Sometimes we aren’t sure what is wrong with our pets but we usually have a strong feeling that something is wrong when our pets are not eating well. Our pets may be predisposed to food-related problems such allergies, obesity, food allergies, cardiomyopathy, and even osteoarthritis. Over the years I have discovered that when one of my dogs would not eat regular dog food for a day or so, they usually are more than willing to eat a piece of cooked liver; when the dog however is not willing to eat a small piece of cooked liver, it’s time to go to the veterinarian for a workup. Read More »
Posted by admin on April 18, 2013 – 8:20 am
While not everyone agrees with the concept of feeding a raw food diet to their pet, the popularity of raw-food diets is certainly rising. Supporters feel that a high-quality raw food diet most closely mimics what your dog’s wild ancestors would have eaten in the wild. This type of diet is usually fresh, free of grains and fillers, and is nutrient dense. Many pet parents notice their dog has cleaner teeth, a shiny coat and healthy skin, more energy, and smaller, less smelly stools after switching to a raw food diet.
Raw food diets for pets come in many forms that can range from homemade meals prepared fresh each day to prepackaged frozen meals such as Nature’s Variety Instinct raw frozen diet. In fact, one of the drawbacks that keep some pet parents from switching to a raw food diet is the inconvenience, whether the time it takes to shop for and prepare, locating a nearby source to purchase frozen raw foods, or just finding the space to store the fresh or bags of frozen raw food.
Another option to consider is a raw food diet in freeze-dried form. This allows your pet to get the benefits associated with a raw food diet, but in a convenient form that’s easy to purchase, store and serve. Now available at PetMeds, Stella & Chewy’s Freeze Dried Dinner is an all-natural, healthy raw food that’s minimally processed and made without grains or fillers, hormones, artificial ingredients, sugar or salt. Just store the bag in a cool, dry place and rehydrate by adding warm water before serving. It’s available in five different flavors: Stella’s Super Beef, Chewy’s Chicken, Duck Duck Goose, Dandy Lamb, and Surf N’ Turf.
Posted by admin on January 17, 2013 – 8:30 am
One of the best things you can do for your beloved pet to ensure a lifetime of good health is to select a high quality, nutritious pet food. With the variety of dog and cat food available, choosing the best food for your pet can seem like a daunting task. The simplest thing you can do is start by reading the label, which will list ingredients in order of weight. Focus on the first few ingredients, which make up the bulk of what is in the food, and make sure that the first ingredient listed is a specific, named real meat such as chicken, turkey, salmon, lamb or beef for example. Look for a form of healthy carbohydrates such as brown rice or sweet potatoes and a healthy source of animal fat such as poultry fat and fish oil. Ingredients to avoid in your pet’s food include preservatives, meat by-products, artificial colors and flavorings, and corn, wheat and soy which are fillers. Read More »
One of the most frequently asked questions we at Southern California Pomeranian Rescue is “What should I feed my newly adopted Pom?” Mommy used to answer that question with “Whatever dog food it will eat that you are comfortable with buying!” But she has changed that answer after a few years of dog ownership and some pretty big vet bills after making some very common assumptions that were very expensive mistakes.
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Posted by admin on August 19, 2012 – 8:15 am
One of the wonderful things about dogs is the variety of shapes and sizes dogs come in, from the tiny Chihuahua to the Great Dane and everything in between. Although all dogs were descended from the grey wolf, Canis Lupus, throughout the centuries, dogs have been selectively bred for different jobs and functions. Each breed has its own unique physical characteristics, activity level and nutritional requirements. Why take a one-size-fits-all approach to dog food? It makes sense that the small kibble that would be perfect for a Yorkshire terrier would not be a great choice for a large breed dog. Certain breeds are more prone to specific health problems, which should be considered when selecting your pet’s food. Royal Canin has developed a line of pet foods formulated for the specific requirements of certain breeds of dogs and cats.
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One of the more common questions presented in the clinic is when should an animal guardian consider changing their pets’ diet to a specific senior formula. This is one of the most misunderstood areas of animal nutrition. As a holistically oriented veterinarian, the most important aspects to healthy feeding include a minimally-processed, preferably raw pet food diet if possible, that mimics what pets evolved to eat in the wild. If this is not possible, a minimally-processed diet such as PetGuard or Wysong are indeed acceptable alternatives. Such foods have been hallmarks in holistic veterinary medicine for decades, and will almost certainly never be found on a pet food recall list.
I find it even more important to maintain most healthy adult or senior pets on diets such as those mentioned here, in order to maintain optimal health and aging organ function. The only time I will consider feeding a senior pet food or possibly a low-protein food is when a pet has advanced pathology of its liver or kidneys, as determined by blood work, so that workload can be reduced on these vital organs. However, in most healthy senior pets, I find it counterproductive to change formulas and/or reduce protein, because I find that in many cases these senior diets are nutritionally inferior, and by feeding them, we may lead to increased health problems in our beloved senior pets.
With the recent pet food recall of many brands of foods manufactured by Diamond Pet Foods, many animal guardians need to quickly make changes to new diets for their pets. There are several helpful guidelines when making a transition in your pet’s diet rapidly. It is usually less stressful on the digestive tract to find a similar formula as to what your pet has been eating. For example, if your pet was eating a lamb and rice diet, it would be helpful to change to a similar one. Sometimes it can also be helpful to use a home-made diet of chicken and rice when changing a pet’s food as well to a new diet, by using 20% chicken and 80% rice. Finally, it may be helpful to use a good probiotic from the health food store or one such as Fast Balance G.I., in order to make sure that the bacterial population remain healthy during the time of a stress or dietary change.
Hi everybuddy! Harley and I are very lucky because we are very healthy kitties. But did you know this was not always so?
When I was just THREE, I got bladder stones. I do not know exactly how those rocks got inside me, but I had to have surgery to get them out. Here I was laying on one of my sleeping bags recovering from surgery. That time was No Fun!
Some of you might already know that Harley battled Eosinophilic Granuloma Complex (EGC) for a long time, when he was younger. He used to get ulcers on his lips, swellings under his chin, and linear granulomas on the back of his thighs. Poor Harley!
So how did we get healthy? First we started going to a holistic vet that taught our Mommeh about the importance of nutrition. Cats are obligate carnivores, so it is important to have a meat-based diet. We eliminated all dry kibble and started eating a raw food diet. We also changed from free feeding to being fed a measured portion at two specific mealtimes a day. My favorite flavor is rabbit!
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One of the more common questions asked regarding diet is whether canned or dry food is better to feed our pets. Many people feel that feeding dry pet food is good for the teeth and helps keep the teeth clean of tartar and bacteria. However, there is no scientific data that support the beneficial effect of feeding dry food on dental health. In fact, the high carbohydrate of most dry foods may often lead to increased incidence of dental decay, as well as weight gain and possibly diseases such as diabetes.
Natural canned food can often be a well-balanced choice for many pets, especially cats, for which I recommend feeding predominantly wet food only diets. The ingredient quality, as well as presence of natural preservatives, is more important than whether the type of formulation is dry or wet in most cases when deciding the best diet for our pet companions.
| One of the most rapidly growing areas in the veterinary market is the big expansion of the commercial pet food industry. It can be quite confusing for an animal guardian to try and decipher pet food labels, in trying to make informed decisions about what to feed their animal companions. The pet food aisle takes up more space in a supermarket than all other sections, except for the cereal food aisle for people.
Unfortunately most veterinarians get very little training on nutrition in veterinary school, and often make recommendations to animal guardians based upon what is told to them by pet food sales representatives, rather than what is truly healthier for their pets. One of the most important aspects of making a choice about what to feed our pets is in learning how to understand pet food labels in making that choice. |
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Whether feeding dry or canned food, I try and counsel clients on what I look for on the labels when choosing a pet food.
While there is often an extensive list of ingredients, the most important ingredients in the pet food are the first three ingredients, which are those present in highest amounts in the food. Given that dogs and cats are mainly carnivores, I recommend that two out of the first three ingredients listed on the label be meat. While I prefer the meat to be whole meat or meat meals, I counsel clients to stay away from those foods which have cryptic labels that are difficult to understand. Meat by-products and meat and bone meal are usually made from questionable quality ingredients and I recommend clients avoid these pet foods if possible.
Many pets have problems digesting soy, corn and wheat, so I will often recommend avoiding these, as well as those foods with a lot of filler ingredients listed on the labels. Fruits and vegetables are a rich source of vitamins and antioxidants, and are a big plus when listed on pet food labels. I prefer that the pet foods be preserved naturally with vitamin E (tocopherols) and/or Vitamin C, rather than other toxic preservatives such as ethoxyquin, BHA and BHT, which have been incriminated in chronic disease and cancer in our pets.
Given that there are so many choices when choosing even a natural brand pet food, there are those trustworthy and reliable companies who have been doing it the longest, and who have the best track record in my experience and opinion. Pet Guard and Wysong are often my favorite brands that have performed well for my clients over my twenty years of experience in clinical small animal practice.
