facts on dog foods

[crow_noir]

I've been feeding Ultra, but I am switching to Royal Canin. It's not raw, but it's a high quality dog food.

But i just want to share my experience...

King was loosing muscle mass bad in his last few months of life so i was doing everythign i could for him. I was researching the benifits and risks of garlic (AGAIN.) After careful consideration i decided to try feeding him kibble with out garlic in it. Then meant switching off of the tried and true Wysong and into the unknown. Tried Canidae, but for the third time he got violently sick from it (as did any dog visiting my house did.) Then i tried one of the kitty foods from Royal Canin and he seemed to be doing well on that so we switched him to one of the doggy foods. He started having other problems after a month. Took him to the vet once again... He now had a major protein definicency. The vet told us for what it's worth just switch him back to the Wysong, so we did and the new problems went away.

I wish you luck with the Royal Canin, but wanted to give you a heads up on a possible future problem. If it works out for you and your dog though... GREAT!!! :- )

[borzoimom]

Crow noir-
I have been feeding raw for 18 years. What do you need to know? If I dont have the answer, and several others that have been feeding it for a long time, and will hopefully find you an answer.

[Ceph]

Did the vet say anything about a Taurine deficiency? Most dog foods dont supplement Taurine (Amino Acid) because the dog can typically make it on their own from cystine and methionine....cats however cannot so their food is Taurine supplemented (deficiencies cause eye degeneration, possible myocardial problems and lethargy). It may be that he was doing well on the cat food because of that extra supplementation.

So for a dog that has no problem with Taurine that food might not be so bad, but it could be very dangerous for a dog that has problems synthesizing Taurine on his own.

-Ceph

[borzoimom]

again- right on Ceph. Taurine is also a water soluable vitamin, and most dog foods this is lost in processing. I add fish to my dogs diet every day.

[crow_noir]

The vet never mentioned a taurine deficency, but what you said makes a lot of sense. All the vet mentioned was a protein deficency.

Hindsight is 20/20 though... and it's a little too late to talk about it now. All i can do is file it away for future reference.

Did the vet say anything about a Taurine deficiency? Most dog foods dont supplement Taurine (Amino Acid) because the dog can typically make it on their own from cystine and methionine....cats however cannot so their food is Taurine supplemented (deficiencies cause eye degeneration, possible myocardial problems and lethargy). It may be that he was doing well on the cat food because of that extra supplementation.

So for a dog that has no problem with Taurine that food might not be so bad, but it could be very dangerous for a dog that has problems synthesizing Taurine on his own.

-Ceph

[borzoimom]

That is why I add a little fish.

[crow_noir]

Crow noir-
I have been feeding raw for 18 years. What do you need to know? If I dont have the answer, and several others that have been feeding it for a long time, and will hopefully find you an answer.

Whenever i could afford it i would feed King raw. However in the past two years he'd get really sick from some raw meat. I just figured it was his digestive system shutting down. Now there is a recue dog i'm trying to help place. She had been eating raw meat for three weeks (her own fresh kills,) with no problems. She was given some raw chicken from the store and got very ill. I'm beginning to think that there is something going on with the poultry in our area. What are your thoughts?

Basically, if i had no problems feeding dog raw before, and now i can't with out them getting seriously ill, do you think there is something going on with the domestic meat supplies around here. (Especially since any fresh caught mean didn't make them ill.) It doesn't seem to me that it was it would be the problems some people have with the switching between dry food and raw. I had no problems doing that with King for four years. (One month is too short of a time to tell with the foster dog i'd think.)

[borzoimom]

Some dogs have a problem with poultry. I only had one that did.. What are you feeding...