@jerry - Mmmmmm. Choclaaate.

Btw - just got back from a session learning new exercises for June from our Certified Canine Rehab Therapist (CCRT), and I asked her about her thoughts on supplements, mainly because I knew she’s also a Certified Canine Fitness Therapist (CCFT) and has a lot of clients in dog sports (agility, flyball, dock diving, etc.) as well as working dogs (like the security sniffers at the nearby international airport).

I asked her about her views on joint supplements for dogs as a preventative measure. She said she was a big believer in supplements and that pretty much all canine athletes are on joint and muscle supplements for support/prevention. She said a joint supplement for tripawd support/prevention is a great thing to do.

She said there are a lot of good products out there but that she ultimately wants one that 1) does the job, and 2) doesn’t cause stomach upset for the particular dog. Her two favorites were:

Canine Connectin (this is the one her own competitive sports dogs are on):

And Yumove, which you already featured above:

@mischief - if you do run into her, she’s one of those folks worth knowing, just an all-around awesome human being.

Karen - Totally curious what your rehab specialist says. It’s really interesting to see what everyone uses and recommends, and you get a broad sense of the descent options. Cool about the Myos - I’ve heard of it but don’t know anything about it.

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So I did finally take the plunge and pick out a supplement for June. In the end I passed on Dasuquin because as trusted, effective, and well tolerated as it seems to be for most dogs, the two main side effects people seemed to note in the reviews were GI troubles and nervous agitation - both of which June already has enough of on her own, so it didn’t seem worth the risk.

I would have loved to go with Canine Connectin as the business is woman owned and developed by a researcher who worked on related issues in humans before turning to full time work making products for dogs (more comparative medicine at work! …and they appear to have a tripawd in their ad!) It seems to really work for so many dogs, but it has a ton of additional herbal ingredients (most quite natural, admittedly) and I’ve learned over the years that complexity (even as natural as this is) is not often Juno’s GI's friend. 🤢 

What I did end up going with is Purina’s new Joint Care supplement that just came out in June 2023. It has the sweet spot of all the ingredients I was hoping for: Glucosamine, Chondroitin, Hyaluronic Acid, and Omega-3s from fish oil. It’s essentially a slimmed down version of Canine Connectin with fish oil. Bonus is that over the years we’ve inadvertently gravitated to a range of Purina products for Juno because they work for her and don’t upset her GI. Check and check!

Maybe one day after June’s treatment is done 🤞I’ll try the trial pack of Canine Connectin…but for now (and this does come in a version for large breeds):