Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

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Follow-Up Friday – November 20, 2015

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Welcome to this week’s edition of Follow-Up Friday, the post where I highlight reader’s comments, answer questions and generally just wrap up my week.

You Make Me Smile – November 15 2015

Chocolate Labrador

Snoozy woozy.

Meagan and Merlin said, “My fave pic of Merlin is of him sleeping with his back end on the couch and his front end on the floor.”

Hahaha I call that the Jabba the Hutt pose. For some reason when Sampson does that it reminds me of Jabba the Hutt, only I call it Jabba the Mutt. 😉

Cupcake said, “Mom usually smiles at me in my sleep because I’m on my back, shaped like an S, with one leg sticking straight up, my lip is caught on my teeth, my ear is inside out, and I’m snoring the word, “Woof. Woof.””

I’m sure mom laughs quite a bit at you Cupcake. 😉

Emma asked, “Did she used to fear the vacuum?”

No, she has never been afraid of it, in fact she sits there while you vacuum, almost like she’s playing chicken with the vacuum. LOL

Jan K said, “She looks completely and totally relaxed and content and that would make me smile too… I often do the same…just seeing them happy makes me happy!”

I’m with you on that one sister! I love seeing them happy.

Jan said, “When you think of the awful sounds dogs hear from the vacuum that we don’t, this is even more remarkable.”

Neither one of them ‘hate’ the noise, but Sampson doesn’t care for it getting to close to him.

Jackie Bouchard said, “I love when a dog sleeps in a position that shows they’re totally secure. :-)As for Rita, it makes me smile when she falls asleep on the couch with her head hanging off the edge. How can that be comfortable? Doesn’t the blood run to a dog’s head like it would with a human??”

Yes, that is what this picture said to me. She feels safe and secure. It’s been a long road. I’m with you on that head hanging over the edge thing, I can’t see how it doesn’t make them light headed, but maybe it doesn’t bother them?

Blueberry’s Human said, “I wonder if our dogs ever stare at us when we are sleeping and if they do, what are they thinking? I doubt we look all that cute with our mouths hanging open and drool dripping onto the pillow, hair smooshed in an unattractive manner.”

Believe it or not, I’ve actually woken up to find Sampson staring at me, I’m not sure he’s thinking about the drool or the hair, but maybe “Hey biotch, I have to pee, wake your ass up.”

Rebekah said, “That would make me smile too. After 4.5 years, my Bruce still sleeps with his back to the wall.”

It takes a LONG time Rebekah, Delilah has been with us 8 years and I’ve only really noticed her relaxing more (not all the time though) in the past 1 1/2 to 2 years.

Natural Stride Joint Supplement

Why does she make me pose with these things?

Why does she make me pose with these things?

Jan K said, “We used Natural Stride for quite a while with Sheba too, and she did very well on it. But she started to be fussy about the powder on her food, so we decided to try something different.
I think it’s great that there are so many quality options to choose from out there. I don’t think it hurts to switch around every so often anyway. Each seems to have at least one unique ingredient and I think that’s a good thing. Certain ingredients might work better with some dogs than others too, or sometimes just a change can get something working better.”

I agree, I think it’s good to switch things up once in a while and I really like the convenience of these as chews. Especially if you’re traveling.

Blueberry’s Human said, ” He really got the short end of the stick as far as that surgery working, didn’t he?”

He sure did. I think part of it might be my fault, I was so strict and so careful with him, I think too much so. But I feel like there wasn’t much of a choice with a fully torn cruciate, still, I feel awful about how it turned out.

Emma said, “We are all on the supplement you told us about last winter and it has been a miracle for Katie.”

It’s been amazing for Sampson too, I just think it never hurts to try something new. 🙂

Jan said, “I’ve been taking glucosamine for many years and I think it helped to start early. I wonder if the same is true of dogs, taking it before it is really needed.”

I think it probably does. I wish I’d started Sampson on it sooner, I think it might have helped.

2 Brown Dawgs asked, “So do you change out supplements? I have always been hesitant to do that once we found one that worked well for the dogs.”

Typically, no. But after speaking with the rep, I was told there was one ingredient in this supplement that had helped mice with arthritis. The rep was upfront in saying that it typically works when the arthritis is caught early and it might not help Sampson. It certainly didn’t hurt him though.

The State of the Dog – Barks and Bytes

Sampson at the vet's office, you can see how much he hates going.

Sampson at the vet’s office, you can see how much he hates going.

Honestly you guys are so amazing and have so many wonderful ideas. I just couldn’t add them all to this post, or you’d all still be reading on Monday. 🙂

I will respond to those comments directly, so if you left a comment or asked a question, please go back and check it out. 

BUT before I go, I wanted to tell you that that crazy woman who calls herself Blueberry’s Human took the challenge I threw out to her in last Friday’s post and is attempting to teach Blueberry to use her human’s back as a stepping stool. If you want to read something funny, head over and check out her progress. 🙂

Well that’s it for me folks, thank you all so much for the love, support and suggestions, I know we’ll find a way to help my poor guy feel better.

The State of the Dog – Barks and Bytes

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Sampson had his annual wellness exam last week.

There were a couple of things that were concerning to me and I was anxious to discuss them with the vet. The first up was Sampson’s physical well being.

Sampson’s been licking at his front paws for at least three years now. He goes on an off with it. I put him on a supplement and he does well, then after a short while, he starts licking at them again. X-rays taken when it first started showed nothing. We couldn’t determine if he was licking at his front paws because they hurt, or he was licking because something hurt somewhere else and his paws were the easiest thing to reach.

Since his ACL surgery 20 months ago, he doesn’t put full weight on his back feet. Since each back foot takes approximately 20% of his weight, I wasn’t sure if the extra pressure on his front was causing him discomfort.

His back legs tremble when he stands. Like when we stop on a walk. And he doesn’t care for standing, if he has to stand for too long, he’ll lie down.

Then about 10 days before his exam, he was running around the house and he started holding up his left front foot. I massaged the leg and the foot and he went right back to using it. In my mind this confirmed that his front paws were bothering him. I filed it in the back of my mind to mention at the vet.

 

Sampson at the vet's office, you can see how much he hates going.

Sampson at the vet’s office, you can see how much he hates going.

I shared all of this with Dr. Soutter who after examining him determined that Sampson has arthritis in the two middle toes of both front paws and he also has it really bad in his left wrist. He also has it at his surgery site and more than likely in his hips. As for the trembling, she says she can’t say with certainty, it could be something vets refer to as “geriatric trembling,” or it could be that stinking Illiosoas.

My poor guy.

The next question was how do we make him comfortable?

Well he’s already on Glucosamine, an Omega product and Zyflamend for anti-inflammatory. Our choices were to put him on pain pills for days when he’s really struggling, or we try Adequan injections. Then Dr. Soutter suggested he might be a candidate for PEMF (Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy). Clearly we had some decisions to make.

Next we talked about his noise phobia.

Sampson never used to have an issue with noises. Oh a sudden and loud noise might startle him, but thunder storms, fireworks and wind never bothered him.

Until recently.

In the past year he gets very anxious when any of these events take place. When I’m home, we typically go in the bedroom where we can snuggle on the bed. If I am beside him reassuring him, he usually does pretty well. If I’m not home, he heads downstairs to my mom’s apartment. With the apartment being in the basement, it is typically much quieter than the upper part of the house.

He also takes issue with my husband and my mom’s cell phones (either ringing or text alerts) and my mom’s house phone. Mind you, when my phone goes off, whether it be ringing (actually my phone barks) :-), text alert or one of my crazy alarms, it doesn’t bother him at all. Long time readers may remember that last summer we had a problem where the smoke detector went nuts. We don’t know for how long it was beeping but poor Sampson was really freaked out by it.

Dr. Soutter thinks his new aversion to sounds could be as simple as the frequency of the phones is the same as the smoke alarm.

My poor guy.

He does have one bad tooth, right in the front of his mouth. He had that last year too, but it doesn’t appear to be bothering him. Dr. Soutter suggested we take care of it sooner, rather than later because it could cause a bone infection. So I went ahead and scheduled him to have it removed in January.

Other than those issues, he seems to be okay. He’s maintained his weight of 85 pounds, and everything else seems good. We had blood drawn to check for tick borne diseases as well as heartworm and those were both negative.

The biggest issue is making him comfortable and as pain free as we can.  Next week I’ll let you know how we decided to treat his arthritis. In the meantime, have you had experience with pain management, Adequan injections or PEMF? If so, would you mind sharing them with me? Thank you!

Heart Like a Dog

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Natural Stride Joint Supplement

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Disclosure, I received compensation for this post, either in the form of product, payment or both. That being said, Heart Like a Dog will only provide our honest opinions and only shares products we think may be of interest to our readers.

Long time readers know that March of 2014 Sampson had surgery to repair a torn ACL. Sampson was almost 10 by the time he had his surgery and from everything I’d read and everyone I talked to, he should have had no problem recovering from the surgery.

But that wasn’t the case. For whatever reason Sampson got the shitty end of the stick (the surgeon’s words, not mine.) He struggled mightily in his recovery.

We signed him up for physical therapy and he had two bouts of that, and never made it farther than the underwater treadmill, even though there were other exercises he should have been able to do.

He ended up with arthritis at the surgery site and he also struggled with strained Illiosoas muscles and I’m pretty sure he still struggles to a degree with that today. What finally helped him get to his current level of recovery (I’d have to say he’s at about 85 to 90 percent) was putting him on a Glucosamine supplement, which he continues to use.

We were quite happy with the supplement we had Sampson on, then Jen from My Brown Newfies shared her story about Sherman and the supplement he was using.

After having a great talk with the Natural Stride rep, we decided to give Natural Stride a try.

Sampson’s been on the Natural Stride for about a month and a half now and it works as well as the other supplement I’ve had him on. I haven’t seen any significant changes in him, which we knew was a possibility going in considering the degree of his arthritis. BUT I also haven’t seen him back sliding either.

What I really LOVE about the Natural Stride is the options for administering. Natural Stride comes in a powder form which I sprinkle on his food in the mornings and he eats it without issue. And it also comes in chews, both regular and veterinary strength.

Natural Stride Hip and Joint

Natural Stride Hip and Joint

Just like with any supplement, the initial dosage is basically double for the first couple of weeks to really help it get into your dog’s system, after that you drop down to the suggested dosage. So for a dog Sampson’s size, he should get a scoop and a half of powder, or three chews. I give him one scoop of powder in the morning and one chew at night before bed.

Delilah hasn’t shown any indication that her joints are giving her issue, but I have her on a low dose of one chew, which she gets at night.

I started out on the regular strength.

I started out on the regular strength.

I really like the chews (well not to eat, because, well that’s just gross) but I love the ease of being able to pack a bag of chews if you have need to travel.

Since Sampson and Delilah get a ‘treat’ every night before bed it will be easy to continue if we happen to be say, visiting my sister.

So what’s in Natural Stride? Let’s take a look.

Cetyl Myristoleate – anti-inflammatory, pain reliever and immune system modulator.
Glucosamine HCL – alleviates pain and helps rebuild cartilage.
MSM (Methylsulfonylmethane) – energy production
Vitamin C (ascorbic Acid) – antioxidant
Hyaluronic Acid (HA) – helps strengthen joints
Lecithin – key building block of membranes.
Vitamin E (tocopheryl acetate) antioxidant.
dL-Methionine – essential amino acid
Citrus Bioflavonoids – antioxidants
Omega 3- reduces inflammation and lowers risk of chronic diseases
Yucca – anti-arthritic and anti-inflammatory.

You can read more about the ingredients here.

One of the things I really LOVED about Natural Stride is they have products for dogs, humans and horses.

Synodrin for people comes in pill form. No Chews for peeps.

Synodrin for people comes in pill and gel form,  no Chews for peeps.

Since my husband also takes a glucosamine supplement, he’s been trying the human form, and they also have a muscle rub for those days when you might have over done it.

I also received the equine product, which I passed along to my vet, and it’s currently being tested on some horses at the farm where she boards her horse.

Why does she make me pose with these things?

Why does she make me pose with these things?

As always, you should check with your veterinarian about what is right for your pet.

Update! – I didn’t realize it but winner, winner, chicken dinner! I have a discount code for any of you who would like to try Natural Stride for your pups!  All you have to do is enter JODI20 in the CODE section when you check out and the good folks at Natural Stride will give you 20% off! Sweet deal right?

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