Salmon Oil on My Old Dog's Supper: A Farm Owner's Story

Duchess is nine years old, sixty-four pounds, and she has hip dysplasia in both hips. Our vet found it when she was seven. What I noticed before the diagnosis was not a limp. It was the getting up. She would lie on the concrete in the pole barn while I worked, and when she stood she rocked forward twice before her back end came along with her.

You do not get a warning light on a dog. You get a dog that stops walking the porch steps and starts taking a run at them.

Right after the diagnosis, two years ago, our vet suggested Cosequin. She gets the number of tablets the label lists for her weight, every morning, and she takes them like a treat. The bottle sits on the kitchen counter by the coffee maker. Around six weeks in, she got up off the barn floor with less rocking.

Last year I asked him about the dull coat. She had been licking at her front legs, and the hair along her back had gone flat and dry. He suggested a fish oil, so I bought a 32 ounce pump bottle of Natural Dog Company Wild Alaskan Salmon Oil. Nobody sent it to me and I did not get it free. I paid for it on Amazon like anybody else.

The routine is simple enough that I have not once skipped it. One pump on her evening kibble, at the amount the label gives for her weight. The bottle lives in the fridge door once it is opened. No measuring cup, no dribble down the side of the bowl, and she licks the bowl clean whether or not I stirred it in well.

Her coat came back glossy in about a month. I cannot tell you what the oil is doing for her hips, because she has been on Cosequin the whole time.

Before that bottle I wasted a little money. I tried a chewable from the feed store that she turned her nose up at, and a powder that ended up half full in the trash. I am not going to name either one. She is a Labrador that will not eat everything, which is saying something. About a month into the salmon oil my wife commented on the coat before I did. The shine was back along her back and the flaky patches were gone.

The hips are a different story and I will not dress it up. She has been on Cosequin for two years and on the salmon oil for one, so I cannot separate one from the other. If you want me to say the oil is the reason she still gets around, I cannot tell you that honestly. What I can tell you is the whole routine is working well enough that she still follows me around the barn and still meets me at the truck. Nine is nine. I am not expecting her to be four again.

It has not fixed everything. Cold mornings still slow her down. Last January, on ice, she could not get her back legs up the three porch steps, and I bought a rear support sling that now hangs on a hook by the back door. In March I bought a folding ramp for the back seat of the crew cab, because I was tired of lifting her. Fourteen months back I also put an orthopedic bed by the woodstove, and she sleeps on it every night. The salmon oil did not replace any of those. It is one part of a stack.

Where it earns its place is that it costs me no argument. A dog with sore hips is a dog you are already asking to do things she would rather not do. The last thing I want is a fight at suppertime. She does not know anything is in the bowl.

One thing I will say plain. Do not guess at the amount. The label gives it by weight and our vet confirmed it for her. And if your dog has not been diagnosed, get that done first. Plenty of things look like arthritis in an older dog and not all of them are.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

I would tell you that you are going to spend money on this dog either way, and the only question is where. I would rather spend it on a bottle that goes on her supper than on a surgery three years down the road. A worn bearing does not heal itself. You catch it early, you lighten the load, and you keep it turning. I would tell you to get the diagnosis first, keep her weight down, keep her nails short, and put something soft between the dog and the concrete. Concrete is the hardest thing in my barn and she spent ten years lying on it.

Then I would tell you what I actually did. Natural Dog Company Wild Alaskan Salmon Oil goes on her kibble every evening, and has for a year. I bought it myself and I will buy it again. If your old dog has gone dull in the coat and slow on the steps, that is where I would start, and I would have the vet look at the hips in the same visit.