Val, let me look into the colostrum information. I know I've got some stuff saved on my computer. By all means, try it. It's not as if trying it will harm anything.

The boswellia is fine for about 400 mg a dose. It won't hurt if it isn't exact. I would use generic as well, but I get a decent price on the ones I use. The powder is pretty good too

Aidan, my toddler is the exception! She hates being strapped into a car seat (she hates lack of freedom period, even hates being restricted in the child seat of a shopping cart  ) so car rides tend to elicit screams and crying rather than peaceful slumber. Yeah, I'm just that lucky! Anyway, back on topic...

Thanks Megan!

Just catching up on this! Poor Dakota I'm glad that he's doing better though. My vet said to give Mya 1000mg of Glucosamine daily. She's been on it since she was 4yrs old and we haven't had anymore issues with her *knocking on wood*.

[quote="mbarnard0429"]What do you mean by resources?

A book or a specific web site, a way to learn more about the ingredients and what they are expected to accomplish. I don't come from a background of natural healing but I believe I have an open mind on the subject and would like to learn more about it. That's all.

As a related aside, at what age should glucosamine be started?

Jeff, I don't think there is any rule of thumb on that if the dog doesn't have an issue which would necessitate the incorporation of a joint supplement.  I think it's more of a personal decision when it comes to preventative maintenance.  I know some people like to start supplementing at as young as 1 year of age, others like to wait a few years, still others prefer to wait until their dog is a senior, and others prefer not to supplement until a need arises.  I personally used to wait until 5 years of age or until the dog needed it, whichever came sooner. But having experienced far too many joint issues over the years, I have nixed that previous practice and have already started my 9 month old Chi puppy on glucosamine/chondroitin/msm supplements (very low dose of course) as preventative maintenance.  It certainly is not going to do any harm to start supplementing early, so I'd rather do that personally than deal with more problems down the road.

Ok noted Valerie, thanks. I just see a lot of talk about glucosamine and wanted to make sure that I and others knew about supplementing time frames.

Thank you, I hope things shape up well for you and everyone in your family, upcoming baby and all

Thanks Jeff.  

I've been busy with house guests and haven't had a chance to update since our vet visit. First off he's gained a good amount of weight which we'll need to rectify. Last weigh in he was 50 lbs, on Monday he clocked in at 56 lbs. My bad, he's eating the same amount as he always has but is not as active. Anyway, I've cut back on his food by a little over 1/4 cup. See if we can't get him back down to 50 lbs.

Second, I knew there was something up with the excessive licking of his boy parts. Turns out he has a staph pustule on his penis, my poor boy. Because of the current stage and how long he's had it, the vet did not want to put him on antibiotics. Although she advised giving him Benadryl for the itching if it's particularly bothersome to him.

Third, his joints. Based on everything I described and her examination, she believes his joint issue is not hip dysplasia (huge relief there), but rather early onset arthritis. We discussed his condition at length, in great detail so I am pretty confident in her opinion.

Dakota has an enlarged stifle (knee) on his left leg which has her concerned about cruciate ligament injury. He's showing no muscular atrophy in either of his rear legs though which is good and indicates he's not favoring one leg over the other. However she did give me some things to watch for over the next few days to tell if he's just slightly favoring a leg but hiding it well and I'll need to get back to her with that info when I can.

Lastly, I had his blood drawn for them to run a complete panel on his bloodwork. Should be getting a call any day now with those results. They were supposed to be in yesterday, but I haven't received a call yet. Will update when I get those results in my hot little hands.

Forgot to say that for now the vet wants to have him started on joint supplements and then reevaluate how he's doing after some time on those. And for pain she advised buffered aspirin. Of course I'll be using more natural supplements for pain management instead.

I'm honestly surprised by some vets. We were just talking in class today about how aspirin, when used over an extended period of time causes a lot of stomach ulcers.

I was going to say Dasuquin MSM as well. It was recommended by my vet for my 2 year old lab who needed the luxating patella surgery. I think it has definitely helped her, she is 55 lbs so she gets the medium dog size. At first she got 2 per day, now she gets 1.

I sure hope Dakota improves, prayers from my pack to yours!

Jennet&Embry wrote:

I'm honestly surprised by some vets. We were just talking in class today about how aspirin, when used over an extended period of time causes a lot of stomach ulcers.

That's exactly why I want to use more natural remedies rather than aspirin. Bear in mind that this is not my preferred holistic vet but a typical traditional vet...the kind that recommends Science Diet and all, she swears by SD actually.  


Anyway, I just received my order of vitamins today. I was planning to pick up the Glucosamine and Chondroitin pills locally, went to the store this past weekend and they didn't have them in the higher dosage I want so I may need to do some shopping around both locally and online. In the meantime he'll still get the lower dosages that I have on hand (was using for maintenance).

So he's been on the following daily and will continue to take until I can get a higher dosage of Glucosamine/Chondroitin/MSM.
375 mg Glucosamine
300 mg Chondroitin
700 mg MSM (I have a higher dosage of MSM already on hand but am going to start it once he finishes the current bottle already open)
75 mg Yucca schidigera


Now the stuff that we're going to start adding in that came today I plan to give as follows:
500 mg Vitamin C (3x/week; MWF)
1000 mg Omega 3 Fish Oil (3x/week; MWF)
400 mg Boswellia (2x/week; TSa)
480 mg Colostrum (2x/week; RSu)
100 mg Vitamin E (3x/week; MWF)
300 mg Garlic (3x/week; MWF)
50 mg Hawthorne berry (3x/week; MWF)
10 mg Cayenne (3x/week; MWF)
4 mg Coenzyme Q10 (3x/week; MWF)
20 mg Hyaluronic acid (2x/week; TR)


I am definitely going to have to make a chart to keep all this stuff straight but hopefully I'll have something positive to report after incorporating this new regimen and giving it time to do what it's supposed to do. Dakota is pretty reluctant to run and when he does he stops pretty quickly thereafter which gives me the impression that he's not comfortable. We'll see how things progress and hopefully I can get him on a higher dose of Gluco/Chond soon. I will update again whether things get better, stay the same, or get worse. And if I need to make adjustments to how much or how often he gets certain supplements I will update on that too. For now, fingers are crossed that he starts feeling better soon.

Oh and I forgot to add that I got the complete bloodwork results last week. Everything looks perfectly normal and from that picture he looks really healthy. Couple of things stood out though, his globulin and glucose. His glucose was rather on the low side but that can fluctuate easily so I'm not at all concerned. His globulin was a bit on the high side but that can easily be explained by the staph pustule as well as the arthritis so again, I'm not concerned about that either. CBC was totally normal too.

Val,
you are one hell of a fur and human mom! that is quite the list of things to take, i hope they really help him.

LOL I think I am going to pick up a 7 day pill box tomorrow so that I can fill all his supplements for each day once a week and make it easier on myself when it comes to prepping his dinner each night! Hubby thinks I'm nuts for doing all this...Dakota's my first "baby" though and he's totally worth all that and more.  

Holy cow! Two days on the extra supplements and I swear my old dog is back! I kid you not! Took everyone outside earlier and Dakota was actually running! And not just running, but full on, hard zoomie type run that lasted for a long time. Not the measly slow run that he has been doing and stopping almost as soon as he starts. He hasn't really run like his old self in so many months I couldn't tell you how long it's been. He ran and ran and was so happy doing it and even played in his sandbox. What a HUGE difference...and after only TWO days on his new supplement regimen. It's like the pain and arthritis free Dakota is back! I am so happy and still in complete shock at what I witnessed today! Here's hoping this continues. BTW, nothing else has changed besides adding the new supplements. I am just so ecstatic that I had to share.  

how come we don't have a party smiley or a dancing banana smiley lol
so glad he's doing better *insert dancing banana or party smiley here*

Here you go:

(party hats are overrated )


annnd the dancing banana:



Glad to hear that Dakota is back on his feet, time for a celebration!

Hey Val! I'm curious how Dakota has been doing on your supplement regime?? I was also curious if you have kept the same dosage or how you have adjusted it?? Sheba has been showing a lot of discomfort lately, so I'm trying to be proactive   .

Kelsey, I have made a few adjustments and plan to make more in the coming months.

Huskyluv wrote:

So he's been on the following daily and will continue to take until I can get a higher dosage of Glucosamine/Chondroitin/MSM.
375 mg Glucosamine
300 mg Chondroitin
700 mg MSM (I have a higher dosage of MSM already on hand but am going to start it once he finishes the current bottle already open)
75 mg Yucca schidigera


Now the stuff that we're going to start adding in that came today I plan to give as follows:
500 mg Vitamin C (3x/week; MWF)
1000 mg Omega 3 Fish Oil (3x/week; MWF)
400 mg Boswellia (2x/week; TSa)
480 mg Colostrum (2x/week; RSu)
100 mg Vitamin E (3x/week; MWF)
300 mg Garlic (3x/week; MWF)
50 mg Hawthorne berry (3x/week; MWF)
10 mg Cayenne (3x/week; MWF)
4 mg Coenzyme Q10 (3x/week; MWF)
20 mg Hyaluronic acid (2x/week; TR)

So the above quoted text is what I started him on last July. Since then I have increased the dosage of Glucosamine, Chondroitin, MSM, and increased the frequency of Boswellia.

For those changed items, he now gets:
1500 mg Glucosamine daily
1200 mg Chondroitin daily
1000 mg MSM daily
400 mg Boswellia daily

He is doing better on the increased amounts and is really active and playful. However he does still have occasional bad days where he is slower to get up and days when he'll limp on his front leg for several hours before his movement returns to normal. I am thinking of picking up some Traumeel for the bad days when his limping is particularly bothersome.

I have plans to cut back on some stuff in the coming months, but I want to talk to a new vet first. In July I plan on trying out a new holistic vet so we'll get his bloodwork redone, check out his legs/joints, and talk about supplements.

Just a quick update, Dakota's doing absolutely stellar. He runs, jumps, plays, climbs up and down stairs like a puppy. You'd never believe this dog had arthritis. His annual check up went fabulous. The vet was amazed at what he saw, the comfort and mobility and lack of pain in him. His blood work came back perfect and his knees were both also perfect, neither enlarged like last year. His muscles look great and the vet even commented on how great his teeth look (thanks to PlaqueOff!). The vet told me to just keep doing what I am doing with the supplements because it is definitely working. So that's what I intend to do. Only change I've made to my supplement schedule is backing off on the Boswellia from daily back down to twice a week and changing my Yucca schidigera dosage.

So my current supplement schedule is as follows:
1500 mg Glucosamine daily
1200 mg Chondroitin daily
1000 mg MSM daily
50 mg Yucca schidigera daily
500 mg Vitamin C (3x/week; MWF)
1000 mg Omega 3 Fish Oil (3x/week; MWF)
400 mg Boswellia (2x/week; TSa)
480 mg Colostrum (2x/week; RSu)
100 mg Vitamin E (3x/week; MWF)
300 mg Garlic (3x/week; MWF)
50 mg Hawthorne berry (3x/week; MWF)
10 mg Cayenne (3x/week; MWF)
4 mg Coenzyme Q10 (3x/week; MWF)
20 mg Hyaluronic acid (2x/week; TR)

Val,

I commend you for your extensive research and more importantly your love for Dakota. You do a great service for this forum, helping people. You give specific information, which makes it easier for those of us that are new, to follow. I know your time is very limited, I have read some of your previous threads, so I do appreciate you coming on and giving out what you know. I have earmarked several of you feeding and natural remedy threads so I can reread in the future and/or if a problem arises with my girl. I have such limited resources for anything dog related, let alone husky related, and absolutely nothing in respect of natural remedies/feeding raw, etc. Again thank you, I'm so glad that Dakota is doing way better.
Take care Val,
Renee

Thanks, Renee. I do try to be detailed and keep things up to date as I know that threads get read and referenced long after they have been posted. I know because I have had people contact me via private messages asking for advice based on things I have posted years ago and had completely forgotten about. And the reviews from others that I value the most are those that go into detail so I try to give out the info that I would be looking for if I was on the opposite side trying to find help. I am glad to be of help to those who find themselves in the position I was once in myself. Thank you for your kind words.   

How fantastic, Val!

I'm telling you, the natural route has done wonders for us as well. I'm glad to see that Dakota is doing so well. I don't know how Delilah would be had I not came up with a concoction similar to yours