Pet Vitamin Supplements - Whether You Need One and How to Choose One

There is evidence to suggest that a good vitamin supplement for your dog not only helps prevent, improve or cure many degenerative type illnesses and disease, but may actually lengthen your dog's life span. Really!

This is particularly the indication if you supplement with vitamins while your dog is young and healthy, rather than waiting for your dog to get sick or show the usual signs of aging and degeneration.

Disease is a process which gradually debilitates the cells of an organism. The organism may be you, or me, or your dog (or mine!)

Debilitated cells are unable to rebuild, regenerate and repair damage which inevitably occurs just through the fact of being alive and moving day by day closer to the end of life. Of course, much greater damage can be caused by poor nutrition or other dietary deficiencies or excesses, environmental poisons, physical and/or emotional stress or insufficient excercise. In short, anything which pushes the organism past its optimum capacity, or causes it to fall short of its optimum capacity, can and will cause damage and will debilitate the cells.

Do you ever supplement your own diet and lifestyle with vitamins and/or minerals?

But you know what? It didn't occur to me that my beautiful dogs would benefit from a good vitamin supplement until recent years.

I always (wrongly) assumed that if I gave my dogs a largely natural diet of raw meat and bones, with the occasional addition of steamed vegetables and rice or pasta, and with a morning snack of a small handful of commercial dry dog food, my dogs would always remain in tip top health.

Luckily for me, I was on the right track, and my dogs have always been very healthy. My vet routinely compliments me on their great teeth and gums and wonderful general health.

But as they started getting past their prime, some health concerns started popping up. Kara, my Rottweiler, started developing arthritis and the effects of hip dysplasia (which she's had since very young, but without any symptoms). Similar to my own parents (who're well into their 60's), Kara started to look a bit older and stiffer when she moved, and especially when she got up after lying still for a while.

So I started Kara on a dog vitamin supplement. And, oh, what a difference! It took a few weeks to kick in, but once I'd found the right dose and the vitamins started to show their effects, Kara appeared more youthful - less stiff - and she didn't look so uncomfortable when moving around. It really has done wonders.

And still I didn't "get it" in general terms. Because Kara clearly had a problem, I decided to treat it with a supplement. But I didn't think to treat Jet, my Staffordshire Bull Terrier, as well, which I should have done just to keep her in tip top health even though she had no specific problems back then. Besides which, Kara takes her vitamins in tablet form, whereas Jet is a tablet nightmare!

But when Jet was also diagnosed with the early stages of a degenerative disease - gradual loss of her eyesight - the penny finally dropped. I thought "Why on earth am I not giving Jet a vitamin supplement as well?" So I use a tablet crusher and mix the crushed tablet with peanut butter. Yes, these tablets crush pretty well. And Jet eats them! I have to admit that she still looks suspiciously at the concoction each day, but the lure of the peanut butter usually gets the better of her!

Nowadays I absolutely swear by dog vitamins. I really don't know why I didn't think them necessary long ago. But better late than never.

And my dogs are now in peak health even though they're both coming up to 10 years old.

Click Here for more Pet Vitamin information! - http://www.HealthyHappyDogs.com/Vitamins

Brigitte Smith is a dog lover with a special interest in holistic dog health. Her site, Healthy Happy Dogs, has pages and pages of information on improving your dog's health naturally. Brigitte is the author of several reports, articles, and the Healthy Happy Dogs newsletter.

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