The Nitty Gritty: Research Part 1, Working with your vet

Robin waits for dinner back in the early days of home-cooked
food for her and her crystals. 

When you first start reading about raw (or home-cooked) feeding, it sounds either impossibly complicated, or suspiciously simple. Be wary of both tracks. And know that once you get going, once you settle into a system, it becomes so much easier. 

If you have a vet who isn't overly familiar with raw feeding, or who is opposed to it, be courteous and respectful. Vets went to school to care for animals. It's easy for us to just chalk up the food that they recommend to kick-backs or a lack of education. But I firmly believe that the overwhelming majority of vets only want what's best for our animals, and in the grand scheme of animal health, THEY KNOW MORE THAN WE DO. No, they do not get a large amount of diet or behavior training in school-- but that's largely a reflection, I think, of our current society that doesn't yet place a premium on the importance of diet and behavior. I do think that's changing. Whole Dog Journal wrote an article a while back about the research put into prescription foods-- it gave me a much rounder view of the big picture. And including our vets in this process makes it a learning experience for all of us-- which, regardless of outcome, can only be a good thing.

My point is, try to work with your vet and be honest about what you're doing-- whether it's raw or home-cooked feeding. My approach was to stress that this was something I wanted to try and that if I couldn't make it work, I would move to the Rx foods. I also promised to monitor the situation closely. In Robin's case, it was due to her urinary crystals. So I promised to monitor her urine pH and to have her urine tested regularly. One of the women who works in the vet's office has dubbed me The Best Urine Collecter in Town. I wear that badge proudly. 

We've also started monitoring River's blood work, and I will plan to check it annually. This is a good idea for senior dogs, anyway, but it also eases my mind that she's getting what she needs. 

The thing is, no one is really able to tell you how to do it "right," and so it comes down to learning as much as you can and then finding a method that works for you and your dogs-- or buying premade. This is probably a vet's number one complaint with raw; many people don't do the research or put in the effort, and so they wind up providing incomplete diets or risking their and their family's health by eschewing proper food hygiene practices. 

There's a misconception that dogs can't get salmonella or e. coli. It's true that their digestive tract was designed to be highly acidic and short-- to kill bacteria and move it through the body quickly. But too much bacteria, or a dog with a compromised immune system can be problematic. This is one of the things that we think may have been Andre's problem. He was sick when he came to us, had several surgeries over the course of 3 months, multiple rounds of antibiotics, antifungals and lots of stress-- all of which have an impact on the immune system of a dog. We'll know more through our food trials as to whether he's just finally over the hump and can tolerate raw bacterial loads now, or whether it was food specific.

But humans CAN obviously get salmonella easier than dogs. And the fact that we are all susceptible means that good hygiene practices are just as critical as they are when we cook for ourselves. Use a light bleach or vinegar solution on surfaces. I also use Method AntiBac sprays, which are a citric acid solution. I also have a sponge that is for the dogs' bowls only. And I wash their stainless steel bowls after every meal.

Assuring your vet that you understand these things and following through goes a long way, too.

So it's definitely more work than dumping kibble into a plastic tub just in a logistical sense. But we've found the payoff to be worth it. 

...unless you have a kitchen helper. And then it's, well...
even more complicated. :)

Dre's June Update

Just a quick update on the Big Man.

It's been about a month since we switched over fully to raw turkey Bravo!

At his skinniest, he was roughly 41lbs. He's about 23-24" at the withers, so that is tiny. He's now up to his highest weight yet, fulfilling his lifelong dream of being a 52lb lap dog.

We switched the kibble for his Kongs to Nature's Variety LID Turkey and Wellness Turkey for the wet food in his Kongs.

For crunchy biscuits, we've continued to feed the Natural Balance novel proteins-- duck or bison, usually. For moist treats we're using Wellness Pure Bites, turkey.

He still gets kelp. And we've added a digestive enzyme called In Clover Fresh Digest. This has been our go-to enzyme for years. It makes an immediate difference in stool quality.

Still haven't tried adding in omegas.

Since he's been very stable for over a month on this food, we're ready to start rocking the boat very soon. I'm trying to decide whether that should entail adding in omegas (either salmon oil or flax), or whether I should start trying other proteins. Beef will likely be next.

I would like to make sure that he has several proteins that we can rotate through so that he doesn't develop allergies or aversions to the only one he currently tolerates.

Right now, he gets the Bravo! original grinds-- these require a few supplements, which is why I add the kelp and would like to add salmon oil. But Bravo! does make a "complete" version of most of their foods. I need to investigate which proteins I can get this way locally.

Once I have 2 or 3 proteins that I know he can tolerate well and feel like he has comfortably stabilized, I'll start seeing how he does with chicken-- both higher and lower fat cuts.

Further reasons for raw

Sorry for the lapse here... I've been out of town and tied up in the preparations for going and the return to civilization upon coming home. Finally getting to the nitty gritty of what we actually do/did is coming up... in the meantime, I appear to have left off with our other reason for the switch to raw:

Luna
When we found Luna she was 4months old, or so. Her skin was in such bad shape that I thought she had mange; rather, she was just allergic to everything. Fleas, pollens, you-name-it. And we could never get a solid stool. She had worms, was skinny, had ear infections, and her flea bites ALWAYS turned into pustules and staph infections, so she was constantly on antibiotics. She has a Shar Pei horse coat, and topical flea treatments didn't work on her. Her nails were brittle. She was a hot mess.

Hard to see how patchy she is, but you can see how red and just "off" she looks.

But because we had no idea how big she would get, and I was new to raw, we decided to put her on kibble until she was done growing vertically. I might do things differently in future now that I know more, but I wanted to err on the side of caution.

With growing puppies, the conventional wisdom has always been to make sure that the calcium content of the food is appropriate so that they don't grow too quickly for their bodies to keep up with their bones. We tried premium foods with grains and could never get a solid stool. Upon removing grains, the change was immediate. Solid stool, weight gain. We were good to go. Her skin certainly improved, especially after adding coconut oil and salmon oils to her foods, but she, too, had a UTI and crystals, and her allergies just never quite settled down. She still got staph infections; Benadryl stopped working for her and we switched to Claritin.

When she was nearly a year old, we made the switch. And we haven't looked back. We have only had to treat for fleas a few times in the last few years; when she does get a flea bite, it's a bump, but it's not the end of the world. No drugs required.

People who normally are plagued by the Shar Pei coat comment on how she is the only Pei or Pei/mix that doesn't make them itch. She still makes me itch on occasion, but it's nothing like it was. She's no longer patchy. She remains trim, but healthy and muscular. She generally has solid stool. Her nails are far less brittle (she broke 3 or 4 over the course of about a year, all of which required vet treatment). She is happy, beautiful, and energetic.

When she went for her check-up earlier this year, I made sure I didn't need to put weight on her or anything. No, he told me she was perfect condition, don't change a thing. He said we know what we're doing, so keep doing it. :)

She still struggles with seasonal allergies, but they aren't nearly as problematic as they were.

River
A word on River. We'd initially hoped the change to raw would help with her anal glands, which were needing to be expressed more frequently than I'd have liked. Raw alone didn't help, but other dietary measures did.

That said, raw has decreased her shedding by quite a lot. And because she is now 8 or 9 years old, I went ahead and asked the vet to run blood work for her. And it looked great. :)