Food and your dog

[cristycurves]

These are just somethings I've learned and some of this might interest and help you. If you've anything to add please feel free. Educating even correcting one another helps everyone in the end.

So I'm facing another battle with my beloved pooch. Now it's possibly liver disease, so a healthy diet will prove beneficial. She's a warrior and so am I, so we'll see who wins......
Tuesday we go for an ultrasound. But I wonder, have all her past meds, prednisone, pain meds, flea and tick meds, helped cause this. The liver is the filter within the body, so everything a dog is prescribed would have some toll on it over time......I'm now on the fence about certain meds, especially flea/tick products. If any of you remember my other dogs death and this dogs past battle with an immune disorder I blame on a tick med, and some vets agree, some don't. Regardless, my dog hasn't had any flea or tick meds for over a year, and has had no flea and or ticks....makes me wonder and this is something to think about.

For those with dogs, something I'm firm about and insistent on preaching to those willing to listen, is to feed your dogs healthy food and healthy food doesn't come in a can, or a bag. It is fresh, needs to be cooked and should be organic. Whether or not the organic belief is something you follow, I'll let you decide, at least buy fresh. Dogs, like humans, need fresh healthy fruits and vegetables daily. They also need *quality* sources of proteins. I'm not a believer that humans need animal protein, and there is lots of evidence that dogs can live healthy lives without relying on only protein from animal sources as well. But that is something I haven't studied or have any experience with, so I won't discuss that here.

Depending on your dogs health, the amount of protein a dog needs daily will vary as will their carbohydrates( fruits, veggies). I'm also a believer in adding cooked oats(oatmeal) and flaxseed intermittently. Most dogs will react better to a variety of foods rather than the same thing daily, imo. Some health issues will require a low protein diet and protein from eggs, cottage cheese and other quality dairy sources such as yogurt, etc. Other good sources are lean beef, ground turkey (dark meat is better), chicken, white fish( this I've found impossible to find and is a type of fish, "white" is not the color of the flesh), liver(chicken or turkey is better imo), and other organ meats, again this is dependent on your dogs health. Primarily, please don't buy your meats at a big box grocery, those are factory farmed, filled full of antibiotics, pesticides, and other nasty, unhealthy things that will *eventually* affect the health of your dog.Buy local and know where it is raised and where it is slaughtered. There is a huge difference in the taste and quality of naturally raised meats and poultry, plus other benefits, easier on the environment, supports sustainable farming and supports our local farmers.Those people who do it right benefit us all.

Clean eating benefits us, humans, so it is no surprise that it also benefits our beloved fur friends. Keep in mind when you feed your dog a natural diet, vitamin supplementation will be requited. So source out and study which supplement will suit your pets needs the best. I find to supplement calcium, grinding up hard boiled eggs to be effective, simply hard boil the number of eggs required, then add to a blender with a bit of water and blend until all shells are ground. Some people prefer using a coffee grinder, when wanting to grind the shells only.Depending on the size of your dog, different amounts are required daily.

Vegetables that I found easily digested and liked by my dog are cauliflower, broccoli, sweet potato, brussel sprouts, green beans, carrots, white potatoes, squash, asparagus, celery( remove the leaves), spinach( I like to blend it into a liquid). Remember to *always* cook the vegetables. Dogs have a hard time digesting raw. A raw carrot here and there won't hurt your dog, but for them to absorb the nutrients from veggies, they should be cooked. Many fruits have wonderful health benefits too. Apples,(remove the core and seeds), blueberries, watermelon( remove the seeds), bananas, cantaloupe (remove the seeds) cranberries(cooked/fresh, not canned), pears( remove the core and seeds) pineapple, pumpkin(not canned and no seeds)

These foods your dog should never eat:

xylitol-this is found in candy, gum, diet foods, baked goods

avocadoes-the persin in it might be poisonous to dogs

alcohol-whether it's beer, spirits or wine, please never give this. For some it'll just make them sick, for others it can be lethal

onions and garlic-powdered, raw or cooked. They can kill red blood cells causing anemia and this is confusing because many dog food sites will suggest garlic powder as a food additive. I'd rather err on the cautious side and never feed it to them.

coffee/tea/caffine

grapes and raisins-can cause kidney failure

dairy products-cows milk especially-many believe any dairy can cause allergies, and digestive issues. I'm a believer that a little quality cheese, yogurt and goats milk are fine.

Macadamia nuts-just six can make your dog very sick. I believe all nuts should be avoided, and remember peanuts are not a nut

chocolate-most of us know that chocolate can be toxic

fat trimmings and bones-these can cause pancreatitis and bones can splinte and become a choking hazard

persimmons, peaches and plums-it's the pits that pose the problems.They can not only become lodged in the intestines, peach and plum pits contain cyanide.

Raw eggs-this too is debated by some who believe in a raw diet. I believe the chance of contracting salmonella or E coli is far to great.

Raw meats and fish-again hotly debatable, and again, the risk of bacteria os to great. Many fish-salmon, trout, shad, sturgeon have parasites that causes "fish disease" or "salmon poisoning disease". This is treatable if seen right away, but what take the risk. Cook your animal proteins.

Salt

sugary foods and drinks

yeast dough-raw dough when digested will expand in your dogs stomach causing a lot of pain, it also ferments, making alcohol, which could cause alcohol poisoning.

any of "your" prescribed medicines-goes without saying

spices-nutmeg, and other spices-baking powder, baking soda-all toxic

Rhubarb

wild mushrooms

green tomatoes/stalks and leaves

 

[DannyDevito]

I sincerely hope your dog turns out to be OK. Sorry can't help you with your questions.

 

[Maurice Boscorelli]

Interesting read and very informative as usual CC.

This topic is outside of my area of expertise but your dog is very fortunate to have an owner like you. That I know.

Please keep us informed going forward as I am always up to accruing knowledge.

 

[Boing]

Good luck Cristy.

 

[Godson]

How old is your dog?.

 

[Wise Guy]

These foods your dog should never eat:

xylitol-this is found in candy, gum, diet foods, baked goods

avocadoes-the persin in it might be poisonous to dogs

alcohol-whether it's beer, spirits or wine, please never give this. For some it'll just make them sick, for others it can be lethal

onions and garlic-powdered, raw or cooked. They can kill red blood cells causing anemia and this is confusing because many dog food sites will suggest garlic powder as a food additive. I'd rather err on the cautious side and never feed it to them.

coffee/tea/caffine

grapes and raisins-can cause kidney failure

dairy products-cows milk especially-many believe any dairy can cause allergies, and digestive issues. I'm a believer that a little quality cheese, yogurt and goats milk are fine.

Macadamia nuts-just six can make your dog very sick. I believe all nuts should be avoided, and remember peanuts are not a nut

chocolate-most of us know that chocolate can be toxic

fat trimmings and bones-these can cause pancreatitis and bones can splinte and become a choking hazard

persimmons, peaches and plums-it's the pits that pose the problems.They can not only become lodged in the intestines, peach and plum pits contain cyanide.

Raw eggs-this too is debated by some who believe in a raw diet. I believe the chance of contracting salmonella or E coli is far to great.

Raw meats and fish-again hotly debatable, and again, the risk of bacteria os to great. Many fish-salmon, trout, shad, sturgeon have parasites that causes "fish disease" or "salmon poisoning disease". This is treatable if seen right away, but what take the risk. Cook your animal proteins.

Salt

sugary foods and drinks

yeast dough-raw dough when digested will expand in your dogs stomach causing a lot of pain, it also ferments, making alcohol, which could cause alcohol poisoning.

any of "your" prescribed medicines-goes without saying

spices-nutmeg, and other spices-baking powder, baking soda-all toxic

Rhubarb

wild mushrooms

green tomatoes/stalks and leaves

Helpful information.

 

[Virus]

Thanks Cristy. I used to feed my dogs what the vet recommended then decided to feed them what my mother used to feed her dogs. Left over foods and they never got sick.

They must have known something we don't.

 

[cristycurves]

Thanks Cristy. I used to feed my dogs what the vet recommended then decided to feed them what my mother used to feed her dogs. Left over foods and they never got sick.

They must have known something we don't.

Thanks, keeping in mind I have great respect for many vets, but when in school their studies have little involvement with nutrition, some say 40 hrs or so and this is almost always sponsored and paid for by a dog food companies/company. I've mentioned before I've a relative that has a vet practice and this person recommends feeding by home cooking. Remember adding minerals and other vitamins, especially calcium is important. Why they can't get all they need from specific foods I couldn't explain sufficiently, but they don't. @Godson- her name and age, although I may have mentioned it before, I prefer to keep personal. It is funny how when someone/or a pet is sick or dies the first question we tend to ask is what was the age
The longer I'm involved with dogs, the more I'm realizing that age is a number and not necessarily an indication of expected illnesses. Goes without saying, this is also true for humans.

 

[Poroit]

Very informative and I do remember how your last dog passed away. I will also pass this information to my dog lover friends.

 

[Anto]

Let us know how it goes.

Here is a link a friend sent me. Not related to your problem but might find it interesting.

Dog owners often wonder what—if anything—is going on when their pooches are sleeping. It turns out they may be learning, according to a new study. Researchers in Hungary trained 15 pet dogs to sit and lie down using English phrases instead of the Hungarian they already knew. Afterward, the scientists attached small electrodes to the dogs’ heads to record their brain activity while they slept. Electroencephalograms (EEGs) showed that during 3-hour naps, the dogs' brains experienced brief, repeated moments of "slow-wave" brain activity lasting several minutes.

Nested within these slower oscillations, were "sleep spindles," bursts of activity lasting 0.5 to 5 seconds that look like a train of fast, rhythmic waves on EEG recordings—and are known to support memory, learning, general intelligence, and healthy aging in humans and rats.

But this is the first time they’ve been studied in detail in dogs. Like those of humans and rats, the dogs’ sleep spindles occur in short cycles in the 9-hertz to 16-hertz range; in humans and rats, these cycles are associated with memory consolidation. The scientists also discovered that the number of spindle sessions per minute correlated with how well the dogs learned their new, foreign vocabulary, the researchers report this week in Scientific Reports.

And—just like in humans—females had more spindle sessions per minute than males and performed better during testing. About 30% of the females learned the new words, compared with about 10% of the males. That suggests, the researchers say, that dogs can serve as models to better understand the function of our own sleep spindles.