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Glad to find you

Claire L

Well-known member
Hi everyone, I found this site by accident the other day and I registered immediately. It's great to have a place to find support and guidance . In 1994 I got my very first dog; an eight week old Blenheim Cavalier KC puppy. She was the smallest of the litter but she came up to me and butted me with her head and , that was it! I was hers. She is now 12 1/2 yrs old and I would sell my very soul for her. She has heart problems ( taking Vetmedin and Lasics ) . She also has very stiff joints so no more jumping in or out of the car. We tried her on a course of injections but we had to stop after the third one because she had severe diarrhoea . She had good mobility for a few weeks afterwards but alas! now she is quite stiff again. Still she goes to the beach every day to chase the "fishies" and is still in charge of our house. If anyone has any thoughts on how to improve her joint mobility I would really appreciate them. She is fed Burns Holistic food as well as toast, chicken (her favorite) and anything else she can get her paws on.

Hope to hear from you all soon.
Thanks and Hello from Poochpal and Rudee...
 
Hi and welcome,

Have you thought about trying her on some Glucosamine? Are you in UK or USA or somewhere else? If in UK I can give you the web address of the place I buy my Maxx's Glucosamine from :D

12 1/2 is an excellent age for a Cav with heart probs btw let's hope she has many more birthday's too :flwr:
 
Yes I would suggest Glucosamine. I don't have any older dogs at the moment but it works for me. Also what I use to give one of my older dogs who is no longer with me was Vit C recommended by my vet. She said she could not necessarily tell when she ran out of the glucosamine right away but could tell in her old dogs when she was out of Vit C...
 
Hi there, thanks you guys - I feel at home already. I live in Dublin and I've been reading up on Glaucosamine and Condroitin but I'm not sure if the capsules available in the local pharmacy are OK for a dog. Any advice please. I found that giving Rudee any new meds usually result in Diarrohea and I don't want to upset her little tummy with something that isn't actually right for her. Someone reccomended Metacalm but she got that when she was a puppy (Halloween Terror!) and it made her very dopey . How much Vitamin C would you reccomend and what strength?

Thanks
Poochpal & Rudee (y)
 
Hi you two!!

Welcome to the club - I just joined a week ago and it has been a valuable resource for all my queries and questions - you will love it!

I have a boy called Bailey who is only yr and a half so i don't have any experience with old dogs yet but it sounds like Rudee is being very well looked after!

Ps
I am in Delgany - where abouts in dub are you?

Maria & Bailey
 
I would check with your vet. My dog that I had on it was a larger dog....I think she was 40-50 lbs and had 250 mg a day but you need to start low and work up to see what can be tolerated. A side effect of too much Vit C would be diarrhea also. Check with the vet for sure. I know I have a basset right now on Azocran whick is like Vit C. I give her a tab every other day to prevent UTIs and it works and she tolerates it well. She is 50 lbs. The vet said it certainly wouldn't hurt her and if it helps then yay!. She had some horrible UTIs....several in a row with lots of antibiotics and once I put her on the Azocran we haven't had one since. Vit C is good for joint and connective tissue health.
 
Mary said:
I would check with your vet. My dog that I had on it was a larger dog....I think she was 40-50 lbs and had 250 mg a day but you need to start low and work up to see what can be tolerated. A side effect of too much Vit C would be diarrhea also. Check with the vet for sure. I know I have a basset right now on Azocran whick is like Vit C. I give her a tab every other day to prevent UTIs and it works and she tolerates it well. She is 50 lbs. The vet said it certainly wouldn't hurt her and if it helps then yay!. She had some horrible UTIs....several in a row with lots of antibiotics and once I put her on the Azocran we haven't had one since. Vit C is good for joint and connective tissue health.

I started Rudee on Seven Seas Joint Care yesterday. It's Glucosamine plus Chondroitin plus Fish Oil Omega 3. I awoke at about six thirty this morning fretting in case she had had a bout of diarrohea during the night but thankfully, all is well and she is in good form!
When I had her at the vets on Friday, he recomended Joint Care so I'll keep her on it and let you know how she does. If anyone else has used it, I would love to know if there was a marked improvement in the Cavs mobility.
:wggle: Cheers - Poochpal and Rudee
 
Poochpal,

I buy mine from http://www.healthydirect.co.uk/default.asp?&cookie_test=1 it's a British company but I'm pretty sure they'd ship to Ireland. I buy the Pet Care joint formula as it's been develped especially for pets with the correct dosages etc. I think it was Harry's Mom who gave me their address in the first place.

If you want to buy any and they won't ship to you then you can always have it sent to me and I will send it on over to Dublin for you :)
 
If your first option doesn't work, here is what helped one of my dogs. http://www.healthypets.com/codschta90co.html It is called Cosequin DS Chewable. It includes Glucosamine and Chondroitin. My basset hound was 11 years old and couldn't get up and down the stairs anymore and this helped her do that! She lived to be 14 1/2 years old.

With this medication, things don't happen overnight. It occurs gradually over 6 weeks. The bottle tells you how much to give the dog and how long the process takes before you get the dog to maintenance level.
 
Welcome Poochpal and Rudee, lovely to have you with us.

12 1/2 is wonderful, Rudee you are doing so well, and we hope you will have many birthdays yet.

Some suggestions for joint pain:
acupuncture - some vets are now qualified to do this, and it's being used very successfully.

Magnet therapy - this really helped Rupert - and me!- he has a collar he only wears at night, but I also have pads on the beds for them, from this company:

http://www.equimagnets.co.uk/

they are cheaper on E-bay {although it is the same company!}

http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZequimagnets

I bought a set for horses, jsut to get a larger number of the pads!


I also use Flexijoint tablets http://www.healthspan.co.uk/shop/product.aspx?id=FXJD

I have all three on these, it's a good idea to start them as young as possible as this protects them in the future.

This is a UK company stocking Cosequin..but it seems quite expensive :(

http://www.naturalpetcare.co.uk/pet...23_70&osCsid=3d1ab19619059765646f52dba56c21c7
 
We are all big fans of cavalier elders here! :)

:jump:

The more that reach senior status, the happier we all are. b*n*n*
 
:flwr: what can I say - I can't believe there are so many wonderful , helpful people out there!
Donna! I just ordered Joint Formula from healthy Direct. Thanks!!
And a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to everyone else for your advice -it's greatly appreciated. :flwr:

Poochpal and Rudee :luv: (y)
 
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