Important Notice!!!!

i coincidentally started feeding my labs raw food over a year ago. i wasn't worried about contaminated food, just poor quality. much as tigerpaws is saying with human food has been true for dog food since companies started selling it...why put much better than the worst ingredients in it? sure, some companies are better than others but by the time ingredients are being marked for the pet food market, they've been passed over by every other market.

i think they're doing great on the raw food diet. if anyone is interested in reading more, there are many books available. the basic idea is that dogs have never been able to cook and that foods lose many of their nutritional benefits after being cooked (as far as a dog's digestive system is concerned).
 
Thanks for the list. I can't imagine how horrible it would be to lose my dog this way. I am so sorry for those of you who have.
 
Brian - So sorry for your loss. One is bad enough, two becomes almost unbearable, or you just become numb. We also lost two of our dogs within weeks of each other this year. Fortunately for us, both died from age related issues at 16 and 17. If it's any solace, it may not have had anything to do with the food. We've had dogs whose lives ended for very different reasons and with each, they stopped eating as the first sign that the end was near. Enjoy the heckout of Mozee. We also adopted a wonderful little girl (Gypsy), shortly afterward.

Tiger is right. It's frightening to see what's going on even outside of this pet food scare. I subscribed to this site shortly after this began:
To: FDA-RECALLS-L**LIST.NIH.GOV
You sign up, (it's very simple), and they e-mail immediate alerts. It's incredible. I get about two of these each day recalling additional pet foods, meat, milk, medical devices, and so on. It's a great service and it's really opened my eyes to the dangers out there.

Wakeboarder: We've been feeding our dogs "people" food for the last 20 years. No scraps, just what we'd eat: chicken, steak, cheese, eggs, etc. We've been told that it's not good for them and even had friends admonish us and make us promise not to give anything not out of a can to their pets when they came to visit. Well, our dogs reached 13, 16, and 17 years old with never a health issue until their final few months. You're doing the right thing. It's more expensive, and I sometimes laugh when I'm cooking especially for them, but in the end, I'm convinced it's the healthiest thing for them and as important, they enjoy it!
 
Brian, so sorry for both your losses.

OBX, Thanks for the link...and Duck, I'm requesting those updates.

wakeboarder, I like your method will look into that too.
I just brought Sage (our 16y/o Corgie-Pitbull-German Shepherd <probably> mix)
to the vet on Monday. They gave me a bag of Eukanuba food to help ease some GI
distress (from some bug she probably picked up in the woods...I suspect from carrion)
and I told them we've been considering preparing food for her since this food adulterant
issue is becoming frightening. Since the day she came home I've fed her Nutro
dry. Any wet food comes from leftover ppl food or from inside an eggshell. They gave me
a list of recipes that I'll try to post or post a link to. Like your friends,Duck, he
strenuously advised me to not feed her what we eat as a regular diet.
I'd love to get my hands on the bastids that decided this was good for the profit margin.
 
The link is great, but you forget to go there each day, and it is ever-changing. The sign-up with NIH is great. The info is immediate and comprehensive. Finally, my tax dollars serving some purpose! My vet has no problem at all with people food, so long as it's balanced. Quite honestly, I don't count calories, or carbs, protein, etc. They eat what I eat. I'm fine, they're fine and I can't argue with 16 and 17 years old with never an issue. Certainly different breeds have different requirements, but I really think that Wakeboarder has it right, except that I do cook their food. I also leave out dry food during the day. They're not stupid, and if there's something missing nutritionally from their diet, they can go there.

I'd also love to get my hands on them and others who knowingly abuse such innocents. No, wait. I'd love to let the animals they've hurt get to them, but then they probably wouldn't. Too kind they are.
 
I signed up for NIH updates. And yeah, Sage is likely to lick to death
the miserable sob that threw her into the East River before I got her.
Though I'd hope her memory would serve her better.
 
duck- i have no trouble believing that cooked people food is better than commercially prepared kibble or cans. at least you know you're feeding human grade food. there are commercial dog foods that use human grade ingredients (flint river ranch is one that i fed before going raw).

its really just a garbage in, garbage out philosophy. commercial food uses fillers and by-products. these don't get absorbed properly in a dog's digestive tract and cause body odor, bad breath, and makes those delightful piles left in your yard worse just to name a few. the fillers and byproducts come right back out if the dog can't process it. no garbage in, no garbage out. crushing raw bones is the perfect teeth cleaner too, never have to get their teeth cleaned again. that's significant to me, dogs and anesthesia don't mix well.

my condolences to anyone whose pets have been harmed. pets give us their all and deserve the best.

edited, agree about some of those details
 
I know. I'm waiting to run across the bastards who shot my Sasha with a pellet gun when she was ** 3 months old. We rescued her from the New Rochelle Shelter at about 1 year old. The sweetest little mush who ever lived. She was picked up in Mt. Vernon. We thought at first that they were cysts, but it turned out to be pellets. Fun, huh?

Wakeboarder, perhaps just a bit too much detail just before dinner, but you're right across the board. I don't know why so many people, and vets, are so negative on this lifestyle. Indocrination, ease, or profit from the food companies? Right on the money with the teeth cleaning as well. A serious health problem, and yes, the anesthesia is always a concern to get this done. A good steak bone every so often solves a multitude of problems, and again, they enjoy. Imagine what living on a diet of mushed whatever from a can does to gums and teeth?
 
As a vet tech, I certainly have opinions about diets and such, but I believe I will keep them to myself as they differ from yours. However, I will share with you a feel good story.

Two cats came to the clinic shortly after the food recall list came out. Both were in renal failure even though recent bloodwork (within the last 5 months) had been normal. It took one entire week of IV fluids and going on several months of SQ fluids, but both have kidney values returning to normal and living healthy lives. At our clinic, we have saved blood and urine samples as well as cans of food from anyone who questioned their pets' health because of this. Hopefully, we will be able to send them somewhere to help verify that this problem is far more widespread than first thought.
 
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