One of the more interesting canine wellness books published in the last ten years is Shawn Messonier, D.V.M.'s book 8 Weeks to a Healthy Dog.
The book includes a comprehensive 8-step strategy for keeping your dog as fit and healthy as possible. The forth step, to which he devotes an entire chapter, is choosing the right canine vitamins and other nutritional supplements.
As an "authority on holistic pet care and integrative medicine", Dr. Messonier is big on keeping your dog off drugs. As part of his overall strategy for preventing and treating canine health problems, he recommends that dog owners consider a range of supplements.
Canine Vitamins in a Traditional Diet: Dr. Messonier's View
In Dr. Messonier's opinion, traditional feeding strategies simply don't cover all the nutritional bases your dog needs for her best health.
He offers four reasons:
- nutrients in your dog food may be lacking due to poor quality ingredients
- some nutrients
— like digestive enzymes
— may be removed during high heat and pressure processing
- the widest diversity of canine vitamins, minerals and trace elements won't likely be available in an un-supplemented diet
- nutrients might not reach your dog if she's a fussy eater that sometimes rejects her food
In Dr. Messonier's view, canine vitamins and minerals in supplement form are key to preventing and resolving canine nutritional deficiencies:
"Perhaps the most important supplement you should give your dog is a multivitamin/mineral pill. Giving one to your dog each day is a little bit like buying insurance. It ensures that your dog has at least obtained the essential nutrients each day for optimal health. Your dog's vitamin/mineral pill is his most basic supplement."
Canine Vitamins: Our View
To us at Whole Hound, it's exciting to hear a veterinarian whose thinking is so fully in line with ours. When our own dog, Lakotah, starting having health problems, no dog food on the market made an impact on her health. It was only when we began supplementing her with canine vitamins, glucosamine and other natural products that we saw her bounce back to full mobility. Watching Lakotah's recovery, we were inspired to try to help other dogs by creating quality canine vitamins and mineral supplements. After years of experimentation, the result was Total Health, Total Health Plus, and Calcium Health. These three products offer the highest quality canine vitamins and minerals we could find — in their most bioavailable form.