Omega 3 dose....

Does anyone use Omega 3 to assist joints in their dog?

If so, do you have a reliable measure of how much EPA and DHA is in whatever product you use and can calculate how much your dog is getting? And do you have a reason for giving the dose that you give?

I use fish4dogs salmon oil which states it contains EPA 6.31% and DHA 10.23%. He gets "a good splosh" twice a day, which is between 2 and 3 teaspoons - so 10 to 15ml. Making the hugely mistaken assumption that the oil weighs the same as water (it will be lighter) that ends up at something like 1600 to 2400 mg of EPA and DHA. But I'm not at all sure I've got the calc right....

He also gets 200mg of krill oil in tablet form, but goodness knows how much EPA and DHA is in that....

 

I do yes, but I am very lax I am afraid and just give Pops a pretty low dose capsule a day... or a tin of sardines, or a glug of some other kind of oil.

 

I use the Nutrivet wild salmon oil. I just go off the recommended guidelines of 3ml per 5kg of weight. It is 9.8% EPA and 11.9% DHA

So, they get 15ml a day, which equals 1,470mg EPA and 1,785mg DHA.

I have to say, I use it primarily for their skin, because Willow tends to have quite dry skin and it's fabulous for clearing that up. In the summer, when it was a bit worse, I gave her a splash more. The bottle says that you can double the dose "if necessary".

The joint care is an added bonus!

 

I don't specifically look for Omega 3 on products but Juno has Hills Prescription Diet J/D (calorie reduced version) and has 2 Joint Force supplement pills a day. The combination seems to work pretty well on her elbow.

 

How did you work that out? Did you assume 0.1ml = 100mg?

 

I was dumb and didn't notice the difference in units.... sorry, was in a work headspace and didn't think it through. Will try again

 

OK, 1ml = 0.92g.

so, 15ml = 13.8g = 13800mg

so, in actual fact, their daily dose gives them 1,354mg EPA and 1,642mg DHA

 

How do you get 1ml = 0.92g?

(for the avoidance of doubt, I'm sure you are right - I just want to check my calc.....as not sure I've done it right)

 

I looked it up on several websites and confirmed it against other types of oil. Salmon oil says 0.92g/ml, others like olive oil can be slightly different, but only by roughly 0.01 of a gram.

 

This was the first site I came across, but confirmed with others, too:

http://www.aqua-calc.com/calculate/...ubstance/fish-blank-oil-coma-and-blank-salmon

 

oh, many thanks! right.....off to do the numbers....

 

Right.....so Charlie seems to be getting 2282.5mg a day (like my calc or measuring is accurate to .5 of a mg! ) plus his krill oil in addition (which the distributor makes a lot of fancy claims about with no evidence provided....).

One Holland and Barrett triple action human capsule contains 900mg of omega 3, and it states 250mg is enough for a human to see a beneficial effect.

So, I reckon Charlie is getting more than enough. Hopefully not too much....

 

I've just been trying to find some real information on dosage, and it appears there is pretty much zero research on suitable levels, even in humans. One of the reasons it reduces the risk of heart disease is because it has an anti-coagulant and blood thinning effect, but that, taken to excess, could cause problems, especially if there is a trauma. Also, it is suggested that high dosages of Omega-3 (not specifying which exact fatty acids) can be linked with prostate cancer (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23843441).

 

Just been looking at Omega 3 online and found this article.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...rease-risk-aggressive-prostate-cancer-70.html

which supports the prostate cancer link theory

 

Thanks Fiona, that's really helpful. It's good to have a reference to a reliable source material.

 

Ah, helpfully, there is a safe upper limit specified for dogs - for Charlie it would be 4742mg a day.

The National Research Council publication on Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats indicates a safe upper limit of the combined amounts of EPA + DHA as 2,800 mg/1,000 kcal of diet, equivalent to 370 mg per (kg body weight)[SUP]0.75[/SUP] for dogs.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jvim.12033/full

 

Thanks for that, Julie, very useful!

 

I use cod liver oil for Roccos coat and he gets a joint supplement, that has glucosamine, chondroitin and omega 3 in it. He gets that because he had a rough start in life (he's a rescue) and was forced to sleep on cold concrete. Not because he has any obvious joint problems, more covering the bases. Xx

 

I give Hattie & Charlie a tin of sardines each 3-4 times a week so they get to enjoy the fish too! x