What You Should Know About Your Dog’s Health

As pet owners, we all want the best for our animals. When they get older, pets may develop hip and joint issues, and we want to help them have less pain and more mobility. It is nice to find supplements that are natural and safe for the animal. Look for natural products that really help the dog regain mobility and reduce pain. The supplements need to encourage joint lubrication and strengthen the joints.

What if That Much-Loved Dog Has Hip and Joint Issues?

Dogs, like people, can develop health problems as they age. This includes hip and joint issues. But, what can a pet parent do? A company such as Pet Parents has options for supplements to help that dog avoid inflammatory issues, lessen pain, and help get more lubrication between joints. The supplements contain proven ingredients such as turmeric, MSM, curcumin, and multi-vitamins. They come in a form that dogs will eat. In addition to dog food supplements, the dog parent should take a few extra steps to find out what causes the condition and explore natural steps to help their dog have a better life.

What Are the Causes of Canine Arthritis?

The causes of these painful joints and stiffness boil down to inflammation, a leaky gut, poor diet, toxins, and over-vaccination.

Inflamation can be caused by the immune system releasing proteins that damage the joints. These proteins can attach themselves to cartilage-making cells in the dog’s joints and cause more damaging proteins to be secreted. This leads to low-grade inflammation in the joints added to existing arthritic changes and painful joints. This inflammation contributes to every dog health condition and disease.

Giving the dog NSAIDs, or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, can cause even more damage to the dog’s joints. When a dog suffers viruses, bacteria, or an injury, the acute inflammation that comes with them can lead to white blood cell formation that contributes to a healing process. But, that acute inflammation is different from chronic inflammation that can stay for weeks, months, or years. This type of inflammation is the underlying cause of degenerative and inflammatory health issues.

3 Steps to Fight Low-grade Chronic Inflammation in Dogs

Step one: Address leaky gut problems. The dog’s gut or stomach lining has millions of tiny holes to allow digested nutrients to enter the body and be used as fuel. But, these tiny holes can be stretched over time if the gut is inflamed or damaged. When this happens, the wrong substances get through into the body, causing inflammation. This damaged gut can be repaired by improving the dog’s diet.

You can improve the dog’s diet and promote healing of the gut by avoiding bad food ingredients.

1. Processed grain-based foods, including wheat, spelt, rice, and lectin from unsprouted soy and grains
2. Harmful food additives and preservatives
3. Sugars and starches
4. GMOs or genetically modified foods
5. Pasteurized dairy products
6. Meat from factory-farmed, stressed animals

Replace the bad types of dog foods with a diet that includes fresh, raw, and organic foods.

Leaky guts can be healed by avoiding medications and toxins that are harmful. These toxins can include:

1. Unneeded steroids
2. NSAIDs
3. Deworming drugs by prescription
4. Pesticide containing flea and tick products
5. Antibiotics that can lead to an imbalance in an otherwise healthy gut and its flora. Avoid over prescription of these medications.

Avoid Over-Vaccination

Step one: Vaccinations are needed, but they can also damage a dog’s immune system when given too often. Get only the absolutely necessary and mandated vaccinations. You can also find products that help remove the toxic effects of vaccines. These tend to be homeopathic remedies.

Step two: Give your dog the proper kind and amount of fats. Fats are important to your dog’s diet and its whole body for control of hormones and the immune system. Dogs need both omega-6 and omega-3 fats. These two types of fats balance each other out. Adding fish to the diet can help, but do not use fish oil.

Step three: Add some antioxidants to your dog’s diet. Free radicals are unstable atoms known to damage cells and cause degenerative diseases and premature aging. Free radicals come from environmental pollution, are a by-product of metabolism, and can build up in the dog’s body. Adding antioxidants can help limit the damage from free radicals. This helps prevent inflammation, cancer, heart disease, eye problems, and other immune issues in dogs.

The substances that add antioxidants include turmeric, astaxanthin, berries, and herbs such as oregano, cinnamon, parsley, basil, ginger, and cumin. Figuring out how to add all these good things to a dog’s diet might require help from a veterinarian and a good food supplement supplier.

What is Osteoarthritis?

Dogs can have low-grade inflammation and osteoarthritis at the same time, and both conditions should be treated. Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease with inflammation and deterioration of joint cartilage. The most common areas for this disease are the lower spine and the joints in the limbs.

The risk factors include:

1. Large-breed types such as German Shepard, Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers, and other large breeds.
2. Obesity and poor diet
3. Advancing age
4. Injuries and repetitive stress suffered by active dogs, including fractures and ligament tears
5. Genetics, poor conformation, and infections such as Lyme Disease

If a dog has these risk factors, it is important to seek the services of a good veterinarian. Regular wellness visits can catch problems as they develop.

Signs to Look For

Monitor your aging dog for early signs of joint disease and, if they become apparent, seek veterinarian help.

1. Lethargy and a reluctance to play, run, or jump.
2. The dog is suffering from stiffness, difficulty in getting up, or lameness
3. Weight gain and loss of muscle mass over the limbs and the spine
4. Pain that is evident when being petted or touched or irritability and other behavior changes
5. Difficulty getting in position to defecate or urinate or increased accidents in the house.

Knowing your dog and catching behavior changes are important. If an active dog gradually becomes a dog that prefers to lie around napping all day, there is a reason. When a dog is suffering, its human should seek help from the veterinarian. Get the dog evaluated and ask for a treatment plan, including joint supplements, an improved diet, and pain relief.