Every day in my practice, I receive a very similar question: “Should I be giving my pet a supplement? Do they need a vitamin, a joint chew, fish oil, or a probiotic?” For a lot of us, it is hard to know the answer to this. It feels like there is a new food on the market every week, and I quit trying to keep up with the newest, latest, and greatest a long time ago. When clients come in and ask about a specific food (especially a new one), I either have them bring the bag for the visit so we can go over it, or we look it up online and start the evaluation process. What do you do? What is your stock answer when the supplement question is asked of you? Does your hospital have a policy or a “company line” for what to say if you or another veterinarian is not available? Are you using nutritional supplements now? You probably are, and you might not even realize it. In most cases, we expect the commercially produced foods our clients purchase for their pets to be safe and will meet the needs of a balanced diet. What does that even mean? There are many different groups that aid in regulating the ingredients for a balanced diet, but as a veterinarian with over 20 years of experience, I still find it very confusing. Professional marketing also does a great job of making everything and anything look good on a label. I think we can all agree there are differences in ingredients and quality ingredients. I am not going to turn this article into something controversial and call out foods or food companies. However, if you were to come over to my house for dinner and your chicken sandwich was made from a patty of chicken meal, I doubt you would be impressed. I believe that a good diet based on quality ingredients is a good start, but we are not here to discuss diets; this is about supplementing those diets. As veterinarians, we aim to navigate the growing world of pet supplements to guide clients toward smarter, healthier choices. Photo courtesy Dr. Cade M. Wilson What are supplements? Experience has taught me that very few people understand what nutritional supplements are, and even fewer understand their potential for their pets. The National Institute of Health (NIH) defines nutritional supplements as “products intended to supplement the diet. They are not medicines and are not intended to treat, diagnose, mitigate, prevent, or cure diseases.”1 Another example is from the National Cancer Institute (NCI): “A nutritional supplement is a product taken orally that’s added to a diet, often containing vitamins, minerals, herbs, amino acids, or enzymes. These supplements are intended to enhance health by providing nutrients that may be lacking in a regular diet.”2 There is a very wide range of products that can and will fall on the list of products available to us. Want to feel overwhelmed? Go to Google and type in “nutritional supplements for pets.” It is a lot to take in, and I can understand why clients ask me every day about specific items and if their pet would benefit from one supplement or another. Many of the supplements we use have been ingrained in our treatment protocols for so long that they feel like medications. If you have a patient diagnosed and treated for chronic renal failure, what nutritional supplements will many of these patients be on? A potassium supplement. This is used so widely that many people within veterinary medicine will lean towards it as a medical treatment, not a nutritional supplement. Using them in the practice Some time ago, I took courses for licensure as a human nutrition coach. I did this with several goals in mind. One, I wanted to help myself become healthier overall in the stressful field of veterinary medicine and allow me to help others in the future. Two, I wanted a broader view of nutrition as a whole and to “fill in the gaps” my animal science and veterinary background left void. Working through supplement training opened my eyes to several ways we can aid our patients in not only returning to health but, maybe more importantly, staying that way. I tend to agree with Hippocrates that we should “let our food be thy medicine,” and that should be the same for our patients. When first reviewing specific supplements, I would evaluate their quality. The National Animal Supplement Council (NASC), a non-profit group, has created a system to ensure the quality, safety, and effectiveness of products.3 This group awards a seal to manufacturers who achieve specific goals that supplements should achieve. When beginning your search for supplemental products, a good starting point is to look at which have achieved this status and which have not. It is a good idea to educate our clients on this “seal” of approval so they can look for it and understand what it means. Another thing to consider is what exactly clients are supplementing and at what dosing. If you have a client utilizing a multivitamin, a fish oil supplement, and feeding their pet raw liver, a vitamin A overdose is possible. Uncommon? Yes, but working through patient needs and the expected outcomes is important when considering supplement utilization. Now that we understand some common nutritional supplements in veterinary medicine, let us now work through some of the most common and how they can be used. Probiotics I have found these are not well understood by clients. According to the Cleveland Clinic, “Probiotics are live bacteria and yeasts that have beneficial effects on your body. These species already live in your body, along with many others. Probiotic supplements add to your existing supply of friendly microbes. They help fight off the less friendly types and boost your immunity against infections.”4 These organisms do so very much for us. There is no good reason not to utilize these products, but for our chronically ill patients and patients with disrupted digestive tracts, the use of probiotics can speed up recovery immensely. I use these with all my patients battling gastroenteric issues and explain it to my clients as we are “re-seeding” the garden. Utilizing probiotics, we are aiding the gut microbiome to regain balance and aid in the overall healing. The use of these products should also be considered with long-term broad-spectrum antibiotic use, as these antibiotics will also kill “the good guys.” Something to consider. Glucosamine and chondroitin These may be the most common nutritional supplements we, as a profession, get asked about. I have utilized them for decades now and seem to be the most well-received and yet most under-recognized products by clients. Glucosamine and chondroitin aid in the health and potential healing of joint cartilage and meniscus, but must be used long-term and continually. For clients who are going to skip around on dosing and not commit to multiple months of product before deciding on effect, this one will be frustrating for everyone. I have seen good effects with continued use, but for pets with already arthritic conditions, these are not stand-alone products. For chronic conditions, anti-inflammatory medications will be necessary in most cases, and glucosamine and chondroitin will be there in a backup role. S-Adenosyl-Methionine (SAMe) I am so glad someone came up with the term SAMe, and I will be impressed with any of you who can spell the expanded name This supplement is marketed under several names and is the bioactive form of methionine, an essential amino acid nutrient found abundantly in several foods. This is a very common product used for patients with liver ailments or disease and those with cognitive dysfunction. I have seen profound effects with several patients through the years, and I would highly recommend evaluating its use. I find it very interesting that in people, this product is commonly used for depression and in the concurrent use of products for osteoarthritis. I personally have not seen research done on this for veterinary medicine, but it does intrigue me. Multivitamins This seems to be a very controversial section of nutritional supplementation for a lot of people. I, myself, have had mixed feelings throughout the years. As I read through multiple papers and reports, and peer-reviewed sites, I have found I am not alone with these feelings. With multi-vitamins, I believe we should first review the whole reason for supplements, and I like the EBSCO’s take the best when it comes to evaluating use of multi-vitamins. Their stance on nutritional supplements is, in a shortened quote, “to enhance health by providing nutrients that may be lacking in a regular diet.”5 EBSCO is a major provider of research databases. Their stance sums up the use of multivitamins for my patients. If I am unsure if a client’s choice of a pet’s diet is meeting all the dietary requirements, then there is ample reason to recommend multi-vitamin use. Choosing which specific product may be the hardest part, but I would recommend evaluating products for best absorption for the specific patient. Some of the most popular products available and utilized by my clients are Dog is Human, Purina’s Canine Multi Care, and Pet Tabs. Conclusion So, what should we do about supplements, our pets, and patients? It is a tough question, and I do not believe there is a blanket answer. Diet evaluation is a good place to start. Do you feel a specific diet provides every nutrient and the proper quantities to allow the pet to live to their fullest? If not, where are they lacking? Age, abilities, activity, and disease processes specific to pets are the next items to evaluate. What vitamins and supplements are out there that can help them live the best life possible? These questions should be thought through for each individual pet, and the answers are going to change for them as they age, and the parameters differ. We owe it to them as health providers and owners to make sure we provide the correct nutrients, in whatever form, to help them thrive. Cade M. Wilson, DVM, is a practicing veterinarian and a three-doctor mixed-animal practice owner in Ardmore, OK. Dr. Wilson has been practicing small animal medicine for the last 22 years and has been a practice owner for the last 18 years. References Office of Dietary Supplements - Dietary supplements: What you need to know.” n.d. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/WYNTK-Consumer/. “NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms.” n.d. Cancer.Gov. https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/nutritional-supplement. https://www.nasc.cc/ Professional, Cleveland Clinic Medical. 2025. “Probiotics.” Cleveland Clinic. June 30, 2025. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/14598-probiotics. “EBSCO - Research Databases, EBooks, Discovery Service.” n.d. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/nutrition-and-dietetics/introduction-dietary-supplements#.
