Posted by 472 COMMENTS

I often get asked whether dogs can benefit from fish oil supplements or not as there are many people supplementing their dogs diet with fish oils these days.

Omega 3 fish oils are the most popular essential fatty acids (EFA’s) and they are called ‘essential’ as it is essential that the body derives them from the diet (or supplements) as it cannot produce these fatty acids itself.  EFA’s are really important as they have a large range of benefits for your dog’s health – and scientists are recognizing new benefits all the time. Some of the benefits we already know about include increasing cardiovascular health, optimum eye health, helping itchy and inflamed skin and arthritis, due to their great anti-inflammatory actions. EFA’s are also needed for optimum neurological health and can help with cognitive ability – in fact, they are absolutely essential for normal brain development in puppies.  EFA’s can also help in the treatment of obesity, along with the correct diet. There is another major benefit that many people are not aware of about EFA’s – certain forms have been shown to inhibit tumour development more effectively than the conventional drugs they were compared with in scientific studies. As a research scientist, I came across these clinical trials last year when I was researching natural anti-inflammatory herbal medicines and nutrients for companion animals and I found clinical trials that provided substantial evidence of tumour growth suppression (i.e. Able to stop tumour growth and shrink the tumours).  I also found a number of scientific trials on plant medicines that had been equally effective at stopping tumour growth in animals but more about that in another post. Suffice to say that there is now a lot of cutting-edge,  scientific research that provides substantial evidence of significant benefits of the use of certain herbal medicines and nutrient therapies in the treatment of cancer.

A Warning About Giving Your Dog EFA’s in Supplement Form:

Many of the EFA capsules and liquids being sold around the world for human and animal use are nothing more than toxic time  bombs!

Unless the supplements you purchase state otherwise, you can be almost guaranteed they will be contaminated with heavy metals such as mercury, aluminium, lead, cadmium, and other nasties. Cheap sources of fish which are used to manufacture ‘cheap’ supplements are usually laden with these potentially harmful substances and do not usually undergo the strict filtering processes of  higher quality supplements, so be careful what you are purchasing. You are really better off avoiding EFA supplements if you can’t afford to purchase the brands that ‘guarantee’ their fish oil products to be 99% heavy metal free.  Unfortunately, when it comes to supplements of any kind, there are a lot of inferior products out there – produced by companies that are just trying to ‘cash in’ on the nutrient supplement revolution. It’s true that most of us do require added nutrients to supplement our diets these days and equally true that our pets do too – but only if we are relying on high-quality, natural supplements and not inferior, synthetic supplements that may contain harmful additives and contaminants such as lead and mercury.

Feeding Fish To Your Dog

When feeding your dog fish (or yourself), try to avoid large fish such as tuna, as these are more likely to contain significant amounts of toxic heavy metals. Instead, try to purchase smaller fish such as sardines as these usually have much smaller amounts of heavy metals in them. When sardines are mashed and fed with their bones, they also provide a great deal of calcium to your dog too.

 

Yours in Health,

Sar Rooney BHSc., ND., DC., DASc., GDSc. (Hons) Zoology, MHATO, MATMS.
Canine Naturopath, Naturopathic Physician, Research Health Scientist, Zoologist 

Naturopathic Animal Services

www.AnimalNaturopath.com.au

www.DogNaturopath.com

www.CanineNaturopath.com

www.HealYourDogNaturally.com

categories: Uncategorized

472 Responses

  1. This kind of website is seriously fascinating, keep creating good material.

  2. gauze pants says:

    Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon. . . .

  3. I wasn’t going to comment as this was written a while ago, but as I have just read it a second time, I thought I say thank you for this great article.

  4. Kim Polly says:

    thanks, very well written post, found it through a random google search and i shared it on my digg account

  5. Los Angeles says:

    Your site is rather amazing, keep blogging awesome material.

  6. Thanks a lot regarding your wonderful info, already been browsing for this

  7. I prefer to take breaks in the course of the day and browse by means of some blogs to view what other people are stating. This blog appeared in my searches and I could not help but clicking on it. I am happy I did since it absolutely was a very satisfying learn.

  8. Car Audio says:

    Hello! I just wanted to take the time to make a comment and say I have really enjoyed reading your blog. Thanks for all your work.

  9. Great, I have already bookmarked your this page…Now I don’t have enough time for read but by reading beginning part I must say…it was a positive start .. Would love to read further too…Thanks for great post!

  10. aquis towel says:

    Informative post, this is. It is always nice to come across a post that is useful.

  11. Its very informative and interesting article.all the points are very useful. Simple but very effective writing. Thanks for sharing such a nice post.

  12. ipod guide says:

    I love reading and I am always searching for informative information like this! You are bookmarked!. . . . . .

  13. John Lyrics says:

    Nice info, I want say thanks to admin because i’ve found many useful knowledge. Keep it going! :). Best regards

  14. howdy there, I really found this post was extremely helpful and wished to say thank you very much

  15. raigninny says:

    This site is the most reliable internet sites. . Cheers Glenn Prolonoff!

  16. You got a definitely helpful blog I’ve been right here reading for about an hour. I’m a newbie and your accomplishment is quite a lot an inspiration for me.

  17. Interesting article and one which should be more widely known about in my view. Your level of detail is good and the clarity of writing is excellent. I have bookmarked it for you so that others will be able to see what you have to say.

  18. Great post cheers, sending this to my friends asap.

  19. Caren Tapper says:

    Very good written information. It will be valuable to anybody who utilizes it, including myself. Keep up the good work – looking forward to more posts.

  20. Shower Radio says:

    I am really thankful to this topic because it really gives up to date information

  21. Alex says:

    You’re so cool! I don’t suppose I’ve read anything like this before. So nice to find somebody with some original thoughts on this subject.

    This website is something that is needed on the web 🙂 Useful job for bringing something new to the internet!

    Best regards Alex

Google Adwords Management