How do you know if your dog has a vitamin deficiency? A Complete Guide

The Main Sources of Nutritional Deficiency

Most people would immediately assume nutritional deficiencies come from the quality of food dogs are eating. But that’s not always the case. The main three sources of malnutrition come from:

Not enough food

Malnutritional food

Digestive diseases preventing absorption of nutrients

Are you feeding your dog enough? There are some basic guidelines to follow (typically written on the side of the pet food product) that point toward the right ratio of portion to weight. However, this doesn’t account for dogs with slower metabolisms or highly active dogs.

In general, once your dog is past the puppy stage, it will maintain roughly the same weight for the rest of their life. Knowing this, if your dog is gaining or losing weight, this will be indicative of how much food they need.

Unfortunately, many dog foods labeled as “complete and balanced” still don’t offer the best quality nutrition for your dog. Many come with preservatives, artificial colors, and stabilizers to make the food appear tastier. But as anybody who’s ever seen a dog EVER knows, the last thing on a dog’s mind when it sees food is, “but what color is it?”

Reading ingredient labels for harmful additives is a useful practice for pet owners to follow to ensure your dog is eating healthy. It also helps to have a general understanding of what ingredients are beneficial and which are harmful. For example, many dogs have adverse allergic reactions to over-farmed ingredients. Be on the lookout for the following, as they may be connected to digestive issues:

*Meat as in, unspecified “meat”—It begs the question, what kind? And, why aren’t you telling me what kind?

There are two main reasons to use a dietary supplement for your dog. One: when your dog’s digestive tract is not absorbing enough nutrients and needs a supplement to provide it with bioavailable vitamins and minerals. And two: when their diet is not providing them enough nutrients in the first place.

When using a dietary supplement, talk to your veterinarian about testing for any vitamin or nutrient deficiencies. You want to be careful not to overdo it with unnecessary supplements. Over-supplementing can cause issues from kidney stones to copper and zinc toxicity.

Digestive Disease Preventing Absorption of Nutrients

If your dog is vomiting or has diarrhea, chances are they’re not absorbing those valuable nutrients before they come spilling out on the lawn. Unfortunately, almost any digestive disease, infectious or noninfectious, comes with one or both of these symptoms. Treating the digestive disease is necessary before returning your pup to its happy, nutrient-rich life.

There are some key signs and symptoms that tell whether a dog is eating a proper diet. In fact, each nutrient deficiency has its own telltale sign. For a generalized list of symptoms, dogs will experience the following when not properly fed:

Change in feces – There are four main principles to a healthy bowel movement: color, consistency, content, and coating. Your dog’s feces should be chocolate brown, malleable like playdoh, contain no foreign objects, and should be free of mucus residue. Any abnormalities outside of this (for more than 24-48 hours) could be a signal of some health digestive issues, including nutritional deficiency.

Depression – A dog’s gut biome, much like that of humans, signals everything from what type of bowel movement they’re going to produce to what their mood will be that day. An unhealthy gut biome can lead to depression and lethargy. Noticing a change in your dog’s behavior can clue you into any malnutrition.

Skin or coat disorders – Dogs need a wide range of vitamins and minerals to maintain their healthy skin and fur. Without a nutritious diet, they become prone to hair loss, skin disease, and infection.

Lack of energy – Another telling sign of malnutrition, especially in the carbohydrates department, is a lack of energy. Carbs are a dog’s main fuel source, and they provide dogs with the energy needed to bounce off the walls in that excited let’s-play-fetch-today kind of way.

What to do if my dog has a nutritional deficiency?

As with many other disorders, it is essential to go to the vet as soon as possible.

A nutritional deficit is not anything banal. As we have seen, the lack of some nutrients can even cause neurological disorders.

The vet must first assess the dogs state of health and determine whether any of the alterations caused by nutritional deficit require drug treatment. It will also be important to identify what particular nutritional deficit that you are dealing with: this can be determined simply by looking at the clinical symptoms, or you can ask for lab tests.

Finally, it is important to get professional advice about the best diet for your pet, and which foods it should be given to meet these particular nutritional needs.

This article is purely informative. AnimalWised does not have the authority to prescribe any veterinary treatment or create a diagnosis. We invite you to take your pet to the veterinarian if they are suffering from any condition or pain.

If you want to read similar articles to Symptoms of Nutritional Deficiencies in Dogs, we recommend you visit our Other health problems category.

5 Signs Your Pet Might Have A Nutrient Deficiency

Why would your dog have nutrient deficiencies? Since your dog lives with you, he is dependent on you to provide food. Even with the best of intentions dog nutrition is often lacking.

Wild dogs would instinctively know what to eat and how to prevent a nutrient deficiency problem. Only if they couldnt get enough to eat, or if they were scrounging around in human garbage would malnutrition be an issue. Think street dogs from some impoverished country.