laeral

Yes I probably should have had this in the health section! I do make up my own golden paste Boronia. The dog and the horses all get some each day! i will look at trying Glyde as well as the golden paste and she how she goes.

She tried this for 6 months with no noticeable benefits. I have heard good things about it though.

So my GSD, Mica, is 10 now and has some arthritis in her hips and spine. She is still very mobile and active though! She receives regular myotherapy treatments through a spinal vet, that has shown tremendous results. I am on the lookout for a new joint supplement for her as the one we were using i can no longer source. I give her tumeric paste in her feed as an anti inflammatory but would like to ensure she is getting the right supplement to help joint movement and arthritis. Any recommendations on what other people have found beneficial for their dog would be very welcome!

I always get asked what Mica is! Then have to explain that yes they do come in black. When she was in puppy school, the trainer would call her a kelpie. I had to correct her every session for 3 weeks, sometimes more than once. Wanted to get a sign made up for her saying - I am a GSD, yes a black one!

So sorry for your loss. Such a long time to share together yet it never seems long enough ????

You know what, she wasn't being walked much at all due to the hours I was away. I'm sure that had an impact as well! Can you feed dogs drumsticks? I though weight bearing bones were a no go? They're normally talking about weight bearing bones on the bigger animals that can't be digested. My dogs don't have any difficulty with them. Great to know. She would love drumsticks or Marylands.

Thank you so much everyone for your ideas and suggestions, it's fantasic! Just to be clear, I would never compromise my dogs health due to cost concerns or my ideals on what she should be fed. I am just trying to be reasonable about what I can afford. She has always done so well on raw that I am reluctant to change to kibble now, without trying some modifications first. If as she ages, she can't tolerate a raw diet so well, I would definily look at kibble. It's just that I would prefer to keep her on raw if I can. You have all given me so much to think about. I think I really did get carried away with the amount of bone I was feeding her, and she wasn't exercising as much as usual. Totally my fault. Thanks to all of your suggestions I have had a good look at her meal plan and come up with a bit of a plan. Mornings - I will cut back her meaty bones to 3 or 4 times a week, ensuring that she gets meatier bones, like drumstick .! The other mornings will be roo meat or hearts. I will talk to my butcher and see what he has on offer. I love the idea of getting the butcher to mince up the liver! I hate cutting it up! Evenings will still be the usual veggies with a bit of yoghurt, but I will increase the amount of veggies for more fibre. I will also add in pumpkin and maybe some oil. Currently she only gets sardines once a week, so may increase that to two or some salmon/tuna. And she also will get liver once a week, plus her joint supplement. I think she would LOVE the whole chicken idea! This week she is restricted to boiled chicken breast, rice and some digestive tin food the vet prescribed to give her insides some time to heal. Thanks again to everyone, I always learn so much here!

You know what, she wasn't being walked much at all due to the hours I was away. I'm sure that had an impact as well! Can you feed dogs drumsticks? I though weight bearing bones were a no go?

Any ideas what would be a good source of meat to increase in her diet? I buy her roo mince at the moment, as she is only having about 300gms a day. I couldn't really afford it if she was getting a kg a day. I will look into the hearts, but would welcome any other suggestions what other people feed.

I have looked into this but she needs about 1 1/2 kgs of food per day so it wasn't really affordable. I can't remember how many patties that equated to but it was a lot! I use the pre made barf for the cat, she doesn't eat as much lol

Yes I think you are right,I will cut back on the chicken frames. I did start to feed a ridiculous amount due to ease. Poor mica

Thanks, i will have a look in the supermarket and see if they have them available. I am a bit limited as I live rurally.

Thanks for the reply. I feel like her diet has worked so well for her that I am reluctant to change it, but a bit nervous that this will happen again. I might look at cutting back on the bone a bit but keep the rest the same.

My 8.5 year old GSD has been fed raw since she was a puppy. Up until now she has had absolutely no issues with her digestion whatsoever. She has always been healthy, not smelly, lots of energy, good teeth and a very shiny coat. Up until this week anyway. She had to spend the night at the vets on Tuesday as she was very constipated and needed an enema (sp?) The vets said she had a lot of small rock hard bone fragments stuck in there and was quite horrified what I had been feeding her To be honest I have been quite slack over the last 3/4 weeks as I have been working 13 hour days and have not always managed to blend veggies for her so she has been having a rather large dose of chicken frames for her main meals. Her nutrition has been quite unbalanced and I feel terrible that I caused this I have been told to feed her no more chicken frames and only lamb neck occasionally. I think the vet wanted to push kibble onto me but she knows how I feel about it, and didn't raise the issue again! So now I am torn and not sure what to do. On one hand I sort of feel that the reason that this has happened is that I haven't been feeding her properly over the last few weeks, and she has thrived on her normal feeding regime for the last 8 years. Do I really need to change her diet? But on the other hand, what if the vet is right and I am feeding her badly and could cause this to happen again. Maybe she does get to much bone in her diet. At the moment she is fed twice a day Mornings - either chicken frames/lamb neck/roo tails or wings Evenings - blended veggies, small amount of roo meat/sardines or offal, joint supplements. Sometimes she gets an egg as well Does this seem like a decent diet? Or should I cut back on the meaty bones in the morning and give her more meat? If I cut back on the bones, what sort of meat would be a suitable alternative? Any advice would be greatly appreciated :)

Christine works with Ian Bidstrup as mentioned above. She does the Wangaratta area, he goes to Seymour.