Why Your Vet May Disagree With Raw Dog Food

Explore a few reasons why you may get push back from you vet when you change to a raw diet….

Sometimes your veterinarians just have not done the work to fully understand the benefits and safety of feeding a raw dog food diet or home-prepared cooked foods with balanced recipes. Some of them are going to try to scare you out of it. Start asking them some tough questions about their own study into feeding foods as nature intended.

As pet parents, we need to be able to stand confidently before our vets and have a well-informed, unemotional conversation. So do your homework. And remember you can end sentences with periods and not question marks.

Feeding your dog a healthy raw diet is NOT as simple as throwing meat in a bowl. Most people are winging it and set themselves up for problems later.

So what we’re most concerned with more often than not are the nutritional gaps created in the DIY recipes -- both home cooked and raw. And that's a genuine issue. Many people make mistakes in not creating enough variety, missing key nutrients by being in an ingredient rut, or not realizing they are missing pieces of the puzzle. I have a home-prepared dog food guide I can share with you as a client to be sure you’re making a well-balanced recipe.

How To Ease Your Veterinarian’s Arguments Against Raw Feeding

Let’s ease your mind a bit on some of the other concerns you may have about feeding raw dog food.

Bacteria: Wash your hands. Clean Your bowls. Wipe food from your dog’s beard if he’s a messy eater. But your dog’s body is designed to cope with ecoli and salmonella. Ideally we are not introducing these bacteria into the food sources, but a healthy dog with a pH of 1 will kill most everything that reaches the hydrochloric acid in the gut.

Some of you are going to be worried that your dog will transfer bacteria to you or your kids after they eat. That risk is really quite small and extremely rare. For some of our more immunocompromised friends and family — check out resources on pubmed. There may be a concern if the food you are feeding is in fact already tainted with Salmonella. Not that raw meat in and of itself will create a salmonella risk. High quality ingredients reduce that risk. Kibble is actually more like to be a risk that safe handling of real food! Volhard works very hard to test it’s food before packing & shipping to your door. The meat you choose will be fresh from the grocery — the same quality you’d use for yourself. The risk is exceptionally low. In fact, probably lower than you’ll find in many kibble products.

In a recent survey by DogRisk, a research group from University of Helsinki, Finland, , 16,475 households from 81 countries were surveyed and found that only 3 foods were found to have the same pathogen that infected the individual.

On the other hand, Salmonella is the top cause for dry dog food (kibble) recalls. Between 2010 and 2015, 19 recalls occured due to Salmonella, affecting thousands of tons of food. (Wonder how many pets)

You can read more about this research and survey in Feeding Dogs, Dr. Connor Brady — Order copy here: https://amzn.to/3skUMBR

**Vitamin Deficiencies ** can be a big problem. We can see gaps in Zinc, Vitamin D, E (Vision), Manganese (Acl) , Iodine (Thyroid / Weight)), Choline (Brain Function / Not Listening / Focused) , Omega 3 (Inflammation control), Calcium Amino Acids (This is true in home prepped meals too). But commercially prepared foods are NOT without their own risks.

Depending on your source of supplementation for Vitamins and Minerals -- you may be getting synthetic supplements -- which can be a problem as well! They may not be supplementing as effectively as you think they are, and synthetic products may be harmful.

So ask your vet to test your dog's vitamin mineral levels at the onset of your diet changes and monitor for changes in your annual checkups. Keep copies of your dog's blood work and monitor it -- don't just look for "in range" or "normal" values. Look for subtle shifts within range as possible trends that may be something you can support with nutrition or supplementation. If you are making a home-prepared diet I strongly recommend Endurance with Volhard to close those gaps.

**Tryptophan deficient diets -- * ***you don't have to worry if we get the meats right. But if we cheap out and do the 60/40 beef -- a) we're getting a lot of fat and b) we would be introducing a tryptophan deficit risk. Tryptphan deficiencies can lead to aggression and behavioral issues.

Too much organ meat -- if overfed in these areas it could lead to copper toxicosis. Some breeds are more predisposed to this than others -- but keeping liver under 5% should keep you on track. Just don’t forget the organ meat! It is an important inclusion in every diet!

**Prey Model diet --**
* this diet has the potential to offer far too much calcium with so much bone. It can sometimes be as high as 3x the recommended amounts. Chicken, Poultry and Foul diets can create a ratio imbalance with Omegas -- remember we need the Omega 3 to offset the Omega 6 otherwise, we're really leaning into a pro-inflammatory diet.

* **Trichinosis -- **It's a roundworm found in wild animals. This makes lots of people concerned with the Prey Model. However, we can mitigate risk in this are with freezing wild meats for 3 weeks before serving, cooking these meats, or using HPP meats.

* **Salmonella Poisoning -- **This is generally a concern with fish that swim upstream. If you are catching wild-caught fish -- freeze it for 7 days before using. (Farm Raised fish generally should not be used)

* **Worms**: don't feed the guts (entrails, Small Intestine, Large Intestine of other animals.

**Cancer Dogs -- **

We see many vets and people who are very uncomfortable with the introduction of raw foods to a very unhealthy animal. But we see time and time again that whole nutritious food is the thing that makes all the difference. We can begin with lightly cooked foods and work to rebuild gut health & boost immunity before making the conversion to a full raw diet... if we make the conversion at all.

It can be a tough conversation to have with your vet. Only you can make the decision if making the switch to whole real foods makes sense for your pet. But what we can help you do is learn! Get information and resources that help you make these decisions and become a confident advocate for your pet.

Weight Loss:

Many people don't get the food volume right. And they will actually (surprisingly) watch their dogs lose weight and become extremely thin! Weigh your dog. Evaluate ideal weight. And monitor each week making appropriate adjustments.

We often see people forgo the fat -- which is a big factor in the calorie count and key part of your protein source. If you're using lean meats, skinless meats, fishes only -- you'll have to add a source of fat (grass-fed butter, tallow, ghee, etc)

Supplement Guesswork

When feeding the 80/10/10 model or making a homemade diet, many dog mamas start to wonder and worry about supplements for the dog. So, they try a little of this and a little of that because another dog mama in an FB group told them so. Friends the wrong supplements or too much of a good thing can be a problem just as much as a deficiency can. It’s important to get your diet properly balanced, rotate your protein sources, etc. When you balance the dog food recipe, very little supplementation will be needed. To figure out what you need and don’t — I can help and point you to great quality supplements we know work. So you aren’t wasting budget money on things that don’t work or your dog doesn’t need at all.

Whatever concerns you most can be addressed. Still not convinced, we can look at a lightly cooked recipe — or even a crockpot meal! Many options will be better than kibble — hands down.

Need help crafting your recipe — schedule time with me to have a wellness review and resources.

Bloodwork and Raw Dog Food

We encourage you to get blood work for your dog at the start of your change to raw food diets. Know your baselines. As you move through transitioning your dog to a raw dog food diet, test them every 6 months. This may lead you to make some tweaks and refinements to your dog’s diet. That’s Ok! It’s expected and normal, especially as your dog ages.

But when you see the results of a healthy dog with great blood work — your vet will have a hard time arguing with your results.

Still don’t take my word for it??

See also: Benefits of Raw Food Diets For Dogs for resources from veterinarians and worldwide resources on healthy feeding for dogs.

Dana Brigman is a Raw Dog Food Specialist in North Myrtle Beach SC & Certified Canine Nutritionist. Online Support Is Also available. If you’re seeking support for choosing the best raw dog food or lightly cooked foods for your pet — it’s worth a consultation!