Mia has an old tear that no one ever fixed. She is fine 99% of the time, but she's much younger than Teagan. After REALLY HARD playing and wrestling, sometimes she will carry that leg a little. She gets Ester C, salmon oil, vit E, glucosamine, chondroitin and MSM. I have been using something called Altraflex (I think; I need to check) for Widget b/c he has a subluxating patella (had it his whole life, but he's nine now) and he had extensive spinal surgery about 3-4 years ago. I see a difference in him w/these treats; he is a lot more energetic and he actually overdoes it sometimes b/c he feels so good. It's apparent that his back hurts him often b/c at times he walks slower than others and is less active, and stretches his back a lot.

It's hard to dose a dog that size, so I use the combo supplement, which normally I don't prefer.

Try adequan for Teagan. Can't go wrong w/that, IMO. It's true; nothing much to do for an untreated tear but fight the impending arthritis. If only you knew she'd had that problem before. Dr. Becker, a great holistic vet by me felt Mia's knees and said she'd torn her ACL at some point, so I had the advantage of finding out when she was only 2.

Thanks Jenni! Glad to hear about how Mia is handling it.

Adequan is one of the things I need to talk to my vet about today b/c I totally spaced on it Saturday.

Teagan stretches back a lot, but I always figured she was just a stretchy dog - I find the more work out, the stretchier I am, so I just sort of assigned it to the same thing.

I do give the dogs salmon oil too. I will add the vit. E.

I'll check out the treats too - thanks! I do have some Zuke's Hip Action cat treats that I give Teagan sometimes (I got them for my mom's arthritic cat but they upset her stomach; mostly I give them to my 17-ish year old cat (who also only has 3 legs so I worry about arthritic stress with him).

Buddy Bites by Majesty are good, too, if you want to combine supplements. They and the Altraflex have a much better concentration of ingredients than most products on the market, IMO.

Vit E is essential; processing the salmon oil zaps the dog's body of Vit E, so arthritis or not, they need that w/salmon oil.

Ask the vet about Adequan...or get it from a horse person. I've actually only used Adequan Equine IM- never the canine version. The equine is more concentrated and CHEAPER! See if you can get a horse person to order it for you.

The stretching thing only applies to Widge. He had his entire back opened up and 2 bad discs removed, plus the rest of them were laced together so if more rupture that they won't be able to paralyze him. I wouldn't worry about Teagan stretching; I'm sure it's a different thing. Widge arches his back very high, then stretches the opposite way...it's pretty clear his back hurts.
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Awww! I know he had the surgery awhile ago but give him a kiss for me anyways!

I'll check out all those treats. The cat ones aren't exactly of a size/amount that's going to be real good for Teagan

Yikes! Thanks re: the vitamin E! I will get that right away then.

I hope the vet calls me soon! Not that I'm impatient for her CBC results. Geez, it just occurred to me she could have something wrong there, if so, I will have a heart attack. I'm sure she's fine though.

I just used the reg. dog Altraflex and cut them in slices for Widge. They slice very cleanly and he LOVES them. I think they are for a 40lb dog, so I just sliced them in 1/5ths or 1/4s for him, but I give the GSDs a few at a time b/c I don't think they dose high enough per treat. JMO.

Widge likes kisses from ladies. He'll be pleased.

Well, Teags is only 53lbs, so she'd only go through a treat and a bit. She's wee now!

Excellent, I trust Widget's taste - I'm sure Teagan will like them, and I can give them to the others too. I found a place online that sells them but I'll see if I can find them in the city first - the dog pool has a bunch of that type of thing.

http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=792aa414-8928-4939-9f9c-cf10ecaae81c

This is where I got them, if I remember right. $29.99 for a 90 day supply, plus free shipping.

That's the link I found.

Probably not free shipping to Canada though

Thanks for the link to the AltraFlex... I have been looking for a decent flex supplement for my boy since he doesn't do too well with straight Glucosamine.

As for Widge... ouch!!! That looks horrible. However getting kisses from all the ladies makes up for quite a bit of pain, I would assume!

 Quote: Jennifer Mullen

That's the link I found.

Probably not free shipping to Canada though

Well they have to hire the dogsled teams, find the correct igloo to deliver to (they all look alike) etc. so I would expect it might cost a bit more.