An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure

If your dog is 5 years or older it may be time for you to start thinking about the future today. Adding vitamins and supplements now may help keep your pet in good health physically and mentally. Supplements like glucosamine, condroitin and MSM not only help lubricate your pets joints, but they also help prevent cartilage breakdown, promote cartilage growth and reduce inflammation. Essential Fatty Acids (EFA's)also assit with inflammation, but also offer other health benefits.

Unfortunately, a deficiency of either linoleic acid or alpha-linolenic acid (found in EFA's) has been shown to produce the following symptoms: Eczema, hair loss, liver degeneration, behavioral disturbances, kidney degeneration, susceptibility to infections, failure of wound healing, sterility in males, miscarriage in females, arthritis-like conditions, heart and circulatory problems, growth retardation, weakness, impairment of vision, tissue inflammation, edema, low metabolic rate, and some kinds of immune dysfunction, hives, colitis, and asthma (Erasmus, 1993, Pitchford, 1993).

THE GOOD NEWS:
Most of these conditions can be reversed by dietary supplementation with high quality essential fatty acids in the proper ratio of Omega - 6 to Omega - 3.

There are also many herbs that can assit with arthritis. Go to http://www.wellbeings.com to pick-up the book "All You Ever Wanted to Know About Herbs for Pets". This wonderful book has vast information on how to use herbs with hundreds of conditons. A must have.