Having an impossible time finding an appropriate joint supplement...

[k9ma]

Hi everyone,

I'm having a hard time finding a joint supplement that meets a few criteria:

- Contains at least 900mg glucosamine HCL (not sulfate) per serving
- must have chondroitin
- must be in a soft chew form (may be able to do granules if it's a once a day administration)
- cannot contain yeast
- perna is a plus

I lost my GSD to DM this June at 13 years of age. The supplement is for my new Bullmastiff puppy. It is strongly recommended that they are on one during their growth period. Not a GSD, but I know there is a wealth of knowledge on this forum regarding this topic so I hope you all don't mind.

[k9ma]

*one more thing: I feed a grain free raw diet, so no grains please! (including rice bran)

And some pictures

[Emoore]

Annamet Endure.

[Jax08]

I"ve used springtime joint chewable tablets and Dasuquin with MSM. Both are good and about the same price. Buy the Dasuquin from Amazon, it's cheaper there.

[k9ma]

Thank you both for the quick responses.

I love springtime and Nutramax products. I was using cosequin multi chewable tablets. When I read the ingredient list online, it didn't mention yeast, but the bottle I have at home does list the yeast. He also really dislikes them, so I am now looking for a soft chew or - less ideally - granules/powder. He only gets one meal a day that allows for easy mixing of anything. (His other meals are RMBs, so I strongly prefer something treat like that he will take easily.)

At first glance I really like the Endure product. I will have to look into it some more. Do you have any experience with it? Do you know if it's once or twice a day?

[jocoyn]

I used to give acti-flex 4000 and am planning on starting up again www.coxvetlab.com

Going to call tomorrow to see if they have someone local (Actually they make the stuff about an hour from me)

My own vet (and breeder) recommended 1500mg glucosamine for a GSD puppy with no symptoms.

The only item in it I am unsure of is the superoxide dismutase

Acti-Flex 4000

I did the math and scaled down to a 5mL does or about 200 doses per quart and you can get it cheaper than on the manufactuer page.

EDIT-AHA ok it has glucosamine SULFATE - may be the issue - need to research that one.

[mysweetkaos]

Seems like everyone is already giving you good advice on your question.....so I just had to pop in to say your puppy is ADORABLE

We have a Mastiff/ GSD x as well as our GSD. Mastiffs are very surely becoming my 2nd favorite breed of dog, behind GSD obviously

[Jax08]

I use the acti flex senior for my horse and am happy with it.

Nancy - you use this for your dogs? The liquid? Do they eat it right up?

[Emoore]

Originally Posted by k9ma

At first glance I really like the Endure product. I will have to look into it some more. Do you have any experience with it? Do you know if it's once or twice a day?

It's what I give my dogs. It smells strongly of fish because of the Perna so they eat it right up. You give one scoop, once per day. It comes with the scoop which is about the size of a tablespoon. I have it on autoship through petfooddirect.

[jocoyn]

Originally Posted by Jax08

I use the acti flex senior for my horse and am happy with it.

Nancy - you use this for your dogs? The liquid? Do they eat it right up?

YEs I used the liquid - we moved and it was not at the feed store near me, but I can buy on the web. They sure did but my dogs pretty much eat anything but even the picky guy ate it.

I bought the horse product (the acti-flex 4000 liquid) the dog product is like buying light beer...they just cut the horse product with water and charge more. Why do that when I can use a 5mL syringe or a teaspoon?

I was happy with it--I was doing the math. I think at about $25 a quart it is cheaper than basic human pill supplements and the liquids are absorbed better. I am not finding why the sulfate form should be an issue. Dog's stomach is so acid the equilibirum will strip off the sulfate any anway - it is when they start adding other salts like glucosamine-sulfate-2KCl that you are paying for the salt to be part of the weight.--This product does not say that; I have seen others that do.