What type of fish oil suppliment.......

I'm surprised no one has mentioned contamination in fish oil from mercury, lead, dioxins, furans, PCB's, etc. Those are just as toxic for a dog as they are for humans!

A while back I did quite a bit of research on the various brands of fish oil for humans. There is an organization called International Fish Oil Standards (IFOS) that performs independent studies on many popular brands of fish oil.

The brand that I found that was both readily available and passed (by a significant margin) the IFOS standards is called 'Nordic Naturals'. This is the brand my wife and I have been using for a while. You can get it at pretty much any health food store (including Wholefoods), but I've found it's cheapest at Vitamin Shoppe.

Anyway, recently I started looking into fish oil for pets, and my first inclination was to check Nordic Naturals. Sure enough, they have a pet line!

Here's the URL:
http://www.nordicnaturals.com/PetOwners/PetOwners.asp

You can see their test results here:
http://www.nordicnaturals.com/images/3rdpartypet.gif

If you're interested, you can read the IFOS consumer reports yourself here:
http://www.nutrasource.ca/ifos_new/index.cfm?section=ifosconsumer

irotas...good point!

How long does it take to tell if the stuff is actually doing anything??

For a dog, I'm not sure. I just started thinking about giving our dog fish oil a few days ago, and we haven't purchased anything yet. Try it and see!

Wow, thanks for that information...............it truly never occured to me!

There's one other thing I've been curious about but have not yet found an answer for. Since fish is strongly acidic, how does it affect a dogs urinary pH? I've looked around but haven't found anything relating fish oil to pH.

P.S. Yes, I know that cranberry juice can be used to lower urinary pH. I just want to know if fish oil does the same.

Another tidbit of information ...

From the Nordic Naturals website:
"While research indicates that a ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 of 5:1 to 10:1 is optimal for dogs, many pet foods contain primarily Omega-6 fatty acids from vegetable oils. This results in a highly unbalanced ratio dominated by Omega-6."

The cite the following source:
Vaughn D, Reinhart G, Swaim S, et al. Evaluation of dietary n-6 to n-3 fatty acid ratios on leukotriene B synthesis in dog skin and neutrophils. Vet Dermatol 1994;5(4):163–173.


Generally speaking, you want to strive to get as close to the 5:1 ratio as reasonably possible.

You may wonder what happens if you go beyond the 5:1 ratio. There are 3 important side-effects:

1) Omega-3 is a natural mood enhancer. I once read about a study that researching the effects of extremely high dosages of Omega-3 (on humans). The study was terminated (at a relatively high dosage, far beyond 5:1) when patients started exhibiting mania (i.e., excessive excitement). Imagine adding MORE excitement to a hyper young puppy!

2) Omega-3 is a powerful anti-inflammatory, which with respect to a typical human/canine diet is usually a very good thing. However, inflammation is sometimes necessary; it's one of your body's most powerful weapons against infection. Too much Omega-3 can reduce your body's natural defenses against infection.

3) Omega-3 is a natural anticoagulant (i.e., blood thinner). If your dog already has problems coagulating (i.e., blood clotting after injury) you may want to talk to your vet before increasing his Omega-3 intake.


Hope this is helpful to somebody.