How Nordic Naturals Omega-3 Pet Became Part of Our Senior Dog's Morning

The first thing I noticed about the fish oil was not Biscuit. It was Glen. He came through the kitchen door, stopped, and asked if something had died in the refrigerator. Nothing had. It was January 2025, and I had just opened the bottle of Nordic Naturals Omega-3 Pet that Dr. Amundsen had recommended for Biscuit, our ten-year-old yellow Lab and golden retriever mix. The bottle lives in the refrigerator door now. The smell goes with it, mostly.

Biscuit is 72 pounds. He has arthritis in both hips and stiffness in his left knee, both seen on X-rays in September 2024. He still walks every day. That September, our walks had shrunk to about 15 minutes, down from 40 when he was younger. I keep a paper log on the kitchen counter, the same kind I used to hand students, and I write one line a day: how he got up, how the stairs went, how far we went. That log is the reason I can tell you what I think changed and what I cannot prove.

By the time I started the fish oil, Biscuit was already on Cosequin, which we began in October 2024 on Dr. Amundsen's suggestion. That was the first thing we tried, and the first change I could point to in the log came about six weeks in, when he got up from the kitchen floor with less hesitation. I added the Nordic Naturals in January 2025, months later, so the log had a chance to show something. I added the rest one at a time after that. Because they overlap, I cannot tell you which one did what. I can tell you what I saw, and I can tell you what I did not.

What I did not see was a joint change I could honestly credit to the fish oil. His getting up did not suddenly get easier after January. If you are looking for a sentence where I say the fish oil fixed his hips, this is not that piece. What I did see came at about eight weeks, and it was his coat. It had been a little dry and flaky along his back, and it got softer. My hand went over him one morning and I noticed before my coffee. That is a small thing. It is also exactly what the listing says the product is for, coat, eyes and heart, so I am not going to dress it up as something bigger.

Dr. Amundsen read the label before we started. She is the one who suggested it, and she is the reason I keep it. The formula is a liquid fish oil, unflavored, 1380 mg, with EPA and DHA, in the triglyceride form. It is non-GMO and free of gluten and dairy, with no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. It contains fish, which matters if your dog has a fish allergy. I give the label's amount for his weight, on top of his kibble at breakfast, and nothing at dinner. Biscuit does not care about the smell. Glen does.

At eight weeks his coat was softer and less flaky. His hips were the same. I would rather tell you that than sell you a story.

The bottle is 8 ounces, 237 milliliters, and it takes us a while to get through it. I keep it in the refrigerator door after opening, not in the cupboard with the Cosequin and the turmeric. The label's amount for his weight goes on top of the kibble at 7, and Glen does it when I am out. He has learned to hold his breath. Biscuit has never turned his nose up at it, which is more than I can say for the first Cosequin tablet I tried to hand him. That is my only picky eater story, and it is why everything goes on the kibble now.

Here is the honest accounting from the log. In September 2024, before any of it, Biscuit was at about 15 minutes on a walk. By the summer of 2025 he was at about 25, and he has stayed there. He gets up easier than he did that September. He comes down the 13 stairs in our farmhouse steadily. Going up is still slow. Cold, wet days are still his worst, and there are mornings in February when I can see the weather in how he rises. None of that is a cure. He is ten years old with arthritis in both hips. No supplement is going to make him young again, and the fish oil did not make him run or jump.

Could the fish oil be doing something for his joints that I cannot see? Maybe. Dr. Amundsen recommended it for a reason, and I am not a veterinarian. I am a retired band director who spent 30 years listening for small changes in a room full of middle schoolers. I know how to keep a log and how to be honest about what it shows. The log shows a softer coat at about eight weeks. It does not show a sudden change in his hips. Both of those things can be true at once.

I have not given Biscuit salmon oil, so I cannot compare them from experience. I have read labels, and I have asked Dr. Amundsen questions until she told me to go home. If you are weighing this against a plain fish oil, the things I would look at are the EPA and DHA amounts, whether the oil is in triglyceride form, and whether the label tells you what is in it without making you guess. The Nordic Naturals label does. That is worth something to me at 62, standing in my kitchen with a dog who cannot tell me what he feels.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

I would tell you to start with your vet, the way I did, and to bring the label. A supplement is a support, not a treatment, and arthritis is not something a bottle fixes. Keep a log, even a cheap notebook, because a month from now you will not remember whether last Tuesday was a good day or a bad one. If you try the fish oil, give it weeks, not days. The change I could point to came at about eight. If your dog has a fish allergy, skip it. If your dog is like Biscuit, a ten year old Lab mix with hips that hurt on wet mornings, it is one of five things in our morning, and I am still giving it. That is the whole of my recommendation. The rest is between you, your dog, and your vet.