[Akari_32]

I bought some vitamins (got paid $3 for $60 worth a vitamins, whoop whoop! Making money and buyin’ good stuff! :D) and I was wondering if any of these (besides the fish oil, obviously) would be beneficial for the dogs. Here they are:

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx294/Akari53/359C7140-088D-4093-A747-4E3BEB5377C9-157-000000AC6B1E1E90_zpscefb10e1.jpg

Mainly Haley I’m more concerned about things like vitamins with. She’s old and doesn’t keep weight on, but is otherwise healthy and active. I just have to feed her as much as 130 pound Dweezle gets. Her ideal weight would be about 65 pounds, and I guess her to weigh 60-ish. I can get an exact weight if you want me to. She’s not that bad, but she is a little thin. She’ll be 11 in January. She’s got a slight limp in after vigorous activity or after up after being down for an extended period (goes bewteen all four legs). I’ve had her on ProSence vitamins and so far they seen to be helping her get her weight back up and she seems a little more peppy.

Dweezle is good weight and healthy, just old, pretty old for his size actually. He’s 10 in march. Not at all active, just a big furry lump :p Family history of hip problems, but he so far seems to have avoided that, thankfully. His sister has hip dysplasia, and they had to do something like cutting the tendons in both legs…? I dunno.

Bentley is our young little maniac. Just turned 1 in August. Super active, drives us all nuts. Grass allergies cause him to chew his feet and hind legs, but otherwise healthy. He’s been on ProSence fish oil for several months and getting the hair on his backs legs back. Being so small, grass gets him all over, poor dude lol

[Naturella]

Akari,

You didn’t list the vitamins you bought.

[Naturella]

DANG IT! The picture showed up AFTER I sent the above message, wth?! Sorry!

[Akari_32]

I was gunna say… Lol

[Naturella]

Yeah yeah… Tech glitches! But yeah, maybe the cod liver oil, as well as the magnesium and zinc could be good for Haley, but I think more knowledgeable people can answer your question. So don’t take my assumption as advice, lol.

[Akari_32]

The magnesium I figured would be good for the bone health of both older dogs. The fish oil was picked for the dogs as well, for it’s skin uses. The vitamin c is for me, but if the dogs could use it, why not! Vitamin C keeps the dr away LOL

[theBCnut]

I wrote a long reply earlier, but the commenting software ate it when it automatically logged me out. The gist of it was vit C is made by dogs but a little extra might help a senior dog, cod liver oil supplies vit A in large amounts and vit D, which are fat soluable vitamins that the body can’t get rid of if you give too much so I wouldn’t add them to kibble much, Magnesium is supposed to be balanced with zinc and calcium and I don’t know what the ratio is. I really like to add a super green to my dogs’ foods like spirulina or kelp, they have loads of micronutrients that the dog food manufacturer are not required to make sure the dog food has.

[Akari_32]

Haha, I’ve had that happen a few times lol It’s ok 🙂

I have noticed since adding fish oil to Bentley’s food I’ve been able to feed him less. You may recall this little 8 pound freak eats a whole cup @.@ I was adding it daily, when his fur was really bad, but since its almost back to full length now, I’ve only been doing it a few times a week. I’ve been giving him 1/2 to 1 cup now, usually closer to 3/4 to 1. I wonder if I should apply this theory to Haley? She needs the meat on her bones, not Bentley! lol

Also related to this… I was going to pick up some apple cider vinegar for Haley yesterday, but I wasn’t sure if it was the right kind! I read somewhere about unfiltered and something else, but I couldn’t find anything like that on the bottle, so I opted not to get it yet, since we seem to be on a pretty good track with those ProSence doggy vitamins. I also considered keifer, but forgot to pick it up LOL I just want unflavored, plain, correct? And how much of each of these should I give her?

Where can I get kelp and spirulina? There aren’t really any near by health food food stores, so I’m limited to Publix, WinnDixie (yuck!) and WalMart (more yuck!), and maybe Target. And again, how much do I give?

[theBCnut]

What size is Haley again? The Apple Cider Vinegar needs to have the Mother, it’s a cloudy bit of goo in the bottom of the bottle. That means they haven’t filtered out, cooked, and killed all the good stuff. I use 1/2 teaspoon of the ACV for every cup of food.

The kefir should be plain so you aren’t adding sugar to your dogs diet. They get about a teaspoon for every 10 lbs of body weight.

Look in the supplements aisle for a seaweed supplement. As far as how much, for your little guy, 1/4 to 1/2 a tablet daily.

[Akari_32]

She’s prob’ly about 60 pounds, Patty. I can weigh her if you’d like.

The apple cider vinegar didn’t appear to have any goopies in the bottom, so I’m glad I didn’t get it. Think maybe I could get it at WalMart?

How much roughly does kefir cost, and how big are the bottles?

Is there anything I can give Bentley to help with his grass allergies? The poor guy can’t live on itch cream, baby wipes and medicated shampoo for the rest of his life lol

[theBCnut]

Walmart carries Heinz Unfiltered All Natural Apple Cider Vinegar with the Mother in 1 quart bottles.

I think a pint of Kefir is about $4. Haley should get a little less than 1/4 cup.

Try giving Bentley bee pollen granules, if you can find them. And try rinsing him off, at least his feet, and mix one cup of white vinegar in a gallon of water to wipe him down with. do these long enough to see if it helps, if it does great, if it doesn’t discontinue. Each of them help some dogs, but not all.

[Akari_32]

Thanks, I’ll check it out 🙂

Hmmm, that’s pretty expensive. $1 a meal? I think I’ll have to pass on that for now.

Bee pollen granules?? Where would I find that? We’ve been doing the baby wipes, and they seem to help. I got cheap Publix brand ones to start with just to try, and they dry out pretty quickly once out of the package. I’ll try the vinegar, and if that doesn’t do anything, I’ll buy a better brand of wipes.

For the vinegar, could I use a spray bottle to wet him down some and then dry him with a wash cloth? This is something that would be kept by the door, so it has to not look tacky, like a big thing of water and some towels sitting there as you walk in LOL

[theBCnut]

If you are talking about the kefir being expensive, you only need to add some kind of probiotic a couple times a week to get the ongoing benefits from them. Human ones are fine. Swanson’s is cheap.

[Mom2Cavs]

Bee pollen granules can be found at springtimeinc.com. They have awesome supplements and have great sales, too.

[Akari_32]

Does Sam’s club sell freakishly huge bottles of kefir? Seems like they have everything there :p Also, I’ve got some (expired) Centrum probiotics, the powder kind you add over food or to a drink or whatever– comes in little packets (bought them to make fish food). Would these work, for now at least?

Thanks Cavs, I’ll check it out 🙂

[theBCnut]

Probiotics go bad fairly quickly so I would suspect that those are no longer any good, they won’t do any harm to try them, they just might not help.

Don’t use a vinegar spray!

The idea is to get stuff that is sitting on the surface of the coat wiped off, spraying will carry it deeper. If you are actually going to give her a rinse, then it’s fine, but there really isn’t must point in doing both.

[Cyndi]

I pay only about $2.75 for the Lifeway kefir at Walmart, when they have the unflavored ones.

[theBCnut]

Sheesh, I pay 3something for the same thing, down in FL.

[Cyndi]

Wow! I didn’t realize the price varied so much. You had said about $4, I thought you might have just been guessing. Didn’t realize you pay that much more… Well, I finally found ONE good thing about living in Ohio…..cheaper kefir, lol!

[Akari_32]

Where in Florida are you Patty? (just curious lol) Maybe we’re neighbors :p

[theBCnut]

Space Coast. And you?

[Akari_32]

Just south of Sarasota 🙂

[theBCnut]

I lived in St Pete for a while about 20 years ago.

[Akari_32]

Oh that’s cool! I go to SPC lol It’s such a long drive @.@

[Akari_32]

A little update…

The last few days I’ve been sooo busy! I haven’t mixed their food in several days (just been giving them straight dry), and a few times I’ve even forgotten to give Haley her doggy vitamins >.<

BUT! We’re back on track, and I’ve started Haley on the fish oil pills. The bottle says 3 daily (one with each meal), but this for an adult human, so I figured I’d start with two a day and see how it goes. Thoughts?

I’ve also opted to use just the fish oil at this point in time. I with the holidays coming up, I don’t have the time to screw around with the doses and balancing them out with other vitamins and whatever. So I kept the zink and C for my self and sent the rest to my grandpa. He can use them. I do still have proper apple cider vinegar on my list, I just have to rememeber to get it after work. You’d think working in a grocery store would help with that, but really I just want to clock out and run when i get off LOL

[theBCnut]

My local Walmart has recently gotten more flavors of kefir and the price has gone down to $2.95 for a quart. Woo Hoo!! I guess my talking it up to everyong I meet has had an impact on sales.

[Akari_32]

Oh cool, I’ll have to see how much it is here. Still haven’t gotten it yet, as she seems to be doin good on vitamins, fish oil and probiotics. Don’t want to do too much to her at once as she tends to have tummy troubles. And I just remembered, she sometimes has problems with dairy… Maybe kefir isn’t the best idea for her?

[theBCnut]

Maybe not!

[Author]

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