Do dogs need vitamin C?

Everyone knows the vitamin C. It is found in many foods such as citrus fruits, currants, rosehip peels, but also in peppers and all green plants.
Multivitamin products with vitamin C are available for children and adults to buy and this is supposed to strengthen the health. But is vitamin C good for dogs? Do dogs need Vitamin C to stay healthy?

Vitamin C for dogs

Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin. It is involved in many important processes in the body. Vitamin C helps in the formation of hormones and wound healing, binds free radicals and thus protects the organism of the dog.
It helps the body to absorb iron better, to store important minerals in the body and strengthens the skeleton. In addition, the vitamin C flours toxic heavy metals from the body of the dog, such as cadmium or lead.

Dogs can synthesize vitamin C in their liver from glucose. That means, dogs can form Vitamin C in the body itself. Only humans, monkeys and some other animals are not able to do this and therefore have to consume vitamin C regularly with their food.
Dogs should be able to produce up to 20,000 Mg of vitamin C per day, although this amount always fluctuates, depending on the current needs and health of the individual animal. So one wonders if it is not enough for dogs to be able to produce vitamin C themselves.

Although there is almost no deficiency of vitamin C in dogs, some studies have shown that an increased dose has health benefits in dogs.
Vitamin C has been shown to reduce many types of bone disease, dysplasia, osteoarthritis and muscle atrophy in dogs. In addition, an increased dose is said to prevent the outbreak of HD in puppies.

Vitamin C has long been known for us as an anti-cancer and immune system strengthening vitamin. For our dogs, it also has good effects on bone problems and movement pain. The dog’s body cells are much easier to keep healthy in the presence of sufficient vitamin C.

When do dogs need vitamin C?

Vitamin C protects the body through its antioxidant action, like other vitamins, e.g. Vitamin E. It forms carnitine together with the enzymes lysine and methionine and strengthens the immune system.
It can also help the dog with bone problems. So you should give older dogs or dogs with bone or joint problems high vitamin C doses over long periods. Vitamin C helps the dog with arthrosis and HD (hip dysplasia) and has a soothing effect, often the dog is then a lot better.

Also with puppies and young dogs in growth, a regular regimen of vitamin C spread over the year, can help build strong bones and strengthen health.
For overweight dogs, a vitamin C cure is well suited because it stimulates fat metabolism and forms carnitine, which among other things promotes fat burning.

Vitamin C against cancer

Vitamin C is known to protect against cancer. Vitamin C can inhibit the growth of tumor cells and is therefore popular in cancer prevention and fight against cancer. Researchers found that high levels of vitamin C can help fight cancer. That’s because tumor cells do not like vitamin C and try to get rid of it.

Previously, it had always been believed that Vitamin C would protect the body from cancer by preventing the free radicals from attacking the genetic material of the cells. However, vitamin C protects the cell from cancer in a different way.
Free radicals activate a protein that helps cancer survive. The vitamin C catches the free radicals before they can activate the protein and thus cause damage.
However, vitamin C should not be given together with fat, especially heated fats, because fat in combination with vitamin C is said lead to the development of carcinogenic substances.

How much vitamin C do dogs need?

If the dog has discomfort with the bones, e.g. Osteoarthritis or dysplasia, shows conspicuous pain, the dog is lame or would like to take breaks during the walk. Then you should give the dog a vitamin C cure. It is best to start with a small amount and increase the dose daily.
After a few weeks of treatment with vitamin C, the condition of the dog should improve.

How much the dog really needs in vitamin C is different for each dog individually. An overdose of vitamin C is almost impossible because it is water-soluble and the dog just gets diarrhea from too much vitamin C.

Vitamin C in dog food

Most dog foods don’t contain any vitamin C. Therefore, you can give the vitamin C as acerola or rosehip peels to the feed, as both are gentle on the dog’s stomach.

Vitamin C is also available in every supermarket or drugstore. However, most of these vitamin C tablets are made up of pure ascorbic acid.
The ascorbic acid is not suitable for dogs, because it strongly acidifies the dog and can even be contaminated with heavy metals. In addition, the bioavailability is very poor for the dog, because in nature, vitamin C would not occur in the form of pure ascorbic acid.

In addition to vitamin C, fruits contain many other nutrients, minerals, phytochemicals and vital substances. The body of the dog can only optimally utilize the vitamin C, if all these ingredients of the fruit are taken together. In the processed tablets are still missing many substances that the dog needs in the right combination.

To provide the dog ideally with vitamin C, use best fresh, sun-ripened fruit as well as fresh herbs and green vegetables. Fresh (organic) fruits, salads, vegetables, herbs, nuts, algae and other natural foods contain a lot of valuable Vitamin C from which our dogs can benefit.
The fresh foods can not acidify the dog and the bioavailability of vitamin C is safe in this way.

More information can be found in our articles:
Which herbs are good for dogs?
Which fruits and vegetables for the dog?