general health questions

Question
First. We have a 17 week old male boxer and we are feeding him Canidae (not sure on the spelling) dog food. How much should he be weighing at this point?
Second. He has champion blood lines but I know that boxers have issues with their joints. Do we need to be worried about supplimenting his food with glucosamine?  If so how much and when should we start?
Third. In the last week or so he's started to get thick greenish yellow eye boogers in his eyes. Especially when he is sleeping. He is acting completely normal and it doesn't seem to bother him.  Is this something that we should be concerned about or is it normal for a boxer puppy?
Your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!!!

Answer
Hi Tyann,

All puppies grow differently, so a number isn't the best way to determine if he's at the proper weight (it can range 5-7 pound among the same age group, which is significant in a puppy).  You want to look at his condition - he should be lean, with his ribs just showing, but his hips and spine should not be prominent.  (Boxer puppies do go through "walking skeleton" phases when you can see every rib from across the room; this should only last a week or so, though he may go through several of these stages.)

Joint issues can occur for a variety of reasons; in puppies, too-fast growth can often cause issues, so you want to be sure to keep him lean.  Some Boxers do have hip dysplasia - about an 11% incidence in the breed as a whole; an x-ray can make a final determination at two years of age.  Aside from that, other issues are primarily due to injury or age.  Boxers are considered "senior" at about seven years of age, and that's when some people start supplementing with glucosamine (though these days many foods have glucosamine already added).  There may be updated research from a few years ago, but the last I'd read, there wasn't any evidence that glucosamine prevented the development of arthritis; it simply at times relieved the pain associated with the condition, and perhaps slowed the progression.

Thick eye discharge is not normal; sometimes this is a sign of "detoxification" - if he's recently been vaccinated, medicated, or received a topical flea/tick treatment, sometimes this will trigger eye discharge.  If there are no other symptoms, and his eyes don't seem to be bothering him, I'd watch and if it doesn't clear up in another week or so, a vet visit is probably in order.  Eye discharge can also be a sign of kennel cough or other illness, so if there are any other symptoms - coughing, nasal discharge, fever, lethargy, lack of appetite - a vet check is the way to go.

Good luck!