Josie's Story

Update on Josie, June 15, 2007 The photo to the left was taken of Josie (the Rottweiler stage right) and friends in the summer of 2005 when she was nine years old.  Josie will be eleven on July 30, 2007 and she is still doing great.  I'll get a new photo up here soon. Josie has now been living with osteochondritis dissecans (arthritis in her elbows) for five years and she is still doing well.  I give her several nutritional supplements, super high quality food, and daily exercise, but I still feel that her liquid glucosamine supplemnt SynFlex, has been the key...she still gets it every day.

Photo by © Lorri A. Vettes. SloballDigiPhoto.com

Josie is my beloved nine year old female Rottweiler.  OK, I admit it, I love my dog so much it is just silly!  But I don't care!  As you can see from the photo gallery page, I've been loving those furry critters since I was kne

e high!

A little over three years ago, Josie started to limp when she would get up from the night or from a nap.  In a short time the limping got pretty severe.  It was in her front legs.  And pretty soon she was really afraid to put her paw down first thing in the morning because she knew it was going to hurt.

We visited our local vet and then made an appointment at Michigan State University, which is one of the premier veterinarian hospitals in the country.

They said Josie had osteochondritis dissecans of the humerus.  What this basically means is that Josie has arthritis in her elbows.  There are three main types of this kind of arthritis but basically too much weight in the front end during her development caused some bone fragmentation in the joint (arthritis).  Josie was only six years old at the time, but the vets weren't super keen on having her undergo surgery, as they felt she would have only a 50% chance at any improvement.  She could go on one of the approved medications for treatment of arthritis in dogs, but they come with a whole set of possible side affects, some of them severe.

Well I went home and went on a mission to find out everything I could about her condition and what the alternative treatments were.   Over the next couple of months I put together a regiment of supplements that had shown to have some success in bringing some relief for dogs, especially Rottweilers.   But it was when I added the SynFlex that she really showed improvement.  It was like a miracle.  In a short time she was not limping at all!  I can not tell you what this meant to me!  To see her out of pain and feeling good again was the best thing I could have possibly hoped for!

I took a few other measures to improve her condition.  I took ten pounds off of her (she protested quite a bit about giving up some of her fattening treats!) and I added several other supplements to her diet including fish oil, flax oil, ester-C and vitamin E.  If you would like specifics, please feel free to email me.  Of course I am not an expert and don't know what will work for other dogs but I am happy to tell you what I did for Josie.  I think dog owners would be so relived to know there may be an alternative to surgery and harsh medication for their precious companions!

Best,

Jennifer

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