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Our vet is trying to upsell me on supposedly beneficial fish oil granules for our dog Bandit. It is about twice what I pay for 2 months supply of fish oil capsules for my personal use. Has anyone used fish oil granules or liquid for their furry friends? If so, did you think it was of any benefit?

David,

No and no.


... but it’s good for treating rust on cars.

David, I would be very hesitant to use fish oil tablets.
I have seen many who advocate some anchovies chucked into their dinner once a week or so and from what I've seen in these instances it appears to help. But a steady intake of just the oil? No.

It's a pity vets don't have to swear the Hippocratic oath. "Above all else, do no harm"
Something not commonly understood is vets in Australia do not learn anything about the nutritional needs nor how various nutrients are processed in domestic animals at uni.
It makes sense. They would need another 2 years to learn about the diet requirements of dogs, cats, various birds, turtles, guinea pigs etc etc.
Not practical. They only learn about various treatable conditions that may be caused by poor diet as that is what may be presented to them in a surgery.
So, everything they tell you they have learnt from the sales reps that call on them.

No, not a good idea.

Jim

I agree, the supposed benefits of fish oil capsules has been debunked and dogs like all animals have specific dietary requirements. It's just another con job/fad that makes lots of money for the corporate world and the benefits are zero.

I've had dogs around since I can remember and were my best friends and excellent protectors when I lived rough in Melb. I also lost dogs because at the time I didn't understand their requirements, now I do and my dogs benefit from that life time of experimentation and knowledge now live on a mostly vegetarian diet. But they eat wallaby meat/bones, fresh fish, organic chooks and heaps of veggies/grains, which they all love.

Your dogs condition and health can be seen in their eyes and condition of their fur coats, most of the time their coats are shiny soft and smooth. When they have a bad diet, feel stressed or a bit tense, the coats becoming wiry and dull. I would never feed my dogs processed packaged food, the amount of chemicals in them is astounding and must have a very adverse effect on the dogs over time, just as processed packaged foods have a detrimental effect over time in humans and every other living thing.

I love my dogs more than humans and believe they shouldn't be led into crap diets and Jim is right, vets don't have clue about diet and the nutritional requirements for dogs, just like human quacks don't have a clue about proper diet and nutrition for humans. If they did we wouldn't have all the unnecessary illness and disease we see. That's why quacks are only capable of prescribing symptom suppressing drugs, or they cut out the problem and rarely provide a path to fix the problem.

As far as fish oil for either animals or humans I say no. When you go into hosp now they ask if you take any form of fish oil and if so you must stop a couple of weeks before surgery. For all of my dogs I always gave them a slurp of the real "Apple cider vinegar" from the fodder store, not the watered down stuff from supermarkets. A good natural diet should not need any added processed stuff.

When I had dogs ( none these days unfortunately ) I would lightly boil their meat along with finely cut and ground vegetables.
I would collect the fat from the water on the top of the meat boil, keep it separate, and add a bit to their slightly warmed up feeds.
( never in the microwave )
The last dog I had before coming to WA would just sniff the food bowl and walk away if I didn't add the fat to it.
He had shiny fur and could run all day, then dinner at night would go down in huge suction gulp.


Ron

native pepper wrote: ↑Fri Dec 11, 2020 10:37 am..... now live on a mostly vegetarian diet. But they eat wallaby meat/bones, fresh fish, organic chooks and heaps of veggies/grains, which they all love.

Native Pepper....Mark this day in red I think. We have found something we actually agree on.

Just a word of advice re a vegetarian diet.

You are correct in your belief that dogs require BOTH meat protein and vegetable matter. But, dogs cannot process cellulose. Think of an orange segment that if you look closely is made up of tiny parcels about the size of a grain of rice. The walls of that grain is cellulose. ALL vegetable matter is the same. It's just easier to see in an orange.

Dogs cannot process or dissolve if you prefer that wall. Therefore the whole thing passes through untouched.

Wild members of the Canis Lupus family get their vegetable content from the stomach of their prey. It's already partially digested.
To duplicate that we can either cook the vegetable matter (Works but many nutrients lost) or blitz it in a blender/food processor.

Everyday example. Grated carrot will go in one end and exit out the other with zero benefit. Blend the carrot....all good.

The "wallaby meat/bones, fresh fish, organic chooks" is spot on. Don't forget the eggs. Shell and all. I presume you never cook any of it.

Time to maybe fess up my experience in this matter. I was a registered breeder for about 20+ years but moved on to research and eventually training in all things canine. I was co-founder of Australia's second-largest breed register and the only training academy for breeders in Oz.
My personal field of endeavour/expertise was genetics. Specifically, selection of breeding pairs to remove or bring in specific traits specializing in poly-genetic traits.
I was mentored in this field by the late Dr Malcom Willis and taught the subject in the academy.

As for diet, that was my partners field. What I know I learnt from her. She was the expert, not me. But I know enough to help. My partner trained under Dr Ian Billinghurst initially but then went on to do her own research and opened new fields of knowledge.

Jim

Noggins wrote: ↑Fri Dec 11, 2020 5:30 pmWhen I had dogs ( none these days unfortunately ) I would lightly boil their meat along with finely cut and ground vegetables.
I would collect the fat from the water on the top of the meat boil, keep it separate, and add a bit to their slightly warmed up feeds.
( never in the microwave )
The last dog I had before coming to WA would just sniff the food bowl and walk away if I didn't add the fat to it.
He had shiny fur and could run all day, then dinner at night would go down in huge suction gulp.
Ron

You were so close to an excellent diet.
I realise you no longer have a dog but for the benefit of others who may, may I add.
Finely chopped veg......One can't possibly cut it fine enough. The grinding however....perfect.
Lightly boil the meat? Zero benefit. Possible loss of nutrient.

But the fat! Spot on. People often equate our diets to those of dogs. Dogs NEED the fat. I forget the actual percentage. Something like 30% of their diet should be fat. If we humans ate the same amount of fat that a dog considers minimum we would be in a cardiac ward.

In the wild, a dog will eat the organs and outer fat first. The muscle meat we all eat (and serve to our dogs) is the last consumed and even then it comprises the smaller portion of the entire meal.

Jim

Interesting Jim, I don't disagree with anyone, just have my point of view and believe everyone knowledge is worthy of listening to no matter how warped it may seem. Yes cellulose is hard for dogs to digest, when I cook it includes my dogs food as well, so they get what I eat mostly, except for things that are not good for them. I'm very particular about their diet and they have been taught to chew their food, instead of gulping it down and that has worked well.

I keep a good eye on my dogs poo, it gives you a good idea as to their digestive health and my dogs digest just about everything they eat. They eat cooked chook, but not the bones and they get all the fat from the fish and chooks, virtually no fat on wallabies and they devour the bones. Not into feeding anything consisting of eggs, personally not into eating the reject menstrual cycle of a chook, which will probably change your mind .

My dogs all live long lives except for the last one, who was born with prostrate cancer and lived to 14. He was only in pain the last couple of days and was still fit and healthy other than the big C which was able to control using natural methods. The one before him, a stumpy tail dingo cross lived to 24 until accidentally running into my horses hoof at the gallop which broke his skull, he was still active but suffering so had to put him to sleep. All the horses turned up at his funeral and watched sadly as he was put under an new apricot tree which has produced masses of delicious fruit since. All my dogs end up under fruit trees, so will I, have burial rights on my property and it's in a perpetual trust so my kids can't sell it ever.

We have always added some sardines in our dogs diet, made their coat shiny but their breathe stink even worse The sardines did help Crunchie as she got older with the arthritis pain in the joints and eventually she also had the injections every 3 mths I think it was .... but she was old for such a small dog and we learnt we over exercised her when she was young and wore out the leg joints .... what suits a medium to large dog as far as exercise apparently over does it for a small breed dog ...

T1 Terry