While driving a few weeks ago, I was listening to All Things Considered (Eric calls it All Liberal Things Considered). The report that was on the air was so engaging, I sat in the car and listened to it for its duration even though I had reached my destination.
The report was a “biography” of a particular drug, Fosamax. If you haven’t heard it, I strongly recommend it. At the end of the report they challenged the listener to go home and look at the contents of our medicine cabinet, and they concluded that you are likely to find many of the drugs with a very disturbing biography, just like Fosamax.
That appalling report certainly got my attention, and I began to do some reading about vitamins. We subscribe to reports from Consumerlab.com, a company who does independent testing to identify the best quality health and nutritional products. Yesterday I discovered that they had done testing with Pet Tabs, a multivitamin, that we give our dogs.
They found that Pet Tabs "was contaminated with 6.45 mcg of lead per tablet. This is several times higher than the amount of lead (1.41 mcg) ConsumerLab.com found to be in this same product in 2007. Contamination limits for dogs are not well defined, but, as reference, the FDA notes that children should not be exposed to more than 6 mcg of lead per day and, as noted above, California requires warning labels on supplements for human use that contain over 0.5 mcg of lead per day.”
Our furry companions have been taking Pet Tabs because I cook their meals - rice, vegetables and ground chicken - and I wanted to ensure that they were getting all the necessary minerals and vitamins. (I am picky about the ground chicken - it is organic...I buy it in bulk when it is 50% off...and yes, I am very painfully aware that our companions eat better than many people.) I have been cooking their food for many years. The melamine contamination of pet foods a couple of years ago reinforced my belief that I did not trust a commercial company with our companions' nutrition.
Luckily I did not give them Pet Tabs every day - just on those days that I was a little short on vegetables. It took a year for me to use a bottle of Pet Tabs. And just the other day, I bought another - and luckily I haven’t opened it.
I did do a google search on “Pet Tabs Lead” and did find many articles including a rebuttal by the manufacturer. However, I was not totally convinced by their rebuttal. I am not at all comfortable giving them a supplement that has any amount of lead in it - and the manufacturer does not dispute the fact that it does have lead. I would rather do a little more research to identify the vitamins and minerals that are currently deficient in their diet, and then add different foods to resolve the deficiency. That approach is important to me because two of our companions weigh five pounds. The manufacturer may indeed be right that the levels of lead in the supplements are safe. But is there sufficient research with dogs as small as five pounds? I simply do not want to have to worry about it if they are wrong. The whole issue regarding safe levels is incredibly complex, and I think that it is important for every individual to review the information that is available and make their own decision.
One product that I have found especially helpful is FortiFlora. It is a probiotic for dogs.
Ms. Peachy was on a powerful antibiotic for four months - doxycyline - to treat the tick borne disease, and it was given while she was undergoing heart worm treatment.
I gave her Fortiflora every day to ensure that the “good” microflora in her intestine wasn’t killed by the doxycyline.
It is also helpful with Amazing Maizy. Even though I “pick up” in the yard, she does some really "bad snacking” every chance she gets. Skipping a meal and a packet of Fortiflora will quickly remedy diarrhea. Who would have thought?
(FortiFlora with the almost completed left and right front panels of the Drops A Line Jacket that everyone in the world has already knitted (except me))
(Edited on January 21 to elaborate on information regarding Pet Tabs.)