Vitamin E Dose and supplement dosage

[Snowshoe]

My holistic vet actually told me when I asked her a few years ago, that she was not aware of a need to supplement fish oil with vitamin E. I've heard the arguments from both sides, and who knows if it is truly necessary or not. Honestly, I don't give as much thought to balancing out the supplements that I take myself. I take fish oil supplements, and I don't take Vitamin E and I feel fine myself. And my bloodwork even came back perfectly!

That being said, I know it can't hurt to give Vitamin E, and that it has its own benefits aside from going along with fish oil. So I toss a pill in their food a few times a week when I think about it.

It's well researched and widely known that too much thins blood and reduces clotting ability. Lots of times when people say to give it they, we, don't say how much and I think a lot of us don't know how much is too much. In her other thread it sounds like the OP was giving her dog as much as 4,000 iu in a week. I really don't know if that's too much but our own human Doctor said no more that 200 iu a day for my OH which equals 1,400 iu a week

[3ChocMom]

I actually used to give Brandy 400IU every day. I did that for years because I've always given fish oil and supplementing with Vitamin E was something I read about a long time ago. I only stopped when I asked my old holistic vet, who is now retired, how much I should be giving and he said 400IU every day was probably more than I needed to give. That was only about a year ago. Blood clotting issues would show up on blood work. Brandy has blood work done every 6 months and has never had an issue. So yes, it can cause issues in very large amounts, but obviously several years of 400IU daily didn't do my dog any harm.

[Snowco Labradors]

I believe you can give as little as 25iu daily to support the fish oil you give. I gave larger amounts of E (400iu daily) for liver support when Miya had liver disease but when she was cured I then cut down to 100iu daily to continue to support the liver, fish oil and as an all around antioxidant. Even on the 400iu per day her blood work did not show clotting problems.

It is recommended to stop E and fish oil 1 week (or maybe its 2 weeks ?) prior to surgery.

[shellbell]

I read an article awhile back, maybe it was in Whole Dog Journal...it recommended 100 IU/day for small dogs, 200 IU/day for medium dogs, and 400 IU/day for large dogs. I don't think that much daily is necessary for most dogs, and certainly not if you are only giving it b/c of fish oil concerns. But I think you'd have to give a very large dose daily before any harm was done.

[emma_Dad]

We give fish oil every day. 350mg DHA 300mg EPA for a maintenance dose and 3x that for a theraputic dose. Then we give Vit E 3 times a week, which ends up being about 3000 IU.

[Candy and Spike's Dad]

I thought Vitamin E was in dog foods already??

[Doreen Davis]

Anthony's vet recommended 400iu daily. He's been on it awhile now and doing well.

[xracer4844]

I'm confused now and could use some clarification - I have been giving my dog kirkland omega 3 capsules - dha is 280 per capsule...he gets one for breakfast and one for dinner. DHA is the only thing to pay attention to right? The mg's aren't important? I think? If I give him vitamin E as well 400iu 3 times a week is all that is necessary? or more. There is Vitamin E in my dogs food, but no specification as to how much. My dog weighs 70 pounds.

Also, glucosamine should be supplemented as well - my food contains 300mg. Not sure what the correct dosage would be.

[emma_Dad]

I'm confused now and could use some clarification - I have been giving my dog kirkland omega 3 capsules - dha is 280 per capsule...he gets one for breakfast and one for dinner. DHA is the only thing to pay attention to right? The mg's aren't important? I think? If I give him vitamin E as well 400iu 3 times a week is all that is necessary? or more. There is Vitamin E in my dogs food, but no specification as to how much. My dog weighs 70 pounds.

Both DHA and EPA are important. The recommend dose is 100mg EPA+DHA per 10lbs for a maintenance dose, 300mg per 10lbs for a therapeutic dose. So a 70# dog would need 700mg ideal split 50/50 with DHA and EPA, but usually DHA is higher.

When you're supplementing omega 3 you should also supplement vit E. Snowshoe posted the ideal dosing on the first page.

IN ALL CASES WHEN SUPPLEMENTING WITH THE ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS.....

.....make sure you also supplement with vitamin E. This applies to both dogs and cats, but most particularly to cats. The dose rate for vitamin E is 10 iu per LB [20 iu per KG] for animals weighing up to 20 LB [or 10 KG], reducing to 5 iu per LB [ 10 iu per KG] for animals weighing ovr 100 lb [or 45 KG]. The vitamin E prevents rancidity of polyunsaturated oils in your pet's body.

Also, glucosamine should be supplemented as well - my food contains 300mg. Not sure what the correct dosage would be.

Dr. Bessent recommends administering oral glucosamine supplements in the following daily dosages: • Dogs 5-20 pounds: 250-500 mg
• Dogs 20-45 pounds: 500 mg
• Dogs 45-90 pounds: 1,000 mg
• Dogs more than 90 pounds: 1,500 mg


Use chondroitin supplements in the following daily dosages:
• Dogs less than 80 pounds: 900 mg
• Dogs more than 80 pounds: 1,800 mg

[Snowshoe]

That's Dr. Ian Billinghurst's Vit. E dosing recommendation from his rather old book that gives no research credits. Explained above in post #6.