Studies on the Prolonged Maintenance of Adult Dogs on Purified Diets

Abstract

The dietary requirement of the adult dog for pantothenic acid is so small that the production of pantothenic acid deficiency is a very slow process. Of four dogs maintained on a diet lacking pantothenic acid, one dog died in 9 months; two developed acute deficiency disease in 17 months and were cured by pantothenic acid, and the fourth dog showed no gross evidence of deficiency disease after 4½ years. Three dogs have been maintained in apparent good health for 4½ years on a basal diet, supplemented with thiamine, riboflavin, nicotinic acid, pyridoxine and for two of the three dogs with pantothenic acid also. The basal diet according to present knowledge had no significant amounts of the members of the B vitamin complex.