Giving The Bounce Back To Benson (Carob Plus Joint and Mobility Supplement)

Member Name: FourPaws

Product:	Carob Plus Joint and Mobility Supplement
Date:	25/10/09 (107 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Has seemingly banished ALL Benson's joint discomfort

Disadvantages: Only available from Pets At Home's website

*What is Carob Plus Joint & Mobility Supplement?*
This daily dietary supplement, designed to help with caring for joints is produced by the Carob Plus company, a relatively newly established business that creates and manufacturers a small range of supplements for dogs, designed to help with many different things such as the digestive system, bones & teeth, skin & coat, the immune system and even relieving stress.

*The product itself*
My eldest dog Benson is around 4 and a half years old now, and whilst this wouldn't normally seem all that old in the canine world, Benson is a Bernese Mountain Dog and these, sadly, happen to be one of the most short-lived breeds- with an average life expectancy of just 7 to 9 years- trust me to choose such a dog eh?! So this means that poor Benson is now actually getting on a bit!

He is an incredibly active dog who seems to have a never ending supply of energy- he has always been like this and I imagine he will be for as long as he is physically able to cope! I compete in both agility and flyball with him, and he is always on the go running about with my other dog, so combine all these factors and add to the fact that the Bernese is a breed known for joint problems as they grow older, you'll see why I like to take extra special care of his bones.

He is already experiencing some joint discomfort when he wakes up from a sleep or gets particularly cold and damp on a walk, but he absolutely lives for all his walkies and activities and it'd break my heart to make him stop. So, along with a slight decrease in his amount of daily exercise, I also wanted to get him on a good quality joint care supplement to help him along.

I'd recently tried another Carob Plus product with the dogs and had been very pleased with it so when I noticed they also did a supplement designed to help with joints and mobility, this was my natural choice!

The Carob Plus range of supplements are made, as the name might suggest, from carob- which is a natural product often liken to chocolate but is 'dog friendly'- thanks to it containing none of the chemical found in regular chocolate that is poisonous to dogs and has numerous health benefits such as being packed full of various vitamins such as A, B and D and is a rich source of calcium. Each product in the Carob Plus range then has extra ingredients added to them to help target specific problems. Being the Joint & Mobility one, the product I am now reviewing obviously contains ingredients aimed towards helping with the care and maintenance of canine joints.

Firstly is the addition of Glucosamine, which is found in numerous joint care products, both canine and human and has been used for years to help relieve tired, aching joints and relieve pain and discomfort. Next up is Green Lipped Muscle, which again, is used in many human and canine joint care supplements and is known for it's great properties useful in the care of joints. MSM is also included, which has been scientifically proven to help relieve arthritis related pain as well as Yucca extract, Boswellia and Omega 3 Oil- all known to help with the care of joints and help promote good mobility.

When fed daily, the supplement, which comes in the form of a treat-like tablet, around the size of a ten pence coin, claims to help maintain tendon, ligament and cartilage structure and specially target stiffness of the joints. Carob Plus Joint & Mobility is suitable for any age or breed or dog and can be fed to younger dogs to help maintain healthy joints or to help relieve stiffness and discomfort in older dogs already suffering joint or mobility problems.

*Packaging*
The Carob Plus Supplements come packaged in small white plastic pots with pop on/off lids and are colour coded according to the variety, the Joint & Mobility one follows a red colour scheme. On the pot we are told all the information you'd expect to find such as ingredients, details on how the product works, nutritional information, dosage instructions and of course, contact details for Carob Plus. The pots can be recycled once empty.

*Price & Availability*
Carob Plus products are sold exclusively in Pets At Home, but it now appears they are only sold through online through their website.

A pot of the Joint & Mobility Supplement, containing 30 tablets, will cost £7.99.

This initially, may sound a little expensive, but this will provide a 1 month, or more, supply for most dogs.

*My opinion*
Having broke my left leg and right ankle in a skiing accident when I was 16 years old, I know all too well just how uncomfortable joint pain can be as I still suffer problems in those areas to this day, and whilst it is easy to me to take a couple of Nurofen when the pain gets particularly bad, dogs obviously don't have this choice and have no way of letting us know if their joints are hurting, besides from the obvious physical signs of limping.

I'd hate to think of Benson in any pain so when I got the chance to sample this product, I jumped at the chance. Reading the information I found online about the product, I was instantly very impressed, the supplement is absolutely packed with numerous active ingredients that are all proven to specifically help with joint and mobility problems and for the relatively inexpensive price (given the ingredients it contains), I was very pleased.

When my pot arrived, I began to trial it straight away. I decided just to feed Benson this supplement, as my other dog Grace is still very young at just nearly 2 years old and she displays no signs of joint problems whatsoever so she wouldn't really get any benefit from the product. Having a quick read of the pot, dosage instructions were very clear- dogs over 15kg were to have one tablet daily, large dogs will need two tablets daily and very small dogs are just to have half of one each day. Benson falls firmly in the 'large dog' category, so I handed him a couple of tablets. Although I refer to the supplements are 'tablets', they are really nothing of the sort! They are more like treats, and Benson absolutely adores them, he gobbles them up each time.

As the days of the first week of the trial went past, I didn't really expect to see much improvement but I was really very shocked when a couple of days into the second week of the trial, I began to notice a very noticeable improvement, and so did a couple of clients at work- Benson (and Grace) come to work with me everyday you see and have 'made friends' with many clients- I think half the time they just pop in to say hello to the dogs! Several commented that he was much quicker to get up and greet them if he had been laying down when they walked through the door. Normally it would have taken him a few moments to stand and get comfortable enough to bound over to them.

Anyway, I continued the trial of the supplements until my first pot had run out, and the sheer difference in Benson in those two weeks was more than enough to confirm my decision to put him on the supplement daily for the foreseeable future!

My first pot was a trial sample- very, very kindly given to me by the company that makes Carob Plus and although that has long been finished, I am still purchasing Carob Plus Joint & Mobility Supplement for Benson, and he receives it daily. I am not sure whether the two tablets are meant to be given together, but I give Benson one first thing in the morning, and the second one mid afternoon and this suits us very well. He can't get enough of them- every time he sees the pot emerging from the pet cupboard in the kitchen, his tail wags so furiously he is in danger of taking off!!

I cannot stress how drastic the improvement in Bensons condition has been- where as before he would take several moments to 'get going' of a morning or after waking up from a snooze, he now bounces from his bed with puppy like enthusiasm and even after a long, tiring training session at agility or flyball, he is still raring to go and appears in absolutely no discomfort whatsoever.

So over-all, I'd like to say a huge 'thank you' to the guys at Carob Plus for firstly, letting me sample the product at no cost and discovering what miracles it can work, and secondly, for giving my beautiful boy his youthful bounce back. As long as you make this product- myself and SlobberGob will be very loyal customers!

Summary: Congratulations to Carob Plus!