Raw Food Diet?

[Yoshirocks07]

Hi there,

My chow Yoshi (1 year old) has had some weird digestive issues for a few months now.I've taken him to several vets and they all gave me different answers ranging from food allergies to stomach parasites and even stomach crystals. I finally changed him to Natural Balance L.I.D as well as purified water and he did well on it for about a month or so but now he's back to vomiting and having diarrhea randomly. I honestly have no idea what to do, I read that perhaps changing him to a raw food diet would help him. Any input would be welcomed

[PCC]

How is Yoshi doing?

My boy Dim Sum had a lot of digestive issues too when he was a puppy. I never could find the right formula that would result in normal stools. He would be okay for awhile, and then he would have diarrhea. As I recall, he didn't really settle down until after 18 months or so. He is 5 1/2 now. His daily diet now consists of both dry dog food and raw chicken with the bones. I rotate his dry dog food brand and/or proteins every couple of months. This has worked well for him and me.

[Cam Atis]

Cassie some mornings have soft stools resembling diarrhea. But will be back to normal by afternoon. Try giving your chow Lactobacillus drink (Yakult) or if it cant be found in your area, give him yoghurt to boost intestinal flora. I havent given it yet to Cassie. She has normal stools most days. Today early morning her stomach rumbled and she didnt eat her ration until tonight.

I don't feed my dogs raw anything be it chicken or whatever! I dont wanna whet their appetite for something raw and besides, there are more germs and parasites lurking in the raw meat than when it is well cooked. In the wild that's fine as the meat is freshly killed. Oh whatever, I dont give raw to all of them. i dont even encourage them to eat live poultry.

[sara]

Yes, I think a raw diet is the way to go, definitely. Any dogs stomach is capable of consuming raw food due to the high acid and bile contained in the dogs stomach,
You need to have good hygiene principles when feeding a raw diet, if you do this then all should be well.
Even in the wild a dog may not be consuming a freshly killed animal, dogs are hunters and scavengers,
As for the recalls on manufactured dog foods...well....a contaminated food manufacturing facility can put the bacteria in virtually every processed food imaginable. Recent food recalls for salmonella have involved nuts, chocolate bars and peanut butter.
I feel people learning that dog food has become contaminated feel that if it can happen to manufactured food then raw feeding must be the biggest no, no going, this is wrong IMO.
Green tripe is a highly nourishing raw food to give to your chow or any dog. The benefits of tripe are immense and can be noticed in days of feeding, not months
All the info is out there for you to research, so you can make your mind up.
Certainly if my dog was reacting as yours is I would try a raw diet/ with/without some home cooked foods, it doesn't have to be all raw, let your dog be the judge of it. You will notice soon enough if the dog is healthier as a result.

As an aside, I would never give a dog "Yakult" in its ingredients are ...glucose-fructose syrup, sweeteners (maltitol syrup, sucralose), dextrin, flavouring, nothing in that little lot which will benifit a dog. The best bet is natural yoghurt/ I make my own using goats milk for the dog and rich cows milk for us humans, its nice and fresh with all the healthy bacteria, or home made kefir (made with goats milk for the dog and full fat milk for me), it has many more healthy bacterias than nat. yogurt, Google kefir it if you don't know what it is, you must use the living grains to make kefir, not the useless powdered formulas. Doms site about kefir is highly informative, If you don't wish to give these you could give a good brand probiotic, however i feel the home made yogurt and kefir to be better than a freeze dried powder.

Of course the choice is yours, good luck

[beckysmyth92]

Hello!

I hope all is well with Yoshi! I would certainly recommend switching to a raw food diet from my own experience with my girl Dakota. I feed her cooked white rice, fish in olive oil, frozen blueberries, some mornings she gets cottage cheese! I also give her treats regularly and ensure they're low in protein. I find this diet works really well as her stools are very healthy and she is a very happy dog! I have found that from switching from commercial dry food to this diet she is on now has changed her significantly. She no longer gets diarrhoea, her coat is very shiny and in great condition due to all the nutrition in the fish & the olive oil! A chow chow is very deep chested and often swallow so much air when they are eating that it causes bloat! This diet my girls on is easier for her to digest which means she won't be bloating!

If you do decide to go on to a raw diet, ensure you know all Yoshi's nutrition needs are met in the food you provide!

I wish you all the best with Yoshi & hope you find a diet that suits him

Good Luck!

[sara]

A little info on tripe,
A sample of green tripe was analysed by Woodson-Tenent Laboratories, Inc. in Gainesville, Georgia.

The results for sample# G97-16346 are as follows:

· Moisture 71.37%
· Crude Fat 11.70%
· Protein 15.82%
· Ash 1.23%
· Phosphorous 0.14%
· Calcium 0.12%
· Calories 756.35 cal/lb.
· pH 6.12
· Lactic Acid Bacteria 12,000 CFU/G
· Linoleic Acid (EFA) 2.72%
· Linolenic Acid (EFA) 0.37% Reads as pretty good stuff for a chow.

The essential fatty acid for dogs is linoleic acid.

If you don't want to go all raw diet then a good idea when feeding a chow is one third protein/ third veg/fruit and third carbs.

[Cam Atis]

Linoleic and linolenic are all essentials even to humans. It can be sourced out from natural food or supplements. Not everyone can make fresh yoghourt.
Yakult's advantage is in the Lactobacillus shirota strain that it contains. The sugars there are part of culture and doesnt harm in small amounts. That's the good bacteria.

[sara]

Linoleic and linolenic are all essentials even to humans. It can be sourced out from natural food or supplements. Not everyone can make fresh yoghourt.
Yakult's advantage is in the Lactobacillus shirota strain that it contains. The sugars there are part of culture and doesnt harm in small amounts. That's the good bacteria.

Its really easy to make fresh yogurt by the way, but true not every one makes it, as for the yakult, I should have said sweetners. sorry Cam Atis, I always say 'sugars' when referring to 'sweeteners' as they are as nasty as each other IMO, the sweetners are added not part of the culture. true cultured milk/ kefir actually eats the natural sugar / lactose from the milk which is great, making it usually ok for lactose intolerent humans and dogs, why would any company add sweetners, its just to make it more palatable for us humans.
Look at Malitol for example, its in Yakult and many so called low calorie products. Maltitol is a sugar alcohol and has a relatively high glycemic index nearly as high as sugar its self, it can cause Intestinal Discomfort that takes the form of intestinal gas and cramping, or diarrhea,
Fructose.... When too much fructose enters the liver, the liver can't process it all fast enough for the body to use as sugar. Instead, it starts making fats from the fructose and sending them off into the bloodstream as triglycerides. High blood triglycerides are a risk factor for heart disease.
Fructose ends up circumventing the normal appetite signaling system, so appetite-regulating hormones aren't triggered--and you're left feeling unsatisfied. This is probably at least part of the reason why excess fructose consumption is associated with weight gain.
There is growing evidence that excess fructose consumption may facilitate insulin resistance, and eventually type 2 diabetes.

These are just some of the reasons why i wouldn't feed yakult to my chow or myself, to get the benifits of good bacteria into the gut yiu really need to consume these things daily, we consume our home made kefir daily and safely.
As an aside my mums colestral came down after consuming kefir so she doesn't need tablets anymore, , she hadn't been taking it very long either when the transformation occured.

Just the other day i found sunset yellow "e" colouring added to my vitamin tabs.... they went in the bin. Damn eyesight is not good and i found the addative in tiny weeney small print.

By the way, i have a few spare kefir grains if anyone is interested, i could share with anyone in the uk, i think to send them to the states they wouldn't survive the trip.

[kingalls]

I have been feeding my two raw Green Tripe for at least 3 years. I am fortunate to live in the same town that "manufactures" Green Tripe (www.greentripe.com). The first time I fed it to them, they came back into the house and had the look of "Got more?"
We are not 100% raw diet since I give them Solid Gold kibble. I know some people don't give anything but raw but I think you need to make sure all of the dietary needs are met. I'm not sure if Green Tripe gives 100%.
Be sure to read up on all you can regarding giving your chow a raw diet which can include meaty raw bones. I think it's very good to give them a diet that is not a lot of processed food.

[Merlin]

But green tripe is not a raw diet. In many cases it's canned, not even raw.

While it's true there are many ways to achieve the object of raw feeding, a raw diet is about raw meaty bone, and green tripe has little or nothing to do with a raw regime. In the can, it's certainly considered a processed food, and the raw frozen variety is only a supplement ( and a questionable one at that), to the actual diet.

We've been feeding our rescues raw for about 10 years now, and it's shaved a LOT of money off our vet bills.
If you want to learn about feeding raw there are loads of valuable books and websites that can offer you bounties of good information.


Great places to start are:
http://www.rawlearning.com

On Yahoo
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/rawfeeding/

On facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/261761471359/

Books:
Raw Meaty Bones by Tom Lonsdale DVM

Chows are super candidates for a raw regime. Out of all breeds, they have a wonderful mastiff jaw very capable of pulverizing bone and masticating meat. You can say goodby to dental bills too!
We have some nice before and after pictures at:
http://www.merlinshope.com/2010/index.p ... ticleid=57

and a sample menu at:
http://www.merlinshope.com/2010/index.p ... ticleid=66

Go for it. There is everything to be gained by feeding dogs "naturally".


Cheers

[sara]

But green tripe is not a raw diet. In many cases it's canned, not even raw.

I don't see how “green tripe" from a freshly slaughtered animal is not a raw food,?

[Merlin]

Yes, fresh tripe is raw food, absoluely! - but it's not enough to constitute a raw diet, and it's not even a necessary component of a raw diet, it's anadditive. There are some people who think that feeding dog tripe is feeding dogs a complete raw diet. It isn't.

[kingalls]

Just to clarify, I feed my two raw green tripe from the GreenTripe Company that use tripe from grass fed cows. They are not on a true raw diet but I feel I am providing them a better alternative than anything that is canned. I recommended that someone looking to do a true raw diet make sure they read up on it.

[Merlin]

Yes but you cannot just feed tripe as a complete diet. That's what I'm trying to get atl.
It is in no way enough nutrition to feed your dog every day with. It's a side plate... a supplement.. .that's all it is,

and if the product says that you can feed it as a regular food, t hen it's nothing more than just another commercial food, and that is not what a raw regime is.
That is the distinction I'm trying to make.

[sara]

Yes but you cannot just feed tripe as a complete diet. That's what I'm trying to get atl.
It is in no way enough nutrition to feed your dog every day with. It's a side plate... a supplement.. .that's all it is,

and if the product says that you can feed it as a regular food, t hen it's nothing more than just another commercial food, and that is not what a raw regime is.
That is the distinction I'm trying to make.

Yes i see what you are saying,
A raw diet would be meaty bones, offal, I assume that is correct.

I feel this thread has got a wee bit muddled.
Some of us were saying that we thought "raw green tripe" to be a good food for our chows. This has been used in the UK for many, many years, especially before commerial dog food, and has been seen to be a good source of food for a dog.

I actually read what it said on a commercial bag of frozen green tripe the other day while my friend had it out of her freezer for feeding to her rotties, on the bag it said it was important NOT to feed this on its own as a complete food but to add, fruit, veg, rice/sweet potatoes.
I cook for my chow and use raw tripe with different ingredients like wholemeal rice, sweet potatoes, boiled egg, small portion of veg,fruit, cottage cheese, I also produce many different varieties of meals including feeding cornish sardines and different meats, along with various supplements and give kefir daily.
I lightly steam fruit of veg and mash to a pulp, she gets fresh rabbit sometimes if my hubbies out in the countryside, she's had pheasants too but I have always lightly cooked the meat.
I make her diet up as 75% animal protein and the rest is different combinations of fruit/veg/rice/sweet potatoes/herbs.
I don't go with the idea where I've read here and other places that a chow chow should only have a small amount of meat,


I am all for a complete raw feeding diet the way you proceed with feeding BUT I am too scared to give raw meaty bones so I have never done a proper complete raw diet but I do think this or the prey model raw diet is as nature intended and is possibly the best diet for any canine.
So thats where I stand, quite a contradiction I know because I'm all for it BUT too scared to proceed, so I do what i feel the next best thing is and home prepare meals along with a good commercial wet food some days.
I do know of some chows that are fed lots of raw meaty bones along with a few meals of home cooked and all 12 of them are thriving, I don't at this present time know anyone else with a chow chow, they are an unusual breed here in England, you just hardly ever see them. I know of people and communicate a little with them but i haven't met their chows as they all live scattered around the country.

Every vet I have ever spoken to has always said, yes meaty bones are good but if the piece of bone was to perforate an organ that the outcome could quite easily be death. So every vet has always advised never to give raw bones. I was also told by a friend that someone they new were following the BARF diet (which I think is raw feeding with some veg and dairy?) for their dog and had been for a couple of years since their dog was a pup, unfortunately a bone fragment tore the bowel which was operated on to try and repair it but the dog, a Lab, died a week after surgery. This is what stops me feeding this way, it scares me and I would never forgive myself if something happened to my dog. My dearest now deceased shepherd was deprived of meaty bones for these same reasons, however I am sure a barf diet would have been best for him but again, as a family we are and were too scared to feed in this way. I gave him some big raw beef bones a few times which he loved but stopped doing this when I saw he was biting stone sized sharp fragments off of the bone, see it just scares the hell out of me.

If my dog was ever showing clinical signs of having a food allergy, bad skin complaints, what ever then I would probably take the plunge and go to a completely raw diet of BARF, buy as my dogs have always been fit and healthy (thank god) so far I have never had to make that push.
I have read so much where a raw diet has alleviated food allergies.

I have read quite a few of your posts Merlin and totally respect what you say,