Sheila-Canada

by Sheila
(Canada)

Hi, My Norwich terrier was overweight and is now losing weight. She is doing well, however I was told to add Vitamin E 200mg once a week to her diet. She eats Honest Kitchen dehydrated mix along with Acana Light & Fit or Core reduced calorie.( I rotate after a couple of bags) The ratio is 1/4 cup (per day) of the Honest Kitchen and 1/2 cup (per day) of the kibble.( This gives her only the calories she needs).
This is split into two meals per day. She also gets 500mg salmon Oil per day.
My concern is overdoing things.
would the addition of the VitaminE be beneficial. Does it thin the blood?
The Honest Kitchen is a human grade dehydrated food in a raw form, that you hydrate to feed. The kibble contains Vitamin E, but I understand that once the bag is opened this disapates.
Any suggestions of what to do?

My Comment:

Hi

Vitamin E is often used as a preservative in dog food. Especially as an alternative to more chemical and artificial preservatives often found in cheaper dog foods.

One of the Vitamin E functions in the body is to inhibit platelet aggregation.

In the coagulation mechanism of the blood the initial platelet activation is important first step defense to avoid bleeding. Vitamin E also act against some of the vitamin K depend coagulation mechanisms.

You have to be aware of omega 3 has the same bleeding tendency as it works as an anti-inflammatory (as aspirin for example) - so in theory they can act in synergy.

That said the risk of overdosing vitamin E and create a toxic reaction is quite small.

In general vitamin E doses around 60-250mg a day depending on the dog seize and age should be OK. In my pharmacology book the recommended vitamin E level in young dogs is 50mg/kg and to create toxic reactions more than 2000mg/kg was necessary to administrate and for a prolonged period.

If extra fat or fish oil is added to the food the need of extra vitamin E can be seen.

In your case I don't think there is any risk of side effects.

It is true that vitamin E disappears by time as it protects dog food from being oxidized but it takes time. It also depends on how you keep the dog food after the bag is opened.

But adding extra vitamin E once a week should not poses any problems at all.

Being on fish oil it can be a good idea to mention this to the vet if any surgery should be done in the future. It should not be any problem but in order to make every as safe as possible
I find it important to mention.

By the way - is there any vitamin E (or other fat soluble vitamins) in the fish oil? In many cases there are as it acts as a preservative as well in the oil. So, the oil will get a protection from "itself" and will not "steal" any from the dog body (See my article about "use of vitamin E in active dogs)

The amount of fish oil you are adding to the diet should not be a problem either.

It should not be needed to add extra vitamin E - even if no vitamin E is in the oil itself.

All the best

Per Schonbeck