01 April 2010

{01apr2010: for Remi}

Remi claimed the patch on Darwin's lower back for his own tattoo.  Darwin now has a tramp stamp.














Here's a close up:


After all of Darwin's tattooing yesterday, we took her for a walk on the trail.  We're working on her commands when she's off leash, such as sitting and staying.
{don't mind the goop in my eyes... I had just woken up from sleeping all day}
We stopped at the park on the way home for more pictures and some grass play time. 
When Darwin was small she used to LOVE chewing sticks.  It's been a while since she's chewed one up til yesterday.
As I was taking pictures of her chewing her stick I remembered I had taken a similar picture last year of her.
On another note, we're still waiting to hear back from the neurologist about the results from her spinal fluid tests.  Reading up on meningitis, while it's "better" than Wobbler's it could be something that she'll need to take Prednisone for for maybe the rest of her life.  
We have Darwin's annual check up at her regular vet this weekend and I was going to talk to them about giving her glucosamine.  Are any of you giving your dogs glucosamine?  

12 comments:

  1. I gets glucosamine / MSM in the morning and at night with my two meals. Momma wraps it it cheese... yumm. I take a total of 1500 mg a day and I take the hooman kind cause my vet says it's the same. The hooman kind is less expensive cause you can get it at those big stores caleld Costco, BJS, and Sams Club.

    woof - Tucker

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  2. Mom tries to give me pills wrapped in cheese, but I figured her out...I am REAL good at unwrapping the pills and just eating the cheese!

    So now, she just shoves them down my throat. I'm pretty good about still bein able to spit them out though!

    Love the new tattoo! Maybe you should think about getting full sleaves?

    wags, wiggles & slobbers
    Murphydog

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  3. Ditto on Tucker- I think I might give Moose 1500mg 2x... when I remember. I have been bad lately but I forget because he has not had much trouble. As I understand it though these supplements do not help prevent anything, they only help if you have joint trouble (which Moose does have mild Arthritis in his bad knee). Unless the MRI/Xrays showed signs of joint trouble I suspect that it would be a waste of money to give them now. Def ask your vet though.
    I LOVE the tramp stamp! Will there be low rider jeans and a thong next?
    Good job on the off leash work. Little by little early on will pay off. I wish I could trust Moose off leash :-(

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  4. Both of my guys get glucosamine and chondroitin once a day. It's something that can't hurt to give them.

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  5. ALRIGHT!!!! My name's on the tramp stamp. Cool! For about the past 4 months, I've been taking glucosamine and chondroitin in Zuke's Hip Action. Mom gives me 2 every day. We get them from Amazon, but most locally owned pet stores carry them.

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  6. I don't get any but my SibeSta Kyrye did - and many of the Sibe pawrents on SiberNet ListServ suggest it too

    The Tramp Stamp is sooo funny!

    Hugz&Khysses,
    Khyra

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  7. a tramp stamp indeed! BOL

    Dogster Dog here! Just wanted to stop by your blog to award you with our top dog blogger award! I couldn't find your email, so hopefully you get this message. If you're interested, just shoot me an email at nam(at)dogster.com! WOOFS!

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  8. Wow! We've just been getting caught up! We hope everything works out OK!
    We all take Cosequin DS, a chewable glucosamine/chondroitin tablet. It's YUMMY! We also get a highly concentrated fish oil supplement on our food - for extra Omega 3s. It helps keep our joints lubed up and does cool stuff for our coats.
    tail wags,
    Storms

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  9. Ha - don't know if you read one of our recent posts about the trouble we're having finding a good vet here in Brisbane but one of the things I mentioned was the vets here very aggressively pushing glucosamine & chrondroitin supplements as a preventative. I'm a bit sceptical about this as my husband is a doctor and has done a literature search and there is NO evidence to show that giving glucosamine/chrondroitin has any PREVENTATIVE effect whatsoever. Yes, it does help greatly AFTER your dog starts showing symptoms but is a waste of time to give as a preventative (same as in humans). However, a lot of people seem to give it nonetheless and I suppose it doesn't harm - other than probably being a waste of money.

    Since I don't like the processed commercial route anyway and I don't believe in "supplements" unless there is some reason your diet is inadequate (like vitamins in humans - studies actually show they make no difference for most people on average diets, unless you're severely nutritionally deprived in Afriac or something...it's just marketing & playing on people's fears plus may contribute to people thinking they can eat poor diets and just compensate by popping a pill) - anyway, so I have decided to compromise by giving Honey chicken feet regularly, as they are a great natural source of glucosamine & chondroitin and fit in with her raw diet and are completely unprocessed and cheap too! This way I'm sort of "covering all bases" but in a way which is not pandering to commercial pet drug companies.

    Anyway, I'm sure it won't hurt you to give glucosamine but just wanted to let you know the scientific evidence! At least make an informed choice!

    Hsin-Yi

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  10. Oh - forgot to say that if Darwin IS ALREADY showing signs of joint pain, etc, then yes, glucosamine may help. It is only effective after an arthritic-type condition has developed so if she is showing symptoms, then yes, it may be a good idea. But if you're just thinking of it as a preventative - then only do it to soothe your conscience (whcih is sort of what I;m doing with the chicken feet) - because otherwise, research shows that it;s a waste of time.

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  11. Mom has put our Linguini on a supplement that has Glucosamine and we noticed an incredible improvement. It's called K-9 Glucosamine and Chrondroitin and MSM. Here's a link http://www.amazon.com/K-9-Liquid-Health-Glucosamine-Chondroitin/dp/B00178TEW4/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2NRLANNH902GS&colid=374RD0LTR6QJT
    Love you Darwin
    Twinkie

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  12. Yup our old golden gets glucosamine, but he's such an oinker that we don't even wrap it in anything. He can devour a pound of food in .0002 seconds so we just toss the pill his way and he inhales it. Our new food now has glucosamine built into it.

    Duchess on the other hand is quite discriminating and demands that all pills be wrapped in colby jack preferably at room temperature.

    P.S. - SOOOOO glad to hear it's not wobbler's!

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