Late to the party, but I would like to chime in with my experience with Fama and her medical issues concerning her current supplements.
When I picked Fama up from the Army, she was suffering from several issues including; LS in her lower spine, painful movement of her hips, general inflammation of the skin and ears, poor coat condition and general mild lethargy. She was taking a joint supplement(glucosamine / chondroitin, MSM), fish oil capsules, dasuquin, gabapentin, rimadyl, and prilosec. She was also eating Hills SD/ZD, a hypoallergenic food.
She was retired from service due to her LS problems which resulted in her having debilitating lameness in her rear after doing detection with high hides and bitework. In reading her vet record, she had also suffered from several ear infections, one which resulted in a perforated ear drum, a staff infection on her chest from scratching herself raw, continual skin and coat issues and required frequent diphenhydramine to relieve her itchiness so she could rest. The vet suspected food and environmental allergies along with the degeneration of her spine and hips.
I was expecting to have to deal with her many issues on a veterinary level and was prepared to get specialists involved in her care and treatment. There were times she could hardly walk out of the kennels at Bragg, so I feared the worst and decided I was going to do everything possible to alleviate her pain and make her retirement as comfortable as possible. She was doing generally well when I picked her up, but seemed to have aged 5 years in the year and a half we were apart. She just wasn't moving like herself. Not as bad as I had expected, but she was stiff.
The first day she was home, I switched her to Blue Wilderness and started her on low doses of 4 supplements from Carmspack. I also took her off all her meds except gabapentin.
http://www.carmspack.com/feed-sentials/
Feed-Sentials, Sunday-Sundae, Sh-Emp Oil and Power of 3-EA’s.
Over the course of a week, I slowly upped the amounts of the supplements to maintenance levels, watching her poop as we went to be sure there were no digestive issues. I was expecting some problems. She was certainly under stress. She just moved from the Kennels at Bragg into a house (an environment in which she never lived), with 24/7 access to 2 other dogs (something she had never experienced before), had all the rules of the house and wife to learn and had to adapt to the new rules of not getting to go everywhere with daddy.
She looked and acted better daily. Her movement improved, enough that I began walking her for 2 miles at a time twice a day. After we moved out of our house and into a friend's place before leaving for Oklahoma, we kept up the exercise and added swimming every day. The itching had pretty much stopped. Her coat looked great. I was seeing no signs of painfulness or tenderness in the morning after a long day of walks / detection / swimming / romping with the other dogs.
Then we moved to a hotel in Oklahoma while house hunting. Another new environment after 18 hours of travel. Another climate. Another living situation. At this time (2 weeks in) I added Carmspack Phyt’n Chance, a phytonutrient compound designed to work with the Power of 3-EA’s, and another supplement still in development which I can't disclose at this time. I worked her steadily through our house hunting, concentrating on detection as it wears her out mentally and physically. She never missed a beat, and continued to show steady improvement in general appearance and movement. I also stopped the gabapentin at this time to see if she still needed it.
We finally found a house and moved in almost 2 weeks later. There is a fenced in back yard for the dogs, and it's a nice area for walks with a nearby park where we can do off leash stuff. Our activity level increased substantially. Aside from having a dog friendly place where we could just let them play as hard as they wanted, I had a bunch of time off of work that I could dedicate to working with the dogs. We were always going, going, going. She went everywhere with me, and I quickly discarded the ramp I had bought her to get up into my Expedition. She would jump right over it, never touching the ramp on the way into the truck. I did take out the rear seat so the jump up and down through the side door was much lower. We ran every morning, for up to 4 miles, and did several detection venues through the day. It was like someone had turned back the clock on Fama and she was a younger dog. I could hardly believe that this dog, who I planned on nursing through retirement with frequent cold laser treatments, acupuncture, meds and physical therapy, was acting like there was never anything wrong with her to begin with.
Fast forward to today: 3 months on the supplements.
She looks and acts better than when I first pulled her out of the kennels in April of 2011. She moves and acts like a pup when she's playing with Lucian and Pud. She always the one instigating play with them. We walk, run, train, do Nosework and play 2 ball every day. Her coat is amazing. Her ears are clear. Her belly is no longer pink all the time, but healthy white. Her eyes are alive with focus and excitement. She has never once shown any sign of discomfort. I push her hard several times a week, doing long detection problems followed up by 3-4 mile runs, and she never flags, never shows one ounce of desire to take it easy. I groom daily and she's down to 1-2 rake fulls of hir instead of 10-20. She doesn't smell. Her breath is great. She poops like clockwork and it is perfect. All this from a dog that couldn't walk out of the kennels without pain just a few months prior.
I really can't say enough about the change in her appearance and overall health. No meds whatsoever. It is seriously like she is 3 instead of being 7 and through a lifetime of daily abuse. I would take her down range and work her in a heartbeat. She looks that good.
Pud, my 10yo pit x lab, is now on all the supplements as well (2 weeks) and is showing steady improvement in general health and appearance. I was wondering if it was mostly the change in food with Fama, but Pud has had no diet change other than the addition of the Carmspack supplements, and he is definitely showing a change for the better in activity level, coat and skin condition, smell and general appearance.
Thanks to Carmen Duggan of Carmspack for the guidance, support and opportunity to make my dog's lives so much better.
I will list the ingredients of the supplements not found on the Carmspack web page when I get my next shipment. I transfer some of them to different containers for daily use and no longer have the labels handy for reference.
Re: stiffness in older dogs
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