I like to think of Vitamins and Minerals working together like a football team. On the team you have a player who specialises in running the ball, another who catches passes, another who kicks the extra point after a touchdown, and the whole line of them who protect the quarterback, the playmaker of the team. Along with these primary assignments, players make numerous other contributions to the team.
So it is with vitamins and minerals. Each nutrient generally has a celebrated function but also contributes to the total picture in any number of ways. Big and little. Known and unknown. Together they make each other work better. Vitamin E protects Vitamin A and together they protect the lungs against damage from pollution. Selenium makes Vitamin E more efficient. Vitamin D ensures proper utilisation of calcium and phosphorus, two major components of bone tissue. Vitamins and minerals are said to work synergistically. This means that together they have a greater total effect then some of their individual effects. This is the basis of every good team.
The vitamins and minerals available to dogs in commercial pet food can be equated with a second rate team, but for the most part the lineup is lacking. When you add Vitamin C the animal perks up. In football or any sport when you supplement an average team with better players you are going to be operating in strength, they will bolster your dog in the fight he wages on a daily basis against stress, viruses, bacteria and degenerative disease.
By supplementing with a wide range of vitamins and minerals you are attempting to bring an optimal payload of nutrition to all the cells in the body. A typical commercial diet provides only a minimum of nourishment and the quantity, quality and balance of nutrients differs not only from product to product but likely week to week in the same product. Down at the level of the cells there may be a condition of insufficiency involving any one or more vitamins and minerals that are required by the cells to function well. Any degree of insufficiency can cause any degree of malfunction among the cells, and that spells trouble.
Very little research has been done with supplement levels of nutrients for dogs except to determine what levels are toxic.
Dr Richard Patton
CEN Dog Nutrition has entrusted Dr Richard Patton, a PhD in Animal Nutrition, to formulate our range of Dog Multivitamins, Dr Patton is a world renowned animal nutritionist, informed by extensive work in comparative and contrasting species. He is an expert in animal science, and brings over 38 years of experience to the topic of pet nutrition.
The fate of animals the world over, whether wild or captive, is in our hands
Dr Richard Patton