Today I would like to discuss diet, and what is best to feed a dog with a ligament injury. I get a lot of questions regarding if you should feed your dog a grain free diet? Answer: yes, you should. So the reason is, gluten and grains such as corn are some of the more inflammatory foods you can feed. We actually want to take down the amount of inflammatory foods that we feed, and not be adding that to the diet. So you want to be looking for gluten and corn free diets if possible.
The next thing to go over is protein. We want to find a really high, good quality, protein source diet. Some people like to feed poultry, I prefer beef, salmon, or venison. Also, you really want to make sure to check the label. It should not say “by product of.” If it says by product of, or chicken by product, that is garbage, please do not give that to your dog. Protein is really important for dogs, as it has amino acids, which are muscle building blocks. So, without those quality protein amino acids, your dog can’t form muscle, and really can’t get that strength back that we need during this healing time.
Some healthy additives to supplement diet are sweet potatoes. Sweet potato is a safe source of amino acids as well. I personally feed salmon and sweet potato, because my dogs have a lot of energy. Another thing to add is celery. Celery can remove uric acid, which causes and makes arthritis form. This can make an injury more painful. So, we want to take out that uric acid. Another additive is fish oil. Fish oil has a great source of omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3’s are helpful in reducing inflammation, and lubricating joints. You can also add coconut oil, in small amounts. This also contains healthy fatty-acids and aids in lubrication of joints.
Thanks, and please let us know if you have any questions!
Nikki, Posh Lead Veterinary Technician
5
years this weekend, our Beloved Golden Angel Pasha had a complete rupture of
her left hind leg and severely damaged meniscus. Our former vet demanded that
11 year old Pasha get TPLO surgery. She said “dog knee braces are
junk.” Then she admitted she had never seen one. Beth discovered Dog knee
braces. Jim would have rushed into TPLO surgery, because “the vet said
so.” Until Jim went to TiggerPoz.com and read the facts about the CCL
racket. Now TiggerPoz recommends the Posh Brace.
After ordering several inferior, but expensive braces, we saw that they did
work, quite well. Pasha was able to bear weight on her leg immediately. But we
wanted a brace that was better: rust proof parts, ladder straps and micro –
buckles (not a lot of cheap velcro), and a more effective design. The other
brace companies refused to modify the braces we had purchased (even after we
offered another $400 to change each of them). All the custom dog knee brace
companies seemed to lack empathy for Pasha. We suspect they have never been through
seeing an 11 year old Dog, who was our child, limping in pain. Their customer
service was seriously deficient. So we set out to correct these problems. A
torn ACL in Dogs is very stressful for the Dog parents also.
We assembled a small team of experts, and in August 2013, Pasha wore the first
Posh Brace. We named our new company after one of her nicknames:
“Posh.” After nearly 5 months of prototyping, we started helping
other Dogs.
Our first customer for our Dog knee brace was a 14 year old beautiful boy named
Cody. He had cancer and was undertaking the hideous chemo (poison). Despite
being the poorest candidate for CCL surgery, his vet went ahead and operated on
Cody. The surgery failed. Cody had a 4 inch long inflamed, oozing incision on
his knee, and could barely stand. We made a posh brace Cody on 12/17/13. It had
to be built so as not to impinge on his painful incision. On 12/23/13, codys’
father, Brett, sent us this email:
“Jim
Just got back from a 45 min walk for first time in three months! He had a blast
and was smiling and marking every mailbox post ( even stood on his braced leg )
like it was nothing! Brace was great and will talk with you later this week!
Merry christmas
Brett & Pam…Cody too!”
That set us on fire! For 2 reasons: 1. that we helped this old, infirm
beautiful Dog and he could walk again with his Mom and Dad. 2. The sheer amoral
avarice shown by some “vets” had to be disrupted.
Since then, we have continually added better designs. This is our 4th edition
of the Posh Brace. 3 years ago, we eliminated the archaic casting requirement
nightmare (using proprietary software to make a mold of your Dogs’ leg from
measurements, pics and other data), and, the “concrete,” inflexible
shells and created a flexible Posh Brace. As Beth, our Co-Founder says:
“who has hard plastic shoes??” In 2016 we hired our first phenomenal
Vet Tech, Nikki. In 2017 – 2018 we hired other great Vet Techs, including Jami.
Because of our thousands of loyal customers, now we help more Dogs recover from
CCL injuries, with NO surgery, around the world, than any other custom Dog knee
brace company. Thank you for letting us help your beautiful Dog!
Give your beautiful Dog a BIG hug for us!
Our
former vet offered us rimadyl to help with our Beloved golden Pashas’ CCL
injury in 2013. Since we had researched the considerable dangers of rimadyl,
previcox, metacam, carprofen and other NSAIDS like, we rejected it. This former
vet never told us anything about how harmful, even fatal, Rimadyl can be for
Dogs.
Unfortunately, the people in the story below, lost their precious Golden,
Sophie, in 2009. Their vet did not mention the severe dangers of Rimadyl to
these Dog parents. Their story, in part, is what helped saved Pasha from the
significant risks of NSAID type anti – inflammatories.
You can read more info about NSAIDS and safe, effective, and homeopathic
remedies at another blog here, called “Must read article about
NSAIDS.”
Here
is Sophies’ Story:
http://www.westword.com/news/pfizer-lawsuit-pet-owners-file-complaint-over-rimadyl-animal-drug-they-say-killed-their-dog-5838747
