If YOU take supplements, does your pet need to?

If you are feeding a top quality holistic pet food, doesn’t that mean that your pet is getting enough nutrition? You might be shocked to learn that the answer is NO.

Let me explain by giving you a human example and then I’ll bring you back to supplements for pets.

I have been a vegetarian for over four years. Aside from having quite a sweet tooth, I eat healthier than anyone I know. (Hey, my grandmother worked as a chocolate dipper for 50 years so give me a break!) . Whole grains, brown rice, 7-9 servings of vegetables per day, 7-9 servings of fruits, organic everything, no meat, very few eggs. I even drink filtered water and do sodas (root beer) only once in a blue moon.

And yet, I am in my 50’s (don’t look it, thank you very much) and there are health problems I want to prevent or overcome. For example, osteoporosis. High blood pressure. Migraines. A worn-out thyroid. Women’s health. Skin cancer. And some special ones you don’t need to hear about

So I take vitamins, one of the great acai health drinks (MonaVie), fish oil, milk thistle and turmeric, and some others.

As a result, my health is terrific, some specific problems have been eliminated, and I am off of virtually every prescription I was on.

Your pet is no different. Chances are, if you are fairly new to holistic pet foods, your pet ate by-products, chemicals, and too many of the wrong kinds of grains during his early life. And even if he’s been on holistic foods for a long time, he’s aging and slowing down, and he has to overcome his heredity.

So you supplement.

I do animal rescue and can’t afford to supplement all of the kitties but I do give vitamins to the sickly ones.

I had one kitty, Valentine, who came to me from a very abusive setting. She had been singed and burned by lighters or matches or something and she was exceptionally skittish and her fur was in bad shape. The people brought me her pet food — it was a ghastly dollar store brand, oh my gosh, I never shop there and had no idea that nasty quality of ingredients on the label. You might as well feed sand.

I gave her a supplement that is a companion to her holistic pet food and she wolfs it down like cat treats. All I have to do is shake the bottle and she flies out of wherever she’s been playing. Her fur has grown out beautifully and she is energetic and happy and ready to be adopted out. I do give credit to supplementation with her. Yes, she was loved and nurtured in my care, but she was also properly fed and nourished.

Lest you think it’s just me recommending supplements, check out this CNN article, “Does Your Pet Need A Dietary Supplement?” The pet supplement market has grown about 15 percent annually since 2000 and is now a $1.3 billion business, according to the National Animal Supplement Council. Simmons Market Research Bureau says approximately 17 percent of pet owners give their cats and dogs some type of supplement.

They are needed, they are not taught in veterinary school, and you can run into huge problems with quality. So you’ll want to deal with a reputable company.

The best overall supplement for older dogs and cats is glucosamine. It’s available over the counter and it’s hugely effective, although I always recommend checking with your vet to be sure nothing else is going on with your pet. My brother called me about his older cat, Tammy. She couldn’t even jump up on a chair and they just assumed it was old age, there was nothing that could be done. But she was so miserable, he thought he ought to give me a call. So I gave him a supplement that my company makes for cats and he called me the next morning to say, “Whoa, that’s impressive. She is a whole new cat today, jumping up and down on everything”. Yes, glucosamine works that effectively, on humans and on pets.

Fish oil is another one. Many holistic vets and even the Cornell Feline Institute recommend it to help overcome the inflammation associated with diseases like arthritis and diabetes (inflames the kidneys), and it’s terrific for beautiful, glossy skin and coat. But in the case of fish oil, you’ll want to use a human grade fish oil, not a veterinary grade. Dosage for large dogs is the full human dose (shown on the bottle), medium dogs is 1/2 the human dose, and small dogs and cats 1/4 the human dose.

Never pour it in an animal’s mouth, it’s too easy to inhale. Pour it onto their front paws or a plate and let them lick it up.

Working dogs such as cattle dogs and rescue dogs benefit from vitamins as it’s nearly impossible for them to get sufficient nutrients from their food.

Show dogs and cats are under a great deal of stress, so they also benefit from Vitamins and skin and coat formulas.

There is a colostrum-based product for stressed animals that I really like called Transfer Factor. You might think of stressed animals as being sickly but it’s also for animals who travel a lot or are in shows or competitions. It’s made both in human formulas and in veterinary formulas and they even make it for cows and horses. It’s expensive but I have used it on chronically sick kitties that had been on penicillin shots for a year and it cleared up their infections. So I highly, highly recommend this supplement. I don’t sell it but you can google on “Transfer Factor” or get it from the lady I get it from at http://www.judyshealthcafe.com

If you have animals on this list, you might want to search on the Internet or go to the natural health store to find high quality veterinary supplements for your pets. Always be careful with pregnant or nursing animals; while they have high nutritional needs, what they eat often gets passed through their milk to their babies and this can be harmful. Check with your vet in those situations.

• Older pets
• Pets with chronic illnesses
• Working dogs (there’s no such thing as working cats, are there?!)
• Show cats and dogs
• Pets with long fur
• Pets that travel a lot or are left home alone a lot

A friend of mine recently lost her 13-year-old poodle to cancer. Yes, cancer can happen even to pets who have eaten nothing but holistic pet foods. (Don’t get me started on the hazards of vaccinations and on the carcinogens in our environment).

But the reason the dog lasted as long as it did and in as good of shape as he was in was because of his pet foods, fish oil, glucosamine, and supplements. The vet said that this 13-year-old dog had the bloodwork of a one to two year old dog.

Folks, this is not insignificant. My doctor tells me the same thing about my own medical tests. We get used to the way we feel on our poor diets. We get used to our pets moping around and throwing up after meals. It doesn’t need to be this way.

Please be open to what you might learn about pet vitamins and supplements and be willing to give them a try with your pets. Holistic pet food is wonderful but it only meets basic nutrition. For special needs, give supplements.

Teresa Holladay, “The Pet Food Lady”
http://holisticpetfood.wordpress.com