Okay so as many of you know we have just had a pretty rough four days with our big boy Daddy breaking his leg, today we met with the surgeon who did the operation and who is a orthopedist surgeon and specializes in nothing but bones. Here is what he told us and lets just say I am almost never speechless and he had me completely gob smacked. We found out that Daddy broke his leg most likely from his strong muscles that were developed over very weak and brittle bones, his exact words were Daddy’s bones are soft like ” swiss cheese ” we were shocked and then started asking so many questions, What? Why? how? Here is what we were told. Daddy being a large breed was either not put on puppy food ever or was taken off of it far, far to early. I would like to add that we rescued Daddy at 9-10 months old and not very familiar with his puppy hood as like most rescues we get little to no information on them. Also the specialist told us that another contributing factor may have been that we was left in a crate far to long ( more than 10 hours per day ) Let me tell you I was now feeling quite ill and very sad for Daddy.
We were told by this bone specialist that ALL puppies need to be on puppy food for a bare minimum of 12 months, the larger breeds of dogs who will be more than 100 pounds fully grown should be on puppy food for 18-24 months. Unfortunately most vets and breeders say take the puppy food away at 6-12 months depending on if your puppy is getting chubby. The specialist says if your puppy is getting chubby keep them on the food but increase their exercise. DR. BRODEUR the bone specialist says that even though we don’t see any more growing from our dogs again especially in the large breeds it’s what we are not seeing that is so important, their bone development! If Daddy had been on puppy food as a young puppy or had been kept on puppy food longer than 12 months his bones would not now be like swiss cheese. So where does that leave us now you may asking? Well we were told by the specialist to put him back on a high protein large breed puppy food for the next seven months but need to add a daily vitamin, plus a vitamin D supplement also a calcium supplement, add egg to his daily diet and to add whey powder for the amino acids. This is a regiment we will be following for the next 7 months until we have another bone scan to track his progress. Let me tell you this is in no way cheap on the wallet and could have all been avoided by simply keeping him on puppy for the 24 months.
So you may also be asking your self ” why do vets recommend taking them off puppy food? ” I asked the same question from my specialist and this is what I was told, ” the vets are misinformed ” they do not do this with malice but from a bone perspective just uneducated, he also said that he is seeing more and more of this in the large breeds and is doing more and more surgeries on these big boys because of the early removal of puppy food and from a bone specialist who does lots of these surgeries, he must know what he is talking about! It is now going to take me twice as long and cost me twice as much to try to reverse the hands of time, so take it from me and DR. BRODEUR leave your puppy food down a minimum of 12 months! If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask me I had a very long conversation with the specialist and too long to write, but I will be happy to answer any questions I can. I would also like to add a P.S….. most people take puppy food away early because most times it’s more expensive than adult food per pound!! So you can pay for food as puppies, or pay in potential vet bills later! You decide!! THIS SURGERY MAY HAVE BEEN PREVENTED BY PROPER NUTRITION!