Dogs Health Information

My 3 year old Collie has been raw fed for over 2 years. His stool is almost always normal. He has no other symptoms except he’s drinking more water than usual for the past few weeks. He doesn’t seem to be peeing much more than usual. I keep the house cool, around 60 degrees.

He does have a heavy coat, but he hasn’t started drinking more water during any other winter. I can’t really see him pee, he squats and his coat is in the way, so I can’t see if it’s dilute or not. When I first started feeding raw, his water intake dropped dramatically, as expected.

I’m working through cases of pork loin, turkey necks and chuck roast. He also gets a little liver. I don’t feed enhanced meat. The package on one of the pork loins said 50 mg. sodium per serving. The case has 5 loins in it, from 2 different companies. He’s about 60 lbs. and been eating a turkey neck every 3 days.

I trim most of the fat off the pork, and it’s nice, lean loin. He gets around a pound and a half of that every day, and 1/4 pound of chuck roast. I supplement with Timberwolf Organics fish oil, but I’m having difficulty finding out their ingredients. At one point they told me they add rosemary and vitamin E, but then they retracted that statement.

One of my old dogs had diabetes insipid us (drinking and peeing lots) due to pancreatitis and cancer, so I’m familiar with the symptoms. I believe drinking and peeing a lot can also be due to kidney disease and too much blood calcium. I’m worried…

Should I take him to the vet? What tests should I ask for besides blood work?
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Well some foods like canned fish make my dog thirsty but she has been drinking more water for a couple of months now. So I knew it wasn’t the food. We did a blood work (not because of her constant thirst) but b/c of her seizures and so far we found she is low in glucose and most probably a pancreas problem, another test result is coming tomorrow.

So if it is going for a long time then I would definitely do a blood work before other symptoms start to appear. Good luck and keep us posted.

Tags: blood calcium, constant thirst, dog behavior, dog health problems, dog health questions, dog nutrition, eating habits, kidney disease, natural diet, normal stool, pancreatitis, water intake

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Last Friday I brought home an older Dalmatian 11 to 15 years old. He was being left out side in the cold and I couldn’t stand it. I started him on raw, he took to it like a pro. and is having no problems with that.

But he wakes up coughing and then hacks up what looks like flem. Sticky white watery foam. This happens after a nights sleep, no other discharge, eye & nose are fine, no breathing problems. I don’t need another dog but I could not stand the thought of this nice boy spending another cold night outside alone being fed the cheapest crap in a bag money could buy.

This nightly coughing thing is a concern.

Any idea’s?
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Have him checked for heart worm and lung worm by a vet!
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Well, first of all thank you so much for your kind heart to save him and give him a life he deserves for his older years. We lost our male boxer to heart disease, coughing is one of the signs of heart problems but you have to see if he has other symptoms as well, how is his energy level?

Could it be kennel cough by any chance?
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Our dog has a heart murmur caused by a “leaky” heart valve and coughing is one of his symptoms. He often coughs a bit when he wakes up or even gets up from lying, and occasionally there is a white foam on his mouth.

He doesn’t cough for a long time and sometimes it’s like he has something caught in his throat, but it’s not a strong cough. It’s different kind of cough from kennel cough (from what I remember, our other dog had that several years ago).

The kennel cough also resulted in an unpleasant deposits everywhere and the coughing was regular, every few hours and fairly intense. You probably know that kennel cough is very contagious and if you even suspect it, should keep your dog away from other dogs.

It was expensive for us to determine the cause of our dog’s heart murmur, and he’s healthy so there is no treatment. We’re just aware of the symptoms of more serious heart issues, should he develop problems in the future. I’m not sure we’re in any better situation that we were when our vet first heard the murmur.

This isn’t to suggest I think your dog has a heart problem. I have no idea what all of the causes of coughing and foaming might be. Good luck to you and the Dalmatian. If you don’t keep him, I hope he finds
a nice home. It’s wonderful that you took him in and are feeding him good food.
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I had a German shepherd that had a lot of coughing going on for quite
a while and our vet kept giving him steroids which did help but we ended up finding out that he a pulmonary embolism in his lung.

This is something that the vet couldn’t make out on the x-ray. After he passed away his x-ray had to be sent out to an specialist to look at to tell us how he actually died. They wanted to do an autopsy but
I just couldn’t bring myself to do that. I suppose it would have helped
in diagnosing how he died but I was in such shock that he passed I just couldn’t do it. But I would have the lungs checked out just to be on the safe side. Good luck to you.

Tags: breathing problems, Dalmatian, dog coughing, dog health problems, dog health questions, dog illnesses, German Shepherd, heart disease, heart murmur, heart problems, heart worm, kennel cough, leaky heart valve, lung worm, natural diet, raw feeding, respiratory system, senior dog, sick dogs, steroids

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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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What is your opinion of Linatone for dry skin on my dog?

I use to use Linotone in my dog’s food for dry skin and it really worked. However, I know break open a “fish oil” capsule and put it in her food 2x a week. Since your puppy is so young, I would use the smallest type of capsule you can find and perhaps only 1x a week.

I used it years ago with my Afghan Hounds and loved it. They had the most luxurious coats. It did make a difference.

Fed it years ago – very outdated product – made my itchy dog itchier. Soybean oil, oleic acid, lecithin, polyethylene glycol 400, natural food coloring, dl-alpha tocopherol acetate, vitamin A palmitate, polysorbate 80, anise oil, d-activated animal sterol, dimethyl polysiloxane, Linoleic acid–47.9%, vitamin A–324,244 IU/kg, vitamin D–25,792 IU/kg, vitamin E–390 IU/kg, choline–258 mg/kg.

*L PLUS* *Ingredients:* Soybean oil, glyceryl oleate, water, hydrolyzed milk protein, lecithin, zinc sulfate, vitamin E (dl-alpha tocopherol), methylparaben(preservative), annatto, vitamin A palmitate, propylparaben (preservative), anise oil, vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol), dimethicone.

*Guaranteed Analysis:* Linoleic acid(from soybean oil) min. per tsp. 1,800 mg, min. per fl. oz. 10,645 mg; linolenic acid (from soybean oil) min. per tsp. 290 mg, min. per fl. oz. 1,715 mg; vitamin A min. per tsp. 1,500 i.u., min. per fl. oz. 8,800 i.u.; vitamin D3 min. per tsp. 120 i.u., min. per fl. oz. 700 i.u.; vitamin E min. per tsp. 8 i.u., min. per fl. oz. 47 i.u.; inositol (from lecithin) min. per tsp. 1.0 mg, min. per fl. oz. 6 mg. Salmon or Fish Body oil with NO plant oils, especially SOY, is a species appropriate and more effective choice.

http://timberwolforganics.com/pet-omega-oils
http://www.icelandpure.com/salmon_oil.htm
http://www.grizzlypetproducts.com/salmon_oil/salmon_oil.html

I use Oma’s Pride for my Salmon oil;
http://omaspride.com/products.htm#fishoil

Tags: dog health problems, dog health questions, dog itching, dry flakey skin, dry skin, itchy skin, linatone, natural diet, natural remedies, omega oils, polyethylene glycol 400, raw feeding, raw meat diet, salmon oil, skin problems, soybean oil

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What is different about the healthy raw fed dog that renders him intolerable to fleas? My dog is healthy and raw fed 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. She used to never get fleas until 2 yrs ago. She’s raw fed for 6mos.
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That is a tough question. It totally depends on your dog and her overall health. How old is she? You say she has had no vaccinations for two years. Was she vaccinated regularly before that? The fact that she is having a recurring flea problem indicates that she is not in optimal health.

Some dogs never can reach optimal health after being over vaccinated and fed commercial pet foods, unfortunately.

Tags: commercial pet foods, DE, dog food, dog health problems, dog health questions, dog itching, dog problems, flea killers, flea problem, food grade diatomaceous earth, natural diet, natural raw diet, raw feeding, raw meat diet, vaccinations

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