Is Vegetable Glycerin Safe for Dogs?
Vegetable glycerin is in a number of different dog products.
Vegetable glycerin in safe for dogs in shampoos and skin care products. It holds moisture in, so can soften and soothe your dog’s skin. Look for skin products with organic ingredients, including vegetable glycerin.
As mentioned earlier, some herbal medicines are extracted using vegetable glycerin instead of alcohol.
Glycerites are safe for dogs. Your dog will only get a few drops per dose so it’s a small amount of glycerin. And, because they taste sweet, they can be more palatable for dogs than alcohol tinctures. Herbalists Gregory Tilford and Mary Wulff say that glycerites are metabolized more like triglycerides than sugar, so they can be better than tinctures for dogs with diabetes or alcohol sensitivity.
However, glycerites usually require higher dosages than alcohol tinctures because glycerin doesn’t extract as much of the herb’s constituents. They don’t keep as long as alcohol tinctures but can last up to 2 years if refrigerated.
Canine herbalist Rita Hogan also warns that you must verify the source of vegetable glycerin used in the products you buy. Some companies use poor quality, industrial vegetable glycerin from biodiesel production. This is also a reason to avoid glycerin made from corn, which is used to make biodiesel … especially non-organic or genetically modified corn.
So If the label only states “vegetable glycerin,” call the company to find out the source. Vegetable glycerins made from organic soybean, coconut or palm oil are the usual choices. If you’re using a lot of glycerin products, don’t overdo coconut oil based products, because it can be bad for your dog’s gut health. The environmental impacts of using palm oil are also a concern. This is especially true in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia where palm oil deforestation causes loss of animal habitat as well as increased greenhouse gases.
Caution: In people, vegetable glycerin can cause headaches, nausea, diarrhea or other digestive problems. So if you notice your dog doesn’t feel well after you’ve given herbal glycerin extracts, it’s likely the glycerin that’s the problem and you’ll want to stop using glycerites. Rita Hogan also says some sensitive dogs may drool excessively after dosing with glycerites.
Vegetable Glycerin In Dog Food And Treats
There’s been little research specifically into the safety of glycerin for dogs. That means there’s no proof that it’s unsafe … or that it’s safe.
Dutch pet food researcher Anton C Beynen said in a 2019 paper (2) that “It is noteworthy that the purity of glycerol preparations in the marketplace is variable.”
He also observed, “Practical feeding of glycerol-containing petfoods has apparently not yielded observations that point to negative effects on canine and feline health. However, for long-term, practical intake levels of purified and crude glycerol, the current research data cannot exclude health risks.”
There’s a lack of long-term data. Beynen suggests that glycerol in semi-moist pet foods may affect the ability of puppies and cats to break down food into energy So it would probably be a bad idea to feed your dog a food with this ingredient over the long term.
Beynen also cited a 1933 study by Johnson et al, that showed high glycerol intake (35%) did not affect growth of puppies during age 5 to 35 weeks, or cause any other noticeable adverse effects. But this was a very small study, with only 3 dogs eating glycerol in their food.
One concern is that the glycerol-fed dogs drank more water and urinated 5 times more than others in the study. This isn’t surprising because a separate study showed oral glycerol has diuretic activity in dogs. Beynen comments, “The excessive thirst in the glycerol-fed dogs would be understandable if their kidneys excreted glycerol, thereby drawing water into the urine by osmosis.” Again, the effects are unclear and this is another reason for caution with this ingredient … especially if there’s a risk of stressing your dog’s kidneys.
As before, the safety of vegetable glycerin as a food or treat ingredient depends on which plant oil the glycerin comes from. Production of biofuels leads to residual methanol and sodium in the glycerin co-product stream. In the US, the FDA designates most glycerin as generally recognized as safe (GRAS), but this does not apply to crude glycerin from biodiesel production.
So again, Rita Hogan stresses it’s important to find out the oil source of vegetable glycerin before you give your dog food or treats you buy with this ingredient.
After many years, there’s still controversy surrounding glycerin in Chinese jerky and other recalled pet foods in the past.Though there has not been a causal link identified between glycerin and pet illness (and even death), there have been reports about pet foods imported into the US having harmful glycerin substitutes used in place of glycerin.
Animal nutritionist and natural pet treat manufacturer Anthony Bennie wrote a white paper about vegetable glycerin in dog treats.
This means vegetable glycerin is a chemically altered ingredient that isn’t truly natural. And there’s another problem: glycerin may be a much bigger percentage of the end product than you think.
Even though vegetable glycerin may be on the ingredient list as one of the minor ingredients, the label can be deceptive. That’s because glycerin doesn’t get reduced during cooking. So a moist treat that that starts out with glycerin as 10% to 15% of the formula, ends up having 20% to 30% glycerin content when other ingredients lose moisture and shrink during cooking. That’s a lot of glycerin.
So … because there’s no research into the health effects of your dog eating it regularly or long term, it’s best to err on the side of caution. Don’t feed a lot of treats and foods that contain vegetable glycerin.
It’s best to avoid everyday dog foods with vegetable glycerin, and minimize treats with this ingredient. And if you do feed treats with glycerin, make sure the ingredient list specifies vegetable glycerin. Otherwise, it’s likely to be a petrochemical product. And then follow Rita Hogan’s advice: go a step further, and find out what’s in the vegetable glycerin. Look for vegetable glycerin made with organic plant oils.
Vegetable Glycerin in Dog food and treats
We know that vegetable glycerin is ok to be used as cosmetics. But regarding the food and treats, the safety of vegetable glycerin for dogs has not been thoroughly studied. This means that neither its safety nor lack thereof is proven.
So, its better to be safe than sorry and give our dogs other healthy options of foods and treats until some good studies will be released.
Conclusion
Although glycerin is generally permitted for usage in foods, treats, and cosmetics, dog owners are concerned about it due to a lack of study.
If you do decide to use glycerin in your dogs food, medication, and cosmetics, make sure not to overdo it.