Raw Diet and thyroid: a pain in the neck?

We've had some ups and downs in Luna's Adventures in Hypothyroid... Some potentially related to her raw diet... A bit of a long lead up, but I'll get to the connection, I promise.

AS I think I've discussed here, Luna had developed some crazy behavior that we believed was linked to her low thyroid. It showed up mostly as fear of all sorts of things she was previously unafraid of-- the kitchen, the car, her harness, loud noises, the agility tunnels... You name it.

Once we got her on Soloxine (.4mg BID), those issues sort of melted away. Kitchen was no longer an issue, she harnessed up and rode in the car with no problems, and she became an agility superstar...

Protocol is generally to monitor the thyroid levels periodically, since they change as the dog gets older. We didn't do the full panel this time-- just an in-house SNAP test. And she tested just above normal. Not a LOT above normal, but enough that her vet wanted to see how she would do on the next dosage down (.3mg).

Within a couple of days, she seemed a little more skittish. Over the next few weeks, she didn't seem quite right, but I thought I was probably imagining it.

In the heat of this August, we bought a couple of sprinklers for the pups to play in out in the yard. Andre took to it right away. He loved it.

Luna stayed in the background barking. Finally, she decided to attack the sprinkler. It was pretty funny to watch. But her focus on the contraption was way too much. WAY too much. Too intense. Too obsessive. TOO. MUCH.

To make a long story less long, the intensity over the sprinkler was the last straw in a list of Very Exciting Things in Luna's day and it seems that she snapped. She and Robin got into quite a fight. Puncture wounds, a broken tooth, and hurt feelings. And keeping the two of them separated while we work on lots of classical conditioning and desensitization and allow everyone's hormones to reset.

And while we allow her thyroid medicine to kick back in. As many of you may know, a low threshold for aggressive behavior is one of the behavioral signs of low thyroid. The vet agreed to put her back on the higher dose, and as long as her behavior is ok and she's not losing weight, we're going to be happy with it, "Tests be damned," as he said.

And she is better. Much less fearful. Calmer. Happier.

So what does this have to do with her raw diet?

Well!

I started trying to figure out why her numbers were higher than they were the last time we tested over the winter.

One thing that might be contributing is the spirulina supplement. That has some iodine in it.
The other thing I came across was this study from the Journal of Small Animal Practice. Basically, this study looks at a number of cases of dogs who exhibited symptoms of HYPERthyroid and were fed a raw diet. Turns out, they received higher quantities of neck material-- beef gullets, etc.-- in their diet, which contained, in some cases, the thyroid itself, and almost unavoidably thyroid hormone and other material.

This winter, we pulled Luna off of chicken and began using turkey as her primary bone source. Necks are the cheapest and boniest cut for us. And they frequently get a mix of gullet and tripe. So she's received a lot of neck material lately.

So what does that mean???

Don't worry. It doesn't mean that we will be stopping the raw diet. And no it doesn't mean we're getting rid of necks altogether. And it also doesn't mean that this necessarily had anything to do with her higher numbers. She's a young dog. Frankly, she probably should run a little high.

But it is an EXCELLENT reminder to diversify the diet. We're adding in more turkey legs. I'm also researching sources for duck frames and rabbit backs. And we may revisit chicken for her. It was kind of a random stab at seeing if she's sensitive to chicken as one of her allergies. And I've increased the amount of plain tripe that I buy and less of the mix with gullet.

It's also a good reminder that adding supplements to a diet willy nilly has the potential to cause some unintended consequences. While iodine is really important, when you're trying to balance the thyroid medically, pharmacologically, adding things like additional iodine can skew all of that and put it higher than it needs to be. Alone, adding iodine wouldn't be enough for her. So she needs the soloxine. So it's possible that me adding the spirulina put her over the top. I am still giving it to her. I think its benefits are good ones. But if we still have trouble after diversifying the diet, I might rethink the spirulina at that time.

Is raw feeding THE cure-all?

Spoiler alert. Sorry to pee on your party; it's not.

If you've been doing any research into raw, you'll likely have read a number of miraculous accounts of dogs cured of disease, acting like puppies, cats who live forever, etc, ALL DUE TO A RAW DIET. Hell, I have my own seemingly miraculous tales of improved life through diet change.

Before...

AFTER!!

Here's the thing. Raw diet wasn't exactly the cure. It's more complicated than that...

In some cases, a raw diet means eliminating things that cause problems-- whether it's a grain or a protein or a preservative or a coloring agent. Raw isn't solving the problem so much as getting rid of the shit that's causing it.

In other cases, the raw diet, because it's healthier overall, is strengthening the body, supporting it and making it better able to cope with disease or illness. In some cases, parasites like fleas prefer broken skin. It's easier to penetrate. By making the skin healthier, we make it less desirable for fleas. But if you live somewhere that is flea infested, no amount of raw diet cures your problem. It may mean your dog is better able to recover from the flea bites or get fewer, but it's not solving the problem. It's HELPING, for sure, but it's not the only solution.

-----

Modern medicine, at some point, made a turn away from treating the whole being. Diet became a management tool to keep existing issues from getting worse-- issues that were sometimes caused or exacerbated by poor diet to begin with-- rather than a way to create a strong foundation for the body to avoid these issues in the first place.

In response to this, many people have gone entirely the other direction: complete mistrust of the modern medical machine and insistence that good diet cures all.

It seems to me that the smart thing to do is allow these things to work in tandem. Good diet can prevent disease, can help the body fight disease, and can provide support to perhaps minimize the need for medical intervention. No, our ancestors didn't have these things, wolves didn't take heartworm prevention-- they also died. They died sooner and sometimes more tragically.

Modern medicine has its place.

Yes, if the root cause of a dog's allergy is grain-- removing that grain from the picture is going to fix things. A raw diet will do that. Or maybe your dog is far too hyperactive. Removing carbs might fix that. Raw diet is great.

But what if your dog's allergy is hayfever? Yes, a raw diet may help reduce symptoms, make the body better able to cope with those symptoms. But it might not be enough. Maybe local honey will help. But again-- that's not always the right answer.

Sometimes supplementation is the key, sometimes medicine is the right answer. And a good diet will form the healthy foundation for those things to work better.

But please don't discount the right treatment at the right time for the sake of an ideology.

And don't believe everything you read on the internet.

Crunch time

It's crunch time around here in more ways than one...

This weekend, I've notice that our male kitty Chester Pete has not only gained a fair bit of weight, but he has also started limping again (he has thickening from osteoarthritis in one knee). He's already on a glucosamine supplement, but the years of crappy kibble and his voracious appetite have left him yet again overweight, in pain, and with a fairly poor coat quality.

So we have now, several years after beginning the journey, moved on to step 3 of the cats' transition to raw-- step 4 maybe? I don't know. First we got them on decent kibble, but that didn't last all that long. Then we got them on scheduled feedings, and my god that took some time. Five cats can be tough to feed all at once and individually when you have a couple who are picky pants and couple who will eat everybody's food all at once. Then we got them eating a mix of kibble and wet food.

Now we are moving to all wet food. Chester has made this transition pretty much immediately. However, because he's had a history of urinary crystals and a blockage, we will continue using the Health Meter litter in the litter box that he uses most often. Fingers crossed that we can someday make the switch totally to raw.

For the dogs, it is finally crunch time in a much more literal way. I bought a case of turkey necks and good god they're huge (and kind of obscene!). I ground about 1/4-1/3 of the case-- the grinder had a bit of a hard time. I had to frequently reverse it. But it did ok.

Then I took one giganto neck and took each dog outside individually and held it while they had a chance to gnaw on the thing. Everyone was thrilled. It took Andre a little while to figure out that he could chew it and not just lick it. And Luna was an absolute bitch when she came back inside, her resource guarding shit-headness coming out in full force-- a reminder of why they have to be fed separately and these chew times minded with caution. Then everyone had a boneless meal.

At any rate, I will be making a point of doing this once or twice a week for the teeth benefits and to give everyone some one-on-one time away from the others.

I've taken a round of "before" pics of everyone's teeth. None of them are horrible, but they all have some plaque and some redness at the gum line. And some have smellier breath than others. Here goes nothing.

Luna

River

Andre

Robin

An unexpected twist...

Yes, Luna Bird-- we're talking about you...

I'm learning a lot of lessons these days.

With Luna's persistent yeast issues, we started adding Animal Essentials Green Alternative. It has spirulina, nettle, garlic, and some other stuff that helps keep yeast in check. I think it has made her very soft, so I've started incorporating it in with the other dogs' food in place of some of the other supplements they get.

If you recall, Luna is also low thyroid. She takes .4mg of Soloxine twice a day. It has turned her around completely. She is muscly again, and all the inexplicable weird fears she had developed have melted away.

She went in this week to have a routine test of her thyroid levels. We opted to just do the in-house test since things have been going just fine, for the most part, and we'll do a full panel at Michigan State or at Hemopet if there are problems.

So I did what I'm supposed to do. I gave her a pill first thing this morning, fasted her, and took her in 5-6 hours after the dose for the blood draw.

And it was high. Her levels were high. Not just high-normal (which is what we want in a dog her age), but high.

So we've taken her dose down to .3 twice a day. The only thing I can think is that there's enough iodine in the spirulina to aid in thyroid function. We'll see. I really, really, really hope we don't backslide.

The supplement is literally the only difference I can think of. I pulled her off of kelp when we started using the Soloxine, even though Dr. Dodds (a canine thyroid expert) says it's ok if the dog is being fed a homemade diet.

In addition to all of this, I'm supposed to be getting a small bottle of Herbsmith's Clear AllerQi in the mail today to try for Luna's still itchy paws. I do believe I'll be double-checking all the herbs and how much they might contribute to thyroid function before I dive on in...

And last but not least, I think I've found a supplier for duck necks (and perhaps rabbit), so I'm hoping to add those to the mix, and maybe even try those for Luna instead of turkey.

Just need to choose one thing at a time so I'm not changing everything at once...

Rotten dogs and herbal remedies

Those two things don't really have to do with each other. I'm just annoyed slash pissed off slash worried sick about River. She raided the bathroom trash can this morning. She may have eaten some tampons (gross). Or maybe not. Too late to induce vomiting, so we shall see what, if anything, comes out the other end. She makes me want to pull out my hair. I'll spare you the photo.

So two things happened with her. One, she got an Adequan shot about 10 days ago, so it should still be going good in her system, and two, her Herbsmith Soothe Joints ran out late last week. I decided to just wait and see how she's feeling without it. It's cheap enough that I'll keep giving it to her if it works, but expensive enough that I don't want to feed it unnecessarily.

I've noticed some creakiness, less enthusiasm to come upstairs, and she seems to be holder her head down a little more than she was recently. So while she feels good enough to get into trouble, I think the Soothe Joints was helping her after all. I guess I will go ahead and spend the money on the big canister. 

I mentioned several posts back that some interesting things were going on with Robin.


First, I want to brag on her success. Robin is extremely fearful of strange people. After many years of counter-conditioning (using clicker training) and some agility for confidence classes, we had a gorgeous, successful walk at the park this week. With people! Pushing strollers!! And children!!! I'm so proud of her.

Now onto the less fun stuff. She had some strange bowel upset recently. Not sure what she got into, but it involved some bloody stool and vomiting, which are fairly unlike her.

When these things happen, we always go back to basics-- super bland meat and bone, in Robin's case, chicken. And good quality probiotics.

That seemed to do the trick.

I know I've discussed her ongoing problems with UTIs. I had recently noticed that she dripped on occasion, but it wasn't enough for me to move to using Proin. Proin is basically Dexatrim, so it's not exactly my first choice for her if I can figure out something else. I ended up doing nothing, as it was really just a few drips here and there.

I did notice, however, that the dripping was causing her to lick herself a LOT. I think this may be the cause for continued UTIs over the years. Switching to raw reduced the frequency, and it nearly eliminated the crystal issue. But her dripping became more persistent, until it was finally puddles.

Poor girl was finding herself in little puddles on the bed.

My old guy Simon had old age incontinence, possibly brought on by some neurological problems and spinal arthritis. But I used a number of natural herbs to help him-- a blend made by NaturVet (Senior Bladder Support) and things like saw palmetto and corn silk to encourage complete bladder emptying. These things worked very well for a long time.

Now, spay incontinence, which is likely what Robin's issue is, is a hormonal issue. But I figured these herbs were worth a shot. Some folks treat it with soy isoflavones, and the bladder blend I'm giving her currently includes soy (I ran out and couldn't pick up more right away).

Still, even before that addition, it worked. I haven't been dealing with puddles and the dripping is pretty nonexistent. it may be that she needs the prescription stuff some day, but the later we have to deal with that, the better.

Andre has just this week been introduced to plain pork. He's been eating hearts and organ for a while now, but I cleaned out the freezer and found some old freezer-burned chops that I'd bought for us and he seems to have handled it like a champ. Normally, I'd say that most grocery store pork is pumped full of sodium and so not appropriate, but this was not the entirety of his meals-- he got organs, heart and turkey necks, none of which are enhanced with sodium, so I figure it shakes out in the end. No one at my house reacts badly to a little extra salt, and so the occasional inclusion is ok for us. Not to mention, I hate to see meat go to waste. I'll use it whenever I can!

And on that note, now that agility is over for Luna (did I mention she's a freakin' ROCK STAR???) Robin and Luna are turning their attention to the World Cup semis this afternoon. Who are you rooting for?

 

Supplement updates, etc.

Not much to report on Dre these days (thankfully...). Appetite is as, erm... voracious as ever.

Biggest problem we have right now is that he's discovered the plum trees and wants to eat them all. Thankfully he doesn't crunch the pits (inside is where the toxins are), but unsurprisingly they agitate his system, so he's being closely monitored.

As for River's hip, we have been continuing Adequan and she has been on the Herbsmith for several weeks now. And I do think it's helping her. I'm ready to dive into a big bulk canister of the stuff now. And once she runs out of Glycoflex, we may try Herbsmith's glucosamine supplement.

She is springy and spry and spending much more time upstairs with us.

Luna's yeasty paws seem to be continuing to do well with the spirulina and no chicken; I've faded out the Zyrtec for her and for Robin, so we will see how that goes.

Onward and upward.

What do you do with a hinky hip?

People always ask me how old River is. She's somewhere between 9 and 10. She was an owner surrender in April of 2009, and her age was listed as 4.

She's still excitable and feisty when we go out, and she doesn't have her grey face yet-- just a slight peppering of white hairs on her muzzle that you can see if you look very closely. She's still silly and pretty and giving us all hell. It is her life's work.

But we've noticed some slowing down. Some excess shedding. Some pain. She goes up the stairs quickly, but with a hop, and comes down a little cock-eyed. So we started the Adequan a few months ago, and I think it's helping her. 

We noticed yesterday that she cried much of the way down the stairs, though. I noticed a lot of resistance when I tried to manipulate one of her rear legs. So off to the vet we went. 

We did the first set of xrays that she's had in a couple of years. And this time, there was some arthritis visible in her hips and knees. It clearly hurt her to flex the hip for xray, so we didn't opt to take a second film that would show a little more. 

I had already been considering trying out Herbsmith's Soothe Joint as extra support to add to the glucosamine. It's a Traditional Chinese Medicine herbal blend. I jokingly mentioned to the vet that I know I'm a fruitloop, but I'm thinking of trying it out. She did not laugh. 

In fact, she told me about some success she has been having with her own ailments using a Chinese herb in tea form. And then she asked me how I felt about NSAIDs instead of just prescribing them and moving on. It made me really appreciate the relationship we've developed with our vets-- particularly this vet who seemed the most skeptical of our move to raw to help Robin's crystals. 

So River currently takes Glycoflex III, but I think Dasuquin works a bit better, and so when we run out of the Glycoflex, we'll switch back. She gets salmon oil, so we'll boost that and carry on. I have the Rimadyl on hand for rough days, as needed, but we'll likely look for a gentler solution. And she's really not going to like this one... I really think I need to reduce her food just a bit again. 

But she WILL like this one: we'll need to take more walks to work off this last 5lbs that she needs to lose. 

In the meantime, Andre continues to do well with beef, turkey and pork at home. He and Luna switched to an all-in-one probiotic/enzyme powder.

And Luna's nails are growing back yeast-free. We have put her on Animal Essentials Green Alternative, and so far so good. Her skin and coat look better, too. I think this is taking the place of her kelp nicely.

And a few interesting things going on with Robin, but I'll address those in a separate post. :)

New Ailments and Updates

That's perhaps a bit misleading. These aren't new ailments. More like a new perspective on existing ailments.

But first, the good news. Andre has been successfully moved to a homemade diet of ground turkey necks and legs, beef heart, beef tripe, beef trim, pork heart, and a variety of pork and beef organs. It takes the cost down from $3/lb for premade to more like $1.65/lb. I can live with that. Huzzah!

The only thing I've seen is a few lbs lost, but I think that's due more to the summer burn. We've upped his rations by a couple of ounces.

But this little nugget. This is my itchy girl.

Such a big day. Scratching is exhausting.

Her itchiness is miles better than it was when we found her a few years ago. We've had her on benadryl, then claritin, and now zyrtec. We've removed chicken from her diet, and the itchiness seemed to improve a tiny bit. She stays pretty well grain free (save the odd treat from the people in the drive thru).

About 6 months ago, she was diagnosed with a low thyroid. Twice daily Soloxine has done a lot for her. Her whole attitude and demeanor have improved. Her fur feels better. Her muscle tone has returned after she had become fairly suddenly flabby.

But she still licks her feet. Because of the thyroid, I give very little kelp, which I think was previously helping her allergies. And recently, her left rear paw has had a lot of cracked and split nails. Like all of them. She tore a paw pad on her front right foot. And was stung by something on her front left foot. And we just got back to agility, so the timing COULDN'T BE BETTER.

And she's had some itchy ears lately, as well.

We discussed all this with her vet. He felt like her rear paw definitely had a major overgrowth of yeast, and possibly a bacterial infection, and that this was likely making her nails brittle. Makes perfect sense. We are currently treating the infections.

Now, I had always assumed these were allergies. But something in the back of my mind popped up and I recalled reading that hypothyroid dogs frequently have chronic and/or systemic yeast infections as a symptom.

Maybe... just maybe this is what we've had all along. Not allergies per se, but overgrowth of yeast due to low thyroid. It's improved, not because we removed chicken, but because her hormones are leveling out finally. But it's systemic and I've pared her diet down so much that her body's flora just isn't balancing.

So we are on a major gut flora refresh. She'll complete the antibiotic treatment and antifungal treatment. Meanwhile, I'll continue her on probiotics, increase the amount and frequency of kefir, and add in some other things that are known combatants of yeast or are immune supporters: coconut oil (we started slacking on this one), spirulina (since we do very little kelp), nettle, MSM. I'll be trying out Animal Essentials Green Alternative, which contains several of those herbs. And we are tapering off the zyrtec.

Then maybe I'll begin reintroducing chicken.

Anyway, fingers crossed. Puts a whole new spin on her itchies.

Kefir Success!

Of course, I walk into my local Walmart Neighborhood Market the other day and what do I see? Plain kefir. Same brand I bought at the natural foods co-op. And after my struggles getting it started, the premade bottle looked tempting. However, a small bottle (a quart maybe?) cost almost five dollars, while a half gallon of organic, non-ultra pasteurized milk cost about $3.50. It's worth keeping on...

And then... Finally!!

Two days in a row. Perfect, beautiful, creamy NOT FIZZY kefir.

So what did I change? I used the very minimum amount of milk. Put it in the cabinet at night; and in the morning, I give it a swish and put it in the water heater closet. I take it out in the evening and look. LOOK!

It's gorgeous. And it's pretty firm:

But a little swish loosens it up. It's thick, but not separated.

And it strained very, very easily. 

Whew! Two days in a row. Hopefully this keeps up. I'd imagine that as the grains grow and mature and as the weather warms up, I won't have to move it to the closet. But until then, this is perfect. 

I have totally replaced Andre's store-bought probiotics with this, and we'll see how he does. It's cheap and easy if it continues to be successful.

I'm sold. 

Milk soda

Sodastream missed the boat on this one.

I think I've reached the point with the kefir where it's working and it's safe to eat. And it doesn't taste bad...

But it's really fizzy. It's weird. I know that some people like this and aim for fizzy by using a tight lid. 

I am not aiming for fizzy.

So I guess the long and short here is that the struggle to negotiate proper temperature, time, and quantity continues.

And I wish I'd put the grains in a muslin bag to start with instead of straining them from the kefir. But I digress...

The Kefir Kraze

Keh-fur, kee-fur, kuh-fear... I've yet to figure out exactly how it's pronounced (I'm pretty sure it's the last one...? ). Regardless, it's awesome stuff.

It is also a total mystery to me. And I have been making my own yogurt for years, not counting all the years we made it while I was growing up. I am not new to fermenting milk. This is just a different beast...

I bought some dried milk kefir grains. They were packed in powdered milk. So my first task has been to rehydrate and prepare the grains for use. This is supposed to take a week or so.

I added a cup of cold whole milk, per instructions, covered it with a coffee filter, and set it in the water heater closet. It's cold in our kitchen.

Twenty-four hours later, I strained it (in a non-reactive strainer), put the grains in a fresh jar and added more milk. All was going according to plan.

Well... Next day I pulled out the jar, and it had completely separated into curds and whey. Smelled sour and yeasty (which it's supposed to at this stage), but it's not supposed to be like this. I had to stir it all together and strain it about a hundred times, adding a little fresh milk, before I could separate out the grains.

Thought maybe it was too warm. Put it in the cabinet with the dishes, but it still separated quite a bit. So I thought maybe the grains are growing faster than expected and need more milk. That seems to have helped. The last time I changed it out, it had a layer of yeasty foam and was smelling cleaner. Less separation. Hopefully, we're almost there...

Will continue to update as we go...

The chart explained

This may end up becoming multiple posts, but here goes...

Here it is; I'm told that Victor may be closer to $38/bag at our local farmer's co-op. I'm going to try to go there tomorrow to get some more info on my lunch break. The previous post shows the text that accompanied the chart on Facebook. (ETA-- just went back and saw that it's around $38 WITH TAX. All the chart prices are before tax, so the Victor price should still be about right.)

I'm asked general dog questions all the time, particularly about food. And let's be real. Feeding raw the convenient way isn't even close to being affordable for most people; and making it themselves isn't really in the cards for most others. It's still is daunting and can be time consuming-- if you're not prepping the ingredients and processing meat, you're tracking down deals. It can be costly if you can't buy in bulk or find good deals. And it's just not for the squeamish or the busy. 

Back when we used to feed kibble as their sole diet, I wanted to get the. Very best food we could afford, and we couldn't afford much. But we also had a variety of dietary needs, etc. 

And I am OCD in a very real way. I wanted to know if the better foods really were cheaper than they looked, which we could best afford... And so I did all these calculations scribbled on legal pads. I did this for the cats, too. I loaned my scribbles to people looking for new foods, I lost them. I did them over...

I've got a lot of friends recently with new dogs, so I thought now would be a great time to formalize that chart. 

The long and short is, high quality foods may cost more per bag or per pound, but that's not the whole story. 

I had to make a number of informed assumptions to create the chart

First, I used the feeding guidelines as recommended by the manufacturer. It's important to know that these are frequently inflated. But I wanted to use the conditions that the average owner would be using, and I'm not really interested in making the decision about how many calories a 25 or 50lb dog needs. 

In calculating cups per bag, I used the kcal/kg or grams/cup compared to calories per cup to determine this. So if a 30lb bag of food has 4000 calories per kg, and 400 calories per cup:

30lbs = 13.64kg (@2.2lbs/kg)

13.64kg x 4000 = 54,560 calories per bag

54,560 / 400 calories per cup = 136.4 cups per bag

Make sense?

The problem here is that you're moving from weight to volume to measure mass, so it can't be accurate. A pound of gravel takes up more volume than a pound of sand. And each measuring cup, even if it measures 8floz like every other one cup measure, the variations in shape are going to garner different mass. 

So, I cannot promise that there are exactly that many cups and it will cost exactly that much per day, etc. But I don't think it negates the overarching point: that "expensive food" isn't necessarily expensive.

These foods are representative. Remember that each of these brands has numerous flavors and varieties, and each one is not the same-- not the same caloric content, not the same price per day, not the same ingredients. But, again, they represent options.

Some are owned by big companies. When I say that they have been recalled, know that it's not necessarily that flavor, but rather that variety; I've done my best to find the correct info here-- please let me know if I'm wrong-- however, these are huge companies and some have had huge recalls.

Take the recalls with a grain of salt. Salmonella, as I think I've talked about before, isn't so scary for dogs, more so for people (so wash your hands!). I'm usually more concerned with how the company handles a issue like that. I'll let you research those yourself for now.

You get what you pay for, but not always. My choice of foods here was meant to represent some mid-range grocery brands, what we've traditionally thought of as "good, fancy" food, and an affordable range of more holistic foods (grain free and inclusive), and there's a wide spectrum of cost across the board. 

Victor is one of the cheaper foods; but it's ingredients are solid and certain varieties boast that they are GMO free with American sourced proteins. They are a family-owned company, as is Merrick; Whole Earth Farms (made by Merrick) is USA made with no Chinese-sourced products. But Blue Buffalo is one of the most expensive. It's good food, but of those three, which has the most familiar name? Blue spends a lot on advertising, whereas the others don't.

On the other hand, the 1-3 star foods have a lot of cheap fillers, but they spend even more on advertising than Blue. Who do you think is spending more on quality ingredients?

The returns go beyond your pocketbook. Dogs eating more nutritious food eat less and utilize more-- meaning smaller poops. Ingredients that they can handle better means less body odor, fewer allergies, less itching, fewer staph infections-- the potential for fewer and lower vet bills over time. 

Healthier, happier dogs.

And every dog is an individual. Each  of the 4-5 star foods are good foods, but each is different. Some may tolerate certain brands and varieties better than others, so if one doesn't work for your dog, don't give up. It doesn't mean it's bad food, and it doesn't mean holistic or natural foods are BS. 

This isn't exhaustive, it's not complete-- it will always be in flux. I will add to and adjust as new information comes in or as new foods crop up.

I hope it's a start...

Dog Food Costs

If you found your way here via my dog food chart... bear with me. I have a lot to say about it. :)

But not a lot of time right this minute...

So here it is again with my commentary from the Facebook post, and I will elaborate and update (I was off on my Victor costs per bag by a couple bucks) this evening or tomorrow, so check back then!

This list is something I will build upon over time, and that I will adjust as I get new info. Please feel free to share, tag, ask questions and send suggestions for future versions... This isn't at all to judge-- not every dog will do well on every food-- it's just to provide some info. Many people think feeding a quality dog food needs to be expensive. But if you know where to look and HOW to look, you'll see it doesn't have to be. I plan to write in much greater detail tonight when I have the time. But here are a few take-aways.

Feeding higher quality food (and the right food for YOUR individual dog) can potentially save on long term health care costs; the poop factor cannot be stressed enough (so much smaller); less gas; fewer allergies; less doggie "smell"; more *quality* energy-- a healthier, happier dog.

The last 3 columns are where the data is all culminated-- everything before it is showing my work.  You can feed a 4-5 star food for pennies more per month than what VERY popular one star foods cost, and in fact for less than some of the 2.5-3 star foods. Feeding these foods to a 25-50lb dog will cost you dollars per YEAR. It's really not much at all over time, even though the up front cost looks bad.

These are simply representative samples, and some other flavors in the same lines will cost more or less. I used grain free and grain inclusive varieties. I tried to choose foods that are easy to find locally or online with free shipping. I used the NON-SALE prices for everything, and used the kcal/kg info from each company to calculate cups per bag. So you can see, there are likely ways of getting most of these cheaper.

As for the popular brands listed, I chose popular "mid-range" grocery store brands as well as what we've traditionally thought of as the "good stuff."

I also used the recommended daily amounts provided by each company, which are frankly notoriously high as a general rule of thumb.

And a word on recalls. Salmonella is FAR more scary for people than for animals, so honestly the salmonella itself doesn't scare me. I am more concerned by the way a company handles it. And the brands owned by huge companies are hard to really report on with regards to recalls since they are so huge... 

Zombie Wednesday

And I will be its mascot.

He was doing so well. I think Andre even let me sleep past 6  Monday morning.

I had scaled back is homemade food-- 6oz/ Bravo and 4oz/ homemade and we added kefir back in on Friday. He was getting much better and letting me sleep later and later. I increased the homemade portion of his meals yesterday by one ounce. ONE OUNCE. Surely that's not the cause of him waking me up every 15-30 minutes starting at around 1:45, after a midnight potty break. Surely that's not it... Right? Ugh. He got play time yesterday. He was crated for a while, but this has never been an issue.

I can only see two ways that the food change might be the cause. One is that it's upsetting his stomach and it's making him antsy. That's not unheard of for him.

The other reason might be the fact that my homemade blend is basically very, very low carb. I add a spoon of pumpkin but that's it. Bravo has quite a bit of veggies. Perhaps he will need less of the homemade once he's totally transitioned. Too much energy from too much food? Is that crazy?

I'm gonna power through. Keep trying the homemade at 5 ounces. Maybe reduce the amount of Bravo so he's getting fewer calories overall.

Lord I'm tired. It's gonna be another loooong day.

Back to the grind

Last night I got back to the grinder.

I chopped up 30lbs of pork hearts (which usually just means splitting them in half) and skinned 5lbs of leg quarters with my new poultry shears from Oxo. I don't think I like the a s much as the Henckels, but if they last longer, then I really can't complain. 

Anyway, prep, grind, packing, labeling, and cleaning the grinder took around an hour and a half. I'm thrilled.

This was the first foray into bones for this machine. Here is the first leg quarter I sent down the chute. All I did was skin it and drop it in. It was glorious.

With my STX, I had to cut a quarter into 3-5 pieces. The only cutting I did on any of these quarters was a notch in between the back and bottom of the thigh on some of them, otherwise, the larger backs got stuck perpendicular at the mouth of the chute. 

So why, you ask, was my hand covering up the output? Let me tell you. When I watched videos of other people using these grinders, they all had their kitchens covered in plastic. I could not figure out what that was about. I've been grinding with my middle of the road grinder for years and I've never needed to plasticize the room.

Yesterday I learned. This thing has so much power, if the meat isn't sufficiently cold (read: almost frozen) or if it backs up and then catches up with itself, it shoots meat out in a most impressive arc. Can you see the splatter on the wall of my bucket?

Now see where River is standing? She's standing there because that's how far it sprayed. She was obviously more than happy to assist with clean-up.

Regardless, I am beyond happy with this thing. The real test will be when I finally do the 40lbs of thighs that are in the freezer.... As it is, I'm running out of containers.

Senior Day at the homestead

Today, since I am off work, I finally had time to take Chester in for some blood work. Before I make such a radical diet change, I wanted to be sure that he didn't have any chronic illness that might need to be dealt with delicately in terms of his diet-- things like kidney or liver disease, or diabetes. He is 10 or 11 years old, which isn't exactly geriatric for a cat, but it's certainly a point where it's a good idea to be aware of common chronic illness and to have a baseline against which to compare future tests. 

The vet did agree that he had some muscle loss in the back end, and he has lost weight, despite still looking huge. And as I mentioned a few days ago, his coat is greasy, coarse and thin. 

He was less than happy about the blood draw, but he hung in there. 

And everything looked perfect. We decided to hold off on a thyroid panel for now, and instead we will try increasing his protein--moisture rich protein, meaning an all canned, low-carb or carb-free, diet, or raw. This vet is newer at the clinic, but she didn't give me any grief about the diet change. 

I will still be monitoring his urine pH using the color-change litter as we move forward.

Now on the canine side of the family, River has been mopey lately. She's seemed uncomfortable, reluctant to come up the stairs or to jump on the bed; she's been clingy and needy. Her coat is a bit dry and dandruffy. She has some arthritis in a front leg, and she has some scar tissue from a puncture wound on her hip, so she already gets high dose glucosamine  and chondroitin, MSM, and salmon oil. 

For River, we discussed potential thyroid problems (she also has a hard time losing weight), and possible increased pain from the arthritis. We have decided to hold off on the thyroid panel for her, as well, and will opt to ramp up arthritis treatment with Adequan injections. Adequan is similar to glucosamine, as I understand it; it is another building block for joint health. You do a 2week, 4 injection loading dose, and follow with, usually, once monthly injections thereafter. 

When our old man, a lab mix Simon, took these treatments, it was miraculous. He would begin the day unable to stand in one place long enough to eat breakfast, and end it running to greet me at the door. He began by getting the shots every 6-8 weeks, but eventually took them every 2 weeks. I feel that they were the single most important piece of his treatment puzzle and helped him live happily to 16 years old. Tramadol (Ultram) was the second most important. Neither of those treatments have many side effects. Simon had some nausea with the Adequan and some constipation with the Tramadol, but those were short-lived and worth the benefits. Since Tramadol is, despite it's safety, still a synthetic narcotic, I'm starting with the nutraceutical before the pharmaceutical. 

So far, it looks like River is having some nausea, maybe, but she still enjoyed her outing with me this morning. So she gets to rest all afternoon. She's earned it. It's sort of strange for me, though. I still think of her as our young, Emo, drama queen pup. She's also 9 or 10, and her body is telling me that she's older than I want to believe she is. So here's hoping we're starting these interventions early enough. It's one regret I had with Simon-- that I waited too long to give him the quality of life he could have enjoyed sooner. You live and learn, though. And that's what we're doing.

When sleeping dogs won't lie...

Honestly.

This damn dog. Sleeping peacefully now...

Wasn't so serene at 2:20 this morning. Or 3. Or at 4:20.

He finally wore me down sometime after 4:30.

I don't know if it's the diet change, or the fact that we've been busier lately, or if he's just decided that snuggled up by himself on the couch with me is the place to be. I don't know. But who could say no to this face?

Actually, me. I can. It's the non-stop licking, mouthing and jumping on my face that I can't say no to.

All I know is I will need extra coffee, and it's going to be a long day.

Speaking of diet change, we made a pretty swift jump from Bravo to half turkey thighs, beef hearts, and beef kidneys. He's been getting about 2/3 homemade, and a few ounces of Bravo.

However, he's a wild child lately; he's taking FOREVER to decide to poop in the mornings or evenings. And he seems more interested in the other dogs' poop lately.

I'm hoping this is a combination of our busy schedule, less filler (so less voluminous and less frequent poop), and a slightly too swift transition. I'm going to back up and move a bit slower. Plus, I have 30lbs of pork hearts to contend with this weekend, 10lbs of pork liver, some beef liver... A whole lot.

On top of all this, we've put Luna on a chicken-less diet, as well, to see if her allergies ease up. She was on the lamb Taste of the Wild as a puppy, but has had chicken in her diet ever since. Here's hoping...

Woman Meets Machine

Oh yes. The Weston #22. I ordered it.

And it arrived. All 66lbs of it. It weighs more than Dre, who is modeling it for you here.

Today, I finally took it for an light first run.

I spent around 15-20 minutes quartering some beef hearts (15lbs), kidneys (6lbs), a tongue (2lbs) and a pork sirloin (2lbs).

Here's the hearts. I won't play the entire video, but you can see how quickly it works.

That amount of food took me less than 10 minutes. LESS THAN 10 MINUTES.

Then the cleanup. It was glorious. Roughly 15 minutes, and that will get quicker over time.

Hardly anything left on the auger, though a thin film of suet was evident.

I am totally in love. I'll run some bones through it soon. So quiet. So simple.

So glorious.

Kitty Konfession

This morning, I am curled up on the couch as I am every morning, drinking my coffee. And since it's the weekend-- the last weekend day before I go back to work after the holidays-- the black dogs have toy time... And Chester Pete is perched up here on the couch with me.

And here is where I make my confession. 

My cats eat crap. There. I said it. They eat crap. 

Years ago, I got them to eat good dry kibble. Grain free, high protein, and high calorie. But somewhere along the line, Big Pete here became overweight and developed osteoarthritis in one of his knees. And he's not that old. So we put everyone on scheduled feelings, which meant adding canned food to entice eating in one sitting. That took a long time. And the only canned food that they loved was Soulistics, which is basically Weruva rebranded for Petco. Unfortunately, it's high in fish. 

Back then, I didn't know anything about struvite crystals. In dogs, they are primarily a result of a urinary tract infection; in cats, it's much more tied to diet (tuna=bad) and other factors that increase the likelihood of having them. Like being overweight. 

One day, my chow hound Chester stopped eating. Just stopped. I don't know what made me think to do this, but I locked him in a room by himself with a litter box and food. I enticed him to drink some water (by adding broth) and after a while, I realized he wasn't peeing. He would sit in the box and nothing would happen.

So off to the vet we went. Where I found out that crystals in male cats are serious business. His urinary tract had completely blocked and he was backing up. They put in a catheter, flushed his bladder, dislodged the crystals and mucus, and sent him home with an open catheter and special food. 

Let me say that again. An open. catheter. 

He was dripping bloody pee for a full week, on a steady drip. He ate crystal dissolving food and then went onto a maintenance prescription food. I read a lot of info about raw and while I felt in my head it would be the best thing for him, my nervous temperament doesn't want to rock the boat on a life threatening condition. 

Then 2 of the other cats (females) developed crystals, so we switched them to the Rx food and added Fancy Feast classic food. It's surprisingly, basically, grain free, low carb, high protein, high calorie. We tried every single other good food with no luck. And then my picky allergy grazer Birdie went on strike. We'd kept her on high quality kibble since she did so much better on it, but she stopped wanting it. So she now gets Royal Canin sensitive stomach formula and Fancy Feast. Her coat isn't nice, but she's not throwing up.

Eventually, I became of the opinion that the stress of trying to force them to eat "good" food was worse for them than the bad food. And I'm still of that opinion. 

So that brings me back to today. Chester is sitting here with me, and I'm petting him. He's still overweight, though less than he used to be. Thing is, I feed him as little as I can. And he's fat, but I can feel his backbone. He had an arthritis flare up a while back. His coat is greasy and coarse at the same time. He's losing muscle mass, retaining fat, and not gettingt he right nutrition for his coat. I won't go into how crappy the ingredients of that dry food is, but 

I think it's time. He's only 11-- our oldest cat is 17or 18. Monitoring urine is more difficult with cats, but they make the special litter for that. I can isolate him with that litter periodically to check. 

Today, I order the good grinder. I'll go back to the catinfo.org website and revisit the needs for cats, as they are different and more restrictive. I won't push it if they get stressed. Or if I get too stressed. 

They're all eating and doing well, so I hate to screw that up. But it's time. 

New year, new foods

In looking back on 2013 and forward to 2014, one thing is clear. Andre has been very adventurous.

No, he didn't get any New Year's Day mimosas. Or cinnamon rolls. Or coffee.

But he did try a lot of new foods, some were good, some were bad. We've detailed most of the bad here. But we've had some successes lately.

He got to have a bite of duck on Christmas day.

The big guy handled turkey necks with drumstick meat very well. So we tried Texas Tripe's turkey/pork blend (ground drumsticks with pork hearts and liver), and after an initial disappointment, we tried transitioning very slowly, and adding veggies (but not too many) to better mimic what Bravo does.

And since that was a success, we tried a beef organ blend from Texas Tripe. Beef liver, spleen, kidney... maybe some other stuff? He has had an ounce of that with each meal for 4 days. All good.

This morning, we started plain ground beef. Grain-fed, but local and otherwise antibiotic/hormone free. So we are starting with 1-1.5 ounces per meal and we'll go for 3-4 days before increasing the amount. Here's hoping!

Apparently, at some point, he ate a plastic bag. It was my super surprise on New Year's Eve. Happy new year to me.

We also added better probiotics-- Jarrow's Pet Dopholus.

All in all, Andre has been with us a little over a year now. He's had 3 surgeries, been through countless foods and supplements. But we ultimately found things that work and he has gained a whopping 20 lbs. FINALLY. He's huge.

So let's do this, 2014. I have high hopes for variety in Andre's future.