Vitamin C Prevents Hip Dysplasia - Page 1

Vitamin C Prevents Hip Dysplasia Vitamin C deficiencies have recently been linked to hip dysplasia in dogs. A veterinarian did a controlled study to prove this link. Basically, the study went like this: Dysplastic German shepherds were bred together, the mother was given vitamin C throughout her pregnancy and the pups, when born, were also supplemented with vitamin C until the age of two years old. At 2 years old all the pups were checked for hip dysplasia. None were dysplastic! http://www.dinovite.com/vitc.html http://www.workingdogs.com/doc0039.htm http://www.showdogsupersite.com/hips.html http://www.belfield.com/article5.html http://www.arthrix.com/phil_brown.htm http://www.cyberpet.com/dogs/articles/health/vitc.htm http://www.afpafitness.com/articles/DogsDonLie.htm By Dr. Wendell O. Belfield "Now that CHD is a systemic condition we can get on with the business of saving these canines from this crippling disease. Lets begin eliminating some myths that have prevailed over the past fifty years. Unilateral CHD, does not exist. One normal hip and the other subluxted is not CHD this is simply an injury. Since the experts recognize that all joints can be involved in slow mineralization why then one hip will remain normal. Since collagen synthesis is involved in CHD, another systemic problem, why will one hip and not the other be involved. CHD must be in both hip joints. The next issue, is CHD an inherited disease? I have never been a proponent of this concept. To me, it has always been a biochemical problem. Regardless if CHD is genetic or not, it does have systemic implications which means it can be prevented and controlled; I have had success in this area for more than twenty years". http://www.belfield.com/article9.html http://www.belfield.com/home.html Dogs Don't Lie: Vitamin C is Man's Best Friend by Kevin Kolodziejski http://www.afpafitness.com/articles/DogsDonLie.htm Unilateral hip dysplaysia is always environmental. http://www.showdogsupersite.com/hips.html

I have yet to look at these studies, but, just because two dysplastic dogs were bred and produced in a very limited study, no dysplastic pups and had been given Vitamin C or anything else, it proves nothing. This is NOT science. In humans Vitamin C has long been touted as a cure all/preventative for many things. Other than ricketts, most of what it has been touted to cure/prevent simply has no basis in fact. I will read these articles. Like I have repeatedly said, at the most basic level, everything short of injury or accident is, in fact, genetic. Environment can go a long way to determining whether a given gene or set of genes is expressed or not in the organism.

a lot of folks would like to debunk this theory by saying that dogs manufacure vit c within their bodies. and, this is true, however, i think we still have to provide proper food sources for them to produce it. furthermore, vit c is known to help strenghthen the immune system. so what could it hurt? being water soluable, if they received more than they needed, they'd just pee it out anyway. i think there is definately some merit to this theory, but i wouldn't go so far as to say it is a cureall. pjp

Ziegenfarm, You are correct that Vitamin C is a water soluble substance. I too have no problem with someone giving anyone or dog vitamin C, especially if they feel the diet is deficient. The truth is, most diets are not deficient. So it is a waste. There may be some slight immune boosting function, but this is far from fact as well. Again, health people and animals do not need boosts and too much of anything can prove to be problematic. What I am commenting on is that it is a problem is to make false claims.

There are many articles cited, and some links have several of their own. Hodie, I said the same thing when I read it, but reserved comment until I had read some of the links. The general impression that I get is that vit.C may play a role in mitigating the effects of HD and other joint ailments by helping in the repair of sinovial tissue, and MAY suppress the development of HD, but there remain several concerns such as genetics, general nutrition, activity/exercise, and of course dumb luck. I see nothing wrong with adding Ester-C to your ration, but would not bank on it solving the problem. Best Wishes, Jonah

Yes, be very careful to believe this claim. First of all,all vets and scientist that do these studies prove nothing of the years of production studies that have already been done and many things have been tried and some help in maybe one or two litters traced for two years but did that vet breed those 2 year old dogs and see what was produced . No because u cant breed sisters and brothers. dAAH vitamin c is very good and u can always give it to pregnant and pups in moderation , because yes, the commercial dog foods are defecient with lots of things, that is why we add cottage cheese, yogurt, liver, heart, and otherr natural things that grow on a bush or in the ground not out of a lab.....these people (scientists work for pharmacuitical companies that will say and print anything to sell their products......u cannot give puppies suppliments from a pharmacutical co , it is not necessary unless sick pup, and u cannot give them some veggies like broccoli, that is poisonous to a pup, but ok for an adult dog, 2 and over.....and u cant perform a test for just a couple of years on only 2 bloodline dogs, what about the rest of the million bloodllines, are they responsive to vitamin c......I have always said it is not but 40% hereditary and the rest is partially how the female carries the load in that little space, the womb, that God provided for a bunch of pups curled up trying to form correctly in a space hardly big enough, for 4 nice pups, not 6,8, 10, or 12 amd ive heard of 14....not tell me how they can form correctly///when u over fill a cake pan with the liguid cake mix, and it partially runs over , what does it look like when its done......A LOPSIDED CAKE....WHEN PUPS HIPS ARE FORMED THEY NEED TO START IN THE SOCKET, NOT GET CUT INTO IT......MANY A BREEDER HAVE DONE THEIR OWN EXPERIMENTS ON BAD HIP DOGS THAT PRODUCE CLEAR LITTERS MANY TIMES AND THEIR OFFSPRINGS PRODUCE A FEW LITTERS WITH GOOD CLEAR HIPS, BUT AS SOON AS THEY ARE BRED TO ANOTHER LINE THAT HAS NOT BEEN STUDIED OR WATCHED TO SEE WHERE THEY CAME FROM.....up pops the bad hip again.......how u raise a pup from 4 weeks old is crutial until it is 2 , and what u feed the mom and it are the second biggest trick. Its costly to raise healthy longterm pups....Vitamin C and E are the ones we all eat less of and need more of.....a lot of people dont eat veggies and fruits like we should.....vit will leave the body if too much but can cause tongue burn or skin burning around the elimination area......sunshine for your pet is good also....Ive seen pups never taken outside till they are sold.....

Pseudoscience rears it's ugly little deceptive head yet again. The theory that supplementation with Vitamin C in any form will *prevent* a dog from becoming dysplastic has been thoroughly examined and found to be lacking in true scientific evidence. If it were just that easy, why are there still dysplastic dogs being produced? There's a *huge* number of breeders who DO supplement with Vitamin C, and at Belfield's recommended levels, yet OFA still fails dogs on a daily basis. There's no harm in supplementing dogs with the vitamin--I've always given it from puppyhood, even with my sled dogs--but don't bank on it preventing dysplasia...if the dog is genetically programmed to be dysplastic, it WILL be dysplastic, Vitamin C or no.

u ARE SO RIGHT HEXE.....

Correct breeding is the best preventative for HD.

Absolutely true that correct breeding is the best preventative for HD. But in growing period of puppy life specially on large puppy, puppy with high drive and accelerated growing puppy there are high risk of inflammatory process in joints and that could results in dysplasia. We have two ways to prevent that condition - we can limit puppy motion and activity and we can boost immune puppy organism. Vitamin C is the best safe immune stimulator and multilateral aid against inflammatory process. We have practice feeding puppies with C from their start and our result is that we have not got problems with HD. I recommend treatment with high dose vit C. And for strengthen the connective tissues, joints, cartilages, bones, ligaments and tendons for dogs in our program we usually use natural products out of Canina like GAG and dog food like RC which already have as a part of them Glucosamine and Chondroitin