“Dear Optwel
I bought a tin of Optwel Collagen Pet Care Plus from you and have 1 scoop left.
Our dog Storme was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis after visiting Vets for over a year complete with x-rays and numerous blood tests and medication from sedatives to panado to anti-inflammatories to prednisone to cannabis oil. She was in extreme pain where she had to have injections for the pain and was unable to move either her back or front right legs or her neck due to the roaming pain in her joints. The other suggestion was that she was bitten by a tick when she was very young and this somehow infected/affected her joints. She was at times terrified to sit or stand and even after being given a sedative would lean against the wall drunkenly with her pupils hugely dilated refusing to trust us and every muscle in her both clenched. It was the most horrible sight.
By nature she has always been a very skittish nervous dog who does not generally like people so combine all of the above and you have a dog who didn’t even trust us when she was in pain.
Thousands of rands later and we still had a dog who even whilst she was on prednisone would be stricken by pain and then in addition to four prednisones and panado had to be given a sedative injection. We were at our wits end.
We had a dog who was drugged, lethargic and depressed all the time. She was too scared to move and just slept and went outside to do her business and come back in.
Eventually through Chavonne (P.A.R.R) we tried Optwel Collagen Pet Care Plus for Hip and Joint Support. We started off on the 14g dosage for quite a while, for about a month and then reduced it to half a scoop daily. We did skip some days, mainly because of my fear for her kidneys, irrational or not.
Storme was on 4 prednisone a day and gradually we weaned her to now 1 prednisone a day with a helping of Optwel. She has days when all of this does not work but we are learning to read the signs and up her prednisone accordingly for a day or two and combine with a panado and if needed cannabis oil and a wheatbag.
However, after we started Optwel we noticed a huge improvement in the fewer number of episodes she has and also Optwel has played a huge role in helping Storme’s joints be more flexible and she is more mobile and light on her feet. She can zoom up our steep driveway with very little concern, jump onto beds with glee, twist her head vigourously from side to side, just like a normal dog. She trusts us completely and is not scared to have people touch her.
I must stress that this difference only came about after Storme was put on Optwel and we were only able to successfully reduce the prednisone after she was put on Optwel. Reducing prednisone is not as easy as it sounds. We are convinced of the huge benefit Optwel has been to Storme and to our mental and financial health.
We hope Optwel grows from strength to strength.”