# Energy Supplements??



## Marie Miller (Jan 16, 2008)

I have a female Doberman with tons of food drive and we train in Schutzhund. I use Natural Balance Sausage as my training treats and for tracking. She gains weight easily so I have to be careful and don't want to add more dog food to her daily diet. I am concerned that she may look great but I have noticed her energy level is not what it should be(she is 2 years old). My vet recommeneded a multi vitamin w/iron and added fish oil to her diet. 
Thru investigating I notice there are energy supplements out there such as k9 SuperFuel. Does anyone use this? Do they notce a difference? How long did it take to notice the difference? Do they give there dog any other vitamins.


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

Marie Miller said:


> I have a female Doberman with tons of food drive and we train in Schutzhund. I use Natural Balance Sausage as my training treats and for tracking. She gains weight easily so I have to be careful and don't want to add more dog food to her daily diet. I am concerned that she may look great but I have noticed her energy level is not what it should be(she is 2 years old). My vet recommeneded a multi vitamin w/iron and added fish oil to her diet.
> Thru investigating I notice there are energy supplements out there such as k9 SuperFuel. Does anyone use this? Do they notce a difference? How long did it take to notice the difference? Do they give there dog any other vitamins.


What is the dog's diet? I agree with fish oil and E for virtually all modern diets (which are generally very skewed towards Omega 6s), but why the multi?


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## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

Connie Sutherland said:


> What is the dog's diet? I agree with fish oil and E for virtually all modern diets (which are generally very skewed towards Omega 6s), but why the multi?


Probably for the B's. My dog is out of condition and I'm adding Biotin, Super-B complex and Salmon Oil. She is on grain-free kibble as well.

Did your vet do any testing/bloodwork?


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

Anne Vaini said:


> Probably for the B's. My dog is out of condition and I'm adding Biotin, Super-B complex and Salmon Oil. She is on grain-free kibble as well.
> 
> Did your vet do any testing/bloodwork?


Right: if I wanted to add Bs, I'd add Bs (as you did). Probably not a multi.

The multi ... is it vitamins only? No minerals except iron?

But anyway, what is the diet?


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## Marie Miller (Jan 16, 2008)

She gets Eukanuba adult dog food, only 1 cup a day and then training treats. She is on a multi vitamin w/iron that the the vet recommended.


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

As she's a Dobe, has she been tested for von Willebrands or her heart? I'd like to see a CBC/chem panel before adding in extra iron as there's lots of reasons for lower energy or exercise intolerance. And just one cup of kibble (not a big fan of Eukanuba, it's overpriced for what it is) even with training treats seems quite low for a Dobe unless you're tracking every day with a LOT of food. Here's a calculator for about how many calories they need based on weight (keeping in mind it's guidelines) but I'd just double check that the kcals in the food and the treats is sufficient.

http://www.mycockerspaniel.com/mer.htm


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

Marie Miller said:


> She gets Eukanuba adult dog food, only 1 cup a day and then training treats. She is on a multi vitamin w/iron that the the vet recommended.


Recommending iron (or any mineral) on top of a commercial food that has the RDA of all the minerals seems like an odd thing to do without bloodwork.

P.S. I'm an even bigger non-fan of Eukanuba than Maren is. :lol:


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## Marie Miller (Jan 16, 2008)

Thanks for the food calculator. I did some research and she is under the calories needed based on the calculator but she is not under weight. I don't see one rib. Having a CBC is a good idea. Thanks for the information


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## Sue DiCero (Sep 2, 2006)

What is the tyroid? Low on energy, gains weight easily?


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## Marie Miller (Jan 16, 2008)

http://www.offa.org/display.html?appnum=1339439#animal
Thyroid is normal, OFA certififed. Anything else you can think of that I should check?


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## brad robert (Nov 26, 2008)

how much food does she get when you train her?

it must be a fair bit for her to be overweight on 1 cup as her normal ration.


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## Sue DiCero (Sep 2, 2006)

When was the thyroid checked last?

Have you done a complete worming with an laternate wormer? We do that 2x per year.


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## Marie Miller (Jan 16, 2008)

Just had stool check last month for her yearly physical. I use the sausage roll for training food. I checked the calories on that and she probaly gets about 500 calories a day from training. With the information I have gathering over the weekend she gets maybe 1500 calories a day. Based on the dog food calculator receommeneded earlier in this thread, she should abe about 1900. I will be talking to my vet today to review all the information I have gathered this weekend. Thanks for all the input


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## Terry Fisk (Jul 26, 2007)

We use K9 Superfuel, makes a big difference in muscle tone, endurance and overall. Of course it's always best to make sure there are no underlying medical problems with your dog. Our first experience was for an agility dog that was slowing down and there were no medial reasons for it. I was ready to retire her until I started using SuperFuel. Within 1 week there was a noticeable difference in her attitude and endurance, after 1 month she went 8/8 and HIT, within 60 days completed the requirements for the ASCA National agility finals, she also completed two agility championships within the next 12 months. I'm convinced without the product those achievements would not have happened. I was so impressed we signed up as a dealer and have never been unhappy with any of the products.


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## Kadi Thingvall (Jan 22, 2007)

Keep in mind just like people, dogs can have variations in metabolisms. Cali, who ran 72 lbs when she was younger and really fit, around 67 now that she's retired, has never needed more then about 2 clups off food a day to maintain her weight, on a wide variety of foods. Well except for that brief stint when we tried Eukanuba, she coudn't keep weight on that food on 4-5 cups a day. And that's without the addition of tracking treats or even daily training treats. Nexxus eats (2 yrs old, 57 lbs) eats about the same as Cali. Cali's son Dax on the other hand, who was actually lighter weight then her (upper 50's low 60's) ate 7-8 cups of food a day and still was on the thin side. Mac at 85 lbs also eats about 8 cups of food a day to maintain his weight. So there can be a large variation in the amount of calories a dog needs. And it's not always just their exercise level, when she was working Cali got every bit as exercise as the other dogs. It's also not about how "wound" they are, Nexxus is just as wound as Dax and around the house Mac is a total couch potato. But they all have wide variations in daily calories needs. 

I've tried the SuperFuel and other additives and didn't really notice any difference. It seems to be about a 50/50 split among my friends with 50% really liking them and feeling it made a big difference in their dogs performance and 50% noticing little to no difference when the dog was on them.


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

That's funny you mention Mac, Kadi...Fawkes hasn't been exercised much the last two weeks due to an injury and he's turned into a porker on 2.5 cups of EVO. I'm switching him to Innova Large Breed and California Natural Herring & Sweet Potato until we can get back at it. Lily is like 48 lbs soaking wet and she's gotta have 3 cups of EVO. I envy that girl's metabolism!


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