Newsletter - February 2013

Tori would like to make a couple of things very clear:

1. The world revolves around Dad. After all, he does normal things like barking when he sees the postman so as to alert me if necessary. He runs around the house in circles, throws snowballs to be chased outside, offers treats for no reason...he's just a fun guy!

2. Mom on the other hand, can't be trusted. She gives baths, combs out matted hair, puts "stuff" in ears, wipes the eyes...just a general pain in the neck person. Ok, she hands out treats, but not all that often, and they're much smaller than what the fun guy doles out. It would be very good if Mom could be replaced with a clone of Dad.

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Vitamin E: Facts and Fiction

Can you and/or your dog get too much of a good thing? The short answer: yes. It may be tougher to do this when it comes to vitamin E, but it's not impossible. For example, I analyzed a diet for a 12 pound dog that included 100 IU of supplemental vitamin E per day. This dog would receive much more than his requirement if he was given this amount per week. So what's the real deal about vitamin E?

When a vitamin E deficiency arises, the results can be impaired immunity, reproductive failure and/or retinal atrophy. Although toxicity per se hasn't been shown, sign of excess is anorexia, and very high levels of vitamin E may lead to poor absorption of vitamins A and K thereby producing deficiencies in these two vitamins. So, the notion of vitamin E being perfectly safe no matter how high the dose should be filed under "fiction"... but so can the idea that supplementation is never necessary. That's fiction, too.

We think of vitamin E as an antioxidant and it certainly is that, but it also plays critical roles in the maintenance of cardiac, skeletal and smooth muscle. It also plays roles in the formation of red blood cells as well as helping maintain stores of iron, selenium, and vitamins A and K.

Vitamin E from natural sources is labeled as alpha tocopherol or d-alpha tocopherol. DL-alpha tocopherol indicates a synthetic, less effective product, and you would need to use about double the amount of this as of the natural form. The body's vitamin E status is influenced by diet and some medications. In so far as diet is concerned, the greater the intake of fish and/or fish oils, the greater the need for vitamin E. I usually use 100 IU - 200 IU per week in my diet formulations. Much is based on the diet itself, the weight of the dog and whether that dog is healthy or dealing with a condition that might benefit from a different dose.

Personally Speaking

This area of the newsletter is reserved for links to my blog entries, but January was hectic and there was no time to write. We did manage to watch a new documentary though. Have you seen In Organic We Trust? If you've read several books or at least one really good one about organic farming and what that really means, you're probably not missing much by skipping this movie. But if you're on the fence, not really sure, or want to learn something new by seeing different perspectives, I think you'll like it.

Monica

"Some of our greatest historical and artistic treasures we place with curators in museums; others we take for walks.” ~ Roger Caras