You should seek the advice of your veterinarian if your pet is ill as only he or she can correctly advise on the diagnosis and recommend the treatment that is most appropriate for your pet.

The scientific evidence to support the administration of nutritional supplements to pets is often very weak. Best evidence are randomised controlled trials (RCTs)

Collagen  4 studies (n=1 RCT; n=3 non-RCT)

An RCT looking at the effects of type-II collagen supplementation by itself or with glucosamine/chondroitin concluded that it reduced arthritic pain in dogs (n=7) with OA using pain scoring and objective ground force plate assessment (Gupta 2012), and earlier studies using subjective outcome criteria concluded that pain and lameness improved (n=5) (D’Altilio 2007; Deparle 2005) but numbers of dogs in both were very low.  In dogs (n=25) type II collagen by itself or with hydroxycitric acid and chromamate ameliorated the signs of pain and lameness due to OA on subjective assessment (Peal 2007)

Evidence : WEAK – Positive effect

References

D’Altilio M. Peal A, Alvey M et al (2007) Therapeutic Efficacy and Safety of Undenatured Type II Collagen Singly or in Combination with Glucosamine and Chondroitin in Arthritic Dogs. Toxicol Mech Methods. 2007; 17(4): 189-96

Deparle LA, Gupta RC, Canerdy TD et al (2005) Efficacy and safety of glycosylated undenatured type-II collagen (UC-II) in therapy of arthritic dogs. Journal of Veterinary Pharmacology & Therapeutics 28(4) :385-90

Gupta RC, Canerdy TD, Lindley J et al (2012) Comparative therapeutic efficacy and safety of type-II collagen (UC-II), glucosamine and chondroitin in arthritic dogs : pain evaluated by ground force plate. Journal of Animal Physiology & Animal Nutrition 96(5):770-777

Peal A, D’Altillo M, Simms C et al. (2007) Therapeutic efficacy and safety of undenatured type-II collagen (UC-II) alone or in combination with (-)-hydroxycitric acid and chromemate in arthritic dogs. J Vet Pharmacol Ther 30:275-278

Updated September 2015