[weezerweeks]

I give my dog Nordic natural fish oil every day and someone told me I need to use vitamin e with the fish oil. I thought he got the vitamin thru his food. He eats THK and canned foods. Should I add vitamin e?

[Melissaandcrew]

I have been reading that recently as well, especially pertaining to a raw diet. However, I have never been told to supplement E when using fish oil, when feeding a commercial diet. So, I am not sure if this is the case or not.

[pugmomsandy]

I think E (especially all 8 forms of E) is hard to get from the diet. But HDM has said something about it I think in regards to giving it along with another supplement.

• This reply was modified 12 years, 2 months ago by pugmomsandy.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Vitamin E requirements increases with increased intake of dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). So when feeding a diet high in omega 3’s (such as with fish oil supplementation), it’s smart to add vitamin e as well. PUFAs are highly susceptible to oxidation and vitamin e prevents oxidation of the fats in the body. I know that the AAFCO recommends that fish oil–containing diets for should be supplemented with 10 IU of vitamin E for every gram of fish oil per kg of diet. There may be adequate levels in a commercial food but I’d rather err on the side of caution. I believe Nordic Naturals already contains vitamin e (not sure how much) so you should be fine though, especially if you’re feeding a commercial food (as Melissa pointed out vitamin e supplementation becomes even more crucial when feeding homemade diets because they tend to be low in vitamin e). I personally use Carlson fish oils because they’re very high in vitamin e compared to other brands. I also supplement my dog’s diet with a full spectrum tocopherol and tocotrienol complex daily. As Sandy pointed out, it’s difficult to get all 8 forms of vitamin e in the diet (alpha-, beta-, gamma- delta- tocopherol and alpha-, beta-, gamma-, delta- tocotrienol) – most commercial foods only contain alpha-tocopherol or a few contain mixed tocopherols (I’ve never seen a commercial food with tocotrienols). I use NOW Foods Gamma E Complex because it contains all 8 forms of vitamin e.

• This reply was modified 12 years, 2 months ago by Hound Dog Mom.

[k9education]

My issue with Vitamin E supplements is that virtually all of them are derived from soy, which some studies have implicated in bloat. While there are opposing studies that found no correlation between the two, I tend to be overly cautious considering I have a family of GSDs – a breed that is already prone to bloat. Dr. Mercola’s Vitamin E supplement is (or at least claims to be) soy-free, but the cost is ridiculous. It’s about $25 for 30 capsules, which seems expensive even compared to what we pay for Instinct LID kibble.

[zhiba]

@k9education, I’m also concerned about soy derivatives for thyroid reasons. So I stick to vitamin E derived from palm. In particular, products that include Tocomin, which is a trademarked full spectrum Tocotrienol/Tocopherol complex:
http://www.carotech.net/index/product_range/tocomin.html

I’ve been getting this at Amazon, 150 pills for ~$25.

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