Mira's recovery protocol.
Border Collie. Six years old. Inflammation markers off the chart. The vet shrugged: "she's just getting older." She wasn't. This is the 90-day protocol Manuel built when no one had built one for him — the case that became the founding story of PETVITY.
The starting state.
By the time Mira turned six, she had been on commercial extruded kibble — the bag the breeder gave us, then a series of "premium" rotations — for her entire life. The signs had crept up so gradually I'd missed them.
- Coat dull, with mild seborrhea returning every spring.
- Sleeping 14–15 hours when she should have been at 11–12 for her age and breed.
- Stiff after rest, particularly the hindquarters, especially in mornings.
- Slowing on the second half of long walks. Reluctance on stairs.
- Body condition score 6/9 — about 1.5 kg over her ideal lean weight.
- Annual blood panel showed C-reactive protein in the high-normal range, ALT slightly elevated, and globulin tracking up over three years.
The vet's read at the time: "she's middle-aged, this is normal." It wasn't normal. It was inflammation, weight creep, and ultra-processed-food load expressing itself the way it expresses itself in dogs — slowly, gradually, and dismissed as aging.
"I built her a protocol from scratch. The shame of those first six years is what made me start the company."
The 90-day plan.
Measure everything before you change anything.
The single biggest mistake I see owners make is starting interventions before they have a baseline to compare against. Two weeks of nothing-changes is the foundation of everything that follows.
- Full blood panel including CBC, chemistry, SDMA, T4, urinalysis, CRP.
- Weight measured weekly to nearest 50 g.
- Mobility video from same angle, three times: morning rise, mid-walk, post-walk.
- Sleep log: total hours, restlessness, position changes — kept by phone.
- Daily food and treat intake logged in grams.
Out of the kibble, gently and slowly.
Following the WSAVA five-question framework (Module 2), I switched her primary food to a fresh-cooked, complete-and-balanced commercial option formulated by a board-certified nutritionist. The transition followed the standard 10-day rule, doubled because Border Collies tend to GI sensitivity.
- 20-day kibble-to-fresh transition (not the standard 10).
- Caloric intake set at 90% of her old maintenance, targeting BCS 5/9 at 19.8 kg.
- Treats restricted to single-ingredient (freeze-dried liver, sardines), under 10% of daily calories.
- Two meals/day, twelve hours apart, no grazing.
Two walks a day beats one long one — every time.
Border Collies are working dogs with sensitive joint architecture under irregular load. We rebuilt the movement schedule around the published canine joint-loading literature and the Dog Aging Project pack-1 baseline data on daily varied movement.
- Two daily walks of 25–35 minutes, varied terrain, sniffing allowed.
- One 8-minute scent-work or problem-solving session per day for cognitive load.
- Weekend hike capped at 90 minutes, never the post-deadline death-march that creates inflammation spikes.
- Hard surfaces (sustained running on tarmac) eliminated.
Four supplements with replicated evidence. No more.
The supplement industry would have sold me twelve. The literature supports four for a dog of her profile.
- Marine omega-3 EPA/DHA · ~30 mg/kg/day combined. The single best-evidenced anti-inflammatory.
- UC-II (undenatured type II collagen) · 40 mg/day. Multiple double-blind canine trials behind it.
- Glucosamine + chondroitin · joint support. Long-track-record, well-tolerated.
- NAD+ precursor (NMN) · early data for older active dogs. Started low, monitored bloodwork.
What I deliberately didn't add: CBD (no longevity evidence in dogs), generic multivitamin (her diet was already complete), proprietary "anti-aging" cocktails. Cleanest possible stack.
The most-overlooked lever.
Recovery is when the work happens. We moved her bed off the kitchen tile (cold, dishwasher noise) into a quiet corner of the living room, kept lights consistent with sunset/sunrise, and stopped late-evening high-intensity play that elevates cortisol into the sleep window.
The retest · day 90.
Same blood panel, same lab. The change wasn't subtle.
| Marker | Day 0 | Day 90 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| C-reactive protein (CRP) | 22.1 mg/L | 4.3 mg/L | ↓ ~80% |
| ALT | 118 U/L | 62 U/L | ↓ in range |
| Globulin | 34 g/L | 26 g/L | ↓ normalised |
| Weight (kg) | 21.4 | 19.9 | ↓ to BCS 5/9 |
| SDMA | 11 µg/dL | 10 µg/dL | Stable in range |
| Resting HR | 92 bpm | 71 bpm | ↓ recovery improved |
Eight months from baseline her vet looked at the cumulative panels and said, with genuine surprise, that the bloodwork looked like a 3-year-old's. The dull coat had restored. The morning stiffness was gone. She started initiating play again.
The stack · what was in the box.
Nutrition
Fresh-cooked complete-and-balanced primary food. Single-ingredient treats. WSAVA five-question vetted brand.
Movement
2× daily 25–35 min varied walks. Daily scent work. Capped weekend intensity. Removed tarmac-running.
Sleep
Quiet corner, consistent rhythm, cold-tile relocated, no late-evening high-arousal play.
Bond
Two daily training sessions of 5 min each. Predictable rhythm. Lower household ambient noise during sleep window.
Supplements
Marine omega-3 EPA/DHA · UC-II · glucosamine + chondroitin · NMN. Four. Not twelve.
Diagnostics
Quarterly blood panel for first year. Annual thereafter. Weekly weight. Mobility video monthly.
What I'd do differently.
This is the part most "founder origin" stories skip. With six more years of perspective and the literature that's emerged since:
- I'd have started at age one, not age six. The first six years of compounded ultra-processed-food load is the part I can't undo.
- I'd have run SDMA from the first annual. She was clear, but I'd been operating without the early-warning marker for years.
- I'd have been more conservative with NMN dosing in the first 30 days. Early literature was thinner than I treated it.
- I'd have introduced a frailty-tracker (Banzato CFI) at age four, not just from age eight onward.
Mira is 11 now. She's still walking 50 minutes a day. The protocol shifted to a senior version at age 9 — calorie target down, joint support up, twice-yearly bloodwork, and the DISHAA cognitive checklist run quarterly. So far, nothing has flagged. I am not going to claim the protocol is the only reason. I will claim that I am not surprised by where she is.
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