Mom is refusing to belive me about raw.

[Lady's Human]

I sincerely doubt that there is enough salt in a dry dog food to see the salt crystals on the food. If that were the case salt would be in the top 5 ingredients on the label. There are many, many additives to both human and animal food that appear to be white crystals. (Citrates, potassium chloride, sulphates, etc.)

Your Mom is right, Chicken can be a source of salmonella.

[Roxyluvsme13]

Your Mom is right, Chicken can be a source of salmonella.

Yes, and as long as you wash your hands after serving and touching the chicken, it's fine. Salmonella does NOT affect dogs.

[Lady's Human]

Salmonella DOES affect dogs, it's just less likely for it to affect a dog than a human.

[dragondawg]

Myth 1: Dogs can not get Salmonella from a Raw Diet.

Any animal can host a Salmonella bacteria. The only rate limiting factor is how in tune the species and serotype is with the host. Likewise any animal can get sick on the toxins producted by the Salmonella no matter what the serotype, or original native host.

Let's start with an article that proves there's at least one Salmonella species capable of producing an enteric infection in a dog

Salmonella infection of dog

In the second reference article The investigation was conducted at the request of a Greyhound breeder. The article does not describe the symptoms present. Wonder why a breeder would result such an epidemiology study?

Salmonella vs raw diet on a breeding farm

Note the conclusions of the study: Feeding meat that had not been cooked properly, particularly meat classified as unfit for human consumption, likely contributed to the infections in these dogs. Unless you are getting the chicken parts certified by the USDA from the store then by definition it's unfit for human consumption.

The third article did some analysis on commercial Raw dog food.

Raw sold to the public

Salmonella enterica was recovered from 17 (5.9%) samples, all of which were raw meat products.

In general the following can be concluded per typical Salmonella contamination of a raw food diet:

1. A healthy young dog may be able to readily ward off infections caused by consumption of low numbers of Salmonella.

2. An older or immune compromised dog may not be able to cope with eating salmonella infected meat.

3. No dog will be able to escape illness if they consume meat where the Salmonella have previous grown and produced toxins.

But the dangers of a raw food diet do not stop with the dog. There is a lot of discussion about the feeding of a raw diet increasing the chances of the dog passing Salmonella infections to their owners, where the very young and old are in danger.

In browsing around I ran across this article that discussed other disease agents in a raw diet. For those who believe it's ok to feed raw pork:

Aujeszky's disease

The most dangerous virus infection to be transmitted to cats and dogs via raw pork leftovers is Aujeszky's disease. The dog or cat, which is the last link in the infection chain, suffers an agonizing death.

If I were feed raw chicken to my dogs, I'd be tossing the pieces into boiling water for a couple of minutes to scald the surface contamination. But then again, I'd cook the meat period, as there's no reason not to.

[dragondawg]

Myth 1: Dogs can not get Salmonella from a Raw Diet.

Any animal can host a Salmonella bacteria. The only rate limiting factor is how in tune the species and serotype is with the host. Likewise any animal can get sick on the toxins producted by the Salmonella no matter what the serotype, or original native host.

Let's start with an article that proves there's at least one Salmonella species capable of producing an enteric infection in a dog

Salmonella infection of dog

In the second reference article The investigation was conducted at the request of a Greyhound breeder. The article does not describe the symptoms present. Wonder why a breeder would result such an epidemiology study?

Salmonella vs raw diet on a breeding farm

Note the conclusions of the study: Feeding meat that had not been cooked properly, particularly meat classified as unfit for human consumption, likely contributed to the infections in these dogs. Unless you are getting the chicken parts certified by the USDA from the store then by definition it's unfit for human consumption.

The third article did some analysis on commercial Raw dog food.

Raw sold to the public

Salmonella enterica was recovered from 17 (5.9%) samples, all of which were raw meat products.

In general the following can be concluded per typical Salmonella contamination of a raw food diet:

1. A healthy young dog may be able to readily ward off infections caused by consumption of low numbers of Salmonella.

2. An older or immune compromised dog may not be able to cope with eating salmonella infected meat.

3. No dog will be able to escape illness if they consume meat where the Salmonella have previous grown and produced toxins.

But the dangers of a raw food diet do not stop with the dog. There is a lot of discussion about the feeding of a raw diet increasing the chances of the dog passing Salmonella infections to their owners, where the very young and old are in danger.

In browsing around I ran across this article that discussed other disease agents in a raw diet. For those who believe it's ok to feed raw pork:

Aujeszky's disease

The most dangerous virus infection to be transmitted to cats and dogs via raw pork leftovers is Aujeszky's disease. The dog or cat, which is the last link in the infection chain, suffers an agonizing death.

If I were feed raw chicken to my dogs, I'd be tossing the pieces into boiling water for a couple of minutes to scald the surface contamination. But then again, I'd cook the meat period, as there's no reason not to.

[I_luv_rusty]

Yes, and as long as you wash your hands after serving and touching the chicken, it's fine. Salmonella does NOT affect dogs.

I though that too!

[Roxyluvsme13]

Yeah, but there's more chance of your dog getting salmonella from dog food than from Raw chicken.

[Lady's Human]

From a Canadian veterinary study of commercial raw diets:


http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/art...?artid=1140397

Isolation of Salmonella spp. from 20% of raw diets was of concern, but it was not surprising, based on earlier reports. Salmonella sp. is a recognized pathogen of a variety of species, and salmonellosis has been reported in dogs and cats fed raw food contaminated with Salmonella spp.

[wolfsoul]

From a Canadian veterinary study of commercial raw diets:


http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/art...?artid=1140397

Isolation of Salmonella spp. from 20% of raw diets was of concern, but it was not surprising, based on earlier reports. Salmonella sp. is a recognized pathogen of a variety of species, and salmonellosis has been reported in dogs and cats fed raw food contaminated with Salmonella spp.

The study does not go into detail about whether or not the diet was fed properly. Yes, dogs are able to become sick from salmonella -- however, the wide variety of salmonellosis cases are due to rawhide. My vet has had a good amount of salmonella cases over the years, even before she became raw-focused, and it has all led back to rawhide. Due to it being difficult to digest, holding the bacteria back in the system and allowing it time to affect the dog. The same goes for raw meat -- if the raw meat is fed with grains or cooked food, it may be held back too long. The study you quoted does not go into detail about each of the situations involved, if the diet was fed properly, if there may have been other factors or contributing factors, etc. It is my opinion that dogs have a much higher chance of contracting salmonellosis from kibble or cooked food -- Kibble stored unproperly is more likely to absorb moisture and attract airborne salmonella -- Kibble causes plaque which stays in the mouth and on the teeth of the dog -- But in general, it's not something you need to worry about when feeding any diet. Dogs have strong disgestive systems that are identical to that of a wolf. Wolves also have less contributing factors that could lead to salmonella posioning.

No, a dog will not get salmonella poisoning from raw meat alone.

[Lady's Human]

The study was about salmonella contamination in food sources. Salmonella is not an airborne bacteria, it is spread through contact or ingestion. A high amount of salmonella bacteria in a food source can cause salmonella poisoning in ANY animal, depending on the strain of the bacteria.

[k9krazee]

My dogs all were fed Iams up until about 6 month ago and I convinced my mom (who was a huge Iams fan) to switch to Nutro. Eventually, when I get my own place, or move back with my parents and I'm financially stable enough I will feed Raw. My parents just aren't comfortable with it, and if I was still living at home I would make the switch in a heartbeat but sadly can't at this time.

But from Iams to Nutro I did notice a change in the dawgs. Micki had horrible allergy outbreaks all the time and his armpits would become inflamed and red along with the inside of his back legs. After the switch it gradually all went away, I was impressed! No amount of any other medications would clear it up.