Can I give a older dog cherries for joint pain?
Can I give a older dog cherries? She has been having a hard time moving around and I wanted to put something in her diet that might help with that. I know I take a cherry extract for my joints would it work the same for a dog? OR What would? Thank you!
Tagged with: cherries • diet • hard time • joints
Filed under: Joint Pain
What works in human medicine or with human supplements doesn’t always translate for animals. You’ll have to ask your vet. There are other proven treatments like Cosequin supplements or Adequan injections that might be helpful.
What does the orthopedic vet recommend? Whatever he/she says, is what you should do.
Please take her to the vet. First , you need a diagnosis, What you are thinking is arthritis could be Lyme disease, for example, or many other issues.
If the dog is arthritic, here are the general guidelines:
-Manage the dog’s weight. Extra weight means extra stress on the joints.
-Try a Glucosamine/MSM/Chondroitin supplement. It takes 4-8 weeks to see any effect, but these supplements support cartilage and joint lubrication. When they contain sufficient MSM, they also work to control inflammation which will reduce pain. I like Glyco-Flex III (which I use with my dog) or Synovi G3. These two are the only ones I have found that contain enough MSM, They can also delay the onset or progress of arthritis. They are safe to use with prescription NSAIDs.
-Your dog may benefit from a prescription NSAID. Your vet would prescribe it and you would want to get bloodwork done every six months to check for any effects on liver or kidneys, but they help many, many dogs,
-Aspirin is NOT recommended for arthritic pain, for several reasons: higher incidence of GI tract bleeding than the newer NSAIDs: destroy cartilage; metabolization is totally unpredictable and specific to your dog, so your dosing is never right and there are overdose risks. At doses needed to control arthritic pain, you are risking GI bleeds, poisoning and cartilage destruction–the exact opposite if what you are trying to accomplish!
-Light exercise, like leash walking, helps to keep the joints lubricated and helps with stiffness.
Speak with your vet and go from there.
ETA: No, dogs and humans have very different digestive tracts. Dogs are much worse at clearing toxins than are we, so it’s easy to overstress their livers and kidneys with things that work well in humans.