Protecting your companion's health with antioxidants as key nutrients

I am sure you too have heard about antioxidants and how important they are not just for the health of humans but also for our companion animals. It is a fact that vets prescribe antioxidants as one of the most common nutritional supplements as preventative measurement or treatment for diseases. So what is the story behind them? Why do animals need them and what should you consider once you decide to provide them to your cat or dog via supplementation? Is it even necessary to supplement with antioxidants? Up front, my take on this is, if you provide a high quality food you may not have to supplement with anything as all nutrients required will be included in your food.

Oxidation and Free Radicals
A number of specific supplements to include vitamins and minerals help to reduce oxidation in the body. Oxidation is a chemical process that occurs within the cells as a result of metabolism, detoxification and energy production. After oxidation occurs certain free radicals or reactive oxygen species (ROS) are formed. Examples for such free radicals or ROS include among others nitric oxide, superoxide, lipid peroxide and hydrogen peroxide. One of the major sources of free radicals production is inflammation in the body. Another one is environmental toxins causing cell damage.

Free radicals are toxic and damaging to cells and surrounding tissues. They damage cells by inflicting damage to membrane receptor proteins, inactivating proteins required for energy production by the body and inactivating enzymes required for regular cellular metabolism.
As a result a number of medical conditions can be linked to such cell damage caused by free radicals. They include autoimmune diseases, diabetic cataracts, inflammatory bowel disease, nutrient deficiencies, atherosclerosis, premature aging, cancer and viral infections.
The body removes free radicals by producing additional substances called antioxidants. Their purpose is to fight off the oxidizing chemicals. They neutralize oxidants and prevent or at least limit cell damage.

The body produces some antioxidants on a regular basis. Others need to be provided through the diet or supplements. Following are a few examples of naturally occurring antioxidants:
Superoxide dismutase: Breaks down the superoxide free radical into hydrogen peroxide.
Catalase: After the superoxide dismutase has broken down the superoxide, it is then, with help of the antioxidant catalase broken down into water.

Peroxidases: Break down various peroxides
Glutathione: Serving as a general detoxifying agent and regulating the internal environment of cells. Research has established a link between low levels of glutathione and immune deficiency syndrome as well as increased side effects from chemotherapy.
Coenzyme Q10: Powerful fat soluble antioxidant carrying electrons in the formation of cellular energy. Supplementing a diet with additional Q10 has proven to be beneficial for companion animals suffering from cancer, heart disease and gum disease.
Alpha lipoic acid: Scavenging a number of free radicals and helping to regenerate others including ascorbic acid, glutathione and Vitamin E.
Melatonin: Besides regulating the body’s biorhythms and sleep patterns, melatonin is also reducing oxidative damage occurring with aging. Especially this applies to the central nervous system and in cases of cognitive disorder or Alzheimer’s disease.
Older or animals with specific health conditions may show access oxidation, meaning the body’s regular antioxidant abilities are overwhelmed. This is a typical case where supplementation with antioxidants may be helpful. Providing additional antioxidants may enable the body to neutralize harmful by-products of cellular oxidation. Supplementation may include vitamins (A, C, E), minerals (selenium, manganese, zinc) and nutritional supplementation to include superoxide dismutase, glutathione, coenzyme Q10, gingko, biloba, bilberry, grape seed extract, milk thistle and various bio-flavenoids (proanthocyanidins)
Bioflavonoids, or proanthocyanidins are a class of plant metabolites they play an important role in maintaining health, vitality and well being. They have antioxidant effects against fat (lipid) peroxidation and also inhibit the enzyme cycloxygenase (which by the way is the same enzyme inhibited by Aspirin and other non steroidal medications). Cyclooxygenase converts arachidonic acid into leukotrienes and prostaglandins, i.e. chemicals that contribute to inflammation and allergic reactions. Bioflavonoids also decrease histamine release from cells by inhibiting a number of other enzymes.

Additionally, antioxidant supplementation is recommended for various inflammatory conditions to include heart, kidney and liver diseases, cancer, tooth and gum disease, allergies, asthma and arthritis.

Antioxidants as supplements:
If you want to supplement your pet’s diet with antioxidants, it is recommended to keep the following in mind:
Antioxidants, especially vitamins and minerals are most beneficial if they are used in synergy with the food rather than as a single dose application.
Make sure you use the correct dose. As example, vitamin C and E can act as pro-oxidants under certain conditions or vitamin A can even be toxic if provided at levels too high.
As always, consult your vet about supplementing with antioxidants. This is especially important if your animal is being treated for specific health conditions and may already be provided with antioxidants via other means of dietary supplementation.
Make sure you use the correct form of the supplement. As an example, vitamin E and alpha tocopherol, while often used interchangeably, are not the same. As a matter of fact, alpha tocopherol is a part of vitamin E. Vitamin E is made up of several other tocopherols and tocotrienols. Ideally you want to supplement with a natural vitamin E product containing mixed tocopherols and tocotrienols and in that case are better off than using an isolated alpha tocopherol supplement.
Use high quality products made for animals. Although there are official regulations governing supplement quality and safety, these rules are often not enforced thereby leaving many products out there, which may not be safe or effective.
As with food, “natural” does not always mean “safe”.

The “Golden rule”: Choose antioxidant supplements properly and use them along with a natural diet and other natural supplements.

Optionally, keep in mind that herbs and homeopathic remedies can assist in treating many diseases and maintaining good health in you companion.

Mosquito season in full swing: Heartworm risk, not just limited to dogs

This year, it appears as if the mosquitos are finally taking over. At least down here in Florida, I thought initially. But with record sales of pesticides at the on-line store it looks like the problem is all over the country. Related to this, the American Heartworm Society continues to remind pet owners of heartworm risk. Here is an example of their official campaign letter:

“As temperatures grow warmer, the American Heartworm Society (AHS) wants every pet owner to be prepared for mosquito season and the heartworm disease risk it carries for pets.
Although the risk of heartworm disease is heightened in warmer months when the mosquito population increases, the AHS recommends year round prevention for both dogs and cats. By giving heartworm prevention every month, forgetful pet owners will have their pets protected when they need it most.

"Surveys show only about 75 percent of pets are given the full dosage recommended by a veterinarian," Sheldon Rubin, DVM, AHS president and Chicago practitioner, said. "With year-round prevention, if doses are accidentally skipped, the drug is still effective."
Recently, researchers discovered that respiratory signs in cats, which are often diagnosed as feline asthma or allergic bronchitis, may actually be caused by the presence of heartworms in either larval or adult stages. The acronym "HARD" is the term for this clinical presentation and stands for Heartworm Associated Respiratory Disease. Heartworm preventive medications are the only option for cats, as there is no approved treatment for feline heartworm disease.
Heartworm disease treatments are available for dogs, but treating for heartworms is much more costly and dangerous to the animal than simply preventing it. Yet another reason to use year-round prevention is that many heartworm preventives also have activity against other intestinal and common parasites, such as roundworms and fleas.
Options for preventing heartworm infection in both dogs and cats include daily and monthly tablets and chewables as well as monthly topicals. These methods are effective, easy to administer and inexpensive. These medications interrupt heartworm development before larvae and adult worms reach the lungs and cause disease. When administered properly and on a timely schedule, heartworm infection can be prevented.
The American Heartworm Societyis the global resource for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of heartworm disease. It was formed during the Heartworm Symposium of 1974. The American Heartworm Society stimulates and financially supports research, which furthers knowledge and understanding of the disease. Its headquarters are located in Batavia, Ill.”

Heartworm disease is a serious and potentially fatal condition caused by parasitic worms living in the arteries of the lungs and occasionally in the right side of the heart of dogs, cats and other species of mammals, including wolves, foxes, ferrets, sea lions and (in rare instances) humans. Heartworms are classified as nematodes (roundworms) and are filarids, one of many species of roundworms. Dogs and cats of any age or breed are susceptible to infection.
The American Heartworm Society together with the American Association of Feline Practitioners and Pfizer Animal Health has made it one of its priorities to educate and alert cat owners of this serious problem.

“Countless cat owners throughout the United States are misinformed about feline heartworm disease, posing serious risk to their feline friends. Cats may be misdiagnosed with feline asthma, or test negative for heartworm antigens and antibodies but still have heartworms in their systems. Now, due to new research, veterinarians recognize this infectious agent is doing a whole lot more damage than previously thought.

The KNOW Heartworms campaign is a public awareness campaign sponsored by the American Heartworm Society (AHS) and the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP), and funded by an educational grant from Pfizer Animal Health. The program stresses the importance of understanding the five myths and misunderstandings about feline heartworm disease:

1. Dogs vs. Cats: Heartworm is not just a canine disease, and it affects cats differently than dogs.
2. Indoor vs. Outdoor Cats: Heartworm disease is mosquito-borne and evidence has shown indoor cats are just as susceptible to it as outdoor animals. In a North Carolina study, 28 percent of the cats diagnosed with heartworm were inside-only cats.
3. It's a Heart Disease: “Heartworm disease” is a misnomer; it mostly affects the lungs, not just the heart. The disease frequently is mistaken for asthma and other respiratory diseases.
4. Adult Heartworms vs. Larvae: New research shows that heartworm larvae at all stages, not just adult worms, can cause serious health problems.
5. Diagnosis: Accurate diagnosis can be difficult, since negative antigen and antibody tests don’t automatically rule out the presence of heartworms.

Feline Heartworm Disease
Heartworm infection takes place when a mosquito carrying infective, microscopic-size heartworm larvae, bites into a cat for a blood meal. The larvae then actively migrate into the new host and develop further as they travel through the subcutaneous tissue in the cat's body. At about 3-4 months, they usually settle into the arteries and blood vessels of the lungs, where they continue to develop to sexual mature male and female worms (Dirofilaria immitis). The average time from when the microscopic parasites enter the host until the females develop into mature worms and produce offspring is approximately eight months and is referred to as the prepatent period. This is about one month longer than in dogs.

As adults, the heartworms can mate and the females can release offspring called microfilariae (pronounced: micro-fil-ar-ee-a) into the blood stream. The cycle begins again when a mosquito takes a blood meal from the newly infected cat and draws the microfilariae into its system.

Cats are resistant hosts of heartworms, and microfilaremia, (the presence of heartworm offspring in the blood of the host animal), is uncommon (usually less than 20% of cases). When present, microfilaremia is inconsistent and short-lived. Some cats appear to be able to rid themselves of the infection spontaneously. It is assumed that such cats may have developed a strong immune response to the heartworms, which causes the death of the parasites. These heartworms may die as a result of an inability to thrive within a given cat's body.

Cats typically have fewer and smaller worms than dogs and the life span of worms is shorter, approximately two to three years, compared to five to seven years in dogs. In experimental infections of heartworm larvae in cats, the percentage of worms developing into the adult stage is low (0% to 25%) compared to dogs (40% to 90%).

However, heartworms do not need to develop into adults to cause significant pulmonary damage in cats, and consequences can still be very serious when cats are infected by mosquitoes carrying heartworm larvae. Newly arriving worms and the subsequent death of most of these same worms can result in acute pulmonary inflammation response and lung injury. This initial phase is often misdiagnosed as asthma or allergic bronchitis but in actuality is part of a syndrome now known as Heartworm Associated Respiratory Disease (HARD).

Which Cats Are Susceptible?
Although outdoor cats are at greater risk of being infected, a relatively high percentage of cats considered by their owners to be totally indoor pets also become infected. Overall, the distribution of feline heartworm infection in the United States seems to parallel that of dogs but with lower total numbers. There is no predictable age in cats for becoming infected with heartworms. Cases have been reported in cats from nine months to 17 years of age, the average being four years at diagnosis or death.

Clinical Signs
The clinical signs of heartworm infection in cats can be very non-specific, and may mimic many other feline diseases. Diagnosis by clinical signs alone is nearly impossible, but a cat may exhibit generic signs of illness, such as vomiting intermittently (food or foam, usually unrelated to eating), lethargy, anorexia (lack of appetite), weight loss, coughing, asthma-like signs (intermittent difficulty in breathing, panting, open-mouthed breathing), gagging, difficulty breathing (dyspnea) or rapid breathing (tachypnea).
Signs associated the first stage of heartworm disease, when the heartworms enter a blood vessel and are carried to the pulmonary arteries, are often misdiagnosed as asthma or allergic bronchitis, when in fact they are actually due to a syndrome newly defined as Heartworm Associated Respiratory Disease (HARD).
Some cats exhibit acute clinical signs, with disease often related to the organs where the adult heartworms are thriving. Occasionally such infected cats die quickly without allowing sufficient time to make a diagnosis or offer appropriate treatment.

Diagnosis
Heartworm infection in cats is harder to diagnose than it is in dogs and it is easy to overlook. Diagnostic tests have limitations, so negative test results do not necessarily rule out an infection. Antigen tests, for example, only detect adult female or dying male worms. Immature or male-only worm infections are rarely detected.
The diagnostic plan for heartworm disease in cats can include, but is not limited to, a physical examination, radiography (X-ray), echocardiography (ultrasound readings of the heart), angiocardiography (X-ray of the heart with injected contrast fluid), CBC (complete blood count), serologic testing (antigen and antibody study), microfilaria testing, and necropsy (after death).

Physical Examination
The results of a physical examination may appear to be perfectly normal in cats infected with heartworms. Harsh lung sounds are a frequent abnormal finding and may be present in cats without any respiratory signs. The presence of a heart murmur or abnormal rhythm is uncommon. Only rarely, have there been reports of ascites (fluid in the abdomen), exercise intolerance and signs of right-sided heart failure. In cats, the primary response to the presence of heartworms occurs in the lungs.

Treatments
Currently, there are no products in the United States approved for the treatment of feline heartworm infection. Most cats with heartworm infection that are not demonstrating clinical signs are allowed the time for a spontaneous cure to occur. If there is evidence of disease in the lungs and their blood vessels consistent with feline heartworm infection, such cases (possibly in the early stage) can be monitored with chest X-rays every six to twelve months as needed. Supportive therapy with small, gradually decreasing doses of prednisone (a cortisone-like drug) is recommended for cats with radiographic or clinical evidence of lung disease.
Cats with severe manifestations of feline heartworm disease may require additional supportive therapy, and may benefit from intravenous fluids, oxygen therapy, cage confinement, bronchodilators (which expand the air passages of the lungs), cardiovascular drugs, antibiotics and nursing care.

Heartworm extraction with various surgical devices has been performed in cats in which the worms can be visualized with ultrasound at the tricuspid valve or in the right atrium (of the heart), and especially in those rare instances of caval syndrome (obstruction of blood flow affecting the heart and the liver.

Preventives
It is generally recommended that all cats be tested for both antigens and antibodies (serology) prior to administration of a heartworm preventive. There are four heartworm disease preventive products approved by the FDA for use in cats, (see your vet for details). All of these products are considered effective in preventing the development of adult heartworms when administered properly on a monthly basis relative to the period of transmission.”

Covering the same topic, however with emphasis on latest scientific research, Veterinary Practice News recently published an article on feline heartworms. In it, Gary D. Norsworthy, DVM, Dipl. ABVP (feline) who owns and practices at Alamo Feline Health Center in San Antonio, Texas and also frequently speaks about cat health at veterinary conferences and seminar, reports of a study performed at Auburn University which has shown a new side of feline heartworms. This study, performed with financial backing from Pfizer Animal Health in NY, came to the following conclusions:
“Life CycleWhen a mosquito bites a cat, larvae (L3 stage) are deposited on the cat’s skin. Within minutes they enter the subcutaneous tissue through the bite wound. The L3 molt within a couple of days to fourth stage larvae.

L4 migrate subcutaneously in fat and muscle for two months, then molt to become a juvenile or immature adult worm. Immature adult worms enter circulation via a peripheral vein. This occurs about 60 days after infection. An antibody response begins about this time; some cats test antibody positive.

Within the next 15 to 30 days, 75 to 90 days post infection, the immature adult worms arrive in the pulmonary arteries. The vast majority of the juvenile worms die, are carried by blood flow into the lungs and cause an intense inflammatory response affecting the pulmonary arterioles, bronchi and alveoli.

It is estimated that about 3 to 4 percent of the immature adults become 6 inch long adult heartworms and live for two to four years before dying spontaneously.
HARD
Heartworm associated respiratory disease, or HARD, is unique to the cat. It is defined as vascular, airway and interstitial lung lesions caused by the death of immature adult worms, and the inflammation may last up to eight months.
The study revealed: If 100 infective larvae are administered to a dog, 75 will mature to adults. If 100 infective larvae are administered to a cat, many will become immature adult heartworms; however, only three to four will mature to adults. A very large number of immature adult worms develop but never make it to adulthood due to the effects of the cat’s immune system. Severe lung lesions are present but:
No adult worms will be present on necropsy. The immature adult worms disintegrate within the lung tissue and are very difficult to find on necropsy. Antibodies disappear very quickly. Antigen tests will be negative because there have been no adults. Radiographically, these cats may look similar to cats with allergic bronchitis. Interstitial or bronchial patterns may be present, and the caudal pulmonary arteries may be enlarged and blunted. In some cats, apparent enlargement may be due to periarterial inflammation. Repeated exposure to immature adult heartworms results in severe interstitial and bronchial disease.”

It is no wonder that this disease has eluded detection until we learned of the results of this study.

Let’s recap, in summary the 3 important points are:
1. By about three months post infection, 2 inch long immature adult heartworms are in the pulmonary arteries. .
2. Most of these are killed by the immune system, never becoming adult heartworms. They are carried by blood flow into the lungs..
3. About 3 percent to 4 percent of the immature adults become 6 inch long adult heartworms.

Dr. Norsworthy continues:
“For every 10 heartworm-infected dogs in a given locale, one cat has adult heartworms. However, it is likely that only about 10 percent of heartworm-infected cats have an adult worm. That makes the exposure and infection rates of dogs and cats about the same.

Heartworm Testing
Antibody Tests: Antibodies are produced by the presence of immature adults, and they begin to wane as the immature adult worms die. If the immature adult worms mature to adults, the adult worms suppress the immune system, causing antibodies to dissipate. Most antibody tests turn negative about four months later as long as new infections do not occur. A positive antibody test means one or more of these possibilities: A current infection with late L4.; a current infection with immature adult heartworms, a current infection with adult heartworms; a previous heartworm infection. Antibody persists about four months.

Many cats with HARD are antibody positive and antigen negative. However, many test negative on both antigen and antibody tests, making differentiation from cats with allergic bronchitis virtually impossible.

Antigen Tests: A positive antigen test means (one or both): One or more adult female heartworms and/or one or more dying adult female heartworms.

Heartworm tests are inclusionary, not exclusionary. If they are positive, they are meaningful. If they are negative, they are not meaningful.

Antigen or antibody testing is not necessary to begin heartworm prevention because there is not a reaction between current heartworm prevention products and any stage of the heartworm.

Microfilaria Testing: In contrast to dogs, very few microfilaria circulate in cats. This test has very poor sensitivity in cats. This also explains why cats are very poor reservoirs for heartworm infections to other cats or to dogs.

Summary
Positive antibody test: This cat is or has been infected with heartworms that progressed at least to the immature adult stage. It is clearly at risk of future infections
Positive antigen test: This cat is infected with adult heartworms. It is clearly at risk of future infections.
Microfilaria testing: This test has a very poor diagnostic yield.
Most cats with HARD have mild coughing, but a severe respiratory crisis can occur when a large number of immature adult heartworms die at once. These cats should be placed on a heartworm preventive product to prevent new infections.”

I know, it all sounds very scientific and can be very confusing. However, this is a topic I really want every cat owner to become familiar with. You need to know about this, heartworm is a serious problem you don’t want your pet to suffer from and have to go through the lengthy, painful treatment. What kind of surprises me is that how seemingly little we know or knew about this problem related to felines. The best site to find more details and kind of easy to understand info including graphical illustrations is the one of the American Heartworm Society. Besides background info, the site features a lot of downloadable materials (for free) and even features an educational section “Just for Kids”.

Do puppies need supplements?

Most important key to growth and development of a puppy is without question proper nutrition. According to what we see at the store, a remarkably high percentage of puppy owners, first timers as well as experienced dog parents is extremely careful when it comes to feeding their puppy the right diet and definitely acknowledges that fact. I wonder sometimes why, strange enough not the same percentage of adult dog owners is nearly as sensitive and picky about their dogs’ food. I guess it must have to do with parental instincts, a feeling that a baby or kid just has different need and needs more of a parent’s care than an adult.

And as much as these puppy owners are concerned about the right food, as often they wonder if it is necessary to supplement the puppy food. The variety of supplements for all life stages being offered these days has become quite impressive and picking the right ones is almost as much a science as choosing the right food. There is also a great number of supplements specifically aimed at and formulated for puppies. So say the labels, whether this is true or not I would like to discuss another time. Reason why I make this statement is that in a press release I just recently read a warning coming from www.ConsumerLab.com: “Problems with Multi vitamins and Vitamin Water: ConsumerLab.com Uncovers Defects in Over 30% of Supplements Selected for Testing and Finds Most Children's Multivitamins Exceed Tolerable Limits “ Aside from criticizing people products, the release also include a paragraph about “Problems with Pet Supplements: In addition to supplements for people, ConsumerLab.com selected two pet supplements for testing, but neither passed. One contained only 46% of the vitamin A and 54.7% of its claimed minimum amount of calcium. Another was contaminated with 6.45 mcg of lead per tablet. This is several times higher than the amount of lead (1.41 mcg) ConsumerLab.com found to be in this same product in 2007. Contamination limits for dogs are not well defined, but, as reference, the FDA notes that children should not be exposed to more than 6 mcg of lead per day and, as noted above, California requires warning labels on supplements for human use that contain over 0.5 mcg of lead per day. “

Therefore, a healthy portion of skepticism may be in order. However, for today and now, let’s just assume the supplements, especially the high quality ones are what they promise to be and to do. The question here is, are they really necessary? Generally opinions among researchers, vets, breeders, pet owners and members of the pet product industry vary widely, just as they do with everything else.

My typical answer usually is simple: If you feed your healthy puppy a high quality food such as the ones we offer at our store, you don’t need to supplement. Of course, as always, double check with your vet and see what he/she has to say. Sometimes they may recommend supplementing with products supporting normal health like fatty acids or probiotics. Keep in mind, every puppy is different and individual needs may vary.

Sometimes it may be necessary to supplement for short periods of time. One example comes to my mind: When the puppy joins the family for the first time it may be too excited to eat correctly, so it may need a little support there. But that is seldom the case. I have yet to see a puppy, which doesn’t get excited about food and gets so side tracked by its surroundings that it doesn’t satisfy its seemingly endless hunger. After all every puppy is a fast growing body and that fast growth needs a lot of fuel.

Actually I could finish right here. You got your answer: Feed the right diet and you don’t need to supplement. But that would be too easy. There are always those of you who do for what ever the reasons may be not feed the best available food or for example feed diets approved for all life stages. In those cases you have different needs. What is to be included in the “right” puppy food to make sure that it does not to be supplemented?

If you recall any of this blog’s previous comments about feeding a puppy you will remember fatty acids, like Omega-3 to provide DHA and EPA (docosahaexenoic and eicosapentaenic acid) for enhanced mental functions, vitamins to build a strong immune system and minerals to support proper skeletal growth. This is just to name a few.

I came up with an idea: Looking for details as to what should be the ultimate supplement? One supplement comes to my mind, which I definitely call the ultimate. You guessed right: Mother’s milk. This is the super premium fuel for all of the youngster’s needs and optimal growth and development. But what makes it so valuable?

It contains proteins with the appropriate amino acid composition needed for growth. These proteins include colostrum which provides immunoglobulins important in building a strong immune system and vitamins, minerals, hormones, complex sugars and growth factors to promote proper development.

Fats included in mother’s milk help to increase resident time in the stomach to optimize digestion of proteins and other nutrients. Healthy fats also make puppies less likely to develop allergies. The fats in mother’s milk also include medium chain triglycerides (MCT). Because bile and enzyme secretions from the liver and pancreas are not fully functional during the first few weeks of a puppy’s life it is important that the fats ingested are easily digestible. MCT require less bile and enzyme for digestion and are transported from the stomach and small intestine to the liver to be utilized for energy more rapidly than other fats, which must pass through the lymphatic system. MCT’s also increase the absorption of amino acids, fat soluble vitamins and some electrolytes.

Then there are omega 3 fatty acids, which are important for the formation of cell membranes, proper enzyme function, development of brain, eye and nerve cells, healthy liver function and energy and protein production.

Lecithin is necessary for the formation and maintenance of cell membranes, nerve transmission and normal brain and liver functions plus additionally it increases resistance to disease.

And finally, probiotics or intestinal micro organisms play a vital role digestion and overall health by improving nutrient availability, synthesizing enzymes and vitamins, enhancing the immune system and regulating bowel function.

Best of all, it is available as a supplement, typically in powder form to be sprinkled onto the regular food or mixed with water into a liquid formula.

Just as important as the question do you need supplements, is the question how much of them. Be careful, some vitamins and minerals can be dangerous if given in too high of a dose. Example: Calcium if given excessively or at the wrong ratio with phosphorus can lead to musculoskeletal disorders, especially in large breed puppies.

My last word of advice to those of you who believe for economical reasons they cannot afford feeding their puppies a higher priced, high quality food: Do the math and add up your lower priced, low quality food and the dollars you will have to spend on supplements: The bottom line is most likely that you are better off feeding the better food to begin with. And this does not even consider the intangible risk of possibly having health issues with your puppy down the road at later ages.

Allergies in Dogs: Holistic Skin & Coat Care

Pet allergies, and especially dog allergies, are very common. Food, carpeting, blankets, dust mites, mold spores in the air, pollen, plastic food dishes, furniture stuffing and ornamental plants, all have the potential to trigger an allergic reaction in your dog. In some instances, a highly allergic pet may have several allergies at once. The severity of allergies, which can be seasonal or year round, varies greatly. The most common symptom from an allergy is intense itching (known as pruritus), which may be localized at spots or might be systemic, covering the pet's entire body.

Contact Allergies
Fleas are a common source of contact allergies. Other common contact allergens include grasses, hay, plants, and trees. Toxins and chemicals (pesticides, carpet cleaners, etc.) provide additional potential sources for contact allergies for both outdoor and indoor pets.

Let’s take a closer look at flea bite allergies: Flea bite allergy is the most common allergy affecting dogs. In spite of common belief, a normal dog experiences only minor skin irritation in response to flea bites. Even in the presence of dozens of fleas, there will be very little itching. On the other hand, the flea-allergic dog has a severe, itch-producing reaction to flea bites. This occurs because the dog develops an allergic response to flea saliva. When the dog is bitten, flea saliva is deposited in the skin. Just one bite causes intense itching. This type of reaction is not to the flea itself but rather to proteins in its saliva. Dogs most prone to this problem, interestingly enough, are not dogs who are constantly flea ridden, but those who are exposed only occasionally! A single bite can cause a reaction for five to seven days, so you don't need a lot of fleas to have a miserable dog. The dog's response to the intense itching is to chew, lick, or scratch. This causes hair loss and can lead to open sores or scabs on the skin, allowing a secondary bacterial infection to begin. The area most commonly involved is over the rump (just in front of the tail). Many flea allergic dogs also chew or lick the hair off of their legs. In most parts of the country, the problem is seasonal. It is most severe in summer and fall in areas of the country that have cold winters. In warm climates where fleas are active year-round, they are a year-round problem, intensifying during summer. Veterinarians may recommend treatment with small amounts of corticosteroids to give some affected pets relief during the flea season. However, these treatments may be dangerous to your pet if prolonged and only offer relief of symptoms at best. The most important treatment for flea allergy is to get the pet away from all fleas. Therefore, strict flea control is the backbone of successful treatment. Unfortunately, complete flea control is not always possible for pets that live outdoors in warm and humid climates, where a new population of fleas can hatch out every 14 to 21 days.

Food Allergies are generally due to ingredients in your pet's food or treats. Symptoms of food allergies include itching and/or noticeable digestive trouble. A food allergy can be a reaction to almost any ingredient such as soy, wheat, yeast, or beef. Food allergies are so common that pet food manufacturers have invested millions of dollars in research, development and promotion of diets to help dogs with food allergies. I have been and keep addressing food allergies many times within this blog and refrain from more details in today’s comments.Inhalant Allergies
With inhalants, pollen is the most common type of allergen, but cigarette smoke, air fresheners, smog, or other airborne pollutants can also be problematic.

Allergic Dermatitis (Skin problems caused by allergies)Regardless of what causes the problem, this condition is common, it can last a life time, it is a challenge to diagnose and once identified it can be resistant to attempts at treatment. Dogs with inhalant dermatitis will lick and chew at their paws and scratch their face, eyelids and ears. Others may erupt in hot spots or their skin may redden and be intensely itchy all over.

The list of symptoms is endless, but severe itching is the common ailment. Diagnosis of allergies is difficult, time consuming, very costly, and often inconclusive. As a result, allergies are seldom properly diagnosed, and instead, the symptoms are treated in hopes of relieving the pet’s discomfort. These treatments may include topical medications, soothing baths, ointments and sprays, oral antihistamines, or steroids. Caution: If you are sent home with a prescription for cortisone, or your dog has been given “a cortisone shot to stop the itching”, your dog may ultimately be worse off than before if the true diagnosis happens to be an unrecognized case of Sarcoptic mites! A key point to remember is this: There is no cure for allergies! What we can do is avoid the food, material or parasite that is triggering the immune response, and treat both the symptoms and the resulting infections to restore the skin to good health.

We carry at our on-line store a holistic series of products coming from a company called DER Magic. I have tried their products and experienced success with both, our cats as well as our dogs, this stuff really works. You know I don’t like to advertise the products we carry at the on-line store. But sometimes I just can’t help it and feel, if in general it really helps your companions, why not passing on a recommendation. Other stores do it too, even vets make their very specific recommendations when it comes to food, treats and remedies and illness cure. Coming back to DER Magic Skin & Coat Care: This company, as so many within the holistic circle of pet food, treat and supplement suppliers, was started because it’s founder, Dr. Adelie Ritchie, also proud owner of a couple Shih Tzus, tried to figure out how she could help her pups, who often were in need of a quick fix for bug bites, rashes, hot spots or other dermal boo-boos. The doctor’s original prototype product was formulated many years ago, back when Dr. Ritchie was breeding and showing Yorkshire Terriers and teaching organic chemistry at a community college in Florida. At the time, her prize show dog developed a serious skin disease and then progressively got worse under standard veterinary treatments, to the point where her vet suggested euthanasia to put the dog out of her misery. Shenanigan was her name and she had thick black skin by this time, smelled horrible and cried constantly. Back then, as is still the case today, there just weren't any good choices out there for veterinary treatments that weren't loaded with cortisone, steroids, antibiotics or strong chemicals, and even those treatments were not effective enough to save Shenanigan's life. This is when Dr. Ritchie got to work on formulating an effective topical treatment with natural, herbal and organic ingredients. Shenanigan got dunked, slathered, gooped, and drenched in potions, all somewhat effective, but not quite enough. Finally, after a few trials, the prototype DERMagic Hot Spot Lotion was born, and Shenanigan's relief was visible and immediate. She stopped crying and scratching, and her hair was sprouting again within 48 hours of the first treatment. Within six months, she was again in full coat and was parading herself proudly around the show ring. Over the years, Dr. Ritchie used her formulations to treat dogs and cats and horses belonging to family members, friends, and her colleagues in the dog show business, but it was not until much later that a good friend challenged her to make her great products available to every pet owner facing skin problems with their beloved companion animals.
Today, Dr. Ritchie offers a well rounded program of just a few, but extremely effective holistic skin and coat care products. All of them constantly receive very positive recognition in the pet oriented and related media including for example Animal Wellness Magazine to name just one. The line includes a complete 4 step skin care system, a hot spot salve, lotions, soap bars, Dead Sea aromatherapy bath salts and of course shampoos and conditioners.

Besides the very powerful fact that they simply work, what I like the most about Dr. Ritchie’s products is that she enables me to offer yet another effective solution within a well rounded holistic program, from food and treats to supplements and skin & coat care, all together designed to successfully help our customers in their efforts to get rid of their pet’s allergy problems.

To return to today’s topic and in conclusion, always, at the very first sign of itching, look for broken skin, a bite, a sore, or any irritation, and apply DERMagic Hot Spot Lotion or Hot Spot Salve to kill the infection and prevent the irritation from getting worse. In most cases, this is the only remedy you will need. Both products are safe, free from corticosteroids and also are immediately effective at relieving itch from flea allergies, fighting the associated fungal and bacterial infestations, and promoting healing of affected areas.

Pet Food Ingredients de-mystified: Garlic, trust history or hysteria?

When it comes to your animal’s health you want to follow facts and not fears. It is easy for rumors and misinformation to arise. On the Internet such rumors can grow and spread fast. One of the topics, which has been under attack more recently is garlic as in feeding to animals. You too have probably heard on the one hand that garlic is safe and a healthy herb for your pets. At the same time you may also got confused when you found out the next day that it may be dangerously toxic and should be avoided. So what are the facts here?

Quite possibly the confusion surrounding garlic may come from its close ties to the onion family. Onions have a high concentration of thiosulfate, a substance that can trigger hemolytic or Heinz body anemia in dogs, a condition where circulating blood cells burst. Just one generous single serving of onions can cause this reaction. By the way, such reactions can also be caused by serving acetaminophen, as it is contained in Tylenol or benzocaine, which is present in many creams recommended for allergy suffering animals. Benzocaine is absorbed through the skin and builds up in the blood stream. In many cases it has been proven to be involved when originally garlic was suspected to cause hemolytic problems.

But garlic itself simply does not contain the same concentration of thiosulfate as onions do. It is barely traceable in garlic and is readily excreted from the body. Despite this fact, garlic still is falling victim to the net’s mass hysteria. Google for “garlic toxicity dogs” and you get a list of 206,000 sites presenting to you warnings. Yet there is little scientific data to back those claims, except those small amounts of thiosulfate. The good thing though is that if you change your Google search from “toxicity” to “benefits” the result of 5.8 Million sites probably outweighs the negatives. Included in that number are those favorable sites by reputable holistic vets having widely used garlic in their practice for many years.


Garlic has been a primary remedy for as longs as humans have been using herbs. And as long as people have been using garlic they also have fed it to their animals. Its healing properties have proven far reaching and safe to use. During the rebirth of holistic medicine in the past fifty years garlic has been on the forefront of remedies. Pretty much every article and comment on herbal health recommends garlic for animals. This is especially true for its incredible anti parasitic and antiseptic properties. Garlic also has benefited animals suffering from cancer, diabetes, liver, heart and kidney disease, uncontrollable staph infections and a wide host of other conditions.

Feeding garlic raw on a daily absis may be hard on the GI tract and cause digestive upset or diarrhea. If that happens, it means your animal cannot really eat enough to get true therapeutic doses. Forget about dehydrated powder or cooked garlic because it has gone through heat processing, which destroys many of its benefits. Therefore the best form to use it is a purified extract, often found in form of gel caps. This way it can get easily into the intestines in concentrated amounts benefiting the animal without causing digestive upset.

Garlic is a staple in recommended preventative protocols and has been used in hundreds of thousands of animals with no reported negative side effects except on breath. I would say it is fine to use garlic in reasonable doses. When giving it to your pet, use common sense and trust history over hysteria.

Itching and scratching not necessarily due to just allergies

These days the most common reason for visits to the vet and the most asked question from pet owners at our store is about itching, licking, scratching and skin problems. In this article I am going to discuss some of the possible causes along with same basics for addressing the most common cause: Allergies.

Evaluating the history of your pet's problem is very important in helping to determine the cause. Though allergies are the most common cause of itching and licking, there are some diseases that need to be ruled out before embarking on the path of allergy treatment.

Following are some important details that will help to diagnose the problem:
Where is the animal the itchiest? Face, base of tail, above the hips, neck, belly, feet.... Watch your companion closely and determine his or her worst areas. Flea Allergies typically cause itching above the hips, the base of the tail, groin and thighs on dogs. Cats usually itch around the neck with flea allergies. Airborne and food allergies commonly cause itching around the face, ears, belly and feet. Scabies (Sarcoptic Mange/mites) typically cause lesions and itching around the ears, elbow, belly and hocks. Demodedectic Mange generally initially appears in young dogs on the face or forelegs. Cheyletiella (mites) are characteristically present on the back or sides.
When did it start? How old was the animal? Mange is more common in younger animals. Puppies and kittens are also more susceptible to flea allergies as they have weaker, less developed immune systems. Older or ill animals are also more susceptible due to a weakened immune system.

Is the problem seasonal or year round? Seasonal itching is more indicative of flea or inhalant allergies or insect bite. In many cases, an animal will initially show signs of seasonal allergies that progress to year round problems.

Which came first, the itching or hairless patches and/or skin lesions? If the itchiness appeared before any skin lesions, then allergies or scabies are more likely to be the culprit. If the skin lesions were seen prior to the itchiness, then demodectic mange, ringworm, or bacterial infection caused by a hormonal imbalance might be the problem. However, most bacterial infections of the skin are secondary to the allergy or other issue causing itchiness.

Have you tried any medications or treatments that helped? Certain causes of itchy skin will respond to steroid treatment better than others. Flea allergies and airborne allergies seem to be more responsive than other causes.

Has it been contagious to any other animals or humans in the household? Sarcoptic mange, Cheyletiella and ringworm can be passed on to other animals or humans.

Once the cause of the itchy skin is determined, treatment can begin. Any secondary bacterial or yeast infections must be treated, however, before much progress can be seen in remediation of the underlying cause of the itchy skin. Hot spots occur from self trauma that results when the pet attempts to relieve a pain or itch by excessive scratching, biting and rubbing. These must be controlled with topical treatments while the animal's immune system is recovering.

However, the majority of itchy skin is caused by allergies. In addition to itchy skin, other allergy symptoms may be present such as chronic ear infections or respiratory symptoms such as coughing or nasal congestion, and ocular discharge. Food allergies may also cause symptoms such as vomiting or diarrhea that can ultimately progress to inflammatory bowel disease. Some holistic veterinarians also believe that seizures, arthritis, asthma and chronic urinary tract infections can be caused or complicated by food allergies.

Itchy skin and allergy symptoms such as paw chewing have also been linked to over vaccination in a large number of cases. Frequently the symptoms will begin within days or weeks of vaccinations. Educate yourself about vaccinations and the risks involved.

Treating Itchy Skin Caused by Allergies: One of the most common causes of itchy skin is fleas and flea allergies. Flea control is an essential step in the treatment plan for any animal with allergies. Any dog or cat with a compromised immune system is more susceptible to fleas and parasites, so plan to treat the home environment a month before flea season begins. The last thing your pet needs when already battling allergies is a flea infestation to make things worse!
If your pet has been itching for awhile, they may have created bare, red patches in places that can become infected, which is why you need to address these areas right away with topical treatments. Look for hot spot relief remedies, like sprays, baths, shampoos, creams, lotions, etc.. Obviously and ideally all natural and preferably herbal based Should more potent topical treatment become necessary, your vet can prescribe topical treatments and shampoos to help curb the itchiness.

In my mind one of the most important allergy remedies can be your pet’s diet. It is amazing how many pet owners see a dramatic improvement with a change in diet alone. Sometimes this is all what’s needed. With the correct and a good diet you may not even need any further supplements. Allergies are accumulative in the animal's system, even if your pet tends to have seasonal allergies. Food may be adding to the overall load on the system. Transitioning to a more appropriate diet, preferably raw or properly balanced and correct supplemented home prepared food can make a big difference even for pets with seasonal allergies by improving the overall immune system and health of the animal.

While we talk about home cooking for your pet it is necessary to briefly address some supplementation since raw meat by itself is not a complete meal for your pet. The first dietary supplement to consider for an animal with itchy skin are so called essential fatty acids, also known as EFA’s. Fish oil is considered the best source for cats and dogs since the fatty acid chains are readily usable by the animal's system without any conversion process, which is necessary for the utilization of plant sourced essential fatty acids such as flax. EFA’s help reduce inflammation and nourish the skin and coat. They can also be beneficial in assisting the healing process of the digestive system. For older animals, EFAs can help alleviate arthritis symptoms as well.
Allergies are essentially the immune system gone awry. The body starts to attack itself in response to what it perceives as foreign invaders. Supplements to help modulate the immune system are very helpful in treating allergies.

Detoxification/Elimination Support and Healing the Gastrointestinal System: The gastrointestinal system is the first line of defense in an animal's immune system. When a dog or cat has allergies, the gastrointestinal system is usually irritated and inflamed. A leaky gut is the result of this chronic irritation, allowing particles to pass into the blood stream that are too large for the system to manage, this triggers the immune response that manifests as allergies. Antibiotics contribute to the problem by killing the healthy bacteria that aid digestion and maintain a healthy gastrointestinal system. Healing the gut is crucial to the success of allergy treatment.
At a minimum, digestive enzymes and probiotics should be added to each meal to aid in the breakdown of food particles, support the restoration of beneficial gut flora and the healing of the digestive tract.

L-Glutamine is an amino acid essential to the proper function of the gastrointestinal tract. Supplementing the L-Glutamine supports the healing process of the gut and the restoration of healthy gut flora. Look for products designed as a comprehensive intestinal support supplement for dogs and cats, which combines L-glutamine with amino acids, enzymes and probiotics.

Supporting the animal's organs that filter and eliminate waste is another important step when addressing allergies. Liver, kidneys, gastrointestinal system and lymphatic systems are working hard to eliminate the waste produced by the inflammatory process present in allergic reactions, as well as any toxins from medications, the environment and foods. Using natural cleaners around the house and eliminating pesticide and chemical fertilizer use in the yard can go a long way in helping to reduce the load on your pet's system. High quality, preferably organic diets will also reduce the burden of toxin elimination.

Detoxification is essential for any animal that has been treated with multiple courses of medications such as steroids, antibiotics or antihistamines. Steroids, especially, are taxing on the animal's liver. The length of time these supplements may be necessary varies with the severity of the problem and how the individual animal responds. Natural supplements, herbs and remedies are not like prescription medications, they may vary in effectiveness from one animal to the next, and in many instances take time to reach full effectiveness, which could mean weeks or more.

Herbs and supplements designed to relieve the itchy skin and support skin health are another step in your treatment program for chronic allergies. This can help relieve the stress caused by the discomfort, which is supportive of immune function and healing. In addition, reducing the itch helps in the reduction of secondary infections and allows the skin to heal.

Natural treatments do take more time, patience, persistence and effort than a treatment with chemicals and steroids. The long term health and well being of your companion, however, will be far better served by treating the animal's whole system and the underlying cause of the itch, not just the symptoms. Pets can become quite distressed by the itching and can benefit from the addition of stress relieving herbs, supplements, flower essences or homeopathic remedies.
Be persistent in treating the itchiness topically while you are addressing the underlying causes through diet and supplements. This will greatly benefit your pet's ability to heal while at the same time it is reducing stress as well. Secondary infections caused by relentless scratching, licking or biting complicate and slow the healing process.

Pet food going wild Part 2: Evolutionary ancestral diet concepts applied to people food and vice versa

Recently I published a comment titled “Pet food going wild: Understanding evolution and ancestral diets unlocks innovation”. It was based on an article by Petfood Industry.com, an on-line community for pet food professionals, which took a closer look at the industry’s latest trend towards going “wild” with it’s pet food. These days, every day you open a magazine you are assured to be confronted with an announcement of yet another manufacturer introducing his latest “wild” creation. The magazine then went even further and asked “What do you think about making pet foods with so called wild ingredients? Do you like the idea for your pets? How about wild foods for yourself?” Reason why I am bringing up this more or less people related topic is that I believe it contains many considerations that should be taken into account when it comes to pet food as well.

The answer included first some stats:
“Researchers estimate our human ancestors obtained about 35% of their dietary energy from fats, 35% from carbohydrates and 30% from protein. Saturated fats contributed approximately 7.5% total energy, and harmful trans fatty acids contributed negligible amounts.
Polyunsaturated fat intake was high, with an omega 6 to omega 3 fatty acid ratio of about 2:1 (versus 10:1 today). Cholesterol consumption was substantial, perhaps 480 mg/day. (S.B Eaton, 2006. "The ancestral human diet: what was it and should it be?" Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 65, 1-6).
Carbohydrate came from uncultivated fruits and vegetables, approximately 50% of energy intake compared with the present level of 16% energy intake in the US. High fruit and vegetable intake and minimal grain and dairy consumption made ancestral diets base (low pH)-yielding, unlike today's acid (high pH)-producing pattern. Honey comprised 23% of energy intake compared with the 15% that added sugars contribute today.
Fiber consumption was high, perhaps 100 g/day. Vitamin, mineral and phytochemical intake was typically eight times that of today except for that of sodium.”
Secondly, it discussed the subject matter in more detail as follows:
“Imagine for a moment a relationship with food that springs from the organic hungers of the body. There are no "forbidden fruits," there is no philosophy to follow. You can eat when you are hungry, until you feel full. The food is not hurtful to the Earth and is very beneficial to your body. You will lose weight automatically and maintain your ideal weight. You will be protected from degenerative diseases. Food cravings will become but a memory, and you will no longer need supplements. The components of this diet are readily available at your local supermarket and natural foods store.
Sound like another slick commercial come-on or New Age panacea? Actually, it’s as old and indigenous as we are — as a species, that is. In its "born-again" form it is variously called "natural diet," "Paleolithic diet," "Native diet," and "ancestral diet." I prefer the latter term, as it is self-descriptive. In sharing recent findings, researchers in the fields of human nutrition and endocrinology, along with anthropologists and archaeologists, have been formulating what they consider to be the ideal diet. They are concluding that the ideal is the pre-agricultural diet on which our species evolved. It contains the foods that suit our digestion best and are least likely of all foods to cause an allergic reaction.
Many of us have already been seeking better health through conscious approaches to diet — vegetarianism, macrobiotics, food combining, supplement use, and reliance on organic foods are some of the most popular approaches. And many of us feel better and have more energy because of them. Yet most of the people I know are not fully satisfied. They still have food cravings to deal with, and some struggle with excess weight and/or chronic health problems. Some of my friends say they just plain don’t feel satisfied from what they are eating.
Our foraging ancestors, and all pre-agricultural peoples, consumed foods that were easy to gather and edible in their raw state. They used little more technology than sharpened sticks and stones to gather their food and processed it minimally, if at all. Yet their diets were lush with vegetables, fruits, meat, fish, and nuts. They consumed five to ten times more fiber than we do, slightly more protein, and more fat.
Their fiber came in part from fruits and non-starchy vegetables, which made up a larger portion of their diet than ours, and in part from the quality of their produce. Ours has been hybridized to increase sugar and starch content, at the expense of fiber. They consumed better quality protein as well — more fish, leaner meat, and more nuts.
The dietary difference between us is based on the fact that our food sources changed dramatically when we became agriculturalists and herders. As our farm-fueled population expanded we increasingly supplanted animal protein with plant-source protein and nourishing plant foods with starch. We made this shift at the expense of fruits, vegetables, fish, and nuts (curiously, these are the very foods most health authorities now urge us to consume!).
The most stark change was an astronomic increase in complex carbohydrate (starch) consumption. Starch has become the backbone of our diet, whereas our ancestors consumed practically none. The only starch available to them was from tubers and the seeds of wild grasses, both of which were seasonal, small, and fibrous, making them laborious to gather and prepare. The same is true of sugars. Their virtually starch-free diet was the primary reason for their exemplary health; they suffered virtually no obesity, no diabetes, and no immune disorders (rheumatoid arthritis, tooth decay, osteoporosis, and appendicitis).
We can live our entire lives healthily without starch, but without fat we would become severely ill in a matter of weeks. We have but one hormone (insulin) to control the spike in blood sugar level caused by starch; we have four hormones to help raise blood sugar level, which traditionally remains low when fed by slowly digested fat. These factors indicate that we are designed to metabolize fat rather than starch.
Conventional wisdom would have us cringe at the thought of eating fat and snubbing starch. Fear of obesity and cardiovascular disease loom like razor-edged rocks before a rubber raft. But new findings by dietary specialists indicate that fat does not make fat — starch does. Because we metabolize fat slowly and efficiently, we burn it quite completely. Starch breaks down rapidly and floods the system with calories. The body’s inability to burn them off as fast as they come triggers an immune response, and the body deals with it by dumping the excess as fat.
It’s the quality rather than the quantity of fat we consume that affects the cardiovascular system. The fats of fish and wild animals actually help prevent heart disease; they have a healthy ratio of component oils. Surveys of Native diets indicate that the higher the consumption of these beneficial fats, the lower the incidence of many diseases.
Vegetable, seed, and legume oils were not part of our ancestral diet, so we did not evolve the capacity to healthily assimilate them. Nut and fruit oils (olive and avocado, for example), on the other hand, are part of our food history and remain healthful.
Many of us are already familiar with, and practicing, elements of our ancestral diet. The Atkins and Eades popular weight reducing diets are based on ancestral diet principles. Food combining and macrobiotics, the underlying principle of which is to eat what is naturally and seasonally available in your area, include ancestral approaches. However, in keeping with our cultural tendencies, we import "macrobiotic" foods, thereby negating the principle of eating locally.
Because the ancestral diet is not a philosophy or set of principles, but a list of foods our pre-agricultural ancestors ate, recently-evolved food crops upon which agricultural society are based are not included. Grains, legumes, and dairy foods, for example, often are major components of our present- day diet. But they played negligible roles in our ancestors’ nutrition. Grains and legumes (and most tubers) have toxic properties, which protect them from being eaten. They were not consumed by our ancestors and we cannot digest them properly. Notice that corn, wheat, legumes (which include soy and peanuts), and milk are our most common food allergens.
Forty percent of our adult population shows some allergic response to dairy. Wheat and corn allergies are common. Legumes give most of us at least minimal digestive disturbance, and some legumes are rendered digestible only through processing. Many more of us, while not diagnosed as allergic to these foods, still have stressed immune systems — the instigator of autoimmune disease.
Our systems are stressed by these "indigestible" foods because we have not yet adapted to the onslaught of starch that agriculturalism has imposed upon us. We are only 400 or less generations removed from our foraging ancestors, and genetically, we’re virtually identical to them. Our bodies want what they ate. (Our pets suffer from these foods as well, and for similar reasons. The cancer rate in dogs is skyrocketing, and dogs are afflicted with some of the same autoimmune diseases that visit us.)
All in a Day’s Diet
So how do we reestablish our old diet? Let’s visit our aboriginal past and experience a hypothetical day’s meals:
Upon rising we sate our early hunger with a quick and easy meal of the blueberries and juneberries growing in the meadow before us, then round it out with a handful of nuts from our stores of last autumn. By late morning our appetites return, drawing us to the succulent fish roasting over the fire. While we were making rush mats for a lodge, two of our kin brought the fish up from our traps in the river, and gathered greens for the lunch as they made their way back. This morning the children, instructed by the women, set snares and deadfalls in the thicket just east of camp. Shadows now stretch across the valley — their signal to check the traps. Within minutes they are back with two lizards and a jackrabbit (the women and children generally provided more of the protein than did the men) to add to the flowers and mushrooms they gathered earlier in the afternoon. We look forward to an evening feast!
The Principle of the Thing
Of course in this day it is not practical for all of us to return to a fare of wild foraged foods. Our lifestyles wouldn’t allow that, nor would our crowded Earth. But we can follow the principle with the foods available to us. Obviously, we’re looking at an entirely new concept in food shopping! But don’t let that dissuade you; the diet is quite easy to replicate without altering your food procurement routine. The following guidelines should help get you started.
Shop the edges of your food store. There you’ll find the ancestral foods — fruits, vegetables, fish, and meats. The taboo processed foods — grains and beans — are conveniently sequestered to the middle aisles.
Buy organic, or even biodynamic, when possible, and choose free-range over grain-fed beef. It ain’t wild, but it’s the next best thing.
Choose foods edible in their raw state, even if you plan to cook them.
Select foods and proportions within the guidelines of the Ancestral Food Pyramid.
Seek out new foods. The more varied your diet the more interesting and satisfying it will be and the more broad-based will be your nutritional support.
Choose fish that is not pond raised. They are fed soy mash and do not compare nutritionally with their wild counterparts. Ocean salmon, for example, have twice the omega 3 fatty acids of their pen-raised kin.
Eat a significant portion of your food raw or lightly cooked.
Change your diet slowly to allow your intestinal flora to adjust. If you have any trouble (diarrhea, bloating, gas), eat greens for a couple days, then slowly add meat, nuts, and fruit, in that order.
Incorporate some wild foraged foods.
Remember that what we eat and how we eat it is not a failsafe formula for health; it is only a component. We need clean air, clear water, and a lifestyle low in stress. We need the nourishment we gain from healing, sustaining relationships. Perhaps, eventually, we can gain these lessons from our ancestors as well. For now, we’ll have to make do with their wisdom about food.”
The entire subject matter is certainly a very controversial one. And I personally have a hard time to see ourselves as humans just eating raw food. This is especially since I have seen a lot of research which clearly showed that exclusive raw diet may cause problems, in some cases pretty severe ones. It is different with animals, they always have eaten raw food and never had any prepared meals such as we humans do. However, the human race, ever since inventing fire always prepared its meals by cooking it. I admit, it also maybe just a mental barrier I am having with the thought. What do you think about the concept in itself? I think we still just don’t know enough about nutrition to come up with the right answer, and that applies to pets as well as to humans.

Canine Niche and Special Needs Diets

Perusing your pet food store can be a daunting venture if you enter unsure of what you want to leave with. The shelves seem overloaded lately, with niche and specialty diets for various ailments, specific breeds, activity levels and more. There seems to be something for everyone with diets tailored to the finest detail. A juvenile Chihuahua with diabetes and an exceptionally small mouth can now find something just for her, it seems!

Are these niche diets all they're cracked up to be? Probably not. When you take a closer look at the ingredients in each, there really aren't even too many differences between each of them within a given manufacturer's line. Oftentimes, it's all in a name.

Some breeds certainly are prone to specific health concerns and some illnesses to respond well to dietary adjustments but for the most part, a few basic food-buying guidelines can set the majority of animals on the path to good health.

Here's our quick checklist for things to consider when choosing a sound canine diet:Quality not quantity (don't be too penned in by numbers) Just because your vet suggests a certain percentage of protein, doesn't mean that a food 1% outside the recommendation is unworthy of consideration.

A diet with 18% protein might contain by-products and fillers. Broaden your range and you might find something with a meat-based protein source that will maintain healthy kidney function, just as well!

Expense doesn't always equal quality. Don't just assume that buying the costliest food will assure you of its suitability. Look for more than just a pretty label - As with lots of things in life, marketing tactics abound in pet food products. Beautiful illustrations and clever names might lead you to think a food is better than it really is!

Choose to buy from a company who offers sound, thoughtful customer service and product recommendations specific to your pet.

The dangers of relying on a diet that's marketed just for your breed can lead to a false sense of security, too. The food you feed must be selected according to your individual animal's unique requirements, not the breed that's pictured on the label. No two bulldogs are exactly alike and one single diet shouldn't be expected to meet the needs of every bulldog under the sun.

That said, there are many great quality, broad-reaching diets that the vast majority of dogs will thrive on. Avoiding by-products, fillers, chemicals, colors, and flavor enhancers, is a must for everyone. Grains should often be avoided in those prone to chronic GI upset, ear infections and skin irritation, all of which are frequently caused by a dietary gluten overload. But some dogs actually need grain in their food to maintain a healthy bodyweight.

For the most part, a diet with a moderate nutritional profile and a good quality spectrum of ingredients will serve the task well. Don't automatically shy away from higher protein foods just because your pup is over age six. Healthy Seniors can actually benefit from a substantial protein percentage it helps maintain collagen, which provides amino acids that are essential for tissue growth and repair. Celebrating his seventh birthday shouldn't automatically warrant a change in food!

Try to encompass variety wherever possible. Good quality, whole food people ingredients are not bad for dogs when offered in moderation, as an accompaniment to a good quality basic diet. Don't be duped by the big guys, into thinking that all you should feed is the product they make. They are thinking about their bottom line, if you don't share your food with your pup, the more you'll need to buy of their product.

If your dog has special requirements, try keeping a notebook with comments about which foods seem to trigger reactions. Was it high carbohydrates or increased fat that leads to a gain of those few extra pounds? Does more protein really set off her urinary tract problems? Do all grains make his ears flare up or just the high gluten ones?

Sure, a large breed puppy does have somewhat different nutritional requirements than a senior small breed but they are both Canis Major with the same basic organ systems and their needs might not be quite as diverse as some companies would have you believe.
Contribution by Lucy Postins, Founder, Owner & President of The Honest Kitchen

Pet obesity - a pet owners' problem

Reading the Veterinary Practice News the I came across the following article written by Jessica Tremayne, titled “Pet Obesity – A Huge Problem”. While I kind of agree with her, I look at the problem a little different and, be forewarned, not quite as polite and forgiving as she did. But let’s first see what she had to say:
“Two-thirds of clients say nothing about their overweight pet unless the veterinarian speaks first, experts say. Initiating the conversation is the first obstacle that veterinarians face when helping patients reduce weight.
The U.S. has the fattest pets in the world, and the social and psychological pressure to ignore weight problems is huge.
A February 2009 report from the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention shows that more than 44 percent of dogs and 57 percent of cats are overweight or obese. The figures represent an increase of 1 percentage point in dogs and 4 percentage points in cats compared with a 2007 study.
“Pet obesity continues to emerge as a leading cause of preventable disease and death in dogs and cats,” says Ernie Ward, DVM, the association’s founder and chief-of-staff. “Pets are in real danger of not living as long as previous generations and developing serious and costly diseases such as diabetes, arthritis and other largely avoidable conditions.
“We are afraid to offend our clients or make them feel uncomfortable about their own weight if we discuss their overweight pet, but staying quiet is risking the patients health.”
One tactic is to use the body assessment rating for canines (BARC) or another scoring scale, experts say. This takes the focus away from the fat and onto the medical condition.
“You wouldn’t avoid discussing a diabetic cat’s condition with a diabetic pet owner, so don’t avoid the weight issue with owners that may have the same problem,” says Dottie LaFlamme, DVM, Ph.D., Dipl. ACVN, of Nestle Purina PetCare Co. “Give the owner something to work off of. Use a scale of 1 to 9 or 1 to 5 so they have an opportunity to realize the severity of the problem. The biggest problem is getting the owner to accept their pet is in fact overweight.”
Excuses
Owner excuses for overweight pets include a misperception of the amount eaten daily, stories of constant hunger, passing blame onto others, disinterest in exercise and thoughts of complacency with being “fat and happy.”
“You have to write clients a prescription for weight loss or else they will forget everything you talked about in the exam room when they walk out your door,” says Veterinary Practice News columnist Patty Khuly, VMD, founder of the veterinary blog Dolittler.com. “You want to tell clients, ‘This dog is fat and you are going to kill her,’ but you really have to approach it on an individual client basis–know what they can and can’t handle. Tread lightly and get past the fat and talk strictly about the weight, even though some clients need to be hit over the head with the shocking facts.”
Some experts suggest giving clients a free measuring scoop provided by a pet food manufacturer. Many clients want to be told what to do step by step, often the only way to help them manage their pet’s weight loss.
“We come from a food is love society and getting pets to lose weight or stay at a good weight means breaking habits,” says Dr. Khuly, who practices at Sunset Animal Clinic in Miami. “Calories really should be listed on the side of all dog food bags since many owners are accustomed to counting calories for themselves, but unfortunately, most manufacturers do not have that information listed.
“The amount designated on the side of the animals’ food bags calls for more than needed as well. The only way pets would burn off those calories is if they were athletes. Society is working against successful weight loss because owners with trim dogs are often looked at as if they are starving their pets.”
By the NumbersThe Association for Pet Obesity Prevention found feline obesity rates of 17.8 percent, or 15.7 million animals, and an additional 35 million overweight cats. Dogs did better, with 9.6 percent, or 7.2 million, classified as obese and 26 million considered overweight.
“These numbers, 33 million dogs and 51 million cats that are overweight, represent a huge problem for everyone,” says Dr. Ward, who practices at Seaside Animal Care in Calabash, N.C. “Excess weight causes or contributes to many painful and debilitating conditions. Just as we’ve become a nation of couch potatoes, our pets have become a nation of lap potatoes, and that’s not good for anyone.”
Older animals had a higher incidence of being overweight: 52 percent of dogs and 55 percent of cats older than age 7.
“This is a particularly concerning discovery for veterinarians,” Ward says. “Extra pounds in older pets amplify any pre-existing conditions and complicate treatment. We’re seeing more and more diabetes, respiratory and arthritic conditions in older pets as a direct result of obesity. These are often chronic, incurable and generally preventable diseases. Pet owners need to understand that a few extra pounds on a dog or cat is similar to a person being 30 to 50 pounds overweight.”
Veterinarians need to recommend solutions beyond just prescribing diet food, experts say. Click here for information that can be passed to owners in tactful ways. The website shows safe and correct ways to cut calories and how to exercise a dog. It also discusses praising a dog with affection as opposed to confection, which puts on unneeded calories.
“Clients tend to never get their pets into aerobic exercise. They simply walk them, which isn’t very effective,” Ward says. “Veterinarians need to help clients get their pet back to a healthy weight and not by simply saying the animal needs to eat less and exercise more. We’ve gone down that road and it’s about as effective for animals as it is people.”
Suggestions“Giving clients a list of treats you are comfortable with is a good start,” Ward says. “You must give specific examples of treats and a number to give at once.”
Other tips include individualizing weight-loss plans. If Plan A isn’t working after three months, try something different to adjust to each patient’s unique needs. Tell the client what excess weight does to a pet’s body.
“New research shows that fat tissue is biologically active,” Ward says. “Scores of hormones are produced by this tissue and that affects the heart, brain, liver, pancreas and entire endocrine system.”
Prevention is the best approach, which means discussing proper nutrition and exercise when the animal is young. Considering that many animals are considered adults at 1 year old, they shouldn’t put on many more pounds at that point.
“Animals aren’t babies as owners often view them,” Ward says. “Just like in people, you should weigh the same as you did when you were 18 or 19 – when you stopped growing.”
Getting the clinic staff involved is a great tactic. Employees who use recommended weight-loss techniques on their pets can discuss the obstacles and accomplishments with clients.
“When the staff is on board, they can sincerely attest to clients the benefits of maintaining a healthy weight for pets,” Ward says. “It can be as simple as figuring the calories in food. You can help you clients calculate the proper amount of food for their pets based on the type of food and animal’s size.”
Medicine and ResourcesPfizer Inc.’s Slentrol, as well as other emerging and developing drugs, can be used after more traditional methods have been explored, Ward says.
“I am all for anything that helps fight obesity,” he says. “There are some weight-loss drugs that will hopefully be getting Food and Drug Administration approval soon. With 50 percent of animals having a weight problem, action must be taken. These are big numbers and they hold up across the board. It’s really frightening.” “
Great job, Jessica. Now my opinion on the subject matter:
First I like the idea that the article clearly shows who is to blame for the problem: Sorry, but yes it’s you, the owner of the obese cat or dog. This time it’s not a pet food manufacturer or the entire pet food industry. Whether they make good or not so good food, they tell you how much you have to feed, all you have to do is follow their instructions. It’s not your pet. If your pet wants to eat all day long, simply don’t let it happen. You are in control. Jessica says, I should follow the expert’s advice of being tactful about telling you the truth? What is so tactful on your part, you are killing your pet. Now what does that have to do with love? This reminds me of the show I followed the other night on TV where they talked about this 685 lbs person and the entire family keeps providing junk food by the truckload every day in and out. They love this family member? I am sorry, but I can’t help it: I cannot see any love in the idea that they are killing a loved one.
Jessica says: “The U.S. has the fattest pets in the world, and the social and psychological pressure to ignore weight problems is huge.” Don’t we also have the same problem with our humans? Is that where the problem originates? Because we don’t care too much about ourselves, we don’t have to care too much about others, including our pets?
“Owner excuses for overweight pets include a misperception of the amount eaten daily, stories of constant hunger, passing blame onto others, disinterest in exercise and thoughts of complacency with being “fat and happy.””
Misperception of amount eaten daily? What’s to misunderstand here? Feeding instructions are very clear. If the instructions say feed 2 cups then simply do that and don’t think you have to override the manufacturer’s instructions because to you it looks like it’s not enough. Unfortunately some of our animals can’t tell by themselves when they have enough. They will eat whatever and as much as you put in front of them. Let me remind you, on top of it you have to consider that most feeding instructions are already on the upper limit. By providing even more you are not just wasting your money (the animal will only utilize what it’s body requires, everything above and beyond that kind of “blows” straight through the system without any beneficial utilization), you also are paving the road to disease and early death.
Granted, and this part I do understand, it happens often when pet owners switch from a low grade to a higher quality food. All the sudden they have to feed less because there is a higher nutritional utilization in the pet’s body taking place. Then these owners often wonder, “… but is that enough?” You bet it is. And listen to me and the manufacturers. Don’t think we don’t know what we are talking about and you know better. My goal is to keep your pet alive and disease free for the longest possible time, that’s the only way I can make money off you and your pet. So why would I recommend a feeding strategy accomplishing quite the opposite? Think about it.
Quit feeding unhealthy table scraps on top of the regular food rations. The portion your pet got is enough for a certain period of time, it does not need any more food. Period. It is as simple as that. You may think you do your cat or dog a favor, you don’t, you are contributing to a preventable disease.
Also, keep in mind, another problem area are treats. Some pet owners think they have to provide treats on a 24 hour basis. Let me remind you, most of them are calories too. A treat should be a reward for doing something right and good. Or a treat can be given to keep an animal busy and occupied. It should not be a habit and for sure not part of the feeding plan. Just like you shouldn’t eat too much deserts, chocolate, junk food or whatever you get pleasure out of eating besides your regular meals, neither should your pet. Trust me, a meaty raw bone to chew on is much more appreciated by your pet that any snausages or other junk from the super market. Plus, they are way healthier and don’t pile on those calories.
I don’t quite get where “blame can be passed onto others”. There is only one pet owner, he’s in charge. Period, it is that simple. If the pet like in most cases belongs to a family and it is a matter of every family member feeding the animal, simply put someone in charge and tell everybody to stay away from feeding. Do that by explaining that it will ultimately kill the animal. What’s so difficult about that?
What happened to our common sense? Does that no longer exist for most of us? Like Dr. Ward says in the article: “it’s a preventable disease.” To prevent it is the pet owners job.
Owning a pet comes with responsibilities. Keeping the pet at regular weight is one of them. Can’t exercise the animal because you have no time or are simply too lazy to walk the dog? Make sure you have someone else take care of the walking. Can’t afford it? Don’t have a pet. I am sorry, but to me it is that simple. By the way, the money you spend on a dog walker is probably way less than what you end up spending with having your obese pet later on treated at your vet.
And what finally really made me upset about the article is Dr. Ward’s announcement that there are drugs to fight obesity on the horizon. Great, first we mess up, then we come up with a fix. This fix for sure will have a negative impact on the pet’s overall health and well being and guaranteed will be the cause for more problems. Why don’t we do the right thing to begin with?
You know that I am always on the pet owner’s side. Not so in this case. Because pet obesity has absolutely nothing to do with healthy or unhealthy food. This one we can’t blame on the mass marketed pet foods. For this one we have to blame ourselves. Is that why it is so difficult for pet owners to understand? Because they can’t blame nobody else?
Sorry, I didn’t follow Jessica’s advice of being very tactful about it. But I think it is about time that someone speaks the truth and puts the facts on the table. I couldn’t help it but to take Dr. Khuly’s advice very serious: “some clients need to be hit over the head with the shocking facts.” I think Dr. Ward is right: "... staying quiet is risking the patient's health". That is why I was a little more agressive today.

Simple Dental Care for your Dog: Simply give a bone

Forget about celebrating Dental Month for Dogs catering to vets for teeth cleaning services worth (?) hundreds of dollars, try this instead: Simply Give Your Dog a Bone

The other day one of my local customers, she owns 2 dogs, was picking up her food and asked me if we would have any tooth paste for the dogs. She almost got upset when she told me that she just had spent a couple hundred dollars for cleaning her dogs’ teeth at the vet’s office. Of course that came on top of the bill for annual checkups, heartworm treatments, and shots for this and for that, so she ended writing a check for about $800 before she even had gotten any of her doctor’s prescribed food. Needless to say, at that point she was sort of fed up and decided going forward to take care of her dogs’ teeth not just better than before, but mostly on her own. It just so happened that around the same time I came across this interview. Ward Johnson, founder and President of Sojourner Farms, the makers of Sojos Raw Food Mixes had a chance to sit down with and talk to the Canine Coach Maureen Haggerty of The K9 Coach about dental hygiene for dogs and keeping your dog’s teeth clean:

Q. What do you recommend people do when it comes to doggie dental hygiene?
A. Brushing your dog’s teeth is a noble act, but through my personal experience I discovered that I got the same if not better results from letting them chew on raw bones. Raw knuckle bones (the joints) in particular are great because they are soft and still have some tendons and muscle meat attached. They look kind of round like the shape of your fist. These bones clean your dog’s teeth in addition to providing them with a nice oral workout – not to mention a healthy dose of natural calcium.

Q. Does it matter if the bones are raw or cooked?
A. It does matter. Raw knuckle bones are what I recommend versus cooked or sterilized bones. Cooked bones are more likely to splinter from the effect that high cooking temperatures have on them. And cooked bones, especially the white sterilized bones from the pet stores, will also be deprived of beneficial nutrients which raw knuckle bones are chock full of. A further benefit of raw bones versus the white sterilized bones from the store, are that they are much more yummy to your dog. This translates into more chewing time from your dog, which will both keep him occupied and better clean his teeth.

Q. Why the knuckle bone as opposed to other types of bones?
A. Raw knuckle bones are soft and allow dogs of all sizes to scrape their teeth into the bone, nicely cleaning food and tartar from their teeth. The meat tissue typically still left on the bones allow for a separate type of chewing, which is natural and necessary for your dog. This is the nibbling and pulling you see your dog do with his front teeth. They will use their front teeth to pull the tissue off the bones which is a great way to clean these teeth – natural flossing, if you will.Being that this is a conversation about teeth cleaning, I am going to focus on the raw knuckle bone in particular as the best type for the topic at hand. This is not to say dogs should never chew on anything else or any other type of bone. Satisfying the need to chew is very important whether or not it contributes to keeping the teeth clean. So let me just say that while other bones may make fine chew toys, I don’t feel they serve the teeth cleaning purpose. One in particular that I don’t recommend for teeth cleaning (besides cooked or sterilized bones) is the femur bone, which ironically is the stereotypical “dog bone” shaped bone. While your dogs will enjoy raw femur bones, I find that they don’t do as good of a job at cleaning the teeth because generally dogs cannot scrape into the femur as easily as they can with the knuckle bone. I also find that the enjoyment doesn’t last as long as it does with a knuckle bone. Many dogs spend most of their time licking out all of the marrow from the femur bones, which may be tasty but has nothing to do with teeth cleaning. Once the marrow is gone, most dogs seem to lose interest. Unlike raw knuckle bones, femur bones are usually very clean, with no meat tissue on them, and they are not very edible because you have to be careful for narrow walled femur bones, which might split upon chewing creating sharp edges. In addition, the marrow in femur bones is very rich and high in fat. Not that this is bad for your dog, but some dogs may react with diarrhea caused by the marrow, though most dogs do just fine with it.

Q. Where do you find raw knuckle bones?
A. The best place to find raw knuckle or femur bones is from your local butcher of the meat counter at your local supermarket. Ask them if they will cut them to the appropriate size for your dog.

Q. What about small dogs. Is there a more appropriate size bone for small breeds?
A. Ask your butcher if she will cut the bones down if they seem too large for your dog. Not that your small dog can't handle the big bones, but you wouldn't want them to consume too much at once (although most dogs are likely to self-regulate). Also, you will have more bone left to put back in your frig or freezer. Femur bones are often cut into small pieces at your grocery store's meat section. But I do prefer the knuckle bones, and you can get those cut down if you want. Also, make sure the bone size is large enough. Femur bones need to be longer than your dog's mouth is wide. Too short of a femur bone has been known to get lodged in the dogs mouth between their teeth.

Q. Is this alternative to teeth brushing a philosophy followed by Holistic Vets, Conventional Vets or both, generally speaking?
A. I actually have not discussed this with any vets. I do get comments with each visit how clean and healthy my dogs' teeth and gums look. They say I do I good job brushing, and I just tell them it is the bones they chew on.

Q. How often do you recommend my dog chew on raw bones...and for how long should each “chew session” last?
A. I let my dogs and any guest dogs chew on them as long as they want. The first chewing session on a fresh bone typically lasts 30 to 60 minutes. But I have had some guest dogs chew on them for hours straight, being very delighted in this new treat. Chewing is also nice exercise for your dog. I find them very content and relaxed while chewing and a little sleepy afterwards.

Q. How should the bones be stored when not in use?
A. When I bring home new bones, they are stored in my freezer until they are given to the dog. I usually thaw them out or run warm water over them before giving to my dogs. After your dog is done chewing on the bone, if he leaves any meat on the bone, I would put it back in the freezer or refrigerator. If after the first chewing, the bone is pretty well cleaned up, I let them stay out. Although do not let the bones stay outside in the warm months if you do not want flies all over them.

Q. Is this bone chewing thing a stinky and messy past time?
A. Well, not so stinky when they are fresh, but definitely messy. You will want to keep your dog on a doggy blanket or towel that can be easily washed, keep them outside, or contained to their crate, which can be easily washed out. Once the bone has been chewed down well, they are actually quite clean and I let my own dogs chew on them throughout the house.Keep in mind that many holistic veterinarians still advocate regular brushing and annual dental care (teeth cleaning, polishing and full dental exam) even for dogs that eat raw bones. This is especially important for dogs with very poor dental health and for breeds with unique oral structure such as greyhounds, poodles, or collies. Also, dogs with poor health or tooth quality can have tooth fractures when chewing on raw bones.Proper tooth and gum health can prevent bad breath, periodontal disease, discomfort and pain associated with inflamed or infected gums, as well as more serious conditions such as kidney disease, liver disease, heart conditions and joint problems. Plaque and tartar can build on the teeth, offsetting the balance of good bacteria in the mouth, which leaves way for infection and disease to spread. Whether you brush her teeth daily, or let your dog chew on raw knuckle bones daily, what’s important is removing that plaque and tartar regularly. This and a healthy dog food diet full of naturally, occurring nutrients will keep the immune system up and the good bacteria plentiful, which in turn will make your canine’s canines shine. – End of interview

I would like to add that most of the raw food brands we are selling at our store offer raw bone options, another alternative source for pet owners.
Just for fun I went to visit Wikipedia to see what they are saying on this topic. Here we, go, I am sure you agree with me that this still has to be in the beginnings and requires a lot more work: “Some proponents of raw diet claim noticeable benefit to the dental hygiene of pets who eat raw bones, while others believe that ground bone should be used instead, to prevent the possibility for intestinal puncturing and dental fractures. The abrasion between bone and teeth when chewing is believed to scrape off dental plaque. Cartilage, ligaments, and tendons are thought to act as a natural dental floss. The chewing and tearing action is also believed to strengthen the jaw, neck and shoulder muscles, keep the digestive juice flowing and boost the neurological and immune system. Proponents of ground bones believe that the chewing of muscle meat may also assist in keeping teeth clean.
The use of whole bone creates a risk of dental fractures, intestinal obstruction, gastroenteritis, and intestinal perforations. Wolf care managers questioned on the topic of feeding bones identified the presence of animal hide with hair as offering some protection from intestinal perforation in the wild. An analysis of the skulls of African wild dogs showed that the natural diet of wild carnivores does not prevent them from suffering the same oral disease as their domestic counterpart, although other studies have had results that claim otherwise. Raw diet proponents note that the same risks of obstruction, puncturing, and dental fractures are present in dog chews, with little evidence indicating that this is a serious problem particular to raw diets with bones. Some veterinarians state that chewing raw bone is an inadequate substitute for regular dental cleaning and tooth brushing.” My reason for bringing this up here was that I think I have the answer to the veterinarian statement in the last sentence: Read my first sentence on today’s comment.

Interview courtesy of Ward Johnson, founder and President of Sojourner Farms, the makers of Sojos Raw Food Mixes
Note: Most of the raw food product lines represented at our store include numerous options for raw bones.