Glucosamine/Chondroitin for Fertility?

Bumping up.... anyone know anything on this subject??  I'd love to find some articles, maybe you know of some??

I've never been into breeding but it seems like it would be fairly well known in the breeding world.  There are so many breeders who would love to increase their chances especially with older dogs. It's odd that you can't find any mention of it and I didn't either when I did a quick search.  Maybe some who breed will chime in, sorry to be of no help.

 Thanks Jackie!! I appreciate you stopping in and confirming I'm not crazy LOL I spent quite awhile googling for this topic, but, I couldn't find really anything at all on the subject.

 See, Becca, that's what I would have thought, too. I spoke to a friend who went to a seminar on repro (and I keep asking her who this was, but  she hasn't gotten back to me yet.) and apparently this guy who breeds GSD's had a dog that had near zero on motility.  So, they started him on glucosamine (I believe and chondroitin and MSM also) and he came back at near 90% motility just a short period (maybe a few months?) later.   It was so markedly improve as to be astonishing right?  I'm not 100% sure on any of these facts, I was impressed by this but I heard it well over a year ago (and who knows what my memory did to it! lol)  Anyway. Recently (from someone else from someone they know) their repro vet told them to get their bitch on glucosamine to help wih fertility. They mentioned it to me, because I told them about the story I'd heard, and told them (of the GSD breeder).

I mean it stands to reason if a dog can benefit from it for motility a bitch probably could for fertility.  But, they didn't know how much about the amounts given or anything else.

I have Logan on 1500glu/1200chon/3000msm (vet prescribed levels of MSM due to a shoulder injury, I will probably maintain at 2000).  He's been at these levels for probably at least a year, prior to that I was increasing as he grew. He's 80lbs

Aryn is at 1500/glu/1200chon/1500 msm.  She'll be nearly 5 and it's her first litter... so, I'm just trying to do everything I can to help her. She's been on this since April, when she arrived. She's 58lbs.

I apprecate the comments Becca.  I'd like to OVER do it, but these are expensive supplements and I think it's already a pretty high level, already, huh? Thanks for the help!

 They eat raw, too, right? They're getting all that wonderful connective tissue. The connective tissue, and things like trachea, have high levels of glucosamine. Emma doesn't tolerate shellfish, so I feed her tracheas and gullets, and shark spines. I've seen improvement!

 They do eat raw... yes, I was hoping it was adding more, though I'm not sure how much more, to their diet!  Shark spines?  Really? Fascinating... where would you pick up shark spine?

Glad to hear she's improving!! Wheee!  :)  I have to keep Nik on it too, I keep her on a high dose, as she has luxating patellas.... no fertility for her.  Just gonna have to have her cloned! lol

 Shark spines come from bestbullysticks.com, along with a lot of other really fabulous stuff that I've not seen elsewhere. Becca did it, so you can cry to her, like I did, when the dogs empty out your bank account, on that site

Emma has an arthritic left hip, and lower spine. It's very icky. She also gets Metacam, as much as I hate it. I'll have to ask my breeder friend if she knows anything about "joint" supplements helping with fertility. I know she uses MSM in her dogs' water. 

I see plenty of people SELLING it for that on a google exploration trip. Not many say how or why it works...just that it works. Kinda like the royal jelly getting you more females thing LOL.

I personally...have never heard of that...but I don't do a lot of supplementing and such, esp for pregnant bitches because if the bitch cannot conceive, carry, or whelp on her own I need to KNOW that so I can tinker with my lines until they can. You know? For ex reproductive vigor and such has moved up a lot for me on my list of things to correct. I will work towards that.

I understand people want to help out ferility but if a stud dog has zero motility and was not overly old, or a otherwise healthy bitch could not conceive, have normal seasons, or carry to term, I would want to know WHY not just fix it/mask it and breed them...because their sons and daughters, may also need "help" and what advancement is that?

Hope you can find some hard info tho...sounds interesting!

 That's a good point Gina!!

 I guess, there's also the argument that we manufacture their diet anymore... would their natural diet provide the glucosamine/chondroitin/msm they are missing in their current day-to-day life?  Eating raw, whole prey would provide trachea, tendons, cartilage, etc that provides so much of that in their diet in the wild. 

I know someone who put their bitch on antibiotics for the entire pregnancy so she could carry -- I would be against that, and I'm sure I know where you stand on the issue. LOL :)  I agree, that bitch probably shouldn't have been bred.  But, adding a few supplements IMO is relatively minor.  Particularly when it's a supplement found in a natural diet (granted I probably don't give enough of the cartiledge/trachea, etc to provide a healthy dose of it naturally.)

Thanks for the thoughts on it!!