I have a rescue puppy that was way too skinny and now he is eating a lot and getting too big and heavy too fast. AS a result, his front legs are getting crooked, really badly bow legged. I'm trying to find info about the use of Vit C/low protein diet to correct this. Can somebody guide me in the right direction? Thanks!
In addition to the Great Dane Lady's page, consider if he might have the dwarf form of Retinal Dysplasia/OSD, particularly if he is of unknown or field bred background genetically. With them, the rear looks straight and high and the pup sort of walks downhillas it grows up . With any luck, it is just lax ligaments and vitamin C and less food will help. We had one before the genetic test who did not go blind, but she did have retinal folds. The littermate had classic dwarf shape but no folds or eye issues. Two male littermates are normal shape, and one is competing in agility and obedience.
Regarding lax ligaments: I had a 3 mo old rescued Doberman pup that bowed into an O shape in the forelegs; megadoses of C corrected it within a few days as Dr. Schenck predicted. I believe it is a treatment out of the old Belfield book/protocol. Oddly, the tiny pup never got diarrhea from all that Vitamin C--he was obviously needing and metabolizing it. We also gave raw knuckle bones and chicken collagen from the breast bone when we had chicken.
Let us know how he does. Thank you for rescuing. If he came from a responsible breeder, no rescue would have been necessary, but we on the board know that.
You may wish to check with a holistic veterinarian on dosage. General wisdom is to use regular vitamin C if you supplement growing pups. The safest form of that would be to use POWDERED, not crystalline, vitamin C, sold as "dull C" or powdered ascorbic acid. I got it at Freeda, a source my mother's physician recommended for pure products at the time.
http://www.freedavitamins.com/index.php?p=product&id=171&parent=8
I also put the link below so that one may click on it.
That being said, I did not have that at hand when I started the Dobe pup on it. I used a mix of ascorbic acid powder and calcium ascorbate powder. The legs started straightening before the order for the dull C came in. However, some rescues come in with such a parasite load and/or malnutrition that one may have to go easy. I started slowly, giving it twice a day, small megadoses, then went up in dose. I have done it with rescued Lab pups, too. I cannot give you the dose offhand, but I do remember it made my hair stand on end when the vet told me the amount for a pup--yet pup never got loose stools from it. I gave it, thinking I would go to bowel tolerance, as some say, then back off when the stool loosens as the pup is not metabolizing it. His stool never loosened, but the legs corrected themselves in about 4 days, at which point I backed down on the vitamin and stopped it. If the stool had loosened, I would not have gone up to the high amount the vet prescribed.
You may wish to check with a holistic veterinarian. Dr. Schenck in NJ is semi-retired, but still practicing at Harlingen Veterinary Clinic. There may be others near where you live.
This is my anecdote. I am not prescribing this vitamin or course of action. If memory serves, Dr. Wendell Belfield described something similar in his book on healthy dogs decades ago.
Thank you for the info. I ordered the Vit C.
I started him yesterday with the vit C I have at home and dressed the leg in correct position. Today the leg is straight and he is walking much better.
