Fish Oil vs. Salmon Oil

[Kaymbsc]

I read somewhere on here that Salmon Oil is a good supplement for CKD dogs.

So I purchased Wild Alaskan Salmon Oil from Petco:
http://www.petco.com/N_4294964886/Wild-Alaskan.aspx?CoreCat=SBB

The human-grade fish oil capsules I have say they have been "Purified to Eliminate Mercury, PCBs & Dioxins":
http://goo.gl/DuCSgb

I'm concerned about mercury, PCBs and dioxins in the salmon oil because there's no mention of removing those toxins.

Comments anyone?

Thank you,

Kay

[Kaymbsc]

Thanks, Tony! You went above and beyond to explain all that, and I greatly appreciate the information!

[tonyb286]

Hi. It is very interesting you should bring this subject up, because one of the typical promotional statements made by human-grade health supplement manufacturers is that their particular product has "had all mercury removed". My opinion is, this is scare-tactics, with little if any foundation in fact.

Various studies have tested a variety of pure salmon oil health supplement products, and none of them found any mercury at all. While there are miniscule amounts of mercury in some pure salmon oils, a study at the Harvard Medical School that was published in the December 2003 issue of "Pathology & Laboratory Medicine", says pure salmon oil contains less mercury than there is in the fish itself. This means that any dog that eats fish as part of its diet is receiving higher amounts of mercury than a dog that has salmon oil as a supplement. The conclusion from this study stated that the amount of mercury in pure salmon oil is negligible - which makes it irrelevant.

Plychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are another interesting trace element. PCBs are toxic - so of course, companies are able to promote their product being free of this toxin and make people think they are getting something safe. The truth is, PCBs are everywhere. They are in the soil, the air we breathe and almost everything we eat. They are of course in such small amounts, that it is inconsequential. The same is true for pure salmon oil. Yes, there may well be some PCBs in it, but they are trace elements and unimportant in the volume of oil actually being given.

I could now go on about Dioxins ... but I think you are probably getting the picture. Don't believe everything you read ... or should I say, read between the lines, if you can. Ha.

Tony