hike for hours.
The cat has arthritis. She has been on Glucosamine for several years and she can still outrun the dogs and jump from the top of the microwave across the kitchen to the top of the refrigerator. It has made her a young cat again.
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I used a glucosamine supplement on a pup that
had
climbed out of her pen and fell and compacted the bones at what you may think of as the wrist.The vet wrapped and splinted it and said it was most likely going to need to be operated on since it
was making her leg turn out.
Well I
immediately started her on the
supplement and the vet was
amazed,it healed
perfectly with no turning out .
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breeder
Yes, it’s great if they have been injured, but also helpful to prevent injuries.
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Having suffered a serious back injury myself, and having older, arthritic dogs, I have found that glucosamine alone does little. It’s great in synergistic combination with other products, however. The real magic combination is a supplement that contains the following:
Glucosamine, Chondroitin, MSM (Methylsulfanomide) and HLA (Hyaluronic acid). If you can also find one with Bromelaine (yucca) it’s even better. But this truly does help. NaturVet makes one called ArthriSoothe Gold hip and joint formula with all of the above in it. I’ve found it in tablets for dogs, or powder for horses. Either way, it works. For the humaoid, I use Arthro-7.
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ArthriSoothe Gold is distributed by Garmon Corporation
I have given Glucosamine, MSM, and Chondroitin supplements for years. One of my dogs has dysplasia, and until she was 5 years old or so, this was her only treatment. She now takes Rimadyl during the hunting season to keep her moving.
My sister gives her dog the Dasequin brand (on her vet’s advice) and we have noticed a dramatic difference in the dog. He’s no longer grumpy with their younger dog, and has reverted back to his old, happy personality. I purchase mine in huge bottles at Sam’s Club or CostCo, and have had no issues with it). It certainly won’t hurt your dog to give it a try for a few months.
References :
Glucosamine supplements can work very well for some dogs and not at all for some dogs. Most dogs do seem to gain some benefit from glucosamine and it does not have any known negative side effects (so the worst possible outcome is that it simply doesn’t work). The other caveat for glucosamine supplements is that they are not regulated by the FDA. This means that the company is not legally obliged to list the ingredients or guarantee that the ingredients on the label are what’s actually in the product. For the consumer, this means you have to beware of deals that seem super-fantastic because the price of that product might be so much lower than another product because there is less glucosamine in it. But for the most part I would guess that most companies are pretty good about putting what they say the do into their products.
My personal experience…I’m a huge fan. My older girl has arthritis and a few weeks ago she took off into the woods after some woodland creature and came back non-weight bearing on a front leg. At that time I decided to go ahead and start her on glucosamine (I get Dasaquin from my vet…dasaquin and cosequin have done clinical trials that prove efficacy even though they are not required by the FDA). The change in personality is amazing. She spends more time out and about with us and less time hiding out in her crate and she initiates play time by shoving her toys at us much more than she did before starting on the glucosamine. From what I can tell by her change in behavior, she has been in chronic pain for about a year but it was so subtle that I hadn’t noticed any change in behavior.
A co-worker of mine has a dog with severe joint damage from a traumatic injury as a puppy. She KNOWS when he isn’t getting his glucosamine because he limps horribly when he doesn’t but hardly limps at all when he does get it. When our vet switched from cosequin to the dasaquin (which has MSM and other components that improve the body’s ability to absorb glucosamine) she noticed an even bigger difference. She went from having to give two pills a day (on bad days) frequently to hardly ever having to give more than one pill a day.
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My dog was diagnosed with low grade luxating patellas when she was 8 months old. Her vet put her on a glucosamine supplement right away.
She is turning 2 this month, and her luxating patellas have not progressed to a worse state at all. I don’t know if its the glucosamine supplement that has kept her knees from progressively getting worse or not, but I still give it to her every day anyways.
Its a supplement, so it won’t hurt your dog to put him on it. I would, and I now give it to my larger dog as a preventative, which apparently many large breed owners do from puppyhood with their dogs.
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You need to get a supplement that has Glucosamine/Chondrotin and MSM in it for it to be beneficial.
I give my dogs Arthroplex by Thorne and it works amazingly well.
Its also bacon flavored powder so they lap it up.
Great supplements are Dasaquan (sp),SynoviG3,Promotion and ArthiSoothe.
I have seen the supplements work wonders in arthritic pets so I now supplement my own diet with these nutrients
Also omega fatty acids are great for inflammation and discomfort.
3vcaps or omega plus by thorne are excellent for dogs
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certified veterinary technician