There is evidence to suggest that a good vitamin supplement for your dog not only helps prevent, improve or cure many degenerative type illnesses and disease, but may actually lengthen your dog’s life span. Really!

This is particularly the indication if you supplement with vitamins while your dog is young and healthy, rather than waiting for your dog to get sick or show the usual signs of aging and degeneration.

So let’s start with a little lesson on the cause, and effects, of disease. …

Disease is a process which gradually debilitates the cells of an organism. The organism may be you, or me, or your dog (or mine!)

Debilitated cells are unable to rebuild, regenerate and repair damage which inevitably occurs just through the fact of being alive and moving day by day closer to the end of life. Of course, much greater damage can be caused by poor nutrition or other dietary deficiencies or excesses, environmental poisons, physical and/or emotional stress or insufficient excercise. In short, anything which pushes the organism past its optimum capacity, or causes it to fall short of its optimum capacity, can and will cause damage and will debilitate the cells.

Do you ever supplement your own diet and lifestyle with vitamins and/or minerals?

Me too.

But you know what? It didn’t occur to me that my beautiful dogs would benefit from a good vitamin supplement until recent years.

I always (wrongly) assumed that if I gave my dogs a largely natural diet of raw meat and bones, with the occasional addition of steamed vegetables and rice or pasta, and with a morning snack of a small handful of commercial dry dog food, my dogs would always remain in tip top health.

Luckily for me, I was on the right track, and my dogs have always been very healthy. My vet routinely compliments me on their great teeth and gums and wonderful general health.

But as they started getting past their prime, some health concerns started popping up. Kara, my Rottweiler, started developing arthritis and the effects of hip dysplasia (which she’s had since very young, but without any symptoms). Similar to my own parents (who’re well into their 60′s), Kara started to look a bit older and stiffer when she moved, and especially when she got up after lying still for a while.

So I started Kara on a dog vitamin supplement. And, oh, what a difference! It took a few weeks to kick in, but once I’d found the right dose and the vitamins started to show their effects, Kara appeared more youthful – less stiff – and she didn’t look so uncomfortable when moving around. It really has done wonders.

And still I didn’t get it in general terms. Because Kara clearly had a problem, I decided to treat it with a supplement. But I didn’t think to treat Jet, my Staffordshire Bull Terrier, as well, which I should have done just to keep her in tip top health even though she had no specific problems back then. Besides which, Kara takes her vitamins in tablet form, whereas Jet is a tablet nightmare!

But when Jet was also diagnosed with the early stages of a degenerative disease – gradual loss of her eyesight – the penny finally dropped. I thought Why on earth am I not giving Jet a vitamin supplement as well? So I use a tablet crusher and mix the crushed tablet with peanut butter. Yes, these tablets crush pretty well. And Jet eats them! I have to admit that she still looks suspiciously at the concoction each day, but the lure of the peanut butter usually gets the better of her!

Nowadays I absolutely swear by dog vitamins. I really don’t know why I didn’t think them necessary long ago. But better late than never.

And my dogs are now in peak health even though they’re both coming up to 10 years old.

Do you want your dog to enjoy peak health?

Click Here for more Pet Vitamin information! – http://www.HealthyHappyDogs.com/Vitamins

(c) 2005, Brigitte Smith, Healthy Happy Dogs

Brigitte Smith is a dog lover with a special interest in holistic dog health. Her site, Healthy Happy Dogs, has pages and pages of information on improving your dog’s health naturally. Brigitte is the author of several reports, articles, and the Healthy Happy Dogs newsletter.

For your special FREE report – How to Improve Your Dog’s Health Within 30 Days – Maybe Even Lengthen Your Dog’s Life!, Click Here for Your Free Dog Health Report! http://www.HealthyHappyDogs.com

The argument usually goes something like this: The majority of commercial petfoods contain added vitamins. So even though your pet’s diet may be inadequate, the vitamins added to pet food compensates for this.

Wrong! Many human breakfast cereals contain added vitamins – they’re sprayed on after the processing. And it has been established that you would ingest more vitamins by eating the packaging than you do by eating the cereal inside. It’s a gimmick. A gimmick to get you to buy the cereal and feel comfortable in the knowledge that you’re getting some vitamins even if you don’t eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. But guess what? It doesn’t compensate. Even the fruit and vegetables we buy today have very little in them by way of vitamins and minerals, by comparison to what they should ideally contain. Unless you’re buying organic fruit and veges direct from the farm and eating them the same day, you’re not optimising your vitamin intake from fresh food.

This is why many of us now routinely supplement our diet with vitamin tablets, even when we eat a balanced diet. If we don’t, we’re likely to be vitamin deficient to some degree. That’s why cancer, heart disease, and other degenerative conditions are at an all time high, and are still on the increase. A hundred years ago these conditions were unknown.

It’s the same for our pets. In fact, they’re generally in a worse position than us in relation to an adequate intake of vitamins. That’s because, contrary to what many of the so-called authorities will have you believe, the garbage that’s sold to us as pet food is causing your pet irreparable harm. So the fact that it may have some added vitamins is just a complete gimmick, and absolutely worthless from your pet’s health’s point of view.

It’s vital that you feed your pet something as close to its natural diet as possible, and in most cases that’s still not enough. Supplementation is essential.

Your pet’s natural diet is exclusively raw food. Is that what you’re feeding your pet? Or do you opt for the convenience of commercial pet food some or all of the time? Unless you can replicate what your pet would eat in the wild, you owe it to your pet to give a vitamin supplement. And who can replicate exactly what they’d eat in the wild? In exactly the same proportions?

No one. So you know what that means? You do need to give your pet a vitamin supplement.

For information on vitamins for pets, go to: http://www.HealthyHappyDogs.com/Vitamins

Vitamins for pets have produced remarkable results in animals with specific health concerns such as allergies or other skin irritations, dull coat, lack of energy, as well as much more serious problems like cataracts, epileptic seizures, tumors and leukemia.

Naturally, you should ALWAYS consult your vet with ALL health concerns, but if your pet does have a serious health problem, ask your vet whether a vitamin supplement could help. And if your pet is already reasonably healthy, keep him/her that way by giving a vitamin supplement. It can’t do any harm! And you could well be ensuring that your pet has a longer life practically overflowing with health!

(c) 2004, Brigitte Smith, Healthy Happy Dogs

Brigitte Smith is a dog lover with a special interest in natural health for dogs. For your free special report, click here: http://www.HealthyHappyDogs.com

And to read some truly amazing stories on how vitamins can help your pet, go to: http://www.HealthyHappyDogs.com/HPTestimonials