Vitamins

Do you give your dog vitamins? If so what kind?

The girls get supplements. They each get glucosamine (my arthritic dog gets extra), vitam E, vitamin C, flaxseed oil, salmon oil, and a kelp/alfalfa vitamin (gotta order more). My dog with kidney and liver problems gets milk thistle, and other special supplements for her kidneys and liver, heart, lungs, and intestines. One of them also gets a little bit of slippery elm.

I give a puppy multi-vite that my vet made sure that I walked out with (for like $45) and I put 2 brewers yeast tabs in every cup of food.

I really should start...they probably don't need much, but I'm sure a bit of Vit C and brewer's yeast wouldn't go amiss.

If a dog eats a good quality commercial dry food, a general vitamin supplement isn't necessary. If it is fed a home prepared diet, depending on the formulation it may not be a bad idea.

Some additional vitamin C is always good and anyone who feeds fish oil should also give extra vitamin E.

Most multivitamin supplements marketed for pets are poor quality gimmick products that are actually quite a waste of money. It's better to supplement individual things on an as-needed basis.

Great advice....Thank you for posting...

Zoom: I was told if you supplement yeast in your dogs diet you have to supplement calcium too....do you know if this is true?

Mordy: I am feeding Innova Large Breed Puppy to my pup and my vet, like memyselfandmiahs, is pushing these vitamin tabs on me everytime I go. From what you have posted I am thinking I don't need to buy them....what would you suggest?

You only really have to add a calcium supplement if you are feeding yeast in larger amounts for any particular reason and the diet otherwise doesn't have a large enough calcium reserve. The ca/ph ratio in the innova large breed puppy is about 1.3:1 if I'm not mistaken, so a few tablets of brewer's yeast per day aren't going to throw it off by all that much.

Say you fed a home prepared diet and would include a supplement like Dr. Pitcairn's Healthy Powder, it is true that you'd include a calcium supplement to balance it out.

The Innova LBP has a very nice vitamin supplement included, so no, I don't think an added multivitamin is necessary at all. If you want to give something extra, vitamin C (preferably as Ester C) and some good quality fish oil or wild salmon oil plus vitamin E would make a lot more sense.

Thanks Mordy. I value your input.

It may not be necessary, but could it be helpful? I have been putting two teaspoons per day of Dr. Pitcairn's healthy powder on kibble.

It certainly doesn't hurt, and the nutritional yeast has a taste most animals really like.

This animal does not like brewer's yeast. (me)

Well, there's a difference between brewer's yeast and nutritional yeast, but I actually like both.

I don't like either. But I liked Brewer's less.

I mix the brewers yeast into the kibble when I feed, and it goes down in the mad rush to consume food!

Mordy: does the brewers yeast have a substancial benefit for the dogs coat like I have been told it does? I give my dog 3 tabs daily (about half of what is suggested for a human) it also has a B-complex (heavy with b-12) mixed in too.

Also mordy can you make sure to check out the "my dog is dying" thread?

thanks

Yeast itself is rich in B-complex vitamins, which are good for skin, nails and coat (or hair, in humans ).

The vet recommended BioFats.... but Toby doesn't like the smell or taste.

We tried Pawier....for Toby's tearing....but Toby doesn't like the smell or taste.

Now we are trying Nupro......we'll see how it goes!~

Visa's on a raw diet, so she gets plenty of natural vitamins, but I give her Nutri-cal because it is a high calorie supplement and she needs to keep her weight up. I also give her Bio-Skin and Coat and Omega Fish Oils.

Mordy, I give Grizzly Salmon Oil. Why do I need to supplement with Vitamin E?

Due to the high content of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in fish oils, they are prone to oxidation which makes them rancid and potential initiators of chain reactions which can lead to oxidation of fat and cholesterol molecules in the body. This "lipid peroxidation reaction" is believed to be implicated in cancer and inflammation. Vitamin E is an antioxidant and its job is (among other things) to prevent this kind of reaction.

Studies have shown that daily intake of fish oil supplements reduces the plasma concentration of vitamin E to below normal range and the vitamin E concentration in the red blood cells dropped very significantly, but the addition of a vitamin E supplement fixed both of these problems.