Dogs Health Information

A Question from a previous post:

What is different about the healthy rawfed dog that renders him intolerable to fleas? My dog is healthy and rawfed but used to eat crappy food and get vaccinated. After getting DE there are almost no fleas. I’m still working on it and dreading another hot summer and the possibility of fleas.

It isn’t that raw fed dogs are ‘intolerable’ to fleas, just that fleas are more drawn to unhealthy animals with poor immune systems. Keep up with the good diet and no/minimal vaccines and flea treatment, and I have no doubt your dog will continue to be come less and less attractive to fleas/ticks.

Tags: barf, DE, dog health problems, dog health questions, dog problems, flea treatment, food grade diatomaceous earth, natural diet, natural raw diet, raw diet, raw feeding, unhealthy animals, vaccine damage

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Someone wrote a post on a recipe for dry flaky skin for their dogs that I think isn’t right. I have a couple of reasons for this as I will state as follows:

These are all plant oils, except for the Cod Liver Oil. Plant oils cannot be properly processed and assimilated by dogs, who are carnivores.

The Cod Liver Oil, while derived from fish, is too high in vitamin A, which can seriously skew this nutrient in the body. Much better to supply with a good quality Salmon or Fish Body oil, for the Omega 3s, with no additives or plant oils.

Instead of applying a band aid, its much a better plan to honestly assess the current feeding plan, and change what is needed for optimum health.

Dogs are carnivores, and need raw meat (including fat), organs and edible digestible bone to thrive.

http://www.rawlearning.com/rawfaq.html

http://www.rawlearning.com/supplementmyths.html

http://www.rawfed.com/myths/index.html

http://rawfeddogs.net/Recipes

http://rawfeddogs.net/FAQlist

Tags: barf, carnivores, cod liver oil, dog allergies, dog food, dog foods, dog health problems, dog nutrition, dog problems, domestic dog, dry flakey skin, dry skin, flaky skin, healthy skin, itchy skin, natural diet, omega 3s, raw feeding

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I’ve been reading this blog alot and I’ve been lurking for a while. I am also a member of RawFeeding and RawChat. I’m so grateful for all of you who so freely share your knowledge with the rest of us. You have made feeding my dogs (and cats) very easy! Thank you so much!

A bit of background (I’ll try and keep it brief) – I lost a 9 yr old female GSD (German Shepherd Dog) in December to torsion (yes kibble fed). It’s hard to lose a dog and knowing that you’ve contributed to it is even harder.

I vowed to do better. In speaking with the breeder I bought her from, she really stressed her belief in feeding RAW. I did research, and Whole Prey Model is what made sense to me. I converted my remaining dogs – male Corgi almost 8 and female Chi 5, in January.

No problems whatsoever. The dogs looked great, felt great etc… I got a new GSD, put him on RAW – ears cleared up and coat getting softer, etc…

Well, I haven’t done good enough. I just lost the Chi 2 days ago to liver failure. And yes, she had had her boosters the week before symptoms appeared. She had been not eating well the week of the boosters also, and I should have known better. I did mention it to the vet before he gave her the vacines and he blew it off. Although my vet has treated my animals for 30 years and was supportive of RAW feeding, it’s time to move on. He chiropractored my Chi for 3 days, shot her up with pain meds on the 4th day and finally diagnosed liver on the 5th day – she didn’t even last 2 weeks.

I take full responsibility for both of my dogs dying. I know I need a whole lot more knowledge in order to make better judgment calls. I need to be pointed to sources of knowledge – are there books, websites, magazines, etc…? I don’t want to lose another animal based on my ignorance.

I know that vacines do more harm than good. I live in MI and I think that Rabies is the only one required by law. I had already decided on no more flea/tick poison. I am a bit confused on heart worm meds….I live less than 1/4 mile from Lake MI and we definitely have tons of mosquitoes in the summer.

The dogs have already been tested this year and are negative. I was never keen on putting my dogs under for dentals and the diet has taken care of that. Should I take my dogs in for a wellness check (to a new vet of course) and if so, what should that entail? Instead of getting blown off when I feel there is something wrong with one of my dogs, what should I insist that the vet do?

Any advice you can give will be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance,

Tags: barf, carnivores, Chi, Chihuahua, dog health problems, dog nutrition, German Shepherd, GSD, natural diet, raw feeding, vaccine damage, vaccines

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Feeding a dog or cat an appropriate natural diet is now known as “raw feeding”. Some people used to call it “barf” and a small number of people still do.

On this list, we only use the term “raw feeding”. It’s a simple generic
term, and we don’t have to then spend a lot of time explaining an acronym that most people find distasteful and associated with vomit. It is also a term that has been legalized and commercialized.

Increasingly the filters that organizations apply to website access (and many people do access the internet at work), are increasingly blocking sites using the “b” term, which is just another reason we don’t use the term on this list, or in any general conversation.

Tags: barf, dog food, dog nutrition, natural diet, raw feeding

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