Supplement for Dane?

Question

My Great Dane is turning 4 next month. His hips are perfect, now, is there a supplement that I can give him to help if not prevent his hips from going bad?

Answer 1

Show Stopper is the best supplement I have found, the breeder turned me on to it, it's good for all breeds large & small, I have both. I have only seen it at dog shows and on line. If you google it you can read about all that it does and find the best price too. Congrats on your pup. All the best;^)

Answer 2

I never can figure out why people automatically think that a dogs hips (especially a Danes) will become "bad" as they get older....this is not a given by any means. Most well bred Danes and even many not so well bred Danes never have a problem in their entire lives.


As for supplements MSM/glucosamine/chondrodin is good along with vit C. Vit C is great for immunity..and glucosamine/MSM/chondrodin are good to help keep joints lubricated and help prevent arthritis.


As for Dane puppies NEVER feed a puppy food not even large breed..They need a good quality food not over 24% protein.

Answer 3

hips are related to genetics

if your dog genes predisposed it the hip displaysia no supplement in the world is going to fix or prevent it from occuring , it is a inherited genetic disease that with good breeding standard would never become a problem. It often at 2 years old when xrays are done to see if present


A responsible breeder knows the dogs family history and only considers using dog for breeding that has no family history of hip problems and also tests their dogs using xray to ensure they hip sockets are well formed and the dog will be OFA registered this explains the hip registry http://www.offa.org/hipinfo.html

If your pup parents were OFA registered with good hips and the 3 prior generations had good hips your dog will not have bad hips unless it was in an accident the caused hip damage

Greyhounds are the only large dog breed as a whole where hip displaysia does not occur this is because they were selectively breed for performance thru racing so they have no genetic lines with

In certain working lines of other breeds this will also be true, like some of the working border collie stock will not have hip problems because the act of working determined which dogs where suitable for breeding, but in the lines bred for pets it will be common without some kind of testing to choose which dogs to breed to prevent

Answer 4

Many people feel glucosamine is helpful for joint health. But the single most important thing you can do to protect your puppy's health right now is to take care of him properly.

Make sure that he doesn't grow too large too fast as this is bad for their bones. You could ask your vet or your breeder how much they think the dog should be growing at any given age. Also, if you are feeding him a puppy formula, be sure that you are feeding him a LARGE breed puppy formula specifically. Personally, for large and giant breed dogs I prefer not to use puppy food at all (puppy foods are higher in fat and protein to support growth...large and giant breeds mature very slowly, so the extra growth support really isn't necessary). I prefer to use either an all life stages food or a premium adult food instead.

The other important thing to take care of his joints is to make sure he isn't getting too much hard exercise. Exercise is great, but hard jumping and lots of running on paved surfaces can cause damage to the growth plates. this doesn't mean no jumping or hard surfaces...it just means that you need to monitor him during such activities and make sure he doesn't overdo it.