Yassy's K9 Central

Dog aging project:Anti aging drug for dogs

Having a pet is great. They will give you unconditional love, support and they will be a good listener if you were feeling bad about something and talking to them.

With any animals, if you have a pet, someday, you would encounter the day you have to say “Good bye” to them. That is the hardest part of all in the life with them.

Recently, I stumbled across the news talking about anti-aging drug for dogs.

The drug was already tested on mice, and according to the scientists, the drug extended mice’s life span by 10-15%.

Now, they are looking to see if it would help any for dogs as well.

That magical anti aging drug is called “rapamycin”.

It’s commonly used in kidney transplants to prevent organ rejection.

Rapamycin is a bacterial by-product discovered in the island’s famous statues and is named after Rapa Nui, the Polynesian name for Easter Island.

According to dog time website, University of Washington scientists  are learning that it also has rejuvenation properties, and they are testing on Golden Retriever, Labrador, and German Shepherd through the project called “Dog aging project“.

They started with the 3 breed because of their life spans, which are usually 11 to 12 years of age and because they tend to get heart disease and cancer.

Apr 24, 2017 | Comments are off | Dog Health

Canine Osteoarthritis

Our dog “Palette” was born in 2005,which makes her 11 years old.

In human years, she is 57 years old.

If you would like to find out how old your dog is in human years, you can check out here.

Dog ages much faster than human would.

Just like human, as your dog ages it is inevitable that you will see some signs of old ages such as  getting harder for them to jump into the car, taking more time to getting up, after getting up from laying down position you might see some stiffness in their joint (limping), or maybe, taking time to come down the stairs, and they might sleep longer than they were used to.

You could take these signs as the natural ageing process,but some of them might not be,and it might be an evidence of an underlying medical problem.

For example, one of the common thing among the old dogs is called “Canine Osteoarthritis”.

It is the joint problem that joint cartilage gets breakdown. Even though joint problem sounds like old dog issue but young ones could get one too.

I do not know if Palette  will get this issue but when she was puppy, at one point, she was limping. Doctors we saw thought she must have tore the ligament, looking at the X-ray and manipulating legs.

They also commented that if ligament was tore in young age, sometimes, those young dogs develops arthritis earlier than other dogs and that would be something to keep in mind.

However, when her leg actually gets cut open, ligament was perfectly fine. Then, they never actually could find out why she was limping.

One thing that fixed her issue was joint care tablet, that got NZ lipped green mussel along with glucosamine, chondroitin.

She was being able to run and she was not limping anymore after she was on it like 1 week long.

She is not limping still, but one thing that I be careful of when it comes to feeding is that, I make sure that I feed her things like trachea, poultry feet, cartilage etc for joint health.

Yes, she is not limping now but giving those treats with benefit would no hurt.

Joint issue for dog is actually close to my heart kind of topic because of our own dog went through limping phase and had joint issue as a puppy.

In this entry, I would like to share the information about canine osteoarthritis.

What is Canine Osteoarthritis?

According to Canine journal article website, Canine Osteoarthritis is also known as degenerative joint disease (DJD), and it is defined as the progressive and permanent long-term deterioration of the cartilage surrounding the joints.

What is the difference between Arthritis vs Osteoarthritis?

Arthritis is, as you know, it is the inflammation of the joints;characterized by the degeneration of cartilage, boney proliferation resulting in bone-on-bone contact within and/or around affected joints, and synovial membrane changes.

Osteoarthritis is the term referring to a form of chronic joint inflammation caused by deterioration of joint cartilage;it can be as mild as hearing the click of a knee or as severe as secondary to chronic hip or elbow dysplasia, or trauma, abnormal wear in joints or cartilage, obesity (since it would put stress on joints) .

Older dogs are at the highest risk.

There is no known cause for this at this moment,however.

How can you tell if your dog got Osteoarthritis?

To diagnose the issue, veterinarian may ask you historical symptoms, such as decreased activity or stiffness, as well as a physical examination which will reveal a decreased range of motion, stiff-legged gait, deformity of the joints, and swelling or pain in the joints to assess.

The most common sign might be slowing down of their animals.

Some dogs may not be able to coming downstairs or upstairs as smoothly as they could as once they could when they were young or they may have trouble when getting up from a lying position (sign of stiffness).

What can you do to help them ease the joint pain issue?

If your dog shows sign of osteoarthritis, you may want to consult with your vet for further diagnose and tell you if your dog got arthritis or osteoarthritis and then, they can give you the treatment options to help them feel better.

Treatment options..

Whether your dog got arthritis or osteoarthritis, most likely, your vet would want to prescribe the NSAID ( Non steroid anti inflammatory drugs such as remadyl ( To learn more about what NSAID is, how it works, what to avoid etc.., please refer to our past entry titled “ stem cell therapy for dogs “).

Along with it, they would most likely recommend you to give your dog joint care supplement (glucosamine/chondroitin, but personally, since these two glucosamine/chondroitin is most popular and basic combination, most joint care supplement would contain those. What I personally prefer for Palette if she had another bout of limping again is that to look for the supplement that also contains NZ green lipped mussel.

It did great on her in the past. That is why, while it is not the same brand that Palette was taking, I searched for vendor for joint care supplement and found one maker that offer one with NZ green lipped mussel so you can try on your dog and see how it does on them. YOu can find the joint supplement here.)

Because vet would most likely recommend glucosamine/chondroitin for dogs with joint issue, I would like to add that feeding things like trachea, cartilage, poultry paws, gullet (taffy/weasand) that are known as great natural source of glucosamine/chondroitin are great treats for your dogs.

Also, Omega 3 fatty acids are especially good thing to add to your dog’s diet too. Fish that are high in omega 3 fatty acids include, salmon,herring, mackerel, and sardine,

In addition to feed these omega 3 fatty acids rich fish in form of whole/fillet fish, you can add fish body oil to your dog’s diet to bump up the level of Omega 3 fatty acids.

This will help the joint issue as well.

That being said, if your dog got osteoarthritis, then, medication is not for cure but for management since Osteoarthritis is progressive disease.

If the disease was suspected to secondary to obesity, you can also manage the area by exercising your dog and feeding healthier diet as well.

Extra weight stressing the joint got off and the dog achieved the ideal weight, your vet might be able to guide you to give minimum dose of medication,which I think is a good thing.

Now is the good time to review your dog’s diet and exercise regime and help them get better..

For more information on osteoarthritis for dogs, you can read the full article at canine journal website here.

Another website that might be good reading is at dogsnsw website here.

Dec 05, 2016 | 1 | Dog Health

Guinness Draught Beer for heatrworms in dogs

In the previous entry titled “Ivermectin sensitivity in dogs“, I wrote that we tend to give preventative pills without much thought, and your vet might suggest you to give monthly preventative for flea,tick,and heartworm to your dogs.

There, I have explained how monthly heartworm pills work, what heartworm is,and how dogs get infected with heartworm first.

Also, I have warned you about ivermectin sensitvity in dogs.

If you missed it, according to petside website, researchers first saw reaction in collies to ivermectin back in 1983.

If you give enough of ivermectins, these ivermectin sensitive breeds like collies get reactions by drooling, stumbling, blindness, coma, respiratory problems etc.. at the dose of 1/200 dose of medication that would be enough to cause problems in other breed.

Washington University studied about this peculiar reaction to “iverectin” by collie and breeds that are related to collies and found out about mutation in the gene called MDR1 genes (Multi Drug Resistance gene) in the breed.

These MDR1 gene forms the protein and help flashing out the drug from the brain. When these gene could not function as it should and could not help flashing out the drug from the brain, then,medication can build up in the brain and cause problems.

If you have herding breed or have breed that are known to have mutant MDR1 gene, you should consult with your vet when surgeries because some of the drugs that could cause the problems are in the anesthesia and find the other option of drugs.

Breeds known to have high rate of mutant MDR1 gene are collies,but some other breed are also being reported as well.

Laboratory can test the DNA by cheek swab or blood sample with roughly 2 weeks wait.

In this entry, I would like to focus on the natural remedy / preventative / treatment floating around as rumor on the internet.

Guiness beer and heatrworm….

You may be surprised to hear Guiness beer you find at the grocery store is something to do with heartworm remedy for your dog’s heartworm prevention/treatment.

I too was surprised to hear about that at first and soon, I got very curious about the remedy. It was even more so because alcohol beverage is toxic to dogs.

According to article written by canigivemydog website, if dogs drink beer, or any other alcohol,ethanol gets absorbed into their body and dogs’ metabolism cannot process as well as us human.

To read full article,please click here.

As explained before with monthly heartworm pill, when people think the pill is to prevent the dogs from getting the heartworm but it does not work like that.

This pill does not prevent the heartworm from occurring at all, but rather pills kill the already existing microfilaria to cut off the life cycle of heartworm larvae that was transmitted by heartworm positive female mosquito.

Also, vet and preventative pill box may say to give monthly but, did you know that this 30 days rule was implemented for us to remember the frequency easily?

In naturality, the pill is good for 45 days to 60 days. That is why, I give Palette heartworm pill that does not contain ivermectin every 45 days during the warm month when mosquitos are active . Then re start after taking heartworm/tick test called “Snap 4DX”, making sure her system does not have heartworm already.

I do not like to give synthetic preventative pill too but, I am compromised by making interval longer than 30 days, and limit the months to give.

It is simply because I did not find any better solution specially for heatworm.

If you live in warm states throughout the year such as FL, giving pills all year around might be better.

If tick or flea, there are remedy such as lemon water or essential oil but those do not work for heatworm.

Anyway, those who give dogs Guiness drought beer believe that giving the Guiness beer (stout beer) works like heartworm pill would because of  hops in the Guiness; they claim they can kill heartworm larvae that have been in the system for the past 30 days just like preventative pills would.

They also use it to treat the heartworm in dogs.

When I tried to research on this theory,I could not find scientifically proven documents at all and, the method seems to be floating on the internet as rumor. However, some use this method for their dogs and they strongly swear by it.

However, at the same time, I found that hop itself is toxic to dogs.

I found out that there are many warning towards home beer brewers from professional beer makers as well.

Here is one that I came across.

According to Northern Brewer company website (please click here), they have heard about their customer’s scary experience after their dog consumed hops.

They say that the research is not extensive, but ingesting hops can be highly toxic to some breeds of dogs (Golden Retrievers and especially Greyhounds).

Some dogs that ingest hops rapidly develop a condition called Malignant Hyperthermia, in which the body temperature rises uncontrollably and it can be fatal.

Some other symptoms include restlessness, panting, vomiting, abdominal pain, seizures, rapid heart rate, and high temperature.

What is hop?

According to Bark magazine article written by Shea Cox DVM, hops is the plant that are used in the process of brewing beer, and both the raw or spent hops are toxic.

True flowers or dried hops plugs tend to be more toxic than hops pellets. It is because pellets have less residue.

She also writes that the wild hops have been found to be non-toxic.

They do not know how the toxicity occur but they suspects that it may be related to essential oils, resins, phenolic compounds, or  nitrogenous constituents within the plant.

That being said, according to her article, many of the substances in hops are degraded or aerosolized during the brewing process

However, hops toxicity is very dangerous and serious matter to dogs.

She write that she has seen rectal temperatures greater than 108 F.

The high end of normal of a dog’s temperature is 102.5 F, and any temperature above 106 F can lead to an “unwinding” of the body’s proteins as well as permanent brain injury, depending on the length of time that the elevation in body temperature persists.

According to her article, any breed of dog can be affected, but breeds that are predisposed to malignant hyperthermia (extreme elevation of body temperature) tend to be more susceptible.

These breeds include Greyhounds, Labrador Retrievers, Saint Bernards, Pointers, Dobermans, Border Collies, English Springer Spaniels, and northern breeds.

You can read her full article at bark magazine website here.

You can also read on hops and dogs at vetlearn website here.

With this information, you now know that the hops is toxic to dogs, and you learned that many of the substances in hops are degraded or aerosolized during the brewing process

However, we do not know how much of whatever causing the hops toxicity is in the beer at all.

It simply because no one has measured the toxic substance for dogs in the beer yet.

Also, we do not know how much of hops are lethal dosage even.

The Guiness beer feeding for heartworm support group say that hops is toxic only if they are consuming concentrated hops or hops pellets.

The support group claims that the amount of beer recommended for the heartworm treatment is minimal.

Therefore, the risk of hops toxicity or alcohol poisoning is slim.

Dosage for Guinness beer for dogs…

When I looked into the information, the recommended dosage seems to be around 1 oz per 25 lb body weight.Serve flat beer to avoid gas or bloat,they say.

Some people seem to feed the amount divide into two serving or so.

Give them the dosage once, and then once again in two weeks, and only once a month afterwards.

They also say if they test positive for heartworm within the first couple of months, give them the dosage every two weeks for three months.

Guinness Black Draught; from Dublin Ireland..

One thing that found it interesting about this topic is that, they say it must be Guinness Black Draught; the kind that comes from Dublin.  They say it cannot be made anywhere else.

Why so? They believe that the hops and water in this area are what makes the treatment effective.

According to petlover website, the way they brew it over in Ireland is better, slower, more hops, and better water.

To read full article, please click here.

To find out more on beer itself, I have reached out to the maker of the company; Guinness and asked about their beer.

According to the Guinness company, the St. James’s Gate Brewery is situated on the banks of the River Liffey in the heart of Dublin, but the water used in our brewing process comes from the Wicklow mountains, a little way to the south.

They said that all of the Guinness Draught sold in North America comes from the St James’s Gate brewery in Dublin, Ireland. Ireland is also the water source for all of that beer.

When I asked about hop content, I have received very interesting answer to that.

Despite the fact that Guinness beer feeding supporters believe that their beer has most hops, it was not so.

Guinness company representative has told me that the Guinness Draught does not have the most hop content of any beer, and in fact would be described as less hoppy than many beers and even other beer categories outside of stouts.

My husband told me before that Guinness must have been known for lower hop content in the beer and he was correct.

I have also asked them if they are aware of this natural heatrworm treatment method passing around among dog lovers,thinking if the method was so popular and well known among people, then locals there in Ireland must know/heard of something about that.

To that question, the representative said that they are unaware of people using Guinness to treat heartworm in dogs.

They said that they do not claim that drinking Guinness provides any therapeutic or health benefits, nor that it should be served to animals.

With my curiosity, I searched for the beer with highest hop content in the beer and it was India pale ale.

I can see why they are picky about what beer to feed; Guinness draught beer from Ireland if the hop content was higher as they think they are but it is lower hop content.

Therefore, if they are after the effect of hops to kill the heatworm lavae, they should have been serving Indian pale ale not Guinness draught although I do not know if the water source is what they like or not.

That being said,when you know hops are toxic, feeding beer with high amount of hops is good move? I do not know.

Their theory goes… the hops sterilize the heartworms. Therefore, more larvae cannot be produced.

This theory/method is largely used among those who feed their pets strict natural raw diet.

One thing that I find it interesting about it is that Guinness are made with water, barley, roast malt extract,hops, and brewers yeast.

Often times, they are not favor of grain products to feed their dogs.

Barley and brewers yeast would be most likely something they would not like to feed them to dogs. However, beer they rave about for heartworm treatment contains it.

I am not sure if they compromised to give grain products because of hops, and that they feel it is better than synthetic products.

Meaning it is simply natural vs synthetic treatment rather than detailed ingredients in the beer vs synthetic treatment.

For me, not knowing what in the hops are causing the hops toxicity, not knowing how much of whatever substance causing the hops toxicity is in the actual product; beer, and knowing alcohol beverage is toxic to dogs, this method would not be something I would jump  into despite some happy ending stories with the use of Guinness beer draught.

I feel like I would be playing the Russian roulette with potential risk.

Someone mentioned to me that this method was found by accident in Japan,where I am originally from.

When I heard about it, I tried to check about beer and heatrworm on Japanese sites but I did not find any information on that.

How the first person tried the method found out it was started from Japan is mystery.

Non supporter of feeding beer to the dog for heartworm treatment think it would not work;it would not kill the heartworm lavae and hops in excess is lethal to dogs..

In fact, someone who works as vet tech saw dogs brought to their ER after consuming beer and those dogs did not survive. I do not know how much beer the dogs drunk but you can see that the beer feeding has real potential of losing your precious furkids.

Would this beer feeding method be something you would try for your dogs?

I am being objective and being open minded to the idea.However, like I mentioned above, this　method has a lot of unknown area and, for now, it would not be the method I would try with Palette.

It certainly is a interesting method though

Natural  herbal remedy for heartworm..

Besides Guinness draught beer treatment, I came across herbal remedy available for dogs to treat heatworm.

It contains garlic, black seed, licorice,hawthorn, hops,sorrel, apricot pits,flavoring (not being mentioned what flavoring exactly it is),alcohol, and filtered water.

Looking at the ingredient, even though it says “Natural” and appealing to many dog lovers, I would not get it for Palette to try.

Why?

It is because …

1. Garlic; It is ok to feed to dogs but there is safe amount to be fed. Too much garlic can cause anemia in dogs. 

As I understand it, below is the amount of fresh garlic you can give to your dogs.

**Small dogs; 1/4 of garlic clove

** Medium dogs; 1/2 of garlic clove

** Large dogs; 1 garlic clove

You never know how much of garlic in the supplement.That is my concern.

2. Licorice; according to dognaturally website here, licorice can cause sodium retention and potassium loss, resulting in water retention, high blood pressure, and hyopkalemia (low blood potassium) when consumed large amount.

They advise that licorice should only be used for two weeks at a time.

Also, they mention that licorice root should not be used in diabetic animals, pregnant or nursing animals.

Also,if your dog has heart or liver disease, then, they advise you to talk to the vet first.

3. Hops; Hops is already know why I am concern about this. Hops are toxic to dogs and you have no way to know how much of whatever causing the dogs hops toxicity in the supplement is unknown.

4. Sorrel; according to ASPCA, Shamrocks are toxic to dogs and cats because they contain chemicals called soluble calcium oxylates in all parts of the plants.

Soluble calcium oxylates consist of oxalic acid and oxalate salts, both of which can cause acute renal failure if ingested in large amounts.

According to motherhood-modernmom website here,  Calcium oxylate salts can also bind with calcium in a dog’s body, causing a severe drop in the dog’s calcium levels.

Symptoms of shamrock poisoning in your dog include drooling, lack of appetite, lethargy, diarrhea, vomiting, tremors and bloody urine.

5. Apricot pits; According to webmed website here, Apricot kernel contains a toxic chemical “amygdalin”.

In the body this chemical is converted to cyanide. Cyanide is poisonous to dogs.

For human, there was interest in using apricot kernel to fight cancer because it was thought that amygdalin was taken up first by cancer cells and converted to cyanide.

They hoped that the cyanide would harm only the tumor. However,  research has shown that the amygdalin is converted to cyanide in the stomach. Then goes throughout the body, where it can cause serious harm.

Apple core also got cyanide toxic to dogs. Take a moment and think if whatever food you would like to give is toxic to them or not.

Lastly, alcohol beverage is toxic to dogs .Alcohol in the medicine could be tricky to see if it will enough to cause ethanol toxicity in dogs.

Natural remedy sounds good to your ears but, when you look into the ingredients, some of the ingredients are things that you have to be careful of amount to give or even not recommended to give to dogs.

You have no control over the amount of each ingredients in them and knowing something in the supplement could contains amount sensitive ingredient for dogs, would you give it to your dogs just because they say it is natural remedy?

I wouldn’t.

I would love to hear what your thoughts are on these so called “natural” treatment.

For the heartworm treatment which method do you use; Guinness beer feeding? Heartworm pill throughout a year? Heartworm pill during limited months? Natural remedy / supplement?

Why did you pick your method over other method?

Share your thoughts and experience with others.

This will be very interesting topic to discuss about.

Oct 05, 2015 | Comments are off | Dog Health

Calcium oxalate bladder stone in dogs

 Dogs are just like people and, they can develop stones in bladder and kidney.

  The rock-like bladder stone is more common than kidney stone in dogs,and there are two forms. One is called “Calcium oxalate bladder stone” and the other is called “struvite stone”.

When dogs have stones, it is not always the case where the vet has to remove the stones.Hoewever, if you did not know which types of stones your dog got, your vet would not know what type of approach he/she should take to get your dogs feel better, how to prevent it to happen again..

Therefore, often times, surgically removed stones are sent to lab to analyze it.

In this entry, I would like to write about calcium Oxalate bladder stone in dogs.

Palette playing with Ms Snuggie bunny..

How these oxalate stones are formed?

According to VCAhospital website, normal dog’s urine is slightly acidic and contains waste products from metabolism  including dissolved mineral salt. These mineral salts will be remain dissolved in the urine.

 The current research shows that urine high in calcium,citrate, or oxalate is acidic and predisposed them to develop calcium oxalate crystals and stones.

Also, diet that causes high urine acidity (urine PH <6.5) may predispose the dog to form the calcium oxalate bladder stone.

Interesting thing they write is that, the dogs on antibiotic too much,too long may reduce the number of intestinal bacteria Oxalobacter formigenes,which  has sole nutrient of oxalate.

In dogs with low number of intestinal bacteria “Oxalobacter formigenes”, the excess oxalate will be secreted in urine and increase the high possibility of calcium oxalate crystals stones can form if the urine is highly concentrated or acidic.

  Another point to note is that the dog with Cushing’s disease produce more cortisol (cortisone) and predispose them to develop the calcium oxalate stone.

According toveterinarypartner website ,cortisone increases calcium excretion in urine,and extra calcium in urine promote the formation of the stone.

What are the symptoms for calcium oxalate stone?

Typically, you may see blood in urine, straining to urinate, frequent urination.

What can you do to prevent them to develop calcium oxalate stone in the future?

With this type of bladder stone, you can feed them customized meal to control the likelihood of developing another calcium oxalate stone.

It is very helpful if you know which food has most/least calcium oxalate in it to provide the diet that makes their urine less acidic.

Often times, grain, vegetables are high in oxalate, and since many kibble is made from grain and vegetables as the base, switching their diet to homemade diet or raw diet might help.

If you were not ready to switch their diet to homemade diet or raw diet, you can switch them to canned food to start. The canned food has more protein than dry kibble and it got more moisture in the food compared to the dry kibble.

To read the full article at vcahospital website,please click here.

To read the full article on calcium oxalate at ceterinarypartner website,please click here.

Foods/supplements known to have high level of calcium oxalate ..

Spinach, beets, eggplants,asparagus,sweet potato,okra,green beans,collard green,kale, beans, berries,nuts such as peanuts are some of the few known for having high level of oxalate,but you can check the chart designed for people who has developed oxalate bladder stone and use that chart to make your dog’s customized meal.

Often times, leafy green vegetables such as spinach,kale,collard green etc are high in oxalate amount.

Here are a few websites you can check the food high in oxalate.

Chart from ohf website here.It will open with pdf form.

List of oxalate amount found in various food in chart. The chart is from Childre’s Medical Center of Dayton here.This document also open as pdf form.

Another helpful read..

** 2nd chance website article on calcium oxalate stone here.

** Dogaware website article on oxalate stone here.

If your dog is prone to form the calcium oxalate stone, it is always a good idea to make sure they are getting plenty of water and, getting customized food if possible made with low oxalate in the ingredients.

 

Jul 01, 2014 | Comments are off | Dog Health

AAHA’s new guideline for Dental care for cats and dogs

 Recently, I came across the news about new guideline of dental care for dogs and cats that require anesthesia for the cleaning and other dental related procedure.

Palette’s teeth…

 In the previous entry titled “Anesthesia and dogs“,I wrote that Anesthesia is
used to make your dogs sedated and feel no pain during surgery or used
for X-ray or teeth cleaning so that dogs can stay still.

 Therefore,sometimes, Anesthesia is inevitable thing.

 However, for old dogs,it would be better for you to look into type of Anesthesia or
drug that are less possibility of complication during the practice or
look into other possibility to fix the problems without the use of
Anesthesia if available because senior dog tend to have more problems in
health than younger dogs.

 Dogs with liver  problem,diabetic
problems,heart problems etc have higher risk with Anesthesia usage.

 According
to DVM Ron Hines, if your dogs (especially old dogs) were to go under
surgery or something that require Anesthesia,vet should be doing blood
test to make sure your dogs are healthy.

 If not healthy organs,then,they
can think what other option they can do to treat the problems or what
type of Anesthesia they can use with less possibility of complication to
go under the surgery.

 Doing the bloodwork before getting Anesthesia in
body especially for old dogs is good idea because if you do bloodwork
on your dog,the vet can tell you that if the dogs have liver problem or
kidney problems.

 Liver and kidney are 2 organs that metabolize the
anesthesia drug so,it is important to check those 2 organs are in good
health.

 To read full article on Anesthesia,please click here.

 In the same entry, I have suggested to look for anesthesia free dental clinic as added information.

 This year though, American Animal Hospital Association;AAHA, renewed the dental care guideline for dogs and cats, and it states to give anesthesia for all dental related procedure.

 You can read the guideline with PDF file here.

 According to the new 2013 dental care guideline file from AAHA, it says “

General anesthesia with intubation is necessary to properly assess and treat the companion animal dental patient. It is essential that aspiration of water and debris by the patient is prevented through endotracheal intubation. Cleaning a companion animal’s teeth without general anesthesia is considered unacceptable and below

the standard of care. Techniques that ensure patient health and safety cannot be achieved without general anesthesia.”

 The guideline states what to evaluate for the dogs and cats prior to the anesthesia but, interesting enough, it does not mention about bloodwork for older dogs to assess the health of organs;liver and kidney to make sure the dogs are healthy enough to go under the anesthesia.

 I do not think anesthesia is without risk and, if the procedure can be done without anesthesia, it would have been better for dog’s health. If they must go under anesthesia,then, the guideline should have included the bloodwork to assess the organs’ health.

 On the other hand, there are many veterinary dental clinic that perform the anesthesia free dental procedure, and they have been in the business for long time.

 Good example being “Pet Dental Service“,and they talk about anesthesia and older dogs,dogs with liver/kidney problems on their website.

 I personally think that people should have option especially for older dogs,liver/kidney problems dogs so they can live healthy life longer with the benefit of anesthesia free dental cleaning.

 Palette is 8 years old now and, she has good teeth. She has not had her teeth cleaned for more than 6 years. Her teeth is white and I do not think she does not need any teeth cleaning procedure although,previous local vet told us to have it done after they praised her white teeth.

 Once we declined their offer of dental cleaning, when we decided to switch the vet to current lady vet, the medical history paper stated “owner has no concern” and I was a little offended by the statement because I declined the certain things because we care about Palette’s health.

 With Palette,for teeth cleaning, what is working for her would be raw diet to start with.

 She crunches bone and gets fed big hunk of meat now and
then, which require her teeth sink into meet or rip and tear and seems
like silver skin is working like dental floss if you will.

 Then, food does
not stick to her teeth so,it is a plus.

 Also, her teeth is cleaned by CET toothpaste.Palette loves seafood toothpaste.The
toothpaste is double enzyme and it costs about 8-9 dollars per tube.Daily brushing would help your dogs teeth clean.

  I also think that it would improve dental health of cats and dogs if vet could teach their clients how to brush their dog’s teeth as well, not simply pushing clients to do the dental cleaning at certain interval.

 Also, if they were more open to the natural feeding not process food feeding,I would not get surprised that they would see more improvements on not only dental health but also overall health.

 Palette is our first dog and I did not know how to brush her teeth on my own and I wanted to learn “how to” and I have asked the local vet about it.

 However, he was not real helpful .I was laughed at, and I did not feel great about it.

 Many vets seem to like to encourage clients to have dental chews.

 Often time,they discourage any dental chew or device that does not bend or break easily.

 I found it funny to find that exact popular/typical lines of what vet would tell their clients regarding the recommended dental chews in the AAHA guidelines.They seem to memorize the phrase and tell as their own recommendation.

 I think having a chew is good for stronger gum etc..,but if you look closer to your dogs and cats while they are chewing,they would not use all types of teeth but mostly side teeth like molars or incisors.

 Rarely you find them use front teeth and canine.

 When you look at dental product with “before” and “after” pictures that you often find in doggy magazines,90% of the time, the picture is canine teeth area.

I
think it is because the canine teeth are not getting any benefit from chewing dental chews.

 It is the one reason that big hunk of meat once in a while to let your dogs sink in their canine teeth into the meat and use that teeth and let the sinew is a great idea because sinew works like a dental floss for additional benefit besides canine teeth is cleaned as they bite into the meal.
 
 The vets’ preference of dental chew seem to be rawhide chews.

 However,did you know how they are made, and they tend to have tendency to swell up to more than double in volume and, not so digestible compared to other natural single ingredient treats?

 Rawhide gets soften as they chew and vets love those chews but when you look it closer, it is not that great chew as you might have once thought.

 I will be writing more on Rawhide chews in the future entries.

 What are your thoughts on guideline from AAHA that requires vets to use anesthesia for all dental procedures?

 What do you do for teeth cleaning?

 Do you make your own teeth paste? If you do make own toothpaste,please share the recipe in the comment section below.

 

Sep 24, 2013 | Comments are off | Dog Health

Flea/Tick control for dogs part III; Tick trap

 In the previous entry titled “Flea/Tick Control for dog“, I have written about natural ways to combat with flea/ticks, from lemon/water solution spray recipe, garlic and its daily maximum dosage for dogs, food grade diatomaceous earth (D.E.) application, preventative collar/tag along with how to remove ticks from your dogs and what to do after the removal of ticks.

 In the previous entry titled “Flea/Tick control for dogs Part II“, I wrote about another way to combat with especially fleas and introduced you the “homemade flea trap”, and the application of salt.

 Here, I would like to write about another way to combat with especially tick.

Palette on walkie wearing Insect shield t-shirts..

 Recently, I came across the DIY tick trap information and, I personally have not tried these method, but since it was interesting idea, I thought I would share it with you.

Tick trap

Dry ice method..

 When weather becomes warmer and warmer, people start talking more about flea and ticks.

 Ticks can transmit various tick born disease such as Lyme disease that can cause serious health damage in people and pets.

 Some people uses monthly spot on with their pets, some people choose to combat with flea and ticks natural,less toxic way.

 The new natural tick combat way I came across recently was interesting because it starts with getting a dry ice.

 According to green method website, here is how to make your own tick trap at home using dry ice.

1. Find the dry ice (Co2)

** If you visit dryice information site here, you can fins the place where you can purchase dry ice

** Be careful of dry ice handling.

Dry ice is super cold temperature, and you should never touch the dry ice with bare hands. Protect your hands with leather gloves,oven mitt etc..

2. Find ingredients as followings* (Makes 2 traps)

** 1 sheet (4’x8 ‘)  ¼” plywood, halved

**  2 large Styrofoam coolers (thickest walls possible)

**  Slender, serrated knife to cut holes in the foam

**  32oz can of Insect Trap Coating or Tanglefoot Pest Barrier

** Bristle paint brush

**  8 screws long enough to pass through the foam

**  Screwdriver for the aforementioned screws

**   A large portable cooler

**   Large heavy-duty gloves

3.   Using the serrated knife, cut four holes, about 1/2″ to 3/4″ diameter, one centered, on each side, near the bottom of each cooler

** about an inch up from the bottom

4.  Cut the plywood in half

5. Using the screws, attach one cooler to the center of each plywood piece

6. The open end will be up and the screws should be applied near the corners on the inside of the cooler for better security

7. Place the 2 sheets of 4’x4′ squares flat on the ground, cooler side up, in the tick infested area

** Don’t put the traps in your yard, but rather on its periphery

8. Use heavy gloves/oven mitt to transfer the dry ice block to the trap’s cooler

9. Cover the cooler

10. Using the brush, paint a band of the sticky goop about 2″ wide and about one inch in from the edge of the plywood, encircling the entire perimeter of the board so the only way for a tick to get from the foliage to the cooler is to fly (ticks cannot fly) or traverse the plywood through the sticky trap.

11. Replace the dry ice once expended.

** The green method website recommends to make smaller holes or stuff a cotton ball loosely in each hole to last longer.

** Also they recommend to re-coat the trap’s sticky band as it fills with ticks, other bugs, and debris.

 The website explain that the tick is drawn to the CO2 and,to get to it, they must cross the sticky bands.

 To read the full article on tick trap at green method website,please click here.

Tick tubes..

 Another method I came across was called “tick tube” where cardboard tube is filled with cotton ball that was soaked in permethrin,which you see it as active ingredient in the pet’s monthly spot on.

 Then you would spread the tubes around,and mice, which is the common host for deer ticks that can cause Lyme disease will take the cotton ball to make the nest with it.

 Then, idea is that, tick will be killed in the nest.

 You can read more on tick tube at WTOP website here.

 One thing I thought when I came across this information was that, if you have cats in the house, it is not a good idea to use permethrin around the place they might contact with.

 That is why, dog’s monthly spot on products such as Advantage that uses permethrin as active ingredient comes with warning on the label that says not to use it on cats.

 If you have a cat and use monthly spot on for cats for flea/tick, look up the label of ingredients list. You should not find “permethrin” for cats products.

 For example, advantage for cats has  Imidacloprid; 1-[6-Chloro-3-pyrindinyl) methyl]-N-nitro-2-imidazolidinimine 9.1% , Pyriproxyfen IGR (Insect Growth Regulator)  0.46%, Other ingredients 90.44%

 Front line for cats has Fipronil (9.8%), S-Methoprene (11.8%)

 Another issue I thought was that, this would probably not going to work if your area had near zero mice around, and you would probably need strict supervision when your dogs are out to avoid they would eat the cotton balls or chew them.

 Personally, I see the idea how people came up with the idea but, with the family with pets, I do not think I would be comfortable trying them.

 I
have been keep writing about this, but no matter what method you would
use to combat flea/ticks etc., it is very important to provide the good
diet to your dogs for overall good health.

 Then, use the flea
comb daily for flea.Fine tooth of flea comb can catch the tiny fleas and, you can
just dip them in the soapy water to kill them.

 Also, make time for
bonding with your dogs and, use some of the time for rubbing/petting.
While you are rubbing/petting your dogs, sometimes, you could find the
tick/flea that just laded on your dogs and, if you caught it early, less
painful for your dogs down the road and, it is good for early detection
of the flea/tick.

 Vacuuming the house often,and mowing regularly also helps.

 When you take your dog for walk, avoid the shady tall grass/weed area so the tick would not fall on you or your dog.

 How do you combat with tick?

Jul 30, 2013 | Comments are off | Dog Health

Anesthesia and Dogs

 My dog “Palette”  is my first dog that I ever have.So,everything I do with her is new to me.

Since I have never had a dog in my life before her,all what vet suggests to us was what I thought will be good idea to follow.After all,I thought that they are the ones who learned a lot about animal health at school.

 However,after switching my dog’s diet to raw diet,and started paying more attention to many things not just diet,I started thinking we should do our own research as well on everything regarding health of our dogs and it is important to understand what will be done and how it will be done and pros and cons on each choices that are laid before us.

 Anesthesia is used very often in animal care;spay/neuter,x-ray,surgeries,teeth cleaning .. but have you ever thought pro and con on Anesthesia?

 Teeth cleaning is one of those things that are considered to be a regular practice in animal care but is it necessary?

In Palette’s case,teeth is always the one of those things that our current vet wowed about and she has nice white teeth.

Old vet also amazed about Palette’s white teeth,but the old vet  kept sending us reminder of teeth cleaning even though I declined with the reason that our dog teeth is in good shape and,  white and I do not need the service.I had to think then that why dog with white teeth needs teeth cleaning??

Anyway, let’s look about Anesthesia.

As you already know,Anesthesia is used to make your dogs sedated and feel no pain during surgery or used for X-ray or teeth cleaning so that dogs can stay still.

So,sometimes,Anesthesia is inevitable thing. However, for old dogs,it could be something better for you to look into type of Anesthesia or drug that are less possibility of complication during the practice or look into other possibility to fix the problems without the use of Anesthesia if available.

It is because senior dog tend to have more problems in health than younger dogs. Dogs with liver  problem, diabetic problems, heart problems etc have higher risk with Anesthesia usage.

 According to DVM Ron Hines, if your dogs (especially old dogs) were to go under surgery or something that require Anesthesia,vet should be doing blood test to make sure your dogs are healthy.

If not healthy organs,then,they can think what other option they can do to treat the problems or what type of Anesthesia they can use with less possibility of complication to go under the surgery.

Doing the blood work before getting Anesthesia in body especially for old dogs is good idea because if you do blood work on your dog,the vet can tell you that if the dogs have liver problem or kidney problems.

Liver and kidney are 2 organs that metabolize the anesthesia drug so,it is important to check those 2 organs are in good health.(To read more,please click here.)

With Anesthesia, according to doglogic.com site, there are2 kinds: Injectable Anesthesia or inhaled Anesthesia. The site shows pro and cons on each anesthesia so,you can read here.

 While googling on Anesthesia,I came across Anesthesia free teeth cleaning site. It is interesting.

 This one petdentalservice.com seems like located in CA and FL

To visit their site,please click here.

 This one houndstoothdental.com seem to have location in 7 states;MD,NC,TN,MA,CT,NY,OH plus Australia.To visit their site,please click here.

 For Palette,teeth cleaning is really no need because she has white teeth but if your dogs need teeth cleaning, you can try switching diet (I feed raw diet to my dog and it seems working.Our dog crunch bone and gets fed big hunk of meat now and then which require her teeth sink into meet or rip and tear.It  seems like silver skin is working like dental floss if you will. And food does not stick to her teeth so,it is a plus.) or try using good tooth paste (my favorite is CET toothpaste.Palette loves seafood toothpaste.The toothpaste is double enzyme and it costs about 5 dollars per paste tube.),and if both were not doing any good for your dogs’ teeth,it maybe good to try with Anesthesia free teeth cleaning. 

 Do you do something special for dental care for your dogs?

** I am not a vet,and please consult to your vet if you had any questions or concern with use  of Anesthesia on your dog**

 

Mar 31, 2009 | Comments are off | Dog Health

Allergy in dogs Part III

 In the previous entries titled “Allergy in dog Part I“, “Allergy in dog Part II“, I wrote what it is,how it is activated, what the cause can be, how you can differ from food intolerance, and how you can do the Elimination diet to find the culprit if the possible cause was food.

 In this entry,I like to write about some more possibilities other than the possible cause: flea/bug bite,contact, atopy, and food,which I wrote in the previous entries.

 Thing comes to my mind other than above cause are…

* When you bathe your dog,you did not rinse off the soap off from your dog very good.

– Remained soap can cause itchy skin.It is something that I have learned through our lady vet

 She suggested to rinse off the soap until you hear the squeaky sound

* When you bathe your dog,you did not dry the fur thoroughly,and the fur was kept dump and cause itchy skin

– Another thing our lady vet taught us on itchy skin cause.

 I love using pet hair air dryer called “Air force commander dryer”.

 It is very loud even with lower speed, and it scared Palette a little at first.However,with clicker training, eventually,she could stay still until the fur dry very good.

 To wipe her off, I love using Rinse ace grooming towel that suck up quite a lot of water from dogs

* Boredom, stress, anxiety, something emotional

 If it were stress or boredom was chew/licking cause, you can go for nice long walk or a bit of jog with your dog or play fetch ball/Frisbee in your yard etc work good to make them feel tired and to give them plenty of opportunity for them to energy out.

 This is not just for dogs but it is good for you as well,not only you can make your bond stronger but also you can exercise.

* Not much omega3 fatty acids in the dog’s meal.

 If the meal was lacking in omega3 fatty acids, you may see a little dandruff/flaky skin.

 Dry skin can cause itchy skin as well.

 In this case,you can either feed omega3 rich oily fish such as Salmon, sardine, Mackerel,herring or feed grass-fed meat. Also,you can bump up the omega3 fatty acids by adding the fish body oil capsules into the meal.

**  I know that Grizzly salmon oil is often found on the market pretty easily,but please read its label of the bottle.

 This salmon oil contains Omega6 as well,which I personally feel that you do not need to add more since your dog can get plenty of omega6 fatty acids via poultry menu,plant matter if you feed vegetables.

I think that finding the fish body oil that provides omega3 only would benefit better than the one that has both.

To see the chart how much omega6 in the particular oil,please click here.

 This one has 1 part of omega6 against 8-10 part of omega3.Approximately 50-300mg of omega6 in the oil for dosage against 500-2500mg of omega3 for dosage.Read more.

* When I was looking about licking/chewing related to allergy,I found one more possible cause called “Lick granulomas”. You can read what it is here.

 So, dog’s scratching,licking,chewing are not something you can find the possible cause for easily.

 I think that patience with quite lots of detective work seem to be needed. I think that keeping food journals while you are trying to find the cause would probably make your detective work easier.

Please do not use this Allergy series entries as substitute of your dog’s diagnose for itchy skin.

I am not a vet nor nutritionist.Please consult with your vet to look into your dog’s allergy problems.

Feb 07, 2009 | Comments are off | Dog Health

Allergy in dogs Part II

 In the previous entry titled “Allergy in dogs Part I“, I wrote about what Allergy is, how it is activated, and what are the possible cause can be and,that it can be very difficult thing to find the cause of Allergy. Especially with food Allergy, there is no blood test or skin test that can accurately diagnose the food culprit and it is very tricky Allergy in dogs.

 In this entry, I like to take more closer look to Allergy, especially Food Allergy.

 Food Allergy is, when dogs eat certain items of food,they reacts to the food and show sign of Allergy such as scratching to raw,and it can get infected.

 Have you ever wondered what are the Allergy symptom will be,and how you can differ from food intolerance?? Here is an answer to you.

 According to peteducation.com, true food allergy is the one that show characteristic of itching or skin problems.

 Ear infection, hair loss, itchy skin etc.Food intolerance is the one that cause vomiting or diarrhea,and does not cause topical problems.

 If food intolerance,it can be too much fat,too much amount of food per sitting or too much new food right off the bat . When people eat too much spicy food or fried foods,it can cause digestive problems.It is similar to that for dogs.

 What are the most common offender of food??

 Some dogs are very sensitive to common offender of food. List goes.. Beef,grain,corn,diary,chicken, soy etc.

 Now, when you look closer what you have been feeding to your dog, especially if you feed kibble,then,you would notice that these common food ingredients are most common ingredients in kibbles.

 If you feed one kibble,lets say chicken flavored kibble. Then your dog start scratching. You probably try changing either the brand or flavor. Even if you change the brand,I personally feel that  ingredients are not that different each other except certain protein is different,and if your dog were actually Allergic to grain,then, no matter what kibble you would feed,since many kibble has grain in the form, switching to different protein kibble or brand do no good.

 Like I wrote in Part I entry of Allergy in dogs, many cause similar symptoms.

 Therefore, itchy skin is not equal to food Allergy. It can be by many possibility. Atopy,flea bite, bug bite such as spider, mange, yeast/bacterial infection, mite etc. Once these cause is ruled out,you can see if Food is the culprit or not.

 To find out,what food item is causing the itchy skin/Allergy, you can try diet called “Elimination diet”.

 What is Elimination diet??

 Most vet would tell you to feed one novel protein and one novel carb, which dogs have never had eaten before, for 12 weeks.

 Example being venison and potato (if dogs had never eaten those before). If your dogs go on elimination diet,only thing dog can eat is the one you have put the dog on. If the dog was Duck and potato elimination diet,the dog cannot eat anything but duck and potato.

 Treats must be duck/potato only nothing else during the 12 weeks. No vitamin tab if you give one,no fish oil cap if you feed one during the 12 weeks.

 After the 12 weeks,and if dog’s itchy skin got subsided,you back to whatever you think would have caused the itchy skin. Then,if dog start scratch excessively,then, the food is the one culprit of Allergy.

To read more on Food allergy,click here.

 So,this is how Elimination diet is done normally, but I have to wonder,what if dog was actually allergic to potato when you feed duck/potato for example.

 If that was the case,even if you change the protein to rabbit or Elk etc as long as potato in the meal,the dog would scratch themselves excessively.

 I think when it comes to Elimination diet,feeding home-made/raw diet maybe easier to handle these trial because unlike kibble, ingredients are quite short listed and probably more accurate than trying with pre-made one that is formed commercially by companies.

 I think that common elimination diet method has carb source in it but, it maybe for fiber that firm up the poop.

 IF I ever had to do elimination diet for Palette,I personally prefer to feed just one protein source for 12 weeks rather than combo with carb.

 With raw diet,I can feed bone so it does the job of carb meant to do if it was there for firming up the poop purpose.

 While we are on Allergy topic, I recently found that there is a frozen ground beaver meat for dogs.

 It is ground beaver meat as ingredients and nothing else.

 When I saw beaver meat,I thought it maybe from Canada where beaver is famous for. But it is actually by California company.

 Company itself show beaver meat for dog to sell on their web site but so far,all I can find is canned beaver meat from online store that carry their products.

 I am not sure if it is something you have to call for special order directly to the company or not,but if you were interested in beaver meat for dog,google canine caviar. And let us know if your dogs loved beaver or not.

 

Feb 06, 2009 | Comments are off | Dog Health

Allergy in dogs Part I

  Our dog “Palette” is Corgi:stumpy short legs with long back.

I see some dogs scratch themselves with great leg pumping motion,but our dog?? Forget about it. It is almost painful to see how she struggle trying to find the right way to scratch her head or neck with hind legs.

She is getting better at scratching herself over the years but, her way of scratching is almost like she is spanking her own head/body, and so slow since she is trying to get the right angle,right spot to scratch.

“Palette” eats well,and she has not turned her nose up a lot, but she does not eat catfish.

She is not allergic to the fish or anything,but she just have no interests or whatsoever to eat the catfish.

She just have so much interest in rolling on it.

Only thing she cannot eat so far is Tilapia,besides fattier cut of meat such as chuck. If she eats raw tilapia,she poop out really bright matcha (Green tea) colored puddle of poop,and she needs butt-wash.

If I feed cooked Tilapia, she vomits out.So,I thought that she just does not do good on the particular fish and,it is out from her menu.

Many of you have already know that I feed raw diet.

I did not switch her diet to raw diet due to Allergy thing but rather,I felt it is better diet for her because the diet menu is free from preservatives,additives or artificial; coloring or flavoring, or added vitamins that may may not be enough for her and always fresh food.

Also,I liked the fact that the diet can tailor to each individual dog’s need,and I can really see what I am feeding to her.

While researching how,what I feed to Palette for raw diet,I realized many dogs are suffering from allergy,and it sounded like very difficult to find the source that causing the reaction.

Palette never had Allergy so, I am not really experiencing real food allergy thing in dogs,but in the past, she had “Hot spots” and she scratched/chewed her hind thigh area to raw and I remember wondering what made her scratch herself so much.

She does not have the spots anymore, and does not scratch to raw at all,but at the time of Hot spot,we suspect it may have been due to the bug bites (spider).

Because she is trained to sit after her business is done,and all reaction area was concentrated around inner thigh area or butt-cheek area where she can contact with grass or bugs.

Our vet suggested to keep the area dry,and try not to let her chew  or scratch the area.

When she showed extreme itchiness,we put her Elizabeth collar. She did not like it but,it helped her not chewing much and the itch got subsided.

As she gets better,we put Elizabeth collar only when she goes to sleep and cannot keep an eye on. When I had to put her Elizabeth collar,one thing that I did not like was that, it keeps her from chewing the itchy area,but when she needed to go potty,she likes to sniff the ground to decide where she does pee-mail or poo-mail and every time she sniff the ground,the dirt gets dug up a little by Elizabeth collar edge and,I needed to wash the collar often. Then, while I was washing the collar, I had to keep an eye on Palette to make sure she is not scratching the area.

These days, there is more than plastic Elizabeth collar on the market. I have not actually had a chance to use it, but it sounds good. It is called comfy cone. It is made from water-resistant soft nylon foam, I see that size can go up from neck size 8 inches to 21 inches and price range from $13 to $25. If you were looking for soft e-collars,it maybe good thing to try.

So,what is Allergy in dogs??

Wikipedia define that Allergy is hyper sensitivity.

According to Linda Bren in FDA site, human sniffle,sneeze,cough,or runny nose,stuffy nose or watery eye. But dogs do not get stuffy nose,runny nose etc like human.

They tend to itch and scratch or chew or lick,and bite/scratch to raw and makes the area infected.

In Allergy,there are 4 types: food,contact,flea,atopic.

With flea bite, flea’s saliva gets left in skin and makes the bitten area itch.

With atopic,common allergens will be mold,dust,spore, tabacco smoke,pollen etc.

With food, certain food cause allergic reaction,but our lady vet said to us that true food allergy in dog is rare and allergy is more with other cause such as environmental allergy/seasonal allergy.

With contact, it can be grass,it can be cleaners you use in your house floors etc.

To read more on allergy article on FDA website, please click here.

To read more on Allergy in dogs, please click here.

How this Allergy reaction is activated?

Reaction difference between human and dog is something to do with “Mast cells”. It is a specialized cell in the body to respond to allergens by production of histamine.

In human, mast cells are highly concentrated in the area of eyes,nose,windpipes.

In dogs, the mast cells are concentrated on face,paws,armpit,and groin.

Mosquitoes loves my blood and,I get bitten quite a bit in summer.And the bitten area gets so itchy and I tend to scratch,and it gets swell. But when you think about it, this maybe by reaction of production of histamine? Because the itch relief cream I tend to put on the spot is anti-histamine products.

Now you know that Allergy is such a complicated thing to deal with because there are so many possibility out there that can trigger the reaction to dogs.

If food Allergy,there are many dog food out there to choose from.However, since it is highly processed, and it is not just one ingredient,it makes the dogs’ owners hard to find the source of the reaction.

Kibble is not one ingredient products,it comes with other stuff and it can be that “Other” stuff that causing the reaction and not necessary be the specific protein source.

Some dog food has grain,corn products, or vegetables etc along side the meat ingredients and, now many people try to provide healthier diet for furry friends and,more people look the treats that says ” Natural” or ” Jerky” type of treats but, try look the label very very carefully because some holistic biscuits/Jerky tend to use Vitamin E (which usually delivered from soybean oil,and some dogs react to soy products) or Flaxseed oil (plant sourced oil which dogs needs to convert the ALA to usable form of Omega3) as natural preservatives.

These can be the cause of itch. Don’t assume that dog Jerky treats are made with just meat. Some company put sea salt,garlic,brown rice etc or sometimes it is enhanced with vitamins.

And some salmon treats is not just salmon but some% of treats ingredients are other fish.I am not sure why they do not use 100% meat or fish they put into products,but it is something you need to check,and read small prints on the package.

It is important for you to read the ingredients on our store web page if you were to shop at our store as well, but our products are free from fillers,or preservatives.

If you get Surf Turf Jerky,what you get is a Jerky made from fully grass-fed buffalo meat with wild caught salmon with skin on, and if you buy dehydrated goat lung treats,goat lung is the only ingredient for the product.

Some “Grass-fed” meat is grain finished but the buffalo meat we use in Surf Turf Jerky is not grain finished,but rather, fully grass-fed. Baguette biscuits’s buffalo liver is also fully grass-fed,not grain finished.

Next entry, I will write more on Allergy in dogs.Stay tuned…

 

Feb 05, 2009 | Comments are off | Dog Health