Why I Chose Nordic Naturals Fish Oil for Honey

Honey is a yellow Labrador mix I adopted from the county shelter eight years ago, and she turned ten this spring. Somewhere around January I noticed she was taking the three back porch steps one at a time, and she had started hesitating before she jumped into the back seat of my car. I did what I always do first. I bought the least expensive thing on the shelf.

That was a soft chew, and she ate them happily for about four months. I saw a small change at best, which is exactly what sent me to our vet in early June. She looked at Honey and said early arthritis in both hips, mild in the left elbow, and then she wrote two things on a slip of paper. One was a chewable tablet. The other was a fish oil, and it was Nordic Naturals Omega-3 Pet.

I want to be plain about why I am writing this. Not because anything about that bottle is dramatic. Because I am sixty-seven, I live alone, I keep a notebook, and I read labels the way I used to read reviews of children's books before I bought them for the library. When our vet named a brand and I went to look it up, I found thousands of reviews and no clear answer to the things I actually wanted to know.

What I could not find in all that reading was the plain version. Does the label say what is in it. Does the dog eat it. Does it have to be kept cold. So I am answering those three questions here, and the short answer is yes, yes, and yes.

The first thing I did was turn the bottle around. Nordic Naturals lists 1380 mg of omega-3 fish oil per serving, with EPA and DHA, in liquid form, and it is unflavored. The label says the oil is in the triglyceride molecular form, which the company describes as the form naturally found in fish. It also says non-GMO, gluten free, dairy free, and no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. Eight ounces, which is 237 ml.

That is the whole of it. There is no clever angle in the fine print, and I have come to think that is the point. A librarian's first instinct is to check whether the sentence on the front matches the small print on the back, and here it did.

Our vet named one brand. I did not go shopping for a better story than the one she gave me.

Now the practical part, because practical is what I cared about. It is a liquid, so there is nothing to hide in a slice of cheese and nothing to negotiate over. I pour it over Honey's dinner kibble, per the label for her weight, and our vet agreed with that. She eats it without fuss, and she is a dog with opinions who will walk away from a bowl she does not care for.

It lives in the refrigerator door, since the bottle is opened and used every day. At one small serving a day the eight ounce bottle lasts a good while. I will not tell you it is tidy. Oil on kibble is oil on kibble. But it takes about ten seconds and it is the easiest thing in her whole routine.

Here is the honest part, and I have thought about how to say it. I cannot separate the fish oil from the tablet. We started Nordic Naturals the same week our vet started the Cosequin, on her advice, so anything I say about joints is a guess about which one did what. The first clear change came around six weeks in, late July. Fewer stiff first steps after her naps. Smoother on the porch steps, though on a cold morning she still takes them one at a time.

What I can credit to the oil by itself is her coat. It is softer than it was in the spring, and it carries a shine I noticed before I noticed anything else. The label lists coat, eyes, heart and immune support among the benefits. I can speak to the coat. I cannot speak to the rest of that list and I will not pretend to. She is also still waiting sometimes for my hand under her hips to get into the back seat on a cold morning, and I would rather tell you that than sell you something.

One more note on the label. It lists medium breed size, and Honey is about seventy pounds. Our vet set the amount and I follow the label for her weight. That is the only dosing advice I am qualified to give, and it is this: ask your vet, then read the bottle, and do not take a number off the internet, including from me.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

I would tell you that Honey is better, not cured, and those are two different words that people blur. I would tell you a fish oil is not a painkiller and it will not fix a bad hip, so if your dog is limping, get the diagnosis first. Ours came in June and it changed everything, including which bottle came home with me. I would tell you that the Nordic Naturals bottle is the one thing in her day I never have to argue with her about, and with a ten-year-old dog who has opinions, that is worth more than it sounds. And I would tell you to keep the notebook. Write down what you started and when you started it. In six weeks you will not remember, and you will very much want to know.