Anyone have success with Glucosamine supplement. My lab is 7 and starting to get a bit stiff so thinking about trying it and would love to hear some success stories!
I do give it to my dog, but there is pretty much no evidence it works. I give it because it might and it comes in a joint supplement that I use containing krill oil (this is one of the problems, people can claim X or Y product made a big difference without being able to say which component might have made the difference). There is a good article here: http://skeptvet.com/Blog/2011/03/is...-evidence-based-medicine-or-wishful-thinking/ I don't have high hopes for any joint supplement to be honest, but the best hope lies in Omega 3. I do feed my dog (all under my vet's supervision) Glucosamine, Chrondroitin, Krill and Salmon oil. I makes sure the total is below the limit (there is an upper safe limit for dogs). I do this because my (young) dog has had cruciate repairs and will likely suffer arthritis in the future, and I believe these things to be safe to feed if perhaps useless. Although I'm not at all convinced, I feel it's a bit like using expensive face cream - you'd kick yourself in later years if you find out it would have made a difference.
Hi there! I can on,y say that I gave glucosamine to my previous dog, a Border Collie, when he got elderly and arthritic, and I found that it helped immensely. I think scientific studies on this are not clear, but for me, I saw it work really well for my pooch. Edited to add (after reading Julie's post) that the supplement I used didn't have any other ingredients. So it would seem to me that the glucosamine was the thing that worked. But it's probably like any other supplement - it might work better on some dogs/people than others.
When Snowie appeared to be stiff, my vet said it was probably because he didn't want to move because of pain, not because he was actually stiff. We subsequently discovered he had a bulging disc. Not wanting to worry you, but you might want your vet to assess your Lab to rule out anything that might be causing pain.
My young dog was diagnosed with arthritis in his left elbow at aged 8 months, due to fractured elbow, he has been on Synoquin EFA Large Breed capsules since then and he has no sign of any pain and he is 10 years old now.
Yes, we gave Jet Glucosamine/Chondroitin/MSM 1300, one twice a day, and we were sure we could tell the difference in her movement when we forgot one. Our Vet said the stuff we could get for people was fine and it was a lot less expensive than the dog stuff, which just had some beef flavour added.
