Glucosamine/Chondroitin for back end degeneration

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Doh... I should have realizes since the site is Drfostersmith.
It looks good to me... but then again, I don't know much about supplements.
 
I wanted to add to this conversation, that we discussed our use of Glucosamine/Chondroitin with our vet this past week, when we went in for the boys' yearly checkup. We told her we were giving Dominic, who is starting to lose function, 1/8 of a 500mg/200mg tablet a day. What she said was Glucosamine is a better preventative than it is a cure, and that as we have rats approaching two years of age who are NOT yet showing signs of HED, it would be better to start them on the supplement now, to stave it off. Dr. Kuhnle has been a remarkable vet to our boys in the last year or two, she listens to us and we listen to her, and I thought I would share her insight.
 
I'm going to dig up this old thread as opposed to starting a new one...

My sisters old man, Walter (estimated 2+) has had slight HED since she adopted him from CCH earlier this year. However, recently it has gotten worse and it is really stressing him out which is making his breathing problems worse. My first question: does anyone know if it is ok to give glucosamine with baytril, doxy and/or metacam? Second: regarding the B12, should it be straight B12 or is it ok if it's mixed with something (folic acid)? And also the reccommended dose (5 mcg) is really tiny so does anyone know how harmful it is for him if he gets more than that?
 
I think B vitamins are water soluble so they are pretty much impossible to over dose on, since any extra is just peed out.
 
Since I have boys all approaching this age, THANK YOU Fidget for posting this and THANK YOU smilez_n_hugs for bringing it up. I never even seen this.

We give our pitbull glucosamine supplements for her Patellar Luxation. That and low protein food has helped her tons. I plan on taking it as well...

Thanks!
 
I've decided to start Marco on Gluco/chondro due to his arthritis and possible HED...
Rat Guide says about 1/6-1/4 of a 250/200mg tablet per day. My local market
(which tends to carry all the natural products - all the hippies in town go there! ;) )
carries "Natural factors" which "contains no artificial preservatives, color or sweeteners; no corn, dairy, soy, starch, wheat or yeast."
It's 900mg (500mg glucosamine/400mg chondroitin sulfates). So would 1/8-1/6 of a tablet be enough in this?
 
I have a post earlier in this thread about dosage. The thing about glucosamine is that the only real consequence to giving to much is it might upset their tummy a bit, nothing long term. So you can use a smaller dose at first and work your way up as needed. I've always used liquid glucosamine as I've found it a lot easier to deal with (no crushing and mixing of pills). A good start is around 250 mg of glucosamine for one kg of rat, but this can be more than tripled if your rat needs it. If your rat is around 500 grams about a quarter of a pill would be plenty (a small female, about 250g, could go down to an eighth of a pill).

Pink
 
Thanks for the quick response, you two. :)
Marco now gets soaked lab blocks, so hiding the taste won't be too big of an issue for us.
He is 370g at this time... (yes, we have gone to the vet about this)
Being that it is a natural product with little adverse effects.. I'm not too concerned about giving too much, more so not enough. :)
He tends to have a very sensitive tummy, so I think I will start him off with 1/8th and then eventually transition to 1/6th.
 
If you give him soaked lab blocks you may want to look into liquid glucosamine that you can just mix strait in. It would be a lot easier and quicker to dose, since you wouldn't have to smash up pills and try to measure them out. I just would us a 1 ml syringe to measure out the dose.

Pink
 

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