Greetings,
Welcome to this month's issue of The Pet Arthritis Chronicle. Please pass this along to your friends!

Table of Contents:

1. Featured Articles from The Pet Arthritis Resource Center
2. Oxidation and Free Radicals
3. Pet Arthritis Message Boards

Featured Pet Arthritis Content

A Guide to Glucosamine Products for Pets Canine Hip Dysplasia Stories of Users of Rimadyl Natural Arthritis Relief for Pets Recommended Books on easing arthritis pain in Pets Using Glucosamine to Ease Arthritis Pain in Pets

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Oxidation and Free Radicals

For regular readers of this Chronicle, I have tried to explain the significance of free radicals and what they mean to a pet with arthritis. I think it is important to fully understand this issue because even the disease itself (osteorarthritis) can cause the formation of free radicals and increase the effects of OA for your pet.

Oxidation
There are a lot of anti-oxidants but the most important are vitamins A (in the form of beta carotene); C and E--the "big three" as I call them. Although precise needs of a pet differ, your arthritic pet needs to ingest these anti-oxidants on a regular basis. Preferably, all three of these anti-oxidants should be present in the liquid glucosamine you are using for your pet's joint care.

Free Radicals
I have often referred to free radicals as "debris." A little more detailed explanation is that they are unsteady or unbalanced molecules that have lost an electron or have gained more of them. There are a lot of reasons free radicals develop and you should be aware of them.

First of all, stress and medication can cause free radicals. Too much exercise can also create them. What is even more telling is what I just mentioned; namely, that joint disease itself, can create free radicals. The free radicals develop from the inflammation that accompanies osteoarthritis and for that reason; it is a good idea to have all-natural anti-inflammatories (such as bromelain, boswellin, omega 3, etc.) in a liquid glucosamine supplement. The anti-inflammatories (at least in theory) should reduce the development of free radicals.

What's the problem?
Those are not the only reasons that free radicals develop. They also occur as chemical reactions with oxygen are occurring in the body. When they "wander" through the body, they steal electrons from other molecules to try to stabilize their balance. Unstable oxygen molecules (singlet oxygen since they only have one molecule instead of two) are some of the most destructive.

These freed radicals cause enormous damage to proteoglycans and collagen (within the cartilage matrix) and cause osteoarthritis to move even more quickly on its destructive path.

The Solution
What these antioxidants do is bind with the free radicals in (singlet) oxygen to once again stabilize them. Not only do they act to reduce the risk associated with them for OA, they also act to improve the overall health of your pet.

Conclusion
In short, if you are going to utilize a high-quality liquid glucosamine formula to help your pet overcome the debilitating effects of OA, make sure that the glucosamine you are choosing has anti-oxidant vitamins A, E and C included. These free radical "fighters" are not only desirable, they are essential to providing the best possible joint care for your pet.

See you next time.

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Pet Arthritis Message Boards

Dogs

• Canine Hip Dysplasia
• Arthritis in Dogs
• Glucosamine for Dogs

Cats

• Feline Hip Dysplasia
• Glucosamine for Cats
• Arthritis in Cats

Other Animals

• Arthritis in Other Animals

Here's a few sample posts from the Forum...

Suzette
Posted on 13 Dec 2003

Yesterday my 1 year & 9 month old Black Labrador was diagnosed with severe Hip Dysplasia in his right hip and mild HD in his left. The vet informed me that he has most likely had this condition for awhile and that is was probably caused by an injury earlier in his life. I have no way of knowing what type of injury he sustained as I just adopted him this past May from my local Humane Society. Anyway, the Vet recommended two options: that Buddy have the total hip replacement surgery $4000.00 that would be performed at the Vet College or if I could not afford that, then he could perform the excision surgery in his hospital for $1000.00. I asked the Vet if there was anything else that I could do for Buddy and he suggested an aspirin as needed for pain for up to 10 days, as aspirin can cause bleeding. Anyway, since the diagnosis, I have looked up numerous articles on the Internet and have read that this excision surgery seems to be more for dogs under 40 lbs. My Lab weighs 63 lbs. Any suggestions or thoughts on this? All advice would be most welcome.

I have been searching the internet looking for an answer for our famliy pet. He is 8 1/2 yrs old, a shepard and shar-pei mix. He's beautiful. Our vet has diagnosed him w/arthritis. He gave him a cortizone shot last week and EtoGesic pills to be given once daily. Our dog showed improvement for the fist few days after the shot of cortizone, but now he has returned to the state he was in before we took him to the vet, even though we are giving him the pills. Our vet didn't give us much hope and indicated that if, we didn't see any improvement within 2 weeks, that it would be time to "put him down". Currently, our dog cannot get onto our beds (yes, he sleeps with us or our daughter) without assistance. When he gets off of the bed, he will yelp, as the impact of getting down hurts his joints. He no longer wags his tail. He is having difficulty getting up from a lying position. He doesn't sit, he either lays or stands. When he stands, he continually moves about alternating his wieght from foot to foot. I know he's in pain, but I'm just not ready to give up on him yet - - especially at Christmas time. Do any of you have any words of wisdom to help our "Harley"?

Post your own message on The Pet Arthritis Message Board now!

This concludes the December Issue of The Pet Arthritis Chronicle. Look for the next issue in your inbox on January 15th, 2004!

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Have a great December from The Pet Arthritis Resource Center and The Pet Arthritis Chronicle. See you next month!