28/02/2024
Really interesting read for those of you using or considering using joint supplements for your dogs..
THOUGHTS ON SUPPLEMENTING STIFF JOINTS IN RAW FED DOGS...
If you ask folk what the most important joint-building compounds are, you will most likely get back glucosamine and chondroitin. Some may even mention hyaluronic acid, collagen, vitamin C, manganese, maybe even glutathione.
These are all great, no doubt. They are the building blocks and oil keeping the whole structure working smoothly.
However, the most important ingredient (if just by weight) is actually calcium. Bones are nearly half calcium, depending on age and size of animal. A lack of calcium will kill you far, far quicker than any of the others above.
The problem is the body doesn't like minerals. They are inorganic, meaning not from the land of the living. All of them (bar mercury) are actually metals, including calcium.
The gut does not readily allow in minerals presented on their own or in an adulterated form, eg as an oxide (such as iron oxide, aka rust, or zinc oxide, the crap in dry food which studies show dogs poorly absorb and have worse skin and coats on).
The body prefers minerals bound up in food, in their natural form, that is, bonded (chelated) to a carbon molecule. The body LOVES carbon. He is welcomed to the disco and he in turn brings his friend in tow, the metalhead.
That's how calcium best gets into the body, via food (best sourced from animal foods, though some plants are high in calcium too, if you can digest it).
It follows then that studies of bone strength and fracture show calcium from food outcompetes factory-made calcium supplements by a long way, even though you eat far less of the former. The body just handles and utilises the real stuff differently.
[And when it comes to calcium absorption and utilisation you have a host of other nutrient factors involved - vitamin D (terribly erratic in dry food, eg Hills Pet Food scandal in 2016), vitamin D3 (only sourced from meat), B12 (only sourced from meat), iron (best absorbed from meat), zinc (best absorbed from meat), iodine (best absorbed from food, this time seaweed, often absent in dry food or present by itself as iodide, which is notoriously potentially harmful for thyroids...)]
Few people think about calcium (let alone all those other nutrients) when they worry about their giant-breed bones, but they should. And if they did, they wouldn't rely on the ultra-processed stuff in dry food.
Raw-fed dogs eat plenty of cartilage and bone. It's at least 10% of their diet. So they don't need to worry about it.
In fact, cartilage and bone provides ALL of the crucial joint-building compounds - calcium, glucosamine (sulfate), chondroitin, hyaluronic acid, collagen, vitamin C, manganese, also glutathione. Moreover, they are present in their best, most natural, most bioavailable form.
[Check out the ingredients of your favourite joint supplement - the above will make up 95% of it].
Dry dog food DOES NOT contain these compounds. At best you will get a bit of (ultraprocessed) glucosamine and chondroitin as optional extras in their orthopaedic-but-also-obesity-inducing formulas.
This is why, when your labrador is walking stiff like a coffee table at 7 years of age you are recommended to give them.....GROUND UP CARTILAGE....just not in bone form, of course, better it comes in a ridiculous, over-priced, ultra-processed-and-thus-poorly-absorbed capsule form!
Wrong. You should have been feeding those compounds to your pup as soon as he came off Mum at 3 weeks of age. It was the lack of building bricks as he grew that ruined your dry-fed dog (and piling them up now outside the dilapidated shack is going to help only a little. The structural integrity will always be ruined).
It means, tragically, our vets today are fighting the fires they lit themselves many years ago in the younger animal by recommending such incredibly inappropriate foodstuffs.
The reason I'm drilling this home is twofold. First, dry-fed dogs NEED raw meaty bones not just to clean their teeth of the sticky carb sludge that studies show fuels their dental caries but also to preserve their joint structure into adulthood. A truly vital food addition.
Secondly, raw-fed dog owners are wasting their money on supplements that are largely the above compounds. There's little point in piling bricks up outside the well-built house. It's not bricks it needs.
The studies of glucosamine and chondroitin etc, particularly in dogs, are studies of DEFCIENCY. They are using dry-fed dogs. We know such animals are lacking in these nutrients and so we expect them to benefit the most when fed them. But this is not dogs fed appropriately.
It's like comparing the effects of omega on Irish, British or US folk to Mediterraneans. We know the latter eat more omega 3. They are less likely to be deficient. So if you grab 100 arthritic people from each region, you will observe that omega 3 had "the least effect" on Italians, or whatever.
This is the major criticism levelled at nutritional studies and why RANDOMISATION of selected populations (which covers up this confounding factor) is critical to such works before claims can be made (or, you test the people beforehand and then add it).
If raw-fed dogs have joint issues it's less likely glucosamine and chondroitin, hyaluronic acid and glutathione, all of which have been shown to be effective in some part in dry-fed dogs, are expected to be of little to no use to them whatsoever.
There is a new COLLAGEN supplement out there, comparing itself to YUMOVE! It's ridiculous. All it's doing is highlighting it doesn't contain a lot of the cool things in YUMOVE (glucosamine, chondroitin, omega 3, manganese, vitamin E, GLM) that dry-fed dogs would surely benefit from also! Collagen is great for joints, no doubt, and if you feed dry food that is entirely absent of Type II collagen (which comes from....you guessed, it joint material) then giving it would benefit these malnourished dogs. But raw-fed dogs get more than enough collagen in their diet. How will more help?!
That's why these compounds are greyed out in the image for raw-fed dogs.
I would rather go after the stuff they can't get from their normal diet. Eg, maybe increase the omega 3 for it's anti-inflammatory effects, useful if feeding too much intensively reared chicken for example, which is sadly higher in omega 6 these days due to being corn fed (less useful for dogs consuming outdoor reared meat, like lamb or beef).
Or maybe try some more manganese-rich foods? This isn't particularly high in many raw meals. It MIGHT help.
But my money would be spent on the other bits that I KNOW aren't in the diet, eg NAD glucosamine. The glucosamine found in food is glucosamine sulfate. It's good stuff and the one you want at a minimum in your supplement (glucosamine HCL is crap). N-N Acetyl Glucosamine seems to be worth a shot in that it has a few cool studies behind it.
Of all, initially, I go for green-lipped muscle EXTRACT for minor issues. It's the best bit, possibly the only bit, in Yumove for raw-fed dogs GLM is GREAT for joints. However, raw-feeders might better pursue that on its own (buy the stuff for humans, more likely to get the medicinal stuff), getting far more bang for your buck.
Only when this doesn't work do I reach for some natural pain relief options (eg Boswelia) or some natural anti-inflammatory options to see if I can ease the pain a little while we get the dog into therapy (physio, acupuncture, hydrotherapy, see if we can free it up a little).
Reduce exercise, monitor (video, very handy for vets) and see how he is in a few days. It might be only a strained muscle, like the rest of us. Don't be so quick to hop to pain-relieving meds. The pain is there to guide you. Stay off that foot, stop using that shoulder. Masking it often worsens the situation as the patient gets complacent.
Because of their side effects, meds are a last resort, not a first. Sadly, based on the fact raw dog food dominates every single head-to-head study, heavy meds will come far sooner in the dry-fed dog's life on virtually every front I can think of.
