Background Vaccinations activate the adaptive immune process to provide lasting immunity to disease. Dogs and cats get vaccinated to a wide range of pathogens with the goal of high antibody titers and long duration of immunity (DOI). While generally successful, there are times vaccinations FAIL, or fail to provide the desired DOI. Vaccination failures and low DOI […] Read more »
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 »
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 »
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 »
