tyabblemons Said:

$148.00 for this bag of dog food! Fortunately, we were given this one as a sample, but all the rest we'll have to pay for.

There is good reason. Panda is 15 years old. Four months ago, the vet said she had less than a year to live. I logged the date next year into my phone, and this is the time to beat. She has a strong heart, but she's simply dying of old age and there is nothing we can do or would do about that. The lessons we are all taught by owning pets are invaluable and often define a person.

Panda has very bad chronic arthritis. Well, all arthritis is chronic. Arthritis is where the cartilage and fluid that lubricates and protects bone joints wears away, leaving bone-on-bone grating which is extremely painful. They mostly get it in their back hips, where Panda's is the worst, and her front ankle joints are now playing up.

Panda had an abscess in her tooth and had a visit to the vet's recently. Rose & I had made a decision, and we (crazy people) told the vet that this dog has cost us very little to maintain for her entire life, and that we were prepared to sink a bit of money into her now to give her a better quality of life than she has now. She can't walk properly, she can't stand up sometimes without help, and she's losing control of her bowels. She's ceasing up.

Science is awesome, and clever people have found a way to create an artificial fluid that lines the joints and prevents the bones from grating on each other. The fluid takes about 3 weeks to build up, and must be maintained continuously or it will dissolve away. The company is so confident of a miraculous (I worry about anything 'miraculous') improvement in her condition that they guarantee a better dog in 21 days. We're keeping a diary. It's all the supplements they put in the feed for the arthritis that makes this stuff worth so much. But if they work, it's cheap.

You might be thinking how can Brad & Rose afford to feed just one of their dogs on this expensive stuff? We wondered that as well. But when you think that Panda gets two cups of this dry food per day, which we mix with a little bit of Chum to make it taste better, like a gravy, this bag will last a couple of months. The dry food swells up far more than the commercial stuff from the supermarket - Panda does nothing but drink water for about two hours after she's eaten. And she can't finish it all in one sitting. We put the leftovers up (so Star doesn't eat them), and re-present them to her at about 9pm and she eats the last of it then.

If the super-food works, then obviously we will be happy to pay the cost of it. We asked the vet if we should put Star on a high-quality diet too, as she is overweight though still young. The vet said no, that it was a waste of money and that commercial food supplemented with quality protein & vegies (food you cook yourself) was enough. If she develops symptoms of arthritis as she ages, then the super-food might help her too. But that's for the future.

I'll follow up this post in three weeks, and let you know how Panda's arthritis goes. I will likely publish our diary of notes about feeding this stuff to Panda, if it's interesting reading. Old dogs are a problem for everyone and arthritis in dogs is very common. If it works, and we keep supplying this diet to Panda, we'll work out how long a bag of food lasts, and break the cost down into weekly and daily chunks, so we can see how it compares to commercial food from the supermarket.

Talk soon!

Brad & Rose.