Recovering Golden - Best Nutrition?

If he likes what he eats, I don't see any reason to change it. Doing that would cause his body more stress than it's under right now. I use Solid Gold Seameal regularly, and find it's good for helping to ease digestion.

I agree about not changing foods. Just cut back on what you're feeding now, both to allow for the weight he needs to loose and his decreased exercise at the moment.

I'd suggest a good joint supplement with glucosamine, chondroitin and msm. [linkhttp://www.knox.com/nutrajoint_msm.html]http://www.knox.com/nutrajoint_msm.html[/link] is the one that I use for my dogs, it's from Wal-Mart. Some others here use a liquid glucosamine supplement.

My 7 year old golden retriever has had both knees operated on, the first at 16 months for luxating patella, the other 14 months later for luxating patella AND damaged ACL.  I started her on the MSM/Glucosamine right after her first operation and then after her 2ed which was more serious (they had to cut the tibia crest, torque the tibia and put in pins and fix the ACL) I started her on SynoviG3, which I get from my vet.  I get the chewable kind.  You can also get it from the Dr. Foster & Smith web site or their catalog.  My oldest golden turned 11 on Feb. and has some arthritis in hips and lower spine and he gets the MSM/Glucosamine, 4 caps a day.  KayCee only gets 1 because she gets that other stuff.
 
I had been giving them EsterC for immune, but have been told a number of times that it is also good for joints.
 
KayCee ballooned up to 85 pounds during her bad knees, surgeries, recoverines and I played he**  getting the weight off her.  Nothing worked and finally my vet said to try the Science Diet r/d and that did the trick.  She wasn't crazy about it and didn't always finished her meal, but it got the weight off her, put her on weight managment food and she has kept the weight off.    She is 67 pounds. 
 
I can't remember when you said the dog had surgery as I got interupted after starting this.  KayCee had bad razor burn (she has very sensitive skin) and even worse tape burn when the splint came off.  I put aloe vera gel on her several times a day and her skin healed so fast and it was so soothing to her.  Also, because she couldn't roll around, etc, I would massage her back and leg muscles several times a day and I tell you, she enjoyed that so much.
 
Good luck with your "nephew".

Wow.. thanks for all your help everyone.  I appreciate taking the time to help me out.  I will try something and keep Rex on the same food he is having now as to not upset him. 

His surgery was just last week, so he still has all the bandages on his leg, but has been pretty good about not trying to the chew them off (it's a good thing we can keep him separate from my two 8 month goldens... those little (80 lbs little) monsters would jump at the chance to chew his bandage off for him!!).   I try to give him some rub downs and massages now since he can't do much... I am sure he misses it since he used to constantly crave attention and petting from everyone prior to his surgery!

Thanks again!!
alex
(and Rex)

I'd suggest a good joint supplement with glucosamine, chondroitin and msm.http://www.knox.com/nutrajoint_msm.html is the one that I use for my dogs, it's from Wal-Mart. Some others here use a liquid glucosamine supplement.

 
Kelly, how many of those capsules do you give your dogs, and how much do you pay for a bottle? I've been looking around for a joint supplement for Cherokee, and today my sister's dog was obviously quite stiff, so now I'm looking for something for both of them, but pretty much everything is ridiculously expensive. [&:] I was looking at Nupro, but it would work out to over $40 a month for both of them, which I just can't afford, and I had a hard enough time convincing my sister that the extra money for a decent dog food was worth it. So I'm just trying to figure out what I'd pay for that Knox stuff. Thanks!

ORIGINAL: chelsea_b

Kelly, how many of those capsules do you give your dogs, and how much do you pay for a bottle? I've been looking around for a joint supplement for Cherokee, and today my sister's dog was obviously quite stiff, so now I'm looking for something for both of them, but pretty much everything is ridiculously expensive. [&:] I was looking at Nupro, but it would work out to over $40 a month for both of them, which I just can't afford, and I had a hard enough time convincing my sister that the extra money for a decent dog food was worth it. So I'm just trying to figure out what I'd pay for that Knox stuff. Thanks!

I don't have any dogs with actual joint problems, just a couple of old dogs and one whose joints crack in the morning so I give one pill a day for maintenance/prevention. If you were giving it in a therapy dose it would be about 3 pills a day for a 50 lb dog. It's $22 for 120 caps. I like this product because of the permanent effects of the gelatin.

Kelly, how many of those capsules do you give your dogs, and how much do you pay for a bottle

 
  You can get it at Walmart for about $22.

I don't have any dogs with actual joint problems, just a couple of old dogs and one whose joints crack in the morning so I give one pill a day for maintenance/prevention. If you were giving it in a therapy dose it would be about 3 pills a day for a 50 lb dog. It's $22 for 120 caps. I like this product because of the permanent effects of the gelatin.

Thanks! Sorry, I just saw this now. Our internet has been down since Sunday morning. Talk about torture! []