# Glucosamine and chondroitin that's **NOT** from shellfish and shark?



## goffredo (Jan 14, 2012)

Now that my ridgeback is almost 2 years old, I'd like to start him on joint supplements because we do a lot of trail running and hiking. Unfortunately, he is allergic to salmon and whitefish, so I don't want to give him glucosamine that's from shellfish, nor chondroitin that's from shark cartilage. No ocean-dwelling critters for him.

I'm not sure that this is possible, however; while I've read that both glucosamine and chondroitin can be sourced from bovine, in practice it's always from shellfish and shark cartilage. After checking about a zillion labels I have given up so I thought I'd ask here. Has anyone ever found either glucosamine or chondroitin that's not sourced from shellfish / shark?

We bit the bullet and tried a small dose of glucosamine from shellfish, but he immediately had diarrhea, which was one of his two symptoms of fish allergies (the other being chronic low-grade yeast infections in his ears - no fun).

Thanks for your help!


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## Gally (Jan 11, 2012)

How about raw chicken feet?


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

A while back I researched this, thought most glucosamine was from beef trachea? Anyway the article said one would have to eat a lot of cartilage to get a good enough dose of it. What I came up with is Max needs an ounce of raw cartilage a day to be about equivalent to the 1.5gms of glucosamine he takes. Chicken feet are good and all but high in calcium so I wouldn't want to be using them exclusively or you would just be overdoing calcium big time and too much calcium might cause arthritic changes.
http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=17841 " Wet cartilage contains about five percent chondroitin sulfate; dry cartilage has nearly 20 percent." Check my math!

If I google bovine glucosamine there are 600,000 hits, some are product. Perhaps you will just have to buy it online. I probably ought to as well, Max does poorly on some kinds of fish so I might as well experiment to see if a bovine product would work better for him. He does best on beef anyway.


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## Miss Bugs (Jul 4, 2011)

if your dog is ok with the chicken/beef sources I would go that route. I had the allergy issue with my Toller as well, except for was allergic to Chicken and Beef as well. she was normally fine with seafood(it was the only thing she COULD eat) but when I gave her the ocean critter type figuring it should be fine...

this is what happened








this pretty little rash plus her entire face swelled up like a balloon..ya I avoided with glucosamine like the plague after that lol


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## goffredo (Jan 14, 2012)

Thanks for the input! I found a vegetarian glucosamine formula that looks like it would fit the bill:

http://www.liquidhealthpets.com/products/k9-vegetarian-joint-formula/

I had responded a few days back with this information, but after hitting the 'post reply' button it took me to a blank screen and had lost my response. After three times I thought I'd try again another day.


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