Facts About Vitamin B

Dog Digestion and Vitamin B deficiency Symptoms

Facts about Vitamin B and what is vitamin B is some of the facts you can get from this page written by DVM Per Schonbeck.

Vitamin B is not only one vitamin, but a variety of eight different molecules. All of them important in the cell metabolism.

Photo by Per Schonbeck, DVM

What is B vitamin

Well, to describe the "Vitamin B complex" in general is difficult. Each of these B vitamin versions a different function and purpose.

Some of the most well known B vitamins are:

• Vitamin B1 (Thiamin)
• Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)
• Niacin
• Folic Acid
• Vitamin B 12 (Cyanocobolamin)
• Biotin

Less known, but still very important: Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) and Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine, pyridoxal, or pyridoxamine, or pyridoxine hydrochloride).

There are different sources where your dog can get these different B vitamins from. Plants, fruits, and different meats are some of them.

Facts About Vitamin B and Body Health

Together, Vitamin B complex is necessary in order to support and increase the rate of metabolism, maintain healthy skin and muscles, enhance immune and nervous system, and to promote cell growth and division.

Before any of the B vitamins were actually discovered, they were indirectly used as ingredients for cures.

Long before our technological advances, some meats and plants were used to cure diseases in humans like Beriberi.

Beriberi was a feared paralytic disease of humans.

To cure the disease, the patient would need to eat unpolished rice. Of course, now we know why those plants and meats worked as cures, because they contained Vitamin B complex.

Facts About Vitamin B and Too Much Vitamin B

An over supplementation of Vitamin B complex usually isn't toxic to a dog. All of the versions of the vitamin are water-soluble is another fact about Vitamin B. Since they are water-soluble body tissues do not readily store them. Any dose overage is usually released during urination.

But deficiencies of Vitamin B complex in dogs can occur. The most commonly know B vitamin is Vitamin B12.

Found in organ meats, your dog is recommended to have .00025 mg/lb of the vitamin daily. If your dog does not get its recommended daily dose of Vitamin B12, your dog can have serious complications.

Vitamin B deficiency and Dog Digestion

Signs to look out for if your dog is suffering from another Vitamin B deficiency are a loss of appetite, weight loss, diarrhea, skin lesions, dry skin, and eye abnormalities.

These signs are not very specific, but if your dog exhibits any of these symptoms, or any other abnormal symptoms, lack of Vitamin B is some to be aware of.

More important facts about Vitamin B - if your dog isn't getting the recommended amount it needs daily, you can give your dog supplements to help.

By first consulting with a vet, you can get the supplements in a pill form. The dogs use the vitamins in the same way we do, and giving them a supplement like the ones humans take cannot harm them.

In some intestinal diseases, supplementation needs to be given as injections. The vitamin B uptake though the intestinal wall is a lot less because of the disease.

Extra supplementation as tablets will not be at any help at all.

Some things your dog may ingest may contain enzymes that can destroy the B vitamins.

One example of this is raw egg whites. Raw egg whites contain an enzyme that destroys Biotin. Biotin is essential for your dog's overall health

But, the yolk of the egg is high in biotin, and if the raw egg is ingested together, some of the effects of the egg whites and yolk will cancel each other out.