Going raw

The other two reasons for switching to raw, and the real tipping points, came in the form of out pit bulls-- Robin, our APBT rescue, and Luna, a pit/shar pei mix (best guess).

Robin
Not long after we found Robin, she had a series of urinary tract infections with struvite crystals.

We knew a bit about struvites because our cats had experienced them. Our male cat, Chester, had a complete blockage that required surgery and an open catheter for a week. A big cat with a constant drip of urine is a less than pleasant event. Some of the others had also had these crystals.

I'd read quite a bit about this and about the benefits of raw feeding for this condition from the CatInfo website. While the cause for these crystals is somewhat different in cats than in dogs (in cats, the crystals, which form in an alkaline environment and dissolve in an acidic one, tend to be a result of diets high in certain nutrients and low in moisture-- we'd fed the cats a lot of fish and mostly dry food-- sometimes accompanied by infection; however, with dogs, the crystals are a result of an infection that creates an alkaline environment conducive to crystal formation), the principles remain the same: more moisture means the UT remains flushed out more frequently, and a diet higher in meat creates a more acidic environment that is hostile to crystal formation. For more info on crystals, University of Minnesota's vet school has a whole center devoted to urinary crystals. A whole freakin' center!!

When Robin experienced her second or third run-in with the crystals, the vet pushed hard for us to feed her the prescription food. By this time, we've been feeding the dogs Taste of the Wild, Simon's been getting home- cooked foods, and feeding Robin a food where actual meat product was 4th on the ingredient list didn't sit well with me at all, much less all the corn (filler), brewer's rice (cheap filler), fat (flavoring), and very low protein. We had her eat it for a while, but we saw our once muscle-bound, athletic dog's rippling muscles wasting away. Plus, she hated it. Just hated it. She liked the canned version better, but it DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A MEAT LISTED. Only by-products.

I convinced the vet to allow me to try and find a diet that recreated a similar profile with better ingredients. We used a lot of the Natural Balance foods; California Naturals low-fat; Innova senior; some of the Castor and Pollux varieties. Even though it's not necessarily diet-related, we went with foods that had similar mineral profiles, just in case, and began preparing a raw meal for their evening meals. And voila. We went a very long time without crystals or UTIs.

After a while of this, I got busy. And lazy. They were only getting a few raw meals a week. And then Robin started hating her kibble. I had to mix wet food or cooked turkey with it to get her to eat. And even still, she would shuffle to the bowl, ears down, tail tucked, like she was being beaten. Seriously, like someone was torturing her physically to make her eat.

Then she had another UTI. This time, with crystals. We used the Rx food just long enough to dissolve the crystals and that was it. No more dry food. No more canned food. No more miserable meals.

A diet high in meat creates that acidic urinary environment hostile to struvites (not calcium oxalate, which are a different story altogether). A raw diet is also extremely high in moisture, so there's that flushing that we want to keep a clean UT.

So we switched to all raw. We have yet to have a UTI with crystals since then, knock on wood. And even if she did, it wouldn't warrant a change to the Rx food unless she had recurrence after recurrence like she was before--a UTI and crystals every 6-8 weeks. As is, she's had a couple of UTIs. No crystals, and the UTIs have been mild.

Best of all, this is how she is for every single meal. I should have started filming at the top of the stairs because she literally dances the whole way down... Look at that wagging tail.

Moving to home-cooked foods

As I mentioned before, there were several main tipping points for the move away from commercial foods...

Simon
Simon was our old man. He was extremely fearful, and due to some poor training and socialization (or rather lack of), he lashed out when he was afraid. Meaning he snapped. Or he just bit. We had inadvertently trained the growl out of him (a very bad thing. Please research clicker training if you have a fearful dog and APPRECIATE a growling dog) so his warning signs were subtle, at best.

He had become intolerant of handling by us as well-- primarily due to painful arthritis and neurological problems-- and he had some moments where we weren't sure he fully recognized us. The vet was fairly certain he had canine cognitive dysfunction (CCD), ie, doggie alzheimers.

I had read a study about "aggression" in dogs being related to high protein. The study dealt with the use of tryptophan, and studied the effects on dominance and territorial aggression. I knew that Simon's problems weren't really those things, but I thought it couldn't hurt.

One of Simon's symptoms from his neurological problems was also urinary incontinence. Grain-free foods had been touted to help, at least anecdotally.

So I put him on grain-free, low protein foods. We started with a formula from Pinnacle. We also went through a variety of the Natural Balance foods.

Several things happened.

Learning about dog behavior, canine communication, and becoming more hands-off with Simon took us much further in terms of his "aggression." Helping him feel safe in our home did much more than low protein ever would. His aggression was fear-based. Not "dominance." Not "territorial," though he had become a resource guarder (again, more than likely due to a history of having things unceremoniously taken away from him).

We noticed muscle-wasting from the low-protein. And several herbs for incontinence did more for that than grain-free had.

He also hated the food. Hated it.

I picked up a copy of Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health.

First and foremost, it is an invaluable resource for basic health and diet information for our pets. The recipes have been analyzed, so you can rest assured that your home-prepped food is supplying everything they need.

I started cooking some of the simpler recipes for Simon and mixing them with his kibble. The recipes here are much more grain-heavy than I was comfortable with (not for the incontinence, but simply because dogs don't need quite that much grain). So I leaned toward things like quinoa and whole grains like oats brown rice. We used turkey and ground beef and eggs; green beans, carrots, peas, sweet potatoes. And he got a spoon of canned pumpkin, because just like any other little old man, he needed his fiber to keep him regular. :)

As old as he was, and as green as I was at all of this, I was uncomfortable with raw. But he was immediately thrilled with his meals again. Happy to see his bowl, great appetite, and no more loss of muscle mass.

A note on protein:
This is my understanding; I will try to come back with some links to the research I did on this (again, why I should have been documenting all this from the start)...

A raw or cooked diet is very high moisture content-- I want to say 70% or more. Plus there's bone and there's fat. It's not a massively high protein diet, in terms of the base %.

However, when you get kibble, it does not tell you where that protein comes from, plant or animal; plant protein is certainly cheaper. It's also very low moisture. A higher percentage of protein that comes directly from an animal source with a higher moisture content is going to be more bioavailable to the dog. So even though it might seem like a lower-protein food %-wise, it might be higher than even a high protein kibble. It's not totally clear in most cases, given the information we have about the commercial kibble.