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 »
