# Update on my dog that was knuckling over



## Yambeezy (Apr 3, 2011)

it took me about a week to change food over to a lower protein kibble. I used blue bufallo lamb and rice, it has 22% protein. Now i finally have him on the new feed. He's been on it for a week and i already see improvement in the legs. He will be 12 weeks on 5-4-2011. I was planning on keeping him on this food to He's 24 weeks old and then I want to switch him to orijen puppy. My question is would orijen be to high of protein for my puppy because i dont want him to start knuckling over again? Also im still debating if i should crop or not what do you guys think?


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## angelbaby (Feb 4, 2010)

i love orijen food for my dogs but it is a bit higher in protein, if what he is on is working well you may want to keep him on that for now, could always switch to orijen for the adult food. he is looking better I wouldnt mess with it. and personally I would crop , as cute as those ears are now the adults always look better with a nice crop JMO


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## Blue_Nose_Bella (Jan 16, 2011)

If you are going to show him then that would be the only reason I would crop. Otherwise I like natural ears and your boys ears are great IMO! 

I would leave him on the BB lamb and rice and stay away from the high protein until he is over a year old. Orijen is way to high for a puppy IMO. They should only be on a high protein diet if they are very active working dogs. A regular house pet doesn't need that and the highest I would go is 28% protein. I wouldn't risk him knuckling over again. My girl is 8 months and she was knuckling as well. Her breeder had her on TOTW prairie which was 34% and then I switched her to BB wilderness chicken....again 34%. Obviously it became and issue for her and she had a soft tissue injury in the same area the knuckling occurs in (wrist area). She just came off strict crate rest to heal it after 10 days. Knuckling can cause lameness and cause injuries. Again, she is 8 months and I just caught the knuckling about 2 weeks ago. I have her on BB lamb and rice 22% as well and I also added flax seed oil to her food. I actually used your dogs picture as my example in my knuckling thread. I didn't have a picture of Bella holding her leg like your pup so I hope you don't mind


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## Yambeezy (Apr 3, 2011)

Blue_Nose_Bella said:


> If you are going to show him then that would be the only reason I would crop. Otherwise I like natural ears and your boys ears are great IMO!
> 
> I would leave him on the BB lamb and rice and stay away from the high protein until he is over a year old. Orijen is way to high for a puppy IMO. They should only be on a high protein diet if they are very active working dogs. A regular house pet doesn't need that and the highest I would go is 28% protein. I wouldn't risk him knuckling over again. My girl is 8 months and she was knuckling as well. Her breeder had her on TOTW prairie which was 34% and then I switched her to BB wilderness chicken....again 34%. Obviously it became and issue for her and she had a soft tissue injury in the same area the knuckling occurs in (wrist area). She just came off strict crate rest to heal it after 10 days. Knuckling can cause lameness and cause injuries. Again, she is 8 months and I just caught the knuckling about 2 weeks ago. I have her on BB lamb and rice 22% as well and I also added flax seed oil to her food. I actually used your dogs picture as my example in my knuckling thread. I didn't have a picture of Bella holding her leg like your pup so I hope you don't mind
> 
> Its all good we are all here to help each other


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## Blue_Nose_Bella (Jan 16, 2011)

Yambeezy said:


> Blue_Nose_Bella said:
> 
> 
> > If you are going to show him then that would be the only reason I would crop. Otherwise I like natural ears and your boys ears are great IMO!
> ...


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## r0ckah0l1c (Jan 18, 2011)

I personally wouldn't crop because you don't know how his ears will turn out... I wanted to crop Leos ears because originally they were down but now they both have a very nice rose prick shape to them which I love. In the end it is your decision so if you do end up cropping keep in mind that you will be required to share pics


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## Yambeezy (Apr 3, 2011)

r0ckah0l1c said:


> I personally wouldn't crop because you don't know how his ears will turn out... I wanted to crop Leos ears because originally they were down but now they both have a very nice rose prick shape to them which I love. In the end it is your decision so if you do end up cropping keep in mind that you will be required to share pics


oh yea i will share pics and im leaning toward cropping. maybe a short crop or sumthing between short and show


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## ashes (Jul 7, 2010)

well if you're thinking about cropping just so you don't feel blind to it I'd read up on it and read the healing process. And glad to see your boy is doing much better


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## performanceknls (Apr 4, 2009)

Of course JMO and experience but I would never feed any dog over 30% protein especially a puppy. I say do not do it just go to a food under 30% and you should be fine. As far as the crop, I say crop if that is what you like. I have cropped well over 25 dogs over the years and I love my cropped dogs. Even the ones who have not so good crops they look better than having bat ears  Ultimately she is your dog and if you like cropped ears then go with what you like!


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