Old Dogs New Care | Product Reviews

Nutro dry dog food contains the best quality natural ingredients, highly digestible proteins, added vitamins and minerals, and specialized nutrients. Nutro never uses chicken by-products (head, feet, intestines), ground corn, grain sorghum, or synthetic preservatives. Nutro Ultra’s science-based natural nutrition makes dogs feel their best.

Nutro Ultra contains three animal proteins from chicken, lamb, and salmon, providing an ideal amino acid profile to increase the bioavailability of essential amino acids for better muscle development and overall health. Natural vitamin E and other natural antioxidants keep Ultra Senior fresh. Quite a few dog foods contain chicken or lamb, but Nutro’s salmon meal is a highly concentrated source of essential amino acids and DHA for central nervous system development. Contains a variety of natural ingredients from vegetables and fruits that provide essential nutrients, such as beta carotene, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, anti-oxidants, and fiber. For complete information on every ingredient, visit Ultra Holistic.

Our dogs also like Blue Buffalo Senior Dry Dog Food, but dogs eventually get tired of one food, so we switch occasionally. One of our dogs started separating the Blue Buffalo “life source bits” from the regular kibble by moving each mouthful of food to the floor and sorting them out with great accuracy, so we knew it was time for a change of menu. Our alternate is Nutro Ultra, which is also an excellent food that seems to agree with them very well. It doesn’t have any comparable “bits” that are noticeably different than the kibble. Like Blue Buffalo, Nutro Ultra is a premium dog food that costs more than standard grocery store brands, but the continued health and well-being of our pets over their lifetimes has made it worth the added cost.

Nutro Ultra Senior Dry Dog Food is available at pet supply stores, such as PetSmart and PetCo, and from Amazon.com. Prices vary, so it can save you money to compare online prices and in-store prices, especially if the shipping cost is low. Amazon offers some good deals with its marketplace partners, so it’s not as absurd as it seems to buy dog food online.

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We give one teaspoon of Welactin Omega-3 supplement to our dog Cleo every evening with her food. It’s difficult to quantify effectiveness for joint stiffness because she gets a combination of supplements and prescribed pain medications. Her coat definitely feels better.

Cleo is a 16-year-old, medium-sized Shepherd mix with severe arthritis. When she was younger, she weighed about 54 pounds, but age has recently taken its toll on muscle mass as well as her joints. She’s still healthy otherwise, for a dog who’s 95 in human years. She must have a deep gene pool! No serious health problems since 1995, but for the last year, she has suffered with joint stiffness and impaired mobility.

To help her feel better, Cleo gets the following supplements and drugs:

• Dasuquin – Glucosamine/Chondroitin joint supplement, 1 chewable every day
• Welactin – Omega-3 supplement, 1 teaspoon daily
• Metacam – 1 liquid dose (for 45lb dog) daily with food for inflammation and pain
• Gabapentin – 1 small capsule twice-daily for pain. (Vets may use Gabapentin together with Tramadol, but Cleo had a bad reaction to it and gets only the Gabapentin.)

Welactin is a natural salmon-oil supplement. It has a fishy odor, of course, and like any oil, tends to be somewhat messy. It must smell yummy to dogs. Cleo gobbles it up eagerly and licks the bowl to get every last bit. There have been no adverse side effects whatsoever.

The bottle of Welactin has a tight-fitting plastic cap with a tiny hole in the middle. The hole has a raised edge that can fit into a large standard syringe for oral medications. The cap snaps shut tightly. The bottle doesn’t leak, but some oil will escape and dribble down the sides of the bottle if a syringe is used for measuring. We switched to the included plastic spoon and just squirt the oil into it. Much neater. The bottle can be kept reasonably clean with a quick swipe around the cap with a small piece of paper towel. I set the Welactin bottle in a small shallow plastic container to prevent any stains in the cupboard. The plastic spoon should be washed regularly, or at least wiped out vigorously with a paper towel. Obviously, you could use a regular measuring spoon and throw it in the dishwasher. The benefits of Welactin by far outweigh the slight messiness.

I’ve been getting Welactin from our vet, since it’s not expensive. However, if you have a big dog or multiple dogs, it may save money to check around for prices. Amazon has very low prices for the biggest bottles of Welactin. One bottle lasts for months.

Overall, Welactin is inexpensive, has no side effects, some visible benefits, and some subtle benefits, same as fish oil supplements for humans. It’s easy to administer and dogs (well, our dog anyway) consider it a treat.

Welactin is from Nutramax, the makers of Dasuquin, a popular joint supplement. Their product description says that the natural salmon oil in Welactin “contains high levels of EPA and DHA, which are long chain fatty acids. DHA and EPA reduce the chronic inflammatory response seen with other types of fatty acid precursors.” Each 5ml (one teaspoon) contains 1,300 mg Omega-3 fatty acids, with 775mg of EPA (Eicosapentaenoic Acid) and 525mg of DHA (Docosahexanoic Acid). The ingredients are salmon oil, mixed tocopherols, mono- and diglycerides, soybean oil, citric acid, and rosemary extract. Available from veterinarians and online from Amazon. A prescription is not needed because it’s a supplement, not a drug.

The main reasons we didn’t give Welactin a perfect 5 rating are that we can’t accurately measure its effectiveness and it’s a bit messy. If dealing with oil is a turn-off, Nutramax also makes Welactin softgels.

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