[Jason Carlton]

My beagle mix is 13 now. He's had benign knots under his skin his whole life, and in the last year or so I can tell that he's dealing with arthritis; slowly walking up steps, rarely chases the Frisbee, etc.

A few years ago he started to have seizures when he gets nervous or scared, so unfortunately a vet visit is out of the question :-( Last visit, the vet thought he might have a heart attack so I rushed him out ASAP. He's not an holistic vet anyway, though, so I'm not sure if this is something I could ask him.

I've given him golden paste off and on for years; I'm not sure that it really helps, but I guess it doesn't hurt.

I currently feed him Sojos Mature, which includes coconut:

Sojos Complete Senior Food Turkey & Salmon Recipe | Sojos

www.sojos.com

Do you think that I can just add the turmeric powder to his bowl and get the same benefits as if I had cooked it with coconut oil?

 

[storyist]

When I looked into turmeric, it needed the fat and also black pepper to be fully effective. I think you can get capsules made for humans that include what's needed. Have you tried things like Cosequin (glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate with MSM) or green-lipped mussels for the arthritis? You might see if there's a mobile vet in your area or one who will do a home visit for a dog like yours.

 

[Jason Carlton]

My girlfriend used to make the paste for herself, and she read the same thing about the fat and pepper. But she has a full time job and a side hustle, so when we run out it always takes awhile to get around to making more :-/

Since the food already has coconut and healthy fats, I was hoping that I might be able to just add the turmeric powder and skip a step. What do you think if I were to just grind some pepper in it, too?

The Sojos has glucosamine and chondroitin in it, but I don't know how much he actually needs so I'm open to an additional supplement. I give him additional omega oil liquid, which I THINK is probably overkill but I don't think it can hurt.

I'm not familiar with green lipped mussels, I'll have to look that one up! Thanks for the tip

Unfortunately, I'm in a rural area so there aren't any mobile vets. And I'm really not sure how he would handle that, anyway. My girlfriend's mom comes to visit and he panics for hours... and he's known her his whole life! This is a pretty big issue around here, honestly; when his time comes I have no clue how to handle it :-( I let my first dog pass naturally, but it was a horrible, horrible mistake!! I swore I'd never do that again, but I don't know what choice I'll have. I just pray that he passes painlessly in his sleep. But that might be for another thread later...

 

[storyist]

I'm no turmeric expert, but what I read makes me think they have to be mixed together. Kibble with coconut wouldn't cut it. Also, I once did the math on a kibble that claimed it had glucosamine in it, and it had nowhere near enough. It's like foods that say they have, say, blueberries - I have this vision of a huge vat of gallons and gallons of some mix that will become kibble and someone throwing one of those little 6-ounce packages of blueberries in it.

What you do when you need to take him on a final vet trip is get a sizeable dose of some kind of tranquilizer or knock out med to give him at home first. Talk to that last vet where you had to rush him out and see if they'd prescribe something for you. You might even be able to get him in for a regular vet visit that way, and maybe it's time to put him on daily calming meds if he reacts that badly to a visit from someone he knows. There are also arthritis meds the vet can prescribe.

P.S. Believe it or not, making golden paste isn't rocket science - guys can do it.

 

[Jason Carlton]

I wanted to follow up on this for the sake of future readers...

I gave dry turmeric powder a shot, thinking that it couldn't really do any harm to try. So I added 1/2 teaspoon to his meals, twice a day (I forget the source, but I'd found somewhere that this was the recommended dosage for his weight of about 30lbs).

My other dog refuses to eat food with even a little turmeric, but the beagle (Bane) has always loved it!

But I could honestly see an improvement, even more so than when I used the golden paste! In the last year I had noticed him struggling to go up and down stairs, but for the last month he's been much faster. He hadn't played frisbee in years, either, but more recently he's been running and trying to catch it like his little sister!

So at this point, I can honestly say that I would recommend turmeric powder mixed with Sojos Mature dog food for an older dog. Other foods may not contain coconut, which I understand to be crucial for absorption, so if you use something else then you may need to make golden paste instead of dry powder.