Although supplements can be a confusing topic for many pet owners, most dog owners have heard of the benefits of feeding fish oils. There are however, a variety of oils that you can also use to your dog’s benefit, each with different actions and benefits.
Coconut oil consists of more than 90% saturated fats, with traces of few unsaturated fatty acids, such as monounsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Most of the saturated fats in coconut oil are Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCTs). The main component (more than 40%) of coconuts oil's MCTs is lauric acid, followed by capric acid, caprylic acid, myristic acid and palmitic. Coconut oil also contains about 2% linoleic acid (polyunsaturated fatty acids) and about 6% oleic acid (monounsaturated fatty acids).
Most of the coconut oil benefits come from these MCTs. For example, the lauric acid in coconut oil has antibacterial, antiviral, and anti-fungal properties. Capric and caprylic acid have similar properties and are best known for their anti-fungal effects.
Besides caprylic acid, two other medium chain fatty acids found in coconut oil have been found to kill yeasts. A study done at the University of Iceland showed “capric acid, a 10-carbon saturated fatty acid, causes the fastest and most effective killing of all three strains of yeasts tested, leaving the cytoplasm disorganized and shrunken because of a disrupted or disintegrated plasma membrane. Lauric acid, a 12-carbon saturated fatty acid, was the most active at lower concentrations and after a longer incubation time.” This study shows great promise that all the medium chain fatty acids in coconut oil work together to kill yeasts, funguses, viruses, and bacteria.
In addition, MCTs are efficiently metabolized to provide an immediate source of fuel and energy, enhancing athletic performance and aiding weight loss. In dogs, the MCTs in coconut oil balance the thyroid, helping overweight dogs lose weight and helping sedentary dogs feel energetic.
As a bonus, coconut oil improves any dog’s skin and coat, improves digestion, and reduces allergic reactions.
Fed regularly to pets, coconut oil may have multiple benefits:
Skin Conditions
Clears up skin conditions such as eczema, flea allergies, contact dermatitis,and itchy skin
Reduces allergic reactions and improves skin health
Makes coats become sleek and glossy, and deodorizes doggy odor
Prevents and treats yeast and fungal infections, including candida
Disinfects cuts and promotes wound healing
Applied topically, promotes the healing of cuts, wounds, hot spots, dry skin and hair, bites and stings
Digestion
Improves digestion and nutrient absorption
Aids healing of digestive disorders like inflammatory bowel syndrome and colitis
Reduces or eliminates bad breath in dogs
Aids in elimination of hairballs and coughing
Immune System, Metabolic Function, Bone Health
Coconut oil contains powerful antibacterial, antiviral, and anti-fungal agents that prevent infection and disease
Regulates and balance insulin and promotes normal thyroid function
Helps prevent or control diabetes
Helps reduce weight, increases energy
Aids in arthritis or ligament problems
Giving coconut to your pet is an excellent health decision and can improve your pet's quality of life, but there is a right way and wrong way to start supplementing your dog or cat's diet with coconut oil.
Start slow and increase gradually.
When beginning to supplement your pet's diet with coconut oil, start slow and increase gradually. Giving too much coconut oil too soon can cause digestive and detox issues.
Because coconut oil kills bacteria, viruses, parasites, yeasts, and fungi, your pet may respond negatively to the detox aspect of taking coconut oil. Signs of detoxing too rapidly may include lethargy, headaches, flu-like symptoms, fatigue, and diarrhea.
Large amounts of coconut oil given to a dog can cause diarrhea or greasy stools while his body adjusts to the change in diet. Start with small amounts, such as ¼ teaspoon per day for small dogs or puppies and 1 teaspoon for large dogs, or even just a dab if your dog's constitution is sensitive. If your dog seems tired or uncomfortable or has diarrhea, just cut back the amount temporarily. Gradually increase the amount every few days. If your dog seems tired or uncomfortable or has diarrhea, reduce the amount temporarily. It may also be helpful to give the small amounts of coconut oil in divided doses throughout the day.
Coconut oil is best given with food. Solid or liquid coconut oil can be added to food at any meal. Solid coconut oil can easily be melted quickly in hot water.
Feeding Guidelines
A general guideline on many sites have said the optimal dose for dogs is about 1 teaspoon per 10 pounds of body weight daily or about 1 tablespoon per 30 pounds, but don't start with these amounts in the beginning!
If you cook your own pet food, coconut oil would be an excellent addition to the recipe.
Most dogs like the taste of coconut oil so you won't have trouble feeding it to them.
Coconut Oil for Pet Skin Problems
If you wish to apply topically to use coconut oil to treat a rash, wound or dry skin, but they try to lick it off, try wrapping the skin in a rag or towel for a few minutes to let the oil soak in before they get a chance to lick it off.
Different brands of coconut oil will have different tastes ranging from a bland taste, to a strong coconut taste, to a more buttery taste. You can experiment with the oil your pet finds most pleasing. I just get the Swansonvitamins.com brand. Tastes great and cheap.
I fry 2 eggs in a tablespoon of coconut oil for Lucy per day to be added to some kibble. She loves it. Oddly, she was more active and seemed in a better mood within 2 days of starting using the coconut oil to fry the eggs instead of olive oil I normally use. It really smells good with a touch of garlic. Covers up the pills odors too. I still use olive oil to fry the ground chicken or turkey chubs that I add some kibble. I might start also add half coconut oil and half olive oil for frying meat. Or go all coconut. Did I say it smells great! I got it cheap at swansonvitamins but I have seen it in stores.
Read this detailed research data PDF on Coconut oil compounds that have antibacterial, antiviral, and anti-fungal properties
Despite the unanswered question regarding whether substantial amounts of lauric acid are metabolized into monolaurin, it is important to note that lauric acid is also effective against same microorganisms. Lauric acid produces greater activity against microorganisms than caprylic acid, capric acid, or myristic acid, all of which are present in coconut oil. Given that coconut oil provides approximately 50 percent lauric acid, a substantial amount of this bactericidal and virucidal fatty acid can be obtained from consuming coconut fat in pure coconut oil, and in many foods and products.
In addition, it is important to note that lauric acid appears to have immune-boosting properties as evidenced by feeding coconut oil to laboratory animals in whom the expected immune-factor responses (inhibition of interleukin-1) to endotoxin were induced via corn-oil feeding.56-57 Ingesting this on a daily basis may be an inexpensive way to both treat and prevent infection from microorganisms.58
CLINICAL BOTTOM LINE
The antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal properties of lauric acid and monolaurin have been recognized for nearly three decades by only a small number of researchers: their work, however, has resulted in 100 or more research papers and numerous U.S. and foreign patents. Prof. Dr. Jon J. Kabara performed the original seminal research in this area of fat research. Kabara in1968 first patented certain fatty acids (FAs) and their derivatives (e.g., monoglycerides (MGs) that can have adverse effects on various microorganisms. While nontoxic and approved as a direct food additive by the FDA, monolaurin adversely affects bacteria, yeast, fungi, protozoa, and envelope viruses.
Kabara1-24 found that the properties that determine the anti-infective action of lipids are related to their structure: e.g., free fatty acids & monoglycerides. While the monoglycerides are active; diglycerides and triglycerides (fats) are inactive. Of the saturated fatty acids, lauric acid has greater antiviral activity than caprylic acid (C-8), capric acid (C-10), or myristic acid (C-14).
Fatty acids and monoglycerides produce their killing/inactivating effects by several mechanisms. An early postulated mechanism was the perturbing of the plasma membrane lipid bilayer. The antiviral action attributed to monolaurin is that of fluidizing the structure in the envelope of the virus, causing the disintegration of the microbial membrane. More recent studies indicate that one antimicrobial effect in bacteria is related to monolaurin's interference with signal transduction/toxin formation (Projan et al 1994)46.
Another antimicrobial effect in viruses is due to lauric acid's interference with virus assembly and viral maturation (Homung et al 1994)31. The third mode of action may be on the immune system itself (Witcher et al, 1993)35.
Antiviral Effects
Hierholzer and Kabara (1982)37 first reported the antiviral activity of the monoglyceride of lauric acid
(monolaurin) on viruses that affect humans. They showed virucidal effects of monolaurin on enveloped RNA and DNA viruses. This work was done at the Center for Disease Control of the U.S. Public Health Service. This study was carried out using selected virus prototypes or recognized representative strains of enveloped human viruses. All these viruses have a lipid membrane. The presence of a lipid membrane on viruses makes them especially vulnerable to lauric acid and its derivative monolaurin. These initial findings from the Center of Disease Control (CDC) have been confirmed by many other investigators.
Research has shown that enveloped viruses are inactivated by added fatty acids and monoglycerides in both human and bovine milk (Isaacs et al 1991)33. Others (Isaacs et al 198632, 199053, 199133, 199463; Thormar et al 198762) have confirmed Kabara's original statements concerning the effectiveness of monolaurin.
Some of the viruses inactivated by these lipids are the measles virus, herpes simplex virus (HSV-1 and -2), herpes family members (HIV, hepatitis C, vesicular, stomatitis virus (VSV), visna virus, and cytomegalovirus (CMV). Many of the pathogenic organisms reported to be inactivated by these antimicrobial lipids are those known to be responsible for opportunistic infections in HIV -positive individuals. For example, concurrent infection with cytomegalovirus is recognized as a serious complication for HIV positive individuals (Macallan et al 199364).
Until now few nutritionists in mainstream nutrition community seem to have recognized the added benefit of antimicrobial lipids in the support of infected patients. These antimicrobial fatty acids and their derivatives are essentially nontoxic to man. According to the published research, lauric acid is one of the best "inactivating" fatty acids, and its monoglyceride is even more effective than the fatty acid alone (Kabara 19788, Sands et al 197940, Fletcher et al 198519, Kabara 198521).
Antibacterial Effects
The potentially pathogenic bacteria inactivated by monolaurin include Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus agalactiae, groups A, F and G streptococci, gram-positive organisms, and some gram- negative organisms if pretreated with a chelator (Boddie and Nickerson, 199236; Kabara, 19788, 198418; Isaacs et al., 199053, 199133, 199463; Isaacs and Schneidman, 199165; Isaacs and Thormar, 198632, 199152; Thormar et al., 198762; Wang and Johnson, 199234).
Decreased growth of Staphylococcus aureus and decreased production of toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 was shown with 150 mg monolaurin per litre (Holland et al., 199430). Monolaurin was shown to be 5,000 times more inhibitory against Listeria monocytogenes than is ethanol (Oh and Marshall, 199369). Helicobacter pylori was rapidly inactivated by medium-chain monoglycerides and lauric acid, and there appeared to be very little development of resistance of the organism to the bactericidal effects of these natural antimicrobials (Petschow et al., 199670).
A number of fungi, yeast, and protozoa are also inactivated or killed by monolaurin. The fungi include several species of ringworm (Isaacs et al 199133). The yeast reported to be affected is Candida albicans (Isaacs et al 199133). The protozoan parasite Giardia lamblia is killed by monoglycerides from hydrolyzed human milk (Hemell et al 198667, Reiner et al 198666, Crouch et al 199168, Isaacs et al 199133).
Chlamydia trachomatis is inactivated by monolaurin (Bergsson et al 199825). Hydrogels containing monocaprin/monolaurin are potent in vitro inactivators of sexually transmitted viruses such as HSV-2 and HIV- 1 and bacteria such as Neisserian gonorrhea (Thormar102-103).
Monolaurin does not appear to have an adverse effect on desirable gut bacteria, but rather on only potentially pathogenic microorganisms. For example, Isaacs et al (199133) reported no inactivation of the common Esherichiacoli or Salmonella enteritidis by monolaurin, but major inactivation of Hemophilus influenza,
Staphylococcus epidermis and Group B gram positive streptococcus.
The phenomenal rate of prescriptions dispensed for antibiotic use, and to a lesser extent, antiviral has grown exponentially in the past several decades. Antibiotic has limited specificity and generally does not recognize “good” bacteria (often referred to as probiotics or forlife) from “bad” bacteria (meaning those bacteria that may cause disease.) Antibiotics try to destroy all bacteria and are usually unsuccessful.
More antibiotic therapy may start perpetuating a chronic illness. The cycle of antibiotic therapy may go on for months and months, and repetitious indiscriminate use of antibiotics destroys weak bacteria and sets up the stage for the more virulent bacteria to survive (as in survival of the fittest). The new, stronger, pathogenic bacteria are now “resistant” to the established antibiotic and another antibiotic must be found to fight the new pathogen. We are rapidly approaching that point in history of having super bacteria: disease causing bacteria that are unaffected by any antibiotic. In its failure, antibiotic therapy has taken with it the health of those same individuals it strives to help.
The great advantage of lauric acid is that it does not produce resistant microorganisms during use. Not only does auric acid not produce resistance but also it is known to help resistant organisms from forming.
A group of researchers from the University of Minnesota led by P.M. Schlievert reported in the March 199294 issue of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy that monolaurin inhibited strains of strep and staph bacteria that cause toxic shock syndrome. Other researchers also studied effectiveness of monolaurin in this area.71-100 In similar research published in October 2007101, Filipino research wrote in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology that "sensitivity rates of Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus spp., and coagulase negative Staphylococcus, Gram-negative E. vulneris, Enterobacter spp., and Enterococcus spp. to 20 mg/mL monolaurin was 100 percent."
Most recently, Schlievert and his Minnesota colleagues demonstrated that monolaurin prevented acute simian immunodeficiency virus infection in female rhesus monkeys. The monolaurin worked by decreasing the expression of SIV toxins and reducing inflammation of vaginal walls. As the researchers wrote in Nature on April 23, 2009, their findings linking "interfering with innate host responses that recruit the target cells necessary to establish systemic infection, opens a promising new avenue for the development of effective interventions to block HIV-1 mucosal transmission."
Research continues104-124 in measuring the effects of the monoglycerin, monoglyceride derivative of capric acid, monocaprin, as well as the effects of lauric acid. Chlamydia trachomatis is inactivated by lauric acid, capric acid and monocaprin (Bergsson et al., 199825). Hydrogels containing monocaprin are potent in vitro inactivators of sexually transmitted viruses such as HSV-2 and HIV-1 and bacteria such as Neisseria gonorrhoeae (Thormar102- 103).
Research suggests that monolaurin offers some degree of immune support for the influenza virus and also for the following viruses, including, cytomegalovirus, according to the article and description of studies on using monolaurin to destroy viruses at: Monolaurin – A Natural Immune Boosting Powerhouse, Friday, October 31, 2008 - Byron J. Richards, CCN:
In studies performed at the Respiratory Virology Branch, Centers for Disease Control, Monolaurin was shown to remove all measurable infectivity against the following RNA and DNA viruses:
Viruses
HIV or HIV-1, -6 Visna virus
Herpes simplex virus-i (HSV-1 &2) Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV)
Measles virus Rubella virus
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) Respiratory syncytial virus Influenza virus Dengue virus (Type 1-4) Leukemia virus Cytomegalovirus (CMV)
Semliki forest virus Lymphocytic choriomeningitis
Human papilloma virus (HPV) Pneumovirus
Monolaurin has also been proven to deactivate the following in laboratory tests:
Bacteria
Gram-positive organisms Gram-negative organisms Bacillas anthracis (Anthrax) Chlamydia pneumonia Listeria monocytogenes Neisseria gonorrhoeae Staphylococcus aureus Helicobacter pylorus
Groups A, B, F & G streptococci Mycoplasma pneumonia Streptococcus agalactiae Vibrio parahaemolyticus Mycobacteria Clostridium perfringens
Yeasts, Fungi, and Molds Aspergillus Niger Malassezia, species Saccharomyces cerevisiae Penicillium citrinum Ringworm or tinea (Trichophyton) Candida utilis A number of protozoa like Giardia lamblia are also inactivated or killed by Lauric Acid.
