Surgery for a tear in the knee...

I have pubished this exchange between Joanna our Medical Nutritionist and Jo a customer, not only because it may be of interest to dog owners but because the principles within this exchange also apply to us as humans.

Question: from Jo

I was wondering if I could give some Arthrit-eze to my dog. She is going to have surgery for a Crucia tear in her knee, this Monday. Is this an arthritic condition? If so, would I be able to help her by giving her some Arthrit-eze? If so, how many pills per day?

Answer: from Joanna (Medical Nutritionist for XtendLife)

No, this is not an arthritic condition, it is caused by an injury of some description, such as a twisted leg during running, etc. However, it can make the area weak and therefore prone to arthritis in the future.

It is possible to give him Arthrit-Eze, and our Omega 3 to help his joints. There is actually mention of this on our blog from another response I gave a few weeks ago. You can read this here: omega-3-and-arthrit-eze-for-dogs.html.

As you can see from reading this earlier response of mine, dosage of the formula is really dependent on age, breed, health, etc, of your dog. If you are unsure then please come back to me with as much info as possible and i will try to advise you.

Jo responds:

My dog is a 60 pound Black Lab, who is 10 years old. She is, other than the injury, in good health. Please tell me, according to the new info about Pepper, how much Omega 3 and Arthrit-Eze I could give her? Thank you so much.

Joanna replies:

I think as this isn't strictly an arthritic condition and she is otherwise healthy, I would be inclined to first try just one supplement. Perhaps our GLM-Omega 3 Plus. This contains the same Omega 3 fish oil, but the main part of the formula is green lipped mussel which is good to hold down inflammation and pain, such as from an injury and recovery thereof. I don't think at this stage we need to look at a full arthritis protocol.

So I would suggest for Pepper to have 3 GLM-Omega 3 Plus per day to begin with (3 x 1 per day is fine, or you can put 2 in one meal and 1 in another). Once improvement and/or recovery begins to be noticed, usually after a few weeks, perhaps reduce this to 2 per day.

Please let me know how she gets on.