I’ve eaten more crow in the last 12 months than in my whole life before that.
*sigh* Life has a funny way of doing that doesn’t it. If you’re lucky, you live long enough to see all those things you swore you would never do come true.
I said I would always be the kind of person who walked their dogs, no matter what.
We have a deck potty and I couldn’t love it more.
I was an advocate for letting dogs be dogs, not babies.
My dog has a stroller.
Now I’m eating crow again. I’m kind of getting used to it. It’s nice with wild rice.
You guys know me. I can’t say enough good things about sharing fresh, real food with your pets.I want my dog food to be made with meat, not meat by products. I want my treats to be made of things I recognize, not a list of things I can’t pronounce and I want any flavours to be REAL.
Well…I usually do.
Ever since Felix tore his ACL last summer, we’ve been looking for ways to provide his body with everything he needs to heal and stay healed, with the goal of hopefully preventing a blow out on the other ligament. One of the first things our veterinary specialist recommended was a supplement to help support joint and connective tissue function, while also making Fe’s joints feel more comfortable. Sounds awesome right?
Yeah, I was psyched too, until I found out that it comes in a great, “highly palatable chicken liver flavour”.
WHOMP WHOMP. Oh hey! Awesome joint supplement? Meet Felix’s ridiculous allergies. If I’ve learned one thing in the 7 years Felix has been with me, it’s that chicken, chicken flavour and chicken in pretty much any form is going to turn him into a walking, scratching hot spot. The idea of giving him a supplement with chicken in it every day filled me with dread and anxiety. It took us forever to get Felix’s allergies under control and make him comfortable. Ruining all that work was simply not an option.
Still, after our vet explored alternatives with us, we were convinced this was THE supplement. All the other product options had chicken flavour in them as well and the vet just wasn’t as convinced that they were as effective. We started a two-pronged approach, alternating being the chicken-flavoured supplement Felix’s shouldn’t have and a home mixed custom supplement that I made by cracking open human capsules. (Note to self: Handling powdered green lipped mussel, powdered shrimp & powdered crab when you have life threatening shellfish allergy is incredibly stupid and I’ve done it 4 or 5 days a week for the last 9 or 10 months. I’ve only broken out into allergic hives a few times, so you know, no big deal, right? Man, the things we do for these dogs!) This kind of worked, except that most days, I had to fight Fe to take his homemade supplement mix and a lot more days, I had to fight Kol to keep him from taking Fe’s supplements for him. These battles were waged with varying degrees of success. (Let’s just say I am not overly concerned about Kol’s ligaments. They’re getting plenty of support.)
We would have kept on this way forever, until I met someone from Vetriscience at BlogPaws.
We got to talking about Felix and his allergies and how I thought there was a real market out there for supplements that are allergy friendly and flavoured with a novel protein. As we talked, I learned something that kind of rocked my world:
That great supplement my vet recommended? It doesn’t just come in a chicken liver flavoured chew.
Glyco Flex also comes in a chewable tablet flavoured with imitation roast chicken flavour.
That sound you hear? It’s a canine angel chorus howling in celebration.
I’ve never been so excited to hear the words “imitation” and “flavour” used in the same sentence.
The imitation chicken flavour in Glyco Flex isn’t chicken flavour at all, it’s a vegetable based flavour that they somehow magic into a chicken-y taste. HOLY WOOF! ISN’T THAT EXCITING?!
I still love real food.
When I have a choice, real is still almost always better. Almost. Not always though. If imitation chicken flavour allows my Felix and dogs like him to get the support they need to stay healthy and active, then I am going to jump on board. If that imitation chicken flavour means Fe and I can cancel our nightly WWE Smackdown so he can take a tablet he happily chews up and I don’t have to worry that he’s not getting what he needs, then I am all in. Ideals are good to have, but we can’t cut off our nose to spite our face.
Fe has been taking the Glyco Flex II tablets for two weeks and I have already started to see subtle changes. Tonight on our walk, Fe wanted to turn it into a run. I’m still concerned he may be injuring his ligament in his non-injured knee and it may be too late to fully stop that, but I feel good knowing that I am doing something and I feel good knowing that Glyco Flex has a proven record of helping pets with mobility issues move easier. Seems like a little artificial flavour just might be worth so many potential gains.
Now, pass the crow.
Have you ever had to relax your ideals to do the right thing for your dog?
Kol’s Note: We were given a bottle of the Glyco Flex II Chewable tabs by Vetriscience at BlogPaws. We were not asked to write about it or share our experience, in fact, on arriving home, I realized that we never even exchanged information. All opinions expressed are 100% my own.
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Like most things we learn, we adapt, we compromise, or we don’t survive. You have to decide what is in the best interests of the dog and works within the limits of what you can do and you move forward.
Exactly Bailey! What’s best for Fe is always the most important factor.
I was excited to read this as Jack has chicken allergies too…as well as IBD, so anything chicken is out. We’re with you on the ‘real’ aspect of what we give him, but sometimes the benefits of one outweighs the others.
Exactly! Fe’s diet is otherwise as close to perfect as I can get it, so a small amount of imitation flavour is really no big deal when compared to the possible benefits Glyco Flex can offer. (One study done in WA showed that dogs receiving it saw a 41% increase peak vertical force. While it doesn’t sound like much, that’s a pretty remarkable improvement.
I’ve found that Silas’s allergies–which aren’t quite as severe onset as Felix’s–are fairly variable about being triggered by flavorings. On the one hand, I can no longer buy treats with “natural flavors,” because natural flavors=chicken, and even a few treats will make him sick. On the other hand, I still give him a beef-flavored heart worm chew every month, because it doesn’t seem to be enough to set off an episode.
I can’t find any kind of multivitamin for dogs that Silas will take consistently. The good tasting ones=chicken, and the unflavored ones he won’t eat.
I know this sounds crazy, but have you considered putting the unflavoured in a pill crusher and mixing it with liver dust in a protein he can have? You can put chopped dehydrated liver in a pepper grinder to turn it into a dust and then mix with the plain vitamin powder. You can even put it into capsules for easy dosing or if Silas will swallow those.
I love finding solutions that work, even if it means eating crow. 🙂 I’m assuming you’ve tried beef trachea and duck feet? Or does duck trigger the same allergies as chicken? They’re both great glucosamine and chondroitin sources, the trachea and feet.
He does get both trach & duck feet treats, but only infrequently. Weight gain is something I have to watch with him, so frequent snacks like that, regardless of how nutritious they are can be tough.
I really need to get Sampson on something, I’m just currently waffling.
Glad you found something that Fe can take, best you leave those shellfish supplements alone. 🙂
LOL, oh this is still chock full of shellfish. It really is the best way to provide the added glucosamine and condroitin, plus reduce inflammation and all sorts of other good stuff, so…I live on the edge. It’s all for Fe, right?
Whatever the dog needs to have his or her best life is where I’m going to go, so I’m with you Jodi! Oh, and on the shellfish thing? Living on the razor’s edge there! Gloves…no, really!
It wasn’t so much the skin contact that worried me, as the possibilty that I would inhale a bunch of the powder and die in my kitchen. LOL, Felix is totally worth the risk though and I WAS careful.
I don’t mind eating crow … I think all open minded people who are willing to learn and adapt have to eat some from time to time. It is great that you are open to discussing options and weighing out pro’s and cons. I sometimes have a hard time with people proclaiming it HAS to be done this way without consideration for the situation or dog. Pat yourself on the back for being open minded enough to listen to the all the alternatives and coming up with something that fits your dog and their needs 🙂
I’m a huge advocate for the “Is it right for THIS DOG” mindset, which is why I spend half my life biting my tongue when people ask for dog food recommendations online. LOL
Your replies to comments are just about as entertaining as the post itself! 🙂
Glyco Flex, huh? I’m going to have to check that out and compare it to what I just started Sarah on. It’s been exactly 4 weeks since Sarah’s surgery for bilateral luxating patella, and I need to get this gal moving. Her surgery was more intensive as they had to move and realign her bones (in addition to the traditional surgery for luxating patella), so her recovery period is much more difficult than I had originally anticipated. I need to do whatever I can to protect her joints, etc.
Ugh, poor Sarah! Definitely ask your vet about it Sarah. Ours was very enthusiastic about it and I’m hopeful it will do great things for ol’ Hopalong over here.
I’ve been giving Callie Cosequin DS for YEARS — since she was diagnosed with hip dysplaysia as a youngster — but I’m thinking that they just aren’t working any more. The Glyco Flex II sound like a viable option, and thankfully none of my girls have food allergies. I might order a bottle and see if they help Callie. If they do, I’ll switch Shadow over, too.
You may even want to look at the next level, the Glyco Flex III. Hopefully they help her!
I just love what we’re willing to do for our dogs, including eating crow!
I would do pretty much anything for my little Fluffball. He has his paw placed firmly on my heart!
Wait, wait, wait. OK. How do you know if a flavoring is imitation or not? Like, will it be spelled out? You know my struggles with Cooper, and this post just BLEW MY MIND. (He doesn’t need joint care, but as far as other supplements… seriously. Mind? Blown.)
On this supplement bottle it clearly says “imitation chicken flavour” but I didn’t really know what that meant. Luckily, I was able to chat with them at BlogPaws and get a better explanation. I would suspect that if it isn’t a naturally based flavour they would have to declare it is “imitation” or “artificial” flavour on the bottle.
I’m on a similar treatment as Fe, trying to heal my achy breaky ACL. My human has got me some supplement that includes chicken egg membrane and lots of other good stuff, plus she’s gonna look into making bone broth which is also great for healing…
We LOVE bone broth Alfie and it really is great (and ridiculously easy to make). Both dogs here get it and they think it’s a crazy good treat, so don’t tell them it’s good for them, OK?
I can’t really think of a situation where I had to relax my ideals for Chester & Gretel. They don’t have allergies though, or health issues that require treatment, so I think my ideals are already more relaxed than mine. Well…wait….maybe. I don’t like to give the pups meds if they don’t need them but I have snuck Gretel a little doggyy prozac once or twice. THAT I feel bad about but it was a lifesaver for the situation.
Anxiety can be tough on a pup! If you were going somewhere you knew would stress her out past her comfort level, I think it’s great you took steps to help her keep her cool (and it’s not like you drug her all the time to keep her docile! Don’t feel bad!)
Well, thanks. She has come along way since I got her but she will ALWAYS default to anxious to some degree. I don’t take her places I KNOW will be enormously unmanageable for her. However, I DO take her places that I know will test her comfort level so she can learn to adapt. I want it to be a pleasant experience for her though so I will give her a tiny dose on VERY rare occasions.
I hear ya! Felix is so much better, but there’s still things that set him off. By keeping him below threshold in those situations, we can keep working on them and improving and THAT is worth something.