Arthritis Supplements for Dogs New Research Review

arthritis supplements for dogs what helps vs what doesn't graphic

Well, crap friends. There’s some surprising new intel on arthritis supplements for dogs in a recently published veterinary paper that looked at a bunch of prior studies into various types of enhanced diets, nutraceuticals, and arthritis supplements for dogs (and cats).

I emailed the paper to our main DVM. We’ll talk about it more when the dogs get their wellness exams soon. I very well may be changing my strategies for preventing and helping my dogs with joint supplements. (Or not, keep reading to the end.) What works? What doesn’t? What’s *maybe on the horizon as the next big thing in arthritis supplements for dogs? Let’s find out.

Glucosamine-chondroitin arthritis supplements for dogs don’t work.

I won’t bury the headline. That’s where we’re headed. I also found, though, support for some what I do with arthritis supplements for dogs, and some new ideas on maybe what to try next. 

I first learned about this new paper from @SkeptVet on Twitter. You can read his online post in detail here. Evidence-based veterinary medicine is his thing, and I’ve learned a lot over the years by following, etc. 

skeptvet tweet arthritis supplements for dogs

Here’s what jumped out at me when I read through the paper. I encourage you to download and read full text yourself here.

Arthritis Supplements for Dogs Key Points from New Paper

  • Nothing cures or structurally improves osteoarthritis (OA) in dogs. The paper’s authors say this (emphasis mine): 

“To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no therapeutic approach has any indication of a delayed effect on the progression of OA. Thus, the terms ‘chondroprotective,’ ‘structuremodulator’ or ‘disease-modifying’ do not yet apply to the therapeutic approaches available in pet OA, with all therapeutic indications revolving around an improvement in the behavioural or physiologic signs associated with OA pain.”

  • Arthritis supplements for dogs (and cats) end up on the market, not because there is any proof they work, but instead … it’s mostly that they don’t seem to cause harm. The paper’s authors explain this point as follows (emphasis mine): 

“However, regulatory assessments of these compounds primarily focused on the absence of side effects (safety), quality and nutrition but did not require proof in therapeutic efficacy.”

Arthritis Supplements for Dogs – What Works and What Doesn’t

The headline, though, is that some arthritis supplements for dogs that work have higher quality research than some that don’t. The authors explain (emphasis mine): “Collagen-based (ctg. 3) and chondroitin-glucosamine-based (ctg. 4) nutraceuticals stand out with a higher presence of lower-quality trials. The quality level ratios (the number of AB/CD level trials) were 0.6 and 0.8, respectively, for these two categories. Conversely, omega-3-enriched therapeutic diets (ctg. 1), omega-3-based nutraceuticals (ctg. 2) and cannabinoids (ctg. 5) had more high-quality trials as evidenced by the quality level ratios of 4.0, 2.3 and 2.5, respectively.”

The paper basically goes on to say that omega-3-based arthritis supplements for dogs “stand out in terms of effect,” meaning dogs show improvement in behavior and pain scores. Then, the authors, make the comparison to chondroitin-glucosamine-based nutraceuticals “stand out for their lack of efficacy with 88.9% non-effect and 0% effect.” That means of the prior studies reviewed a bunch showed that chondroitin-glucosamine did NOT work and 0% showed it did. Yikes!