There are a few things that I wish I could convince more customers to try adding to their dog’s diet, and fish oil is certainly one of them. (the other one is digestive enzymes, and I’ll be writing about those soon).  They have many benefits, including reduction of joint pain, and now three studies have come out demonstrating this benefit in dogs with arthritis pain.

In humans it is well known that infants need DHA (one of the Omega 3 fatty acids) to aid in proper retinal and brain development, as well as support and maintenance of the central nervous system. In adults one of the best documented effects is the benefit to the heart (lowering of bad cholesterol and triglycerides, etc), but it is also showing good results in reducing inflammation (countless chronic diseases are linked to inflammation in the tissues and organs), reducing the chance of blood clots, elevating mood, slowing down degenerative brain diseases like Alzheimer’s, having significant effects on kidney function, and deficiencies have been linked to low birth weight and hyperactivity when pregnant mothers don’t get enough Omega 3s. (increasing your intake of low mercury fish oil or krill oils through supplementation, and switching to grass-fed meats are two ways of getting more Omega 3s in your diet. Cutting down on your Omega 6s (vegetable oils found in processed foods) helps your body a great deal as well.

Anyway, in Dogs and Cats these same benefits of course occur. One of the effects that is most easy to observe is the almost immediate benefit to the skin and coat. Animals with chronic skin problems should almost always be taking fish oils.  About a month ago, we convinced a customer to put one of her cats onto fish oil, as  she had some problems with hair loss and some scabbiness to the skin. Not only did the hair start regrowing and the skin start repairing itself, but she noticed how nice and shiny the coat was that she already had. She told us, “I was so impressed with how her hair looked that I started to wonder what it would do for my healthy cats. They all now are shinier, hardly shed at all, and have lost that little bit of dandruff that seems to always have been there.”  We’ve seen this many times in dogs and cats. Of course the foods we carry are some of the best that exist, and they’re doing a good job of including high quality fish oils, applying them after the food is cooled so they are not damaged by the cooking process. However, I think that animals who are eating (even high quality) processed foods are still at somewhat of a disadvantage nutritionally than animals eating whole foods. Also, shipping in hot trucks, storage, etc must have a little bit of an effect on the quality of those fats (though they are of course combined with antioxidants to prevent this sort of degradation), and the amounts in food may not be high enough for some individual animals, especially those on a weight reduction kibble, or with specific health challenges, like arthritis.

The second effect that is relatively easy to observe is the reduction of joint pain. In the new studies, “In the first study, dogs with chronic pain associated with osteoarthritis showed improvements in their ability to play and rise from rest at six weeks after being switched to a diet containing high concentrations of fish oil omega-3 fatty acids. The second study showed that limb strength in dogs improved with omega-3 dietary intervention.  In the third study, veterinarians were able to reduce the dosage of carprofen, a common NSAID used for pain relief in dogs with osteoarthritis, while still providing pain relief to dogs that were fed food supplemented with omega-3 fatty acids.” http://www.avma.org/press/releases/100304_omega-3_fatty_acids.asp

These studies were done by Hills nutrition, and are certainly valuable to help illustrate and validate the effects that we see. As the press release states, “This finding is especially important because it allows veterinarians to better understand that complications that may arise from pain relief medications could be reduced when the medications are used in combination with proper nutrition.”  I only wish that Hills would someday take the knowledge that they glean from these studies and combine them with better quality foods in their diets. It’s impressive that these studies showed such significant results when combined with a diet so high in grains (that have been shown to have inflammatory effects and high levels of Omega 6s), fillers, and by-products. (The ingredients leading up to fish oil in their joint prescription food: “Ground Whole Grain Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, Flaxseed, Soybean Mill Run, Brewers Rice, Soybean Meal, Pork Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Chicken Liver Flavor, Powdered Cellulose, Fish Oil”.)  Imagine how much benefit a good quality, low-mercury fish oil, stored in your fridge and added fresh every day to a healthy diet (made from human grade meats, low in or absent of grains and rich in antioxidents from whole foods) would provide.

So, please consider adding good quality fish oils to your pet’s diet. It will have many lasting benefits to their overall health.

Thanks to Truth About Pet Food for her blog posting on this topic!

Good link to benefits of salmon oil for pets:
http://www.icelandpure.com/salmon_oil_info.htm
Some of our favorite fish oils:
Iceland Pure
Royal Coat Express