Obesity impacts vitamin D equilibrium. Please review the tech brief below on how it applies to your Test & Treat patients. Contact VDI with any questions. Background: Vitamin D undergoes a series of enzymatic reactions ultimately becoming the active hormone calcitriol. However, since vitamin D is fat soluble, it is readily taken up within the adipose tissue. The adipose […] Read more »
Cancer It has been reported that dogs and cats with lymphoma (2,11), mast cell tumors (5), hemangiosarcoma, carcinoma, histiocytic sarcoma, and other cancers (10,11,12) all have 25vitD values below 40ng/mL. The relative risk of having cancer increases to almost 4x when 25vitD values are below 40ng/mL. Chronic Enteropathy (IBD) Disease severity and the incidence of chronic […] Read more »
Published in Veterinary Record (1) is an interventional study on the effects of vitamin D supplementation on dogs with atopic dermatitis. Conclusion: Oral vitamin D decreased both pruritus and also acute and chronic skin lesions in dogs with AD. The improvement in the dogs with pruritus was significantly correlated with an increase in serum 25-OH-D3 […] Read more »
The term vitamin D has become a catch-all for three different forms of vitamin D: D3, 25(OH)D3, and 1,25(OH)2D3 (calcitriol), as well as the 24-hydroxylated components. The routinely measured and primary store of vitamin D is 25(OH)D3. Vitamin D Metabolism In a dog or cats’ diet, the primary available format is both D3 and 25(OH)D3. While commercial food […] Read more »
Over the years, and just recently, there have been food recalls concerning excess vitamin D in pet food and reported ‘vitamin D intoxication’. Pets eating these foods and exhibiting signs of hypercalcemia are assumed to have vitamin D intoxication. Background: Vitamin D exists as three different forms: Vitamin D3 25-hydroxy-vitaminD (25(OH)D) 1,25-dihydroxy-vitaminD (calcitriol). Both D3 and 25(OH)D are […] Read more »
VDI Laboratory – Leader in Vitamin D Testing Vitamin D shouldn’t be scary. Although the internet is abound with recalls and scary articles about toxicity, the bigger issue in a majority of cats and dogs is the pandemic of Vitamin D insufficiency. Vitamin D is as important for your pet as it is for you. […] Read more »
Vitamin D insufficiency is a major problem in cats and dogs in the United States. According to a 2015 study out of Tufts University1, 75% of dogs are vitamin D insufficient. We wanted to look at what that meant for real world pets. The real problem in real world patients VDI analyzed its database of […] Read more »
Research in both human and veterinary medicine shows vitamin D to be an independent risk factor for adverse cardiac events. Two recent studies looked at the association between Vitamin D levels and Chronic Valvular Heart Disease (CVHD). Kraus, et. al., found that in dogs, low stores of 25(OH)D were associated with CVHD, as well as a 2.6 times greater hazard of having a […] Read more »
VDI Laboratory provides patient specific dosing guidelines on all Vitamin D reports for cats and dogs. Now, all Vitamin D reports come with a second dosing guideline for reaching the high end of the sufficient range. High End Sufficiency Sometimes we get asked- can we target higher in the sufficient zone (100-150ng/mL)? The answer of course […] Read more »
In a major study from Tufts University , 40 different brands of dog food were evaluated for the amount of vitamin D absorbed and converted to 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25vitD), the primary store and precursor to the active hormone, calicitriol. In a group of 320 dogs, 25vitD concentrations ranged from 9.5 to 249.2 ng/mL. However, the median 25vitD concentration was […] Read more »
