If you have ever worried about your dog suffering as they get older, this will be the most exciting news you read this year.

I remember clearly, the first day that I noticed that Cayden was in pain. 

Maybe there were signs before if I had known what to look for. 

I wasn’t a trained Veterinarian though, just a regular dog owner, like you, doing the best I could to take care of my dog, along with the rest of my responsibilities.  

Either way, on that day, there was no doubt what Cayden was trying to tell me as he lowered his head and stared into my eyes.  “I don’t feel like walking anymore, please let’s just go home.”

I was confused at first.  The day was a beautiful one, warm with a light spring breeze, and we had been out for no more than ten minutes. 

“C’mon boy,” I pleaded, hoping that he was just being a bit stubborn. He lowered his head a bit as if disappointed in his decision, but refused to budge.

As we headed for the house, I noticed that he wasn’t walking with his usual enthusiasm, even though I had agreed to change direction and he knew dinner would be waiting.

He took a little extra time with each step, as if measuring it carefully.  If it was someone else’s dog I probably would not have noticed, but it wasn’t. It was my Cayden and I knew for sure that something was very wrong.  

Our Veterinarian, Dr Peterson confirmed these suspicions when I brought Cayden in several days later.  He pointed to the MRI of his joints that he had placed up on the white screen and got straight to the point: 

“He has bad arthritis.  His joints are so inflamed that honestly, I’m surprised you didn’t notice earlier.”  

I took a moment and then answered. “Ok…What now? What do we do?”  The options he gave me, did little to improve my mood.

It seemed that the options were:

A) Prescription anti-inflammatories that would only manage the pain and had to be used sparingly because they were damaging to the digestive system.

B) Expensive surgery that would set me back thousands of dollars, and was as likely to worsen the symptoms, as it was to make them better.

C) Just deal with it for the years that Cayden had left, limiting his physical activity and hoping for the best. 

“I’m sorry Debra, but Arthritis is a degenerative condition” Dr Peterson said.  “What that means is it’s only going to get worse.”

I thanked him politely, but silently committed to proving him wrong.

I felt guilty about not noticing the signs earlier, but I was sure that another option was out there if I looked hard enough.

My initial research was not promising though. 

I was shocked by how common arthritis is.

According to Stephanie Clark, a researched from the famed Mayo Clinic:

I learned that there are many causes for this epidemic including:

🚫 Low quality dog food

🚫 Genetics

🚫Lack of consistent exercise for dogs

🚫 Over-vaccination

To make matters even worse, there was plenty of research on the causes of dog arthritis, but none that showed effective solutions.

I was feeling defeated and Cayden was not getting better. 

He was now having difficulty jumping in the back of my SUV and rarely wanted to walk or play outside longer than it took for him to do his business.

Losing hope, I had the desperate idea to reach out to Dr Stern.

Bella’s last chance

Dr Stern was not a veterinarian.  In fact, he was a chiropractor and nutritionist that specialized in the joint care of high-level athletes.  Professional Soccer and Football players and others that made their living damaging their joints came to Dr Stern to put them back together. 

I first sat in his busy NY waiting room, hunched over in my chair with a thrown out back after a friend passed along his number.  Over the years, I had come to know him well as my back or some other ache or pain that would not go away on its own. 

He was always patient, caring, and knew more about health than any other person I had ever met.  

There was never a question that I asked him about health that he did not have a confident solution to.  I intended to see if the limits of his knowledge would extend far enough to help Cayden.

“How are you doing Debra?” Dr Stern smiled as I entered his office. “Is it your back again?”

He was surprised to learn that I was actually there to ask about Cayden but he did not seem any less confident.

“Of course we can help him,” he said.

“I have Athletes that I see on a weekly basis that have arthritis from overuse injuries and are not only living normal lives, but they are also winning athletic competitions.

The key to eliminating Cayden's pain and helping her live a normal life again was hidden in a supplement formula that was commonly used for his patients.

It consisted of four natural ingredients:

I asked: “Where could I get this formula?" 

Here, we ran into another roadblock.  

Dr Stern informed me that a dog-joint formula like this simply didn’t exist.

Dog supplement companies used low-quality ingredients to keep costs low and added lots of additives to make sure that dogs would like the taste.

The problem was that these low- quality formulas simply lacked the potency to help Cayden.

Dr Stern sensed my desperation and said he would figure something out.

I trusted him and said I’d be waiting on his call.

When Dr. Stern called me several days later, he did not disappoint.

“Debra, I called in a favor from my buddy who produces the supplements that I carry in the office.

He’s willing to make us a small batch of the supplement we talked about for Bella.  It’ll be specifically for dogs but with all human- grade ingredients and no additives. 

If there’s anything that’ll work for him, it’ll be this. Give me two weeks or so.”

I thanked him profusely and held back the tears as I put the phone back in my pocket.

Three weeks later I was shocked at the results…

The changes in Cayden's were obvious.  

He had regained much of hisenthusiasm for life again.  

Not only was he walking better, but he was even bringing the ball to me to initiate play (which he hadn’t done in over a month).

I gave him the supplement every day with his dinner and was happy that it easily mixed in with his food and he seemed to really enjoy the taste.

It was so rewarding to fix this problem that had caused me to feel guilty and scared for months.

I was eternally grateful to be able to enjoy quality time with Cayden again.   

Paying it forward

I was eternally grateful to be able to enjoy quality time with Cayden again.   We were taking long walks again (as long as my back didn’t bother me) and other dog moms from the neighbourhood were asking me what I did to help Cayden.  

Deep down I knew that I needed to share this with other pet owners whose dogs could also end up suffering as badly (or even worse than) Cayden.

I decided to invest my own money into starting Infinite Pet Supplements.