History: Mild allergies manifesting as itchy skin, hip dysplasia on left hip, moderate partial tear of right cranial cruciate

Current problems: Holding right hind leg up when he is too active, cries when he gets up.

Conventional treatments: NSAIDs and surgery, both of which the owner declined.

Current Holistic therapy: Acupuncture, chiropractic, aquapuncture around the hips and knees (into specific acupuncture points), herbs and a cartilage-rich diet. Adding raw chicken necks or pieces of backs is really good because for large dogs, we don’t worry about the bones but have the nutritional, cartilage protecting qualities of a diet rich in cartilage and connective tissues. We are also using fish oil, Western herbs including yucca, dogwood, myrrh, boneset, ad devils claw all in powder form over the food.

Observations: So far, he is doing well. His owner is a dog walker and has yet to run him excessively off-leash because he likes to jump up on high logs. (Unfortunately this is risky as he could fully rupture the ligament). Surgery would be harder on him because his left hip is very dysplastic and compensation would be difficult.