Glucosamine and side effects?

[Shamalamalam]

My springer has been diagnosed with arthritis and as he's still relatively young the vet doesn't want to start him on steroids/painkillers if we can help it just yet so they recommended glucosamine.

He's been on it a few weeks now, and oh my god, the wind!!!!!! It's awful. Our house has a permanent fug of dog fart about it

He's also constipated. Look away now if you're eating, but I've had to, well, help it out a couple of times

The vet said keep going, give the tablet with food (which I do anyway, the only way to get him to take it is to hide it in his dinner) and it'll pass.

Just wondered if anyone else had any experience of glucosamine and whether the side effects did eventually pass, and whether it was actually effective at helping him with the arthritis

Thanks!

[Gide]

Latest studies demonstrate the fact that glucosamine is ineffective.

Perhaps try green lipped mussel extract (human strength, Simply Supplements is good, order online, they take PayPal) as is salmon oil. Don't let the vet tell you to try cod liver oil, it's far too high in Vitamin A which stores in and can damage the liver. Fish body oil is fine.

Keeping the weight off and increasing the muscle around the joint is the best way to help and if he swims, take him as often as you can, just be sure to dry the affected joint afterwards and keep him off the floor. There are beds that are off the floor, Google Kuranda, it's orthopaedic.

What food is he on and how old is he?

[Shamalamalam]

Thanks!

He's 7, nearly 8

His weight is fine, he has Royal Canine mobility food from Amazon the vets, but it is expensive so any other recommendations would be gratefully received!

He swims a lot - we live near the beach so he goes in the sea most days.

Bed wise - he absolutely refuses to sleep on one, we've bought him so many over the years and just ignores them in favour of our bed/sofa/the floor - if we tell him to go to his bed he'll just kind of sit there with 1 leg in it or something.

Will have a look for the beds and the other supplements.

Thanks again!

[Madbengalmum]

Try Luposan pellets the 30% mussel green lipped are the ones. I put it on my dogs food and she loves it, buy it from zooplus, it is cheapest there. They do a powder also,but it is not as strong as the pellets.

[Shamalamalam]

Oh, and we have Metacam at the moment, which we give him if he seems painful.

Our vet wants to avoid too much medication at the moment if we can help it

[Shamalamalam]

Sorry, x-posted.

Will have a look for those, thanks!

[Wyldfyre]

With regards the food, Royal Canin is actually not particularly good quality - especially given the price tag.
Take a look at allaboutdogfood.co.uk.
Go for nothing less than a 3 out of 5. Look for one with a named meat source as one of the first three ingredients and avoid anything with maize or wheat as many dogs are intolerant.
Price is not an indication of quality - there are plenty of poor foods with a top price tag.
Some foods have a joint aid supplement in them. Maybe also try a supplement called Yumove, I know a lot of people who swear by it.

[LilCamper]

You move is a good joint supplement.

[Shamalamalam]

Thanks!

I'll have a look. The vet recommended the Royal Canine so we just went with it, I'll see what else I can find.

There does seem to be some improvement. We went to a friends yesterday and they have a small wood - we were helping do stuff so dog had the run of the place. He had a whale of a time and obviously trying to get him not to charge about is like herding cats. In the past, he'd need a dose of Metacam in the evening/next morning if we do anything like that but he's fine today

[BubsAndMoo]

Which supplement have you tried so far?

RC Mobility diet actually has green-lipped mussel in it already.

I'm also a fan of Yumove as someone else mentioned, would use the Advance formulation. It has a good combo of ingredients (incl green lipped mussel, hyaluronic acid, glucosamine, omegas etc), asome solid clinical proof that it works, and generally a lot of dogs think it's tasty. Also not too pricey compared to a lot of other veterinary joint supplements.

[Wyldfyre]

Vets recommend RC and Hills because they sell it in their surgeries

[Gide]

Royal Canin use BHA and BHT in their food, these are E numbers and proven carcinogenics. It is a low quality food, you can get much better, much cheaper.

[Baaaaaaaaaaaa]

My dog got to the age of 13 before he got arthritis. We started him on glucosomine and within days he was bouncing round again pain free. It was like a little miracle.