folic acid

Re: folic acid

Linda Filshie — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 01:32:39 GMT

[quote user="Liz white"]Off topic somewhat, but does anyone know if fertility levels have been affected since hip scoring became commonplace? It surely can't be ideal to irradiate the genital area pior to breeding.

[/quote] Crikey, how many goes do you need to line everything up correctly?

Re: folic acid

John Flynn — Sun, 02 Feb 2014 20:33:05 GMT

You mean you don't cover the reproductive organs with lead shielding while hip scoring

Re: folic acid

Liz w — Sun, 02 Feb 2014 10:43:24 GMT

Off topic somewhat, but does anyone know if fertility levels have been affected since hip scoring became commonplace? It surely can't be ideal to irradiate the genital area pior to breeding.

Re: folic acid

Malcolm Ness — Sat, 01 Feb 2014 14:07:29 GMT

Cleft palate is not a neural tube defect.

The reduction in spina bifida (and perhaps other less common neural tube defects) produced by Folic acid supplementation is the result of Folic acid mitigating the effect of a specific genetic mutation. ie there is a direct causal relationship. I don't think that there is any evidence that Folic acid might or even might be expected to reduce the incidence of cleft palate. The paper describes, at best, an associative relationship - there is no control group or anything to suggest that the populations were in any way comparable. Still, as Michael says, the folic acid is unlikely to do any harm.

Re: folic acid

Michelle van Lienden — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 18:27:00 GMT

This is the information I found, the recommendation is to give 5 mg once daily from start date of breeding until pups are born.

It is interesting that the amount of folic acid recommended for dogs is much higher 5 mg/day, compared to the human dose which is 1 mg/day

N Z Vet J. 1997 Dec;45(6):254-6.

Observations on the prevention of cleft palate in dogs by folic acid and potential relevance to humans.

Elwood JM, Colquhoun TA.

Author information

Abstract

Folic acid has been shown to prevent neural tube defects in humans, but its effects on other defects is unknown. In a consistent breeding programme of Boston terrier dogs started in 1974, folic acid supplementation (5 mg/day) was introduced in 1981. The frequency of cleft palate fell from 9/51 (17.6%) without folic acid to 8/191 (4.2%) after its introduction, giving a reduction of 76% (95% confidence limits 42%-90%, p = 0.003).

PMID:: 16032001; [PubMed]

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Re: folic acid

Michael Woodhouse — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 00:34:37 GMT

It's only a water soluble B vitamin. I can't see it doing any harm so why not? It's also really cheap.

Re: folic acid

Michelle van Lienden — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 00:23:58 GMT

Thanks for your input! My client breeds about 200 dogs a year and has been using this for several years. It turns out that the folic acid was recommended by a Theriogenology specialist. They feel the incidence of cleft palate is much reduced as they have had no further cases since they started using it. Of course this does not prove anything because it could be due to changes in the gene pool (most likely) or coincidence rather than the folic acid.

I will try to get in touch with the Therio specialist to see if there is any research done on this subject.

Re: folic acid

Martin Atkinson — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 09:28:59 GMT

As cleft palate is almost certainly genetic it sounds like snake oil to me and encouraging poor breeders who are in-breeding already over in-bred breeds (sorry about the tongue twister!) to be even more irresponsible, and give them an excuse for their dastardly practices.

Re: folic acid

Mark Holmes — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 20:19:13 GMT

Ok so I gave now looked it up and there is an association in humans, but it is multifactorial. Still not sure the incidence of cleft palate in dogs warrants treating every bitch with folic acid

Re: folic acid

Mark Holmes — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 20:15:42 GMT

Cleft palate is so rare I'm not sure it's worth it is it? I have never heard of anything suggesting it. I have obviously heard of its use in preventing Spina Bifida but has that similar pathogenesis? I think its fair to say if you give some occasionally most pups won't have cleft palate.