Overview Veterinary and vitamin D

Created February 2010

Veterinary category has items

Animals need Vitamin D too

Vitamin D is important for pregnancies (pigs as well as people)– Sept 2022
Many Vitamin D similarities: people and cows - March 2022
Several advanced-maternal-age problems reduced if given Vitamin D during pregnancy (mice in this case) – July 2021
Poor immune system associated with low Vitamin D (dogs in this case) – June 2020
Chicken bones, eggs, and activated vitamin D in eggs increased with 2 hours of daily UVB – Dec 2019
Vitamin D in eggs increased 4X after UV lighting near legs was added – April 2019
Hens with Vitamin D were better in at least 5 ways – RCT Aug 2018
Pets as well Pet health improved by Vitamin D
Farm Vets are paid when their "patients" are healthy,
vs doctors who are paid only when "patients" become sick
Cows are routinely given 30 IU per kilogram ( which would be 10,000 IU for a 150 lb person )

Same information is available on Cattle need 66 IU of vitamin D per pound

The US RDA of vitamin D for cows is 13 IU per kilogram ( which would be 4,300 IU for a 150 lb 'cow' )

Virtually all US farmers who raise livestock use feed that is supplemented with vitamin D

Merick Vet Manual supplement if not have UV or sunlight

Pigs get 10,000 IU of water-soluble Vitamin D per gallon of drinking water

Cost: $1 per 2 million IU (2 million IU of Vitamin D costs humans $8 )

Or give newborn pig 42,250 I.U Vitamin D

The cow experts probably base their ideas on

what is needed,
what actually works,
what is cost effective (vitamin D for a cow costs about $1/year), and
what does not have ANY long-term bad side-effects

Vet-grade Vitamin D: $50 million for the entire US population for a year (7,000 IU daily)

Cow owners use really low cost vitamin D

Vitamin D costs the owner $1/cow for an entire year for a dose rate which is effectively 10,000 IU for a normal weight human.

Assuming that you want to give say 7,000 IU of vitamin D to every person in the US

And since a person weighs about 1/5 that of a cow, 7,000 IU vitamin D would be about 16 cents per year (vet grade)

Thus the cost of vet-grade vitamin D for the entire US population would be approximately

311 million * 16 cents = $50 million

Many Dog breeds get more Vitamin D than humans (generally recommend 30 IU/kg = 400 IU per 13.3 kg)

Pet reptiles need UV or they get rickets*

There is a large group of owners of pet reptiles who have discovered the exact UV needs.*

The owners of pet reptiles have typically have added UV lamps.
It may be that due to the research of reptile pet owners that a simple $30 UV lamp can be made to allow humans to generate vitamin D while sitting at the computer.
When given a choice between a heat lamp and a UV lamp, many reptiles will choose the UV lamp*
- easy choice, since they can 'see' what to humans is the invisible UV

There is a nice story of discovery of full spectrum lights for birds http://www.avianweb.com/lighting.html*

The majority of 1,000 birds tested had UV coloring (which is seen by birds, and not by humans nor non-avian predators)*

Can avian predators see UV?

During preening, wild birds spread a fatty substance on their wings which, when exposed to UV, turns into vitamin D which they later ingest during preening*

Fresh hay for horses was found to have 2,000 IU per kilogram (in one year the vitamin D content of the hay will fall by 70%)

Even Nocturnal reptiles appreciate UVB

from a UV discussion forum Jun 2011

Leopard geckos have "traditionally" not been offered UV because they are "nocturnal". I reckon they survive in captivity without UVB, because they are good at absorbing calcium from the gut, and people have learned to dust their insects with calcium powder and a little D3 as supplement powder. But I reckon most of them kept like this are going to be rather like most humans nowadays - on the edge of D3 deficiency.

I give all my geckos UVB and the year I started using it, my gecko fertility/ hatching success rates went up from 50% to 99% and my geckos were noticeably healthier all round.

US patent 4,970,203 Nov 1990 Method for improving reproductive functions in mammals (vitamin D)

Pets (dogs, cats, birds, , , , )

Vitamin D for Your Dog – A Beagle’s Happy Days April 2012 by Vitamin D Survivor
- Dog age 10 was in some pain and moving slowly
- 20 to 40 IU per pound of body weight per day
- Clinical symptoms of vitamin D toxicity in dogs have been found as low as 3 mg/kg or 1.3 mg/lb.
- Played with the new puppy and enjoyed another happy 5 years.
Senior pets rejuvenated with vitamin D 4,000 IU daily for a while
Anyone Give Vitamin D to Their Dog? PaleoHacks July 2011
- Loads of conflicting information:
- Dogs make it their fur.
- No, they make it in their skin.
- No they don't, they need it in their diets.
- You need to supplement.
- You'd better not supplement.
- Person thought that the following was the best answer
Furred animals and vitamin D April 2010
Fat Soluble Vitamins: A, D, E & K in Dogs
- 227 IU of vitamin D per pound of FEED. 10X that much is toxic if given for months
Vitamin D -- for pets, sunlight isn't enough June 2010
- " . . the dog and cat were central figures in the discovery of vitamin D as an essential nutrient. In experiments by Sir Edward Mellanby (1919),"
How Much DIRECT Sunlight Does My Parrot Need? June 2012
Rickets increasing in dogs

Vitamin D for dogs - review by Vitamin D Council, Nov 2016

Current knowledge of vitamin D in dogs May 2016
Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations in dogs - correlation with health and cancer risk. Sept 2016
Oral vitamin D supplementation at five times the recommended allowance marginally affects serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations in dogs July 2016 free PDF
- "The average 50 lb dog requires around 1,200 kcal/day to maintain a healthy weight"
- "The relative risk of cancer increased 3.9 times in dogs with vitamin D levels below 40 ng/ml (p = 0.0002)"

An easy way to give vitamin D to your pet

Just add 5,000 IU of vitamin D to their meal at a frequency based on their weight

The half-life of vitamin D for dogs is similar to that of humans - about a month, so giving every few days is not at all a problem

the Vitamin D can be a capsule, the contents of a capsule, drops, etc. - all about 5 cents per 5,000 IU

Just mark your calendar

Most vets have found that animals need 30 IU per kg

15 kg pet ==> 450 IU: 5,000 IU once every 10 days

30 kg pet ==> 900 IU: 5,000 IU once every 5 days

45 kg pet ==>1350 IU: 5,000 IU once every 4 days

If your pet has little access to noonday sun (and being behind a window does not count),

then the pet will most likely be very deficient.

For deficiency it is best, like for humans, to stock up initially.

Stocking up might be done by dosing at 3X the maintenance rate for a month

Example: 15 kg pet: once every 3 days instead of once every 10 days

Vitamin D is a rat poison if VERY HIGH quantity

Lethal dose which will kill half of the rats (LD-50) = 17 mg/kg of rat = 680,000 IU per kg

Thus for a 100 kg rat (weight of a human adult) the LD-50 would be 68,000,000 IU

[tiki-download_file.php?fileId=2182] A, Bs, D, E, K

from US Board of Agriculture National Academies Press

Vitamin D levels in other mammals

Feldman 2005

Vitamin D for horse (per kg of feed, not weight)

Vitamins for Animals - book 2010

also has pictures of variety of animals who were vitamin D deficient

PDF is attached at the bottom of this page

Lethal Dose of Vitamin D for Dogs - 1932

📄 Download the PDF from Vitamin D Life

Vitamin D levels in some species (dogs not vary during the year) - 2020

Portion of Table of Contents