I was wondering if anyone has a good dry food they would recommend. Milo has elbow dispasia and hip diplasia. He is two weeks in after having both elbows operated on. I am feeding him on Arden Grange large puppy food. But I was wondering if there is a better food that would help with his joints.
It would be a good idea to discuss with your vet/surgeon and get their views as Milo's needs may not be the same as Juno's. My experience though is that my vet in France recommended Hill's Prescription Diet J/D Calorie Reduced for Juno following her surgery (it does need veterinary recommendation). My Orthopaedic Surgeon was happy to agree with the recommendation and was even happier to discover that there was a calorie reduced version as the standard is quite high in calories and as we know Labs put on weight easily. I've trawled the internet for alternatives containing glucosamine and chondroitin but there just isn't much else around. I also give Juno a joint supplement, as suggested by my surgeon, and I've recently started giving her salmon oil on her dinner. Hope the info helps
Thank you . I love this site its is helpful. I need to buy another bag of food soon so I thought I would ask. Im going back on Monday to have his stitches out. So I will add that to my many questions . I feel so neurotic. I give my other dog Tilly yumove tablets.Where can you get salmon oil? Thank you
I personally don't think there is a great advantage in buying food with supplements in it - the amount contained in the food is often really tiny, much less than is generally recommended for dog with joint problems. The only addition that is supported by much evidence that it works, is omega 3 - salmon oil contains stacks, and there are other forms - krill oil, green lipped mussel oil etc. that are also marketed as being 'better' forms of omega 3, but I haven't seen any evidence on one form of omega 3 being better than others. I hedge my bets - I feed a supplement (synoquin efa) with glucosamine and chondroitin (even though there is no compelling evidence they help - but it would be so annoying to find new evidence in future years that they do help ) and krill oil, and top up omega 3 (staying below the recommended maximum amount) with salmon oil. I buy my salmon oil from fish4dogs and CSJ.
Arden Grange is a fairly good food, certainly not one of the cheapies. It may be worth discussing with your vet whether Milo needs the puppy version or whether an adult version would be better for him, my thinking being that with his joint problems a slow and steady growth rate will be better than the quicker rate that the puppy foods promote. Whatever food you finally decide on please try to keep Milo on the slim side, just a few extra pounds can put a lot of pressure on his joints. Unfortunately I used to have a Weimaraner with severe hip dysplasia so been there and have the t-shirt.
A good quality large breed puppy food promotes slow steady growth and contains relevant trace chemicals and additives to look after large breed growing joints appropriately. This is quite an important point, I feel - it is not the case that a properly formulated large breed puppy food promotes rapid growth, or is something to switch away from early.
I've gone from Hills to Eden food recently and finding it excellent. Doesn't swell up like kibble that has cereal etc in it. You can look on the all about dogs web page, it gives you great independent info on dog food. I'm no expert but it was a real eye opener when I started looking into the ingredients. All the Hills dried dog food I've used, even the i.d. recovery food that our vet practice say is just chicken and rice, has its first listed ingredient as maize. Strange when dogs are carnivores.
@sharon 6 I'm using the yumove Young and Active as that is what the company recommended because of her age. I also get my salmon oil from them working on the basis that if I was using their joint supplement I might as well trust their salmon oil as well. It's probably a good idea to make a list of all your questions foe the vet on Monday. It's so easy to forget things you want to ask. Oh and don't think you're alone and neurotic - been there and got the T-shirt worrying about my girl
I will keep him slender. Anyway I think I could feed him 3 times the amount of food he has and he would still want more! I didnt know it was so common. Sorry to here about you have had this problem too. I wish people breeding would take more responsibility
@JulieT. I can give some 'evidence' re Synoquin efa. Only one in this trial Drift broke his elbow when he was 16 weeks, screwed (large!) and 2 pins, he is now nearly ten years old. About 3 months ago he started limping and of course I feared the worst. He was x-rayed and the elbow was deemed to have no evidence of arthritis, even though at 10 months old the referral hospital said he did have the beginnings of arthritis and he would have arthritis in the future. He has been on Synoquin efa since he was 18 weeks old. The limping was due to arthritis in his paw, he had five x 3 minutes of laser treatment and is fine, no limping. In my opinion Synoquin efa is worth using.
I'm not saying synoquin doesn't work, @Stacia, but in feeding it you are giving both glucosamine and chrondrotin, and krill oil - you don't know which is effective (or whether Drift would have been exactly the same without it). I agree it's worth giving, I give it to Charlie.
I know you were not saying that Synoquin doesn't work but that you had no evidence that it did. I was showing 'evidence' that in my case it appeared to work However, unless we had two dogs with the same injury and one had Synquin and one didn't etc but even then there would not be proof, the one dog may have a different genetic make up!
Unfortunately even responsible breeders who have all the recommended tests and x-rays plus the additional available tests can produce a puppy with ED or HD. It's just the luck of the genetic gene pool Juno's parents have excellent hip scores and 0/0 elbow scores but she has ED.
There are some studies that show dogs on Synoquin efa do better than dogs without it, so there is evidence. Just not WHY. So you could be just as well off feeding krill oil (or salmon oil), which I suspect is the case since there are plenty of studies that show no improvement for glucosamine and chrondrotin, and studies that show positive results for omega 3 in general.
I believe we should not be harvesting krill oil! Vaguely heard it is not good for the environment to take it. Probably up the creek as to why we shouldn't harvest it, I only ever listen with one ear!
Yes, I know, very concerned when I heard the programme! If you remember I didn't know it was in Synoquin until you put me right, so I might have been still living in a fool's paradise
Yes, I did know this. If you remember I didn't know Synoquin contained krill oil until you told me. I might still have been living in a fool's paradise I like to think there is only a wee amount! No excuse though
Oh yes, I remember now. Well, you are probably not contributing very much to the depletion of Antarctic krill...I understand reducing sea ice might be the main problem.
