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Feeding and supplement recommendations

Karlin

Administrator
Staff member
I was reading through the excellent website on episodic falling syndrome in cavaliers today and found this recommended diet advice from the well known dog nutritionist Monica Segal.

As many of us are interested in different types of diets including home-made, and also how to add supplements and in what amounts, I thought this would be of wide interest. Though she does address the possible dietary concerns of a cavalier with EFS, her suggestions are general to cavaliers and sure gave me some new ideas:

http://cavalierepisodicfalling.com/faqs.html#What_is_a_good_nutritional_plan_

As a lot of people supplement with fish oils, I thought her caution on how much to offer was important. It is easy to buy very high dosage capsules for humans and forget cavaliers are only the size of a small human baby in weight! There are RISKS in giving large dosages of fish oils as well.

This is what she says:

An excess of fish oils of any kind has been linked to blood platelet coagulation problems. A safe dose, according to most veterinarians, would be 50 mg of wild salmon oil per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of body weight.

That means the majority of our cavaliers should not be receiving more than a 500mg capsule or so of fish oils. This would be an amount that could be given daily. Note she recommends wild salmon oil.

Monica has a degree qualification in animal nutrition and related areas from the Univeristy of Guelph in Canada, which is well known as an excellent insitution in research and science circles. She also owns cavaliers! :) She has also been supportive of cavaliers with syringomyelia and offering dietary advice to owners of SM cavaliers.

Her own website is here, for anyone wanting more information on diet and supplements. Note she can design a tailor-made diet for any dog and also sells supplements etc through her website.

http://www.monicasegal.com/
 
thanks for this info.

I have been wanting to ask--is it alright to feed a dog sardines right from the can? the kind i get are boneless and skinless, packed in water, and the sodium content is 200mg. Would this be a good source of fish oil, if give a few times per week?
 
We Cavalier owners are fortunate to have Monica contribute diet information for Cavaliers, and it does not hurt that she has Cavaliers herself. I understand that her sister is a fledgling Cavalier breeder.

I do not agree with her recommendation against feeding red meat to dogs with compromised liver function. Maybe it depends upon just how compromised the liver is, but many Cavaliers, as a consequence of MVD and some of the prescription medications for advanced MVD, necessarily will have a degree of compromised liver function. Red meat is an excellent source of proteins and is a mainstay of many home-prepared canine raw diets, and I know of veterinarians knowlegeable about Cavaliers and raw diets who strongly recommend including red meat over other sources.

The Cavalier Episodic Falling website is another blessing for this breed. It serves to alert owners, breeders, and buyers to recognize EFS behaviors and what to do about them. It also serves as a support group for owners of EFS dogs. The more websites like Cavalier Episodic Falling and Karlin's SM site, educating readers about particular Cavalier health problems, the better for future generations of Cavaliers.

Rod Russell
Orlando, Florida USA
 
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