Evening Primrose Oil

[Nugget's Family]

Thanks to the education I've received here on DK, I've been adding 500 mg of Evening Primrose Oil to Nugget's dinner each night.  We've noticed it helping her skin itchiness, so I plan to continue.  I bought a bottle of 250 mg capsules at the health food store, so I've been cutting open two gelcaps and squishing the contents into her dinner.  I'm wondering if anyone just puts the gelcaps into their dogs dinners whole without "squishing"?  I was a little afraid to do that because I was afraid it might be rough on her digestive system, but maybe I'm being paranoid?  But, I notice that my "squish" technique is not perfect and some of the oil is left in the squished capsules that I am discarding.

As always, thanks for your help.

Susan

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Jackdoodle is actually allowed to have up to three 500 mg per day, but rarely gets more than one because he tends to get diarrhea from fatty acids. I think it would be perfectly fine and safe to give Peri a 500 mg capsule; if she doesn't get diarrhea from the fish oil, she won't get it from the EPO. Jack can't tolerate the fish oil at all, but is fine with one or sometimes two EPO capsules, and I know one of Nancy's dogs had the same issues with fish oil but did fine with the EPO.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Good to know. I will have Taquito try the EPO also. He can't tolerate the fish oil at all. I haven't been giving him any for months. Thanks Karen!

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

I have not been out of my salmon oil until now. About to try EPO instead. Can Taquito really have 500 mg per day? I am thinking his little 6-pound butt needs 1/2 of that amount. Do you agree, Karen?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Probably, but you won't find it in smaller amounts and you can't divide those capsules. You could try it...the worst that could happen is he'd get really soft stools. Maybe you could give him one every few days.

[Amanda and Quinn]

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned here at all, but just a heads up for owners of seizure-prone dogs: there appears to be some risk of EPO lowering the seizure threshold. I wanted to start Quinn on it but several links came up in a search - here are a couple that seem to be reputable. I don't know if it's only a potential issue in humans, though.

http://www.epilepsy.com/node/989760

http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/69216.cfm

[Amanda and Quinn]

Oh crap, I just saw it in here earlier. My bad!

[F, Calla & Luca]

Here is an article that is a little more in depth about seizures and EPO in humans. It's still not clear to me what the mechanism of action is.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

There is a connection between GLA (gamma-linolenic acid) and seizure disorders in humans. It also seems to weaken the effects of medications used to control seizures, from what I understand. I also don't know if it has the same affect in dogs.
From the Univ. of Maryland:
Do not take omega-6 fatty acids if you have a seizure disorder. Several reports describe seizures in people taking evening primrose oil. Some of these seizures developed in people with a previous seizure disorder, or in people taking evening primrose oil in combination with anesthetics. People who plan to have surgery requiring anesthesia should stop taking evening primrose oil 2 weeks ahead of time.
http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/gamma-linolenic-000305.htm

[Kirsy & Jasper]

Thanks to Karen I got Jasper onto EPO for his itchy skin.
As I could only get the 1000mg Capsules, I only give him one a day. He has been getting the 1000mg Fishoil Capsules for a long time too. So, when I started giving him both capsules in one meal, he got diarrhea, BUT now I give him one in the morning meal and the other in the evening meal and his poohs are PERFECT! Hard, as they should be.