Joint Health and A Fresh, Homemade Diet

Feed your dog a fresh, high-quality diet! 

Seems too simple, right? 

Common sense, maybe?

It wasn’t until I started feeding a homemade diet did I have an “aha moment.” And only after feeding homemade diets to my dogs, I realized that it was common sense to feed my dogs a fresh, high-quality diet.

Prior to preparing fresh meals for my dogs, I thought I already was feeding my dogs a high-quality diet (a prescription dry food labeled for arthritis). I thought I was providing my elderly dogs with the best that was available for their arthritis. 

I originally switched to a homemade diet for my dog’s mental health, and then I realized all the other health benefits it provided. 

These are the changes I saw and continue to see that help my dogs’ joint health:

• They LOVE dinner time; it’s a major event that my dogs look forward to! Looking back, I feel that they ate their dry food out of hunger and nothing more. Now my dogs truly enjoy their meals; there’s no turning back! 
• Weight-loss. I realize now that my dogs were in a never ending cycle of weight-gain and pain when they were fed their “high-quality” dry food. The pain from their arthritis kept my dogs inactive, hence the weight gain. And then the weight gain caused their arthritis to increase, hence the inactivity.                                                                                                             
• Increased activity level. Without the excess weight, my dogs are eager to exercise. They no longer dread the nightly walk; in fact they now insist on it! The pep in their step helps me too, ats I have to walk faster to keep up with the crew!     
• Decreased pain from activities. Even after their fast-paced, longer evening walks, I no longer have to reach for NSAIDS (pain pills) when we get home. Refined carbohydrates are associated with inflammation, and since a fresh, homemade diet does not contain refined carbs, my dogs’ inflammation has decreased.
• Increased muscle tone. My elderly puppies hind limbs’ muscle tone increased as their activity levels increased. They went from flabby to chic!
• Increased overall health, mentally and physically.

Before preparing their meals, my 13 year old dog, Roni, didn’t have any true interest in physical activities.  Now…

If you have any questions or feedback concerning joint health, please leave a reply.