I have been giving my 8.5 month old bullmastiff, Star, Nutradyl, which is a glucosamine supplement, since she was about 4 months old. The vet said to give her 2 pills a day - one in the morning and one in the evening.

The amounts listed in the pills reads as this:
combo of omega 3, chondroitin, keratin sulphate - 400 mg
glucosamine - 175 mg
methyl sulphonyl methane - 100 mg
manganese sulphate - 10mg
ascorbic acid - 18 mg

I'm sure every little bit helps, but Star is still stiff in the evenings (has trouble getting up from a lying down position- sometimes we even have to go lift her back end for her). She gets a 20-30 minute "romp" in the forest every morning, and a short walk or 15 minute play time (chasing the ball) in the yard in the evenings. Any more than this and she's almost too stiff to move.

She's a BIG dog. She weighs 100+ lbs already (don't know for sure as we haven't been to the vets in a few months). She has very large parents. (135 and 145lbs).

So my question is this - since she's getting 350 mg of glucosamine a day and she is still stiff, should I up the dosage? I see that Syn-flex has 1250 mg of glucosamine in it. I'm sure that Syn-flex is better, but since we live overseas and can't get it here, my husband doesn't want to spend the money and customs fees to have something shipped here when we can get something "similar" here.

The vet's assistant told me privately that she personally likes Fortiflex better, which is just chondroitin, but we had Star on that for a month when she was little and it worked great for awhile and then it seemed to stop working, and that's why the vet switched her over to the Nutradyl in the first place.

I'm due to go get another bottle here in the next day or two, so that's why I'm asking if 350 mg is enough, or if more would be better. (Or is it a case like in human vitamins where if you give too much it just gets pee-ed out and is then a waste of money?)

 Quote: Brenda Mitchell

I have been giving my 8.5 month old bullmastiff, Star, Nutradyl,

I'm sure every little bit helps, but Star is still stiff in the evenings (has trouble getting up from a lying down position- sometimes we even have to go lift her back end for her).

I am not that familiar with this so I will let someone else answer ....however.....

This dog is 8.5 MONTHS old? What is going on with the puppy that causes her to be stiff and need help getting up?

I give my g/s mix, grand flex every day with her raw and you can tell this makes a difference with her if she has a minor joint injury like all dogs get from time to time recovery is much quicker. leerburg sells this product.

My vet just recomended 1500mg of Glucosamine a day to my 10 y old gsd

Carol, she's had some stiffness ever since she was about 4 months old. We took her to the orthopedic vet here (there is only one in our town and 3 in another town 3 hours away and that's it for this entire country - we live in Estonia) and he refused to do x-rays until she was 8 or 9 months old. He felt her and looked at her and said she was fine, but then prescribed Rimadyl OVER THE PHONE to me (and THEN he asked which dog I had?) and talked down to me for doing research over the internet. (said it's just a bunch of emotions)

Needless to say, I don't like that man very much. I know he's the only orthopedic vet around but I don't trust him. Our regular vet gave her some metacam and it worked great but she said to use it for 2 weeks and then after that only in emergency and if Star is in lots of pain. She wanted to see if the Nutradyl helped without giving her the heavy duty stuff. It does help - or at least it did, but I'm noticing she's pretty stiff in the evenings, and wondered if I should be giving her more glucosamine than I am giving her. She's also grown a lot since the vet first put her on the Nutradyl.

She's not a working dog, she's a pet, and we don't intend on breeding her because she had mange as a puppy, so I'm not sure if doing x-rays would really do any good anyway (at least not in this country - the options are very limited). The breeder in the States showed me the family papers - there's no history of dysplasia anywhere, although she said it's very common in a bullmastiff to have growing pains because they are such a heavy dog. She starts her dogs on glucosamine as a puppy and has them on it for life. Star grew really really fast and is larger than most bullmastiffs because of her parents being so big, so up until now we've just chalked it up to that.

It really kind of makes me feel a bit helpless. And it's too bad because Star LOVES her daily romps in the forest. If I would let her stay out longer she would think she was in heaven.

David - 1500 mg is 9 times the amount of glucosamine than what is in the Nutradyl. Obviously a bit more wouldn't hurt Star. Thanks for the input!

I'm trying to post a photo of Star to photobucket, so I can link it to here, but it's been "loading" for an hour and there doesn't seem to be any progress. This isn't the first time, either. I've never been able to upload anything successfully. Does anyone else seem to have problems with photobucket?

Hi Brenda,

Sounds like it wouldn’t hurt if you could switch to another product that has higher amounts of similar ingredience in it. I use a joint supplement called “Synovi G3”, it was recommended by my vet for my dog, and he has mild hip dysphasia.

Synovi G3
Glucosamine HCI not less then 900mg
MSM not less then 800mg
Creatine Monohydrate not less then 500mg
Perna Canaliculus not less then 300mg
EPA not less then 18mg
DHA not less then 12mg
Vit C not less then 10

I also give him Ester C – 2000mg daily along with Syn-Flex and of course Salmon Oil & Vit E. This combination has worked very well with my dog, he has been on it now for over a year and I haven’t had to treat him with any pain pills. Buddy is able to run and play at will and doesn’t have seemed to have any trouble getting up or down. Although a dog with hip dysphasia does tend to get up a bit slower then normal dogs especially after they just wake up or have been resting for a while.

If you read the current thread “No Infection”, you see where other members have/are using a product called “Adequan” and have had great results. It’s covered on the last few pages of that thread.

Just wanted to update all of you who helped me with advice. We doubled Star's glucosamine pills and she is doing great! She no longer has problems getting up from a sitting position and is like a new puppy.

Thanks so much for your help! We are thrilled that it was something so simple as upping her dosage.

 Quote: Brenda Mitchell

Just wanted to update all of you who helped me with advice. We doubled Star's glucosamine pills and she is doing great! She no longer has problems getting up from a sitting position and is like a new puppy.

Thanks so much for your help! We are thrilled that it was something so simple as upping her dosage.

Also, the effects of glucosamine and its relatives do take some time to be fully realized.

Weight management, fish oil plus Vitamin E, and the glucosamine family are always my first line of defense with OA.

 Quote: Brenda Mitchell

...but then prescribed Rimadyl OVER THE PHONE to me (and THEN he asked which dog I had?) and talked down to me for doing research over the internet. (said it's just a bunch of emotions)

Yes, I remember that thread CLEARLY. It resulted in a lot of research for the best-value and highest-recommended liquid joing supplements (one of which is here on Leerburg).

He was the one who said something about short-term Rimadyl and then living with the pain and not treating the dog like a baby the way Americans do......