As a subscriber to your magazine, I really enjoy the articles and letters so I wonder if you can advise on a supplement issue for me.
I feed my 2 spaniels a mix of home prepared and raw food and would like to add a high quality general vitamin and mineral supplement in a liquid form. However I do seem to be having some problems finding one without additives such as sugar. There are plenty of tablet or herb versions but my one dog is very fussy with these types.
Can you recommend or suggest any products for me?
Many thanks
Julia Jones, by email
You don't say why you think your dogs need a vitamin or mineral supplement. Is it because they don't appear as healthy as you would like them to be or because you think you should be giving them one? I can't see the need for a supplement if you are giving your dog good food. After all, humans don't need supplements if they eat properly, unless they are ill, so why should dogs? I'm not a vet, or a nutritionist, by the way, but I feed my spaniel the BARF diet (bones and raw veggies, raw eggs, etc) and she is so well on it, it would never occur to me to top it up with any vitamins or minerals. Incidentally, recent research has revealed that taking vitamin pills is not necessarily good for people.
ReplyDeleteThere is one addition, however, I do make to my dog's diet, and that is vegetable oil.
Julia Lewis
As an independent distributor for a top quality Aloe Vera products company, I would recommend giving your dog a daily amount of Aloe Vera Gel. It is a wonderful natural product that provides a wide range of vitamins and minerals. It is also a great way of getting more energy and is wonderful at helping with many internal and external issues. Maybe if you want to know more you could contact the editor and she can pass a contact on to me.
ReplyDeletePaul Beard.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteMy first line of defense against arthritis in my dogs is Devil's Claw and Green Lipped Mussel. When my 10-year-old Dobermann first developed arthritis these helped her for quite some time and definitely staved off her needing painkillers. My eight-year-old dobermann dog was diagnosed with arthritis and hip dysplasia two years ago now and to date has never needed painkillers for either, the supplements are more than enough.
I give them also to my six-year-old Labrador (arthritis in knee and hip) and 12-year-old mongrel (arthritis just about everywhere!) and while both dogs need painkillers, the supplements do make a considerable difference to them - neither dog had had any treatment prior to coming to me and both dogs are severely affected so any improvement was obvious very quickly.
On a different note; when my Dobermann boy was growing up, I was recommended a whole range of supplements to help him that breeders and owners swore by; principle among those was omegas, vitamin E and zinc, all designed to help his body fight skin infections and encourage hair growth (he is an isabella/fawn, bred from an isabella and a blue, so his coat is atrocious due to colour dilute alopecia and now mostly gone). Many of these people had had great results with these - Remy's genetics unfortunately were against him but my next dilute dobe will be on a similar regime (Remy is, so far, from the only litter bred from two dilutes that I know of so any future dilute should have a better chance genetically to improve). The same people also swore by certain foods for the same problem.
Yours,
Nikita Norman