Keeping your dog’s joints strong is all about keepign your dog healhty. By providing proper nutrition, regular exercise time, and enough outdoor activities, you are actually keeping your dog strong.
By doing so you are enabling your canine to live longer, and you want to postpone that final goodbye for as much as possible, right?
Just like humans, dogs are prone to certain health issues throughout their lifetime – it’s just how it goes, both in the canine and human world.
Plus, again just like humans, dogs might have certain genetic conditions that may cause severe or mild joint problems from birth.
Dogs develop joint problems due to many reasons, and no matter how they got into that painful situation it’s important to work on it, reduce inflammation, decrease pain, and repair cells.
Did you know taht some foods and supplements can strengthen your dog’s joints? Providing some natural and nutritional support can reduce the overall symptoms.
Joint Function In Dogs
Joint function is essential from the second of birth. To grow puppies need strogn joints to support their growing muscles.
Once they are born they get what they need to grom from their mother’s milk, which is why they shouldn’t be separated from the litter too soon.
This is the same reason why after-separation nutrition is so important. Larger breeds must have proper diets that help joints. If they aren’t provided teh right nutrition they can have problems later on in life.
Dogs have synovial joints in their shoulders, hips, elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles. They may seem simple, but in fact, joints are complex structures.
The part where two bones meet is softly protected by a tough joint capsule, which is covered with soft tissues, tendons, ligaments, adn muscles. Joints are responsible for movement and stability in dogs.
So, if your dog has any issues with his joint it will affect his entire life quality.
Joint pain is something that dogs cannot avoid durign their lifetime, but it’s definitely something that can be postponed with proper care, nutrition, and exercise.
Before we elaborate on which foods support your dog’s joint health, let’s see what are seven signs your dog may experience when having joint pain.
Is Your Dog Experiencing Joint Pain?
As mentioned earlier, dogs tend to experience joint pain at one point in their life. This is common as they get older – especially for larger breeds.
Since dogs cannot communicate as humans do, they rely on their body language for us to understand what they want and what they are feeling.
This is why it’s so important to know how your dog moves and behaves on a daily level, so you could easily read his body language.
If your dog shows any of the following symptoms, you may want to schedule that veterinarian appointment:
- Your dog has a hard time climbing stairs
- Your dog suddenly needs extra time to move from one position to another
- Your Fido isn’t excited to go outside
- He cannot jump as he used to
If you have noticed these changes it’s clear that you need to take certain steps to keep your dog stronger as long as possible.
In fact, you need to take steps to ease the dog’s pain. However, even if your dog doesn’t show signs of joint issues, you can still act preventatively and, hopefully, stop discomfort before it starts.
Everything starts with nutrition. By providing proper nutrition you can affect many conditions and keep your dog healthy.
Here are five foods to introduce to your dog to keep his joints stronger.
1. Fish Oil
You probably knew that fish oil is beneficial for people, but did you know that it can serve your dog great service, as well?
Fish oil is packed with healhty omega fatty acids, which makes it a perfect choice for your dog’s diet.
Omega fatty acids contain natural chemicals that support (supplement) joint tissues. You can think of fish oil as oil that lubricates the squeaky wheel, the tissues between in between the joints. It supports normal functioning and keeps things in order.
If you ever find time to read dog food labels you might notice that many contain fish oil to help with every issue. Plus, fish oil keeps the skin and coat shiny and healthy.
Many dog owners choose to add a dash of fish oil to dry food to keep that coat shiny, healthy, and soft. Plus, dogs love where there is a bit added to their food.
2. Celery
Did you know that celery is a great vegetable when you are on a path of losing weight? Moreover, did you know what this water-based vegetable is beneficial for canines, as well?
This popular vegetable can decrease joint inflammation.
Celery contains polysaccharides and antioxidants proven to decrease pain and pressure in joints. Celery also contains luteolin, a component that is an anti-inflammatory antioxidant.
How to serve celery to your dog? You can serve it as raw slices, but the seeds are much more potent for optimal results. Always chop the celery into thin pieces, because you don’t want it to be a choking hazard.
3. Coconut Oil
Coconut oil is everywhere nowadays. People use it for several conditions, from hair to fungal infections. Coconut oil is one of the healthiest oils on the market and serves as an excellent substance for inflammation-reducing.
Coconut oil is packed with fatty acids, which help the body oil its hinges. At the same time, coconut oil helps strengthen bones because it’s rich in calcium and magnesium content.
One great thing abotu coconut oil is taht you can use it both topically and internally, adding a daily spoonful at dinner or breakfast time – depending on when you feed your dog.
Dogs love sweet flavors, so organic coconut oil may be more than interesting to your dog.
Just make sure that you dont overdo the amount, and avoid feeding your dog with human sweet foods, such as chocolate and so on. Always choose dog-friendly treats that are specially created for dogs.
In the meantime, learn which human foods are safe for dogs, and which should be avoided no matter what.
4. Blueberry
Blueberries are a great addition to any dog’s diet. These little berries are often seen in dog’s commercial food and there is a good reason for that.
Blueberries are packed with nutritional perks that enable joint support and overall health. Still, you shoudl overdue when it comes to feeding them in raw shape.
They are great as dietary bites – they are small, easy to chew, and are packed with super-powerful antioxidants to keep your dog strong and healthy.
Plus, they can help keep cell damage away. Using them as a motivational snack is a great way to train your canine. If you want to avoid any chemical exposure, you can alwasy choose organic berries.
5. Papaya
Fruit is a great addition to dog food when you want to increase joint health. Papaya contains flesh that’s soft and easy to digest, which makes it a great option for dogs with bad teeth. Plus, it is sweet enough, so dogs will love the taste.
Papaya is rich in vitamin C. As you may know already, Vitamin C is an antioxidant that relaxes and strengthens joints. However, be careful of seeds because they contain trace amounts of cyanide, making the dog sick. Always remove the seeds first.
Last but not least you should think about presenting turmeric to your dog.
You probably have this spice in your kitchen cabinet already – so why not use it to help your dog? This yellow-orange spice is in fact closely related to ginger.
Its most active ingredient is curcumin and is responsible for the ingredient’s yellow-orange color, and for turmeric’s purported benefits.
In humans regular consumption of turmeric can:
- Decrease the chances of heart attacks
- Reduce skin irritation after radiation treatments
- Control knee discomfort from joint discomfort and in this case turmeric acts similar to ibuprofen
In dogs consumption of turmeric can:
- Maintain joint-related pain
- Reduce blood clots
- Serve as antioxidant
- Boost the immune system
- Help with irritable bowel disease
The Bottom Line
Only combined together with a proper exercise regime, these ingredients can give proper results. These ingredients arent magical and you should expect great results after only a few days.
They work in the long run. Provide high-quality food packed with these ingredients, or add them to dry food to mix up a bit – your dog will appreciate a new flavor.
When shopping for commercial food always double-check if there are ingredients that your dog’s joints could benefit from. If not, make sure that you add them later on, while serving food. At the same time, provide enough exercise – that’s what will keep your dog fit in the long run.
