# Poodle Vitamins and Supplements



## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I work on the principle that a complete and balanced diet should be just that, and any supplements are at best a waste of money and at worst can lead to a potentially dangerous imbalance - plus the use of vitamins etc to "combat free radicals" is far from proven: Fighting Free Radicals: Do You Need Antioxidants?. I would be particularly wary of supplements for a very small puppy, where it would be easy to overdose. I would use the money to pay for a good diet and pet insurance!

Having said that, it can be useful to have glucose syrup (corn syrup) to hand in case of hypoglycaemia


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

I agree with fjm for the most part that if you feed a complete diet, it is just that nutritionally adequate and calorically sufficient. I do add some suppplements to my dog's food, but they are senior dog supplements like saw palmetto for my soon to be nine year old GSD who has mild benign prostate disease. It does seem to be helping well to reduce some leakiness issues he had been having. None of my current dogs ever got vitamins when they were puppies.


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## The_Poodle_Pack (Oct 14, 2017)

I make my own dog food and my vet told me that I should add supplements as commercial dog foods all have supplements added in them.

My vet recommended that I use Ascenta Oils and Omega Alpha OptiPet Multi vitamin liquid. I also add Glucosamine too as I have older rescue dogs in my care.


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## AmyJane (Oct 16, 2017)

Ok, so it sounds like for the most part dog vitamins are like human vitamins: ingredients in really expensive pee...unless there's a specific problem you're trying to address.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

You got it! If any vitamin or supplement is water soluble and taken in excess then out it goes with all the other "garbage" your kidneys care to get rid of. If it is fat soluble then you can end up with overdoses if a supplement is given in too high doses.


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