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What Do You Feed Your Pet?

Nutrition

Martin Goldstein is not only a veterinarian, but the author of two wonderful books on animals. I have only read the one, The Nature of Animal Healing, and am so impressed with his honesty and the commonsense he has for someone in his field. Unfortunately, this isn’t something you see everyday. His book is the kind you want to read twice. It’s that good. I’m not saying you will agree with everything he says, but he has allowed God to teach him along the way, and learned from what he has seen, rather than ignore it because it didn’t agree with what he was taught to believe in medical school.

One of the observations he made while in his practice was the alarming rise in diseases that at one time were only seen in old, dying dogs.  These diseases included arthritis, kidney or liver failure, hyperthyroidism, and cancers. He says “these conditions seemed to be age-related, and slow-growing enough to be accepted. Of the cases I see now, many are young and don’t live past the age of five.”

He goes on to describe how these diseases are becoming common amongst our pets, as well as faster growing and more aggressive. As you read through his book, and others like them (Dr. Pitcairn’s, Dr. Don Hamilton’s, etc.) you will find they are linking the increase and severity of these diseases to pet vaccines and poor (or worse than poor), toxic pet foods sold to the consumer.

Dr. Goldstein believed it was obvious that there were so many dogs with these diseases because they are being exposed to, fed, and injected (vaccines) with a high level of toxins that “eventually mutate their genes, weakening successive generations.”  

Raising holistic dogs myself, I find this to be absolutely true, and as an avid muscle-tester, I know it bears out in the testing too. When I go to a grocery store and test the packaged dog foods on the shelf I find they are pretty awful at best, and poisonous at worst. It’s rare that I find one “beneficial” for my dogs and I don’t even bother to check regular grocery stores as it’s a waste of time. So, I am testing at health food stores, where the animal food is supposed to be higher quality and more “healthy,” then the average stores have to offer.

One time, there was a testing experience I had at one of the major high-end grocery stores we shop at. I say “high-end” because its not your average grocery store. This store carries a lot of organic groceries, both produce and packaged foods. Typically, we don’t buy our red meat at a grocery store, because we get it from a farmer who raises his animals without chemicals, antibiotics or vaccines while also using homeopathics for their healthcare.  Our dogs also eat that meat. This day, however, we were out of meat for the dogs while we waited for our next shipment to come in from the farm.

While at the store, I decided to purchase grass-fed organic ground beef for the dogs. Before doing that though, I thought about testing some of the cheaper meats (all raw) for the dogs.  After all, they are dogs, and they would rather eat road-kill then processed people meat anyway. We’ve had dogs of one breed or another all of my 50 plus years, and they have all either hunted for live kill, or brought home dead road-kill, along with eating the kibble we provided them. We have watched them eat cats, squirrels, rabbits, mice, ground hogs, deer, you name it.  One brought home a road-kill turkey and even drug home a deer carcass someone had left in the woods after a hunting trip. None of them got “sick” or “diseased” from eating these things either. So, why buy the most expensive meat in the store?!

Using kinesiology, I started testing which pieces of meat were good for the dogs. I walked up and down the meat counter testing, then tested again. Surely this couldn’t be right. I was testing for dogs, not people I reminded myself. Then I did it again. As I stood there perplexed, I watched the people, dozens of them, hang over the meat counter as they choose their pieces of meat. Wow, if none, and I tested NONE, of the meat was even beneficial for my dogs, how could it possibly be good for people?

I discussed this with my husband, who reminded, the non-organic meats contain antibiotics, hormones, vaccines, pesticides, herbicides and GMO grains fed to the animals. I felt sick as I watched all of the people pick out their meat selections and put them in their grocery carts. They had no idea the meat they were buying, and paying a good price for, wasn’t good for them. Really, let’s be honest, it wasn’t even “safe” to consume. No wonder so many are diseased, look what they are eating!  I picked up the more expensive organic meat for my dogs, reminding myself that, even for dogs, what is the point of feeding them a “food” (I hate to even call it that) that may contribute to sickness or disease? Its just going to cost more in the long-run, trying to get them well again after making them sick with this “food”.  I paid for the real food and we went home.

What Do We Do for Heart Worm?

Dog Issues

We are not veterinarians, and we are not medical doctors, so we only speak from experience. We also love to do our research before making a decision. 

If you have read my blog on raising healthy dogs, you already know the answer to this question: What do we do for heart worm? In case you haven’t read the blog though, be patient with me and I will repeat the story here. As the story goes – we used to have two collies. Instead of giving a remedy (homeopathic) to immunize our dogs ahead of time, we often waited until they would get a particular bacteria or pathogen before we gave a remedy for it. I usually give remedies ahead of time now, but 20-25 years ago, I would wait until symptoms occurred before giving a remedy. 

In case you are wondering, we weren’t afraid of illness with the dogs, because we had the remedies on hand. We felt we had God’s resources available and His blessings on our side. After all, we weren’t doing something harmful or dangerous, but rather what was safe, effective, and healthy too. We were confident we were adequately prepared.

Here is the story: Both of our collies eventually got heart worm. It seemed like years before they finally got it. Yes, I said “finally”. It reminded me of watching water boil. When you are watching and waiting, it seems to take much longer than you anticipated. When our dogs finally developed the symptoms, we gave them the homeopathic remedy for their symptoms, and they recovered within hours. I want to say 24 hours, because that is what people expect – it should take at least 24 hours, right? But that’s not true with homeopathy, and honestly, it was more like 3 hours before all symptoms were cleared up. Of course their stools were stinky and strange looking for sometimes as long as 24-32 hours as they passed the remains of the worms from their system.

There’s more to the story – Approximately two years after our dogs had had heart worm, a friend called to tell me her rottweiler had been diagnosed by their vet as having heart worm. They were devastated, knowing that the treatment would possibly kill their beloved pet. At best, they were told, it would shorten his lifespan by 60%. My friend decided to do the homeopathy we had done instead. After giving the remedy, they waited three days for his body to have time to get any remains of the worms out of his system and his stools, then took him back to the vet for a re-check. The vet assured them that their dog still had the heart worm and if anything besides his drug would work on them, he would have known about it. He did the test, and it came back negative. There were no heart worms present. He pronounced the first test a “false-positive.” It was wrong he said, the dog never had the worms to begin with, and this is why they aren’t there in the second test. Had he ever had a “false-positive” heart worm test my friend asked? No, he responded, “but there is always a first time” he told her.

Months went by and my friend was talking with a neighbor of hers who told her she had just learned her dog had heart worms. You can imagine what happened. This time however, the veterinarian she used told her that if this “remedy” worked he would be the first to come knocking at her door wanting to learn more about homeopathy. She did the same thing my friend had done, gave the dog 3 doses of the homeopathic remedy that fit her dog’s symptoms, waited 3 days for his system to clear out the worm remains, and took him back for a second test. The vet didn’t know what to make of it. At least he didn’t deny it had worked, or excuse the test results as a false-positive test. He also didn’t “come knocking at her door” as he had said he would.

The nice thing about homeopathy is that it not only works, but as I stated above, it also has no side-effects. It works by encouraging the animal’s (and human’s) immune system to do the work of repairing on its own. In doing so, the animal builds real, life-long antibodies. Not the short-term, often ineffective “antibodies” that the vaccines claim.

Such is the Life of a Companion Breeder

Breeder Conversation Corner, Companion Breeding

When we bought our first female standard poodle, Molly, life was good. She was easy to train, and a fun companion. I planned to keep her in the house with me, frequently bathed, and yes, groomed with fufu cuts.

A year later we bought our male poodle so Molly could have a dog companion, too. And, maybe have puppies someday in the future. My plan was to also have the male poodle obedience trained, kept in the house, bathed frequently, and well-groomed.

The Inside-Outside Layout 

My husband is more of an out-door dog person. So he made the poodles a wonderful, fenced-in, brick patio/play area just for them. They even have their own gazebo, wooden dock area to lay on, and a long, covered rain porch that serves as shelter from both the rain and the sun.

Then there is the kiddy pool, which we have to replace every 3-4 weeks, because they like to chew up the sides and spring leaks. Actually, it’s our golden retriever that does that. When he’s not tearing up his toys, he’s tearing up the kiddy pool.

It’s now been three years since the purchase of our first standard poodle. We’ve had two litters of ten puppies each, and because the puppies were so adorable, we now have 5 dogs. Two males and three females. One of our males however, as I mentioned already, is a golden retriever. We got him in exchange for a poodle puppy.

The dogs are still bathed…on occasion, groomed when I get around to it, fairly obedient (it’s a work in progress), and yes, they are still in the house more than they are outside.  I consider myself a companion breeder because I am more of a companion dog owner than a breeder, but since I do let my dogs breed once in a while, that makes me a breeder too.

Life is so busy. I currently have 3 large kennels in my front room, all occupied. There are two more in the room I’m sleeping in. We have another family temporarily living with us, so there is no where else for me to sleep. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, our guests have 2 standard poodles as well! That brings us to a total of 7 dogs in my house. Big dogs! They aren’t Great Danes, or Irish Wolfhounds, but big nonetheless. Right now I’m sure they feel bigger to me than they are, though. I also forgot to mention, in case you were counting, besides the dogs sleeping in kennels, we have 2 others not in kennels. They are free to roam the house at will. Both are female, because we can’t let the males run loose. They pee on everything that has legs. The couch, the coffee table, the entertainment set. You get the picture.  

What is My Day Like?

At 5:30 each morning I wake up to the two youngest dogs barking at me wanting to go outside. That, of course, wakes up all of the others. By 7:00 a.m. they have eaten their first meal. 

It’s hot and humid here, so the dogs have to be rotated back and forth, inside and outside, so no one gets too hot. This happens every 2 hours on humid, hot days. In between, I do obedience work with at least 2 of them, and I get our golden retriever out to play ball in the yard. Nothing makes him more happy than chasing that ball!

That is a good day. Uneventful, yet full of excitement. Then there are the days like today. Like every other day, still half asleep, I got up and took the puppies out at 5:30 a.m. It was dark and quiet, so I went out in my pajamas and opened-toed shoes. I didn’t know it was raining until I stepped out into it. Now I was awake!

It rained off and on all day. The dogs now had that “wet-dog” smell that can make even the hardiest person gag, and my house smelled like a cross between wet-dog and poop (someone stepped in wet dog poop and brought it into the house on their paws). Needless to say, there is a lot of cleaning and washing of dog blankets, towels, etc, that goes on frequently in this house.

This evening, when I went out to get the dogs and bring them in for the night, I let one of our youngest females out to run for awhile. We have two acres that we let the more obedient dogs run on occasionally. This particular female is okay by herself or with the older two females, who keep her in check. She will stay within sight and comes when called. If, however, one of the males gets loose, as they occasionally do, she will run with them into the trees and only come back when they feel ready. 

Awhile later, I went out to play ball with our golden retriever,  forgetting I still had our young female loose. The golden retriever usually stays close to me, unless someone else is loose–that encourages him to run the land. That was tonight.

As soon as these two saw each other, they were off. Praise God we have plenty of land for them to run and chase wildlife without getting into trouble. Tonight they decided 30 minutes was enough and came back to the house.

My day wasn’t over yet.

After the two “runaways” came home, I put them inside in their kennels and let our oldest female out for her last time of the evening. She has become an avid rabbit hunter this year, and rather than going out just to relieve herself, she now routinely checks all of the prime spots for rabbit nests. When I stepped outside to call her in, it was getting a little dark and I noticed she had something that looked like a stick hanging out the side of her mouth, and dried grass on the front of her face. She is a black standard poodle so it was hard to see clearly what it was in the evening light.

She quickly trotted past me and into the house, with her head down as though she was avoiding me, I thought.

Then it hit me: that wasn’t a stick, it was a leg. And the “dried grass” wasn’t grass at all–it was rabbit fur.

I spun around and looked at her again, and sure enough, there was a dead rabbit about to drop on my living room floor. I immediately sent her back outside to get rid of the rabbit.

What a day. I remember reading a comment by a dog breeder a couple of years ago, that being a dog breeder was not for the faint of heart, that it’s a lot of hard work and more for the love of dogs than for any money that might be made. I now know what she meant. This is hard work, even when there aren’t puppies. It’s much like raising children. Then when the litters come, the work, as well as the joy and satisfaction, also increase.

I thoroughly enjoy our dogs, and can’t imagine my life without them as crazy as it is some days. I don’t even mind being referred to as “the dog lady” (my neighbor informed me this is what I am now being called). I trust God has a plan in everything we do, and this was definitely His plan. Never would I have thought I would have this lifestyle, yet here I am. 

Minerals to Improve Breeding Ability

Breeder Conversation Corner, Companion Breeding

Last night I was talking with a long time breeder who had 2 females she bought for breeding that, although they were having heat cycles, had never managed to get pregnant. She also had a couple of males who, not for lack of trying, had never gotten a female pregnant.

We did some testing on her dogs, and found a deep, long-standing mineral deficiency. To remedy this situation, her husband went out and bought a 4# livestock mineral block, and put it in a bucket, then poured water over it.

He intended to pour the water, after it set for a few minutes with the minerals in it, into their water dishes. What happened though, was a complete surprise.

He said he had never seen his dogs go after water like they did that water.

One male dog drank half the bucket before he could even pour it in his water dish. The others, and there are several, were just as excited to drink the water. We will see if this changes how they breed.

I am fully expecting them to have normal, productive heat cycles, as well as bigger, healthier litters.

Diet is Everything 

A few months ago I got a call from a breeder who inquired about using my male standard poodle as a stud for her female.

She wanted to use him because she was familiar with his pedigree from her 40 years of breeding and showing poodles with the AKC. She knew more then I did about his pedigree.

Her female is an older dog, and she thought maybe she could get 1-3 puppies out of her, and this would be her last breeding. I asked her what she feeds her dog and suggested she increase her minerals and meat before trying to breed her. She was just getting kibble at the time, and really couldn’t afford anything else.

When it was time, the dog came to my house and stayed with our stud a week to be bred. During that week, I fed her raw eggs, raw meat, bones, and healthy well water so she would get lots of minerals. Eight weeks later she whelped (gave birth) to 6 puppies.

Once again I asked the breeder about her dog’s diet, and learned that she was still just continuing to feed them all kibble.

Diet/nutrients mean everything to the health of animals as well as humans.

If you want healthy puppies, healthy breast milk for those puppies, and for them to be disease free, the best thing you can do is feed them a nutrient rich diet, free of chemicals, preservatives, and other toxins.

A week later I learned 2 of the puppies had died. It breaks my heart. This woman, well-meaning as she is, is of the same mindset as many of the breeders I speak with. They are all so used to losing puppies, even up to most of the litter and they think its normal. I will know in a few more weeks if any of them in that litter survive. 

We have all heard the saying “In nature, the strong survive and the weak die”. I know this is true, and it’s because of the lack of appropriate food, water and shelter that this tends to happen. We, however, have the opportunity to change this when the animal is in our care. We can change the stats quo.  All it takes is to make sure the mother is well-fed (meaning not just giving standard, processed american dog food) and cared for, and therefore all of the puppies have a good chance to be the “strong that survive”.

Why Don’t We Use Antibiotics on Our Dogs?

Diseases, Dog Issues, Healthy Dogs

We aren’t veterinarians, and wouldn’t presume to tell you what to do for your pet, but what we can do is share with you information we have found in our research  to support your pet’s health from this point forward.

Dr. Leo Galland, author of Super Immunity for Kids and Power Healing, believes  “It is no accident that the most allergic generation in history has been raised on antibiotics.”  This applies to animals as well as humans. Antibiotics are used in the manufacture of many medications and vaccines.  Antibiotics are also typically given for 5 days to young puppies after they receive their first vaccines. Why? Because, as research shows, the immune system of the vaccinated individual is left compromised, so they are more likely to get sick.  

Besides allergies, asthma, and overall poor health, antibiotics have also been linked to chronic bloating, fatigue, constipation, poor memory, depression, short attention span, environmental sensitivities, moodiness, learning disabilities, and asthma.  

What do antibiotics do to the immune system?  The immune cells typically damaged by antibiotics include: Neutrophils (these combat and destroy bacteria), T-cell lymphocytes (needed to destroy foreign tissue, virus infected cells, and cancer cells),  B-cell lymphocytes (produce antibodies to counter most infections and cancer cells), interferon and interleukin (essential to a healthy immune system and prevention of cancer), macrophages (engulf foreign particles), and monocytes (clean up cellular debris after an infection).

Besides the damage to the immune system, antibiotics also rob the body of the following nutrients

N-Acetyl cysteine, necessary for a healthy thyroid, adrenal glands and immune function, and healing. Without N-Acetyl cysteine, the body cannot properly use potassium gluconate or biotin, both  necessary to remain healthy and to fight cancer.  In the last 30 years, as vaccine and antibiotic use has increased in animals, the number of these diseases has also skyrocketed.

Antibiotics also:

    1. Decrease absorption of calcium, needed for bones, teeth, spine development, kidney and heart health.
    1. Vitamin B12, needed to prevent depression and anxiety, and adjust to motion
    1. B-vitamins in general, needed for a healthy nervous system, and to be able to flush lead from the body
    1. Decrease or block the use of fluorine, the mineral needed for making strong enamel on the teeth, and strong bones.
    1. Inhibit the use of rutin, which is necessary for healthy hair, nails, arteries and veins. Rutin is also necessary for the use of chondroitin for healthy joints and to be able to flush nickel from the body.  
    1. Production of vitamin K, needed for normal blood clotting.  
  1. Protein digestion, especially meat, can also be interfered with because of antibiotic use.  The amino acids found in meats are needed by the body for it to heal properly after an injury or surgery.  They also make muscle growth and strength possible.

What are the long term effects of a single round of antibiotics? The expectation in the health community that you can just fix the damage with probiotics and/or fermented foods and that gut flora magically returns to normal is far from accurate.  Evidence is now emerging from multiple sources that gut flora may actually be permanently altered by antibiotics or, at the very least, the damage persists for several years.

According to Dr. Martin Blaser, MD, of New York University’s Langone Medical Center, who writes in the August 2011 edition of Nature, “Early evidence from my lab and others hints that, sometimes, our friendly flora never fully recover. These long-term changes to the beneficial bacteria within people’s bodies may even increase our susceptibility to infections and disease. Overuse of antibiotics could be fueling the dramatic increase in conditions such as obesity, type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, allergies and asthma, which have more than doubled in many populations.” Blaser also states that: “Each generation … could be beginning life with a smaller endowment of ancient microbes than the last.” If an illness isn’t life threatening, skip the antibiotics.  The risk to your future health is just too great otherwise.

What this means is that taking antibiotics today for an illness that is not life threatening may in fact lead to a growth of superbugs in your gut that could actually threaten your life down the road and prevent antibiotics from working for you when you desperately need it.

Sources:

Gut Damage from Antibiotics Persists for Long Periods of Time, The Journal Microbiology reports that the generally acknowledged precept that use of antibiotics only causes disruption of the gut flora for a few weeks is highly flawed. Microbiology November 2010 vol. 156 no. 11 3216-3223

Antibiotic Dangers, from the Healthy Home Economist, Jan. 2013

Even a short course of antibiotics can lead to resistant bacterial populations taking up residence in the gut that persists for up to 4 years – maybe even longer. PLoS One. 2010 Mar 24;5(3):e9836. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0009836.

Short-term antibiotic treatment has differing long-term impacts on the human throat and gut microbiome.

Jakobsson HE, Jernberg C, Andersson AF, Sjölund-Karlsson M, Jansson JK, Engstrand L.

Department of Bacteriology, Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, Solna, Sweden.Sources:  Long-Term Impacts of Antibiotic Exposure on the Human Intestinal Microbiota, Microbiology, November 2010

Short-term antibiotic treatment has differing long-term impacts on the human throat and gut microbiome, PLoS One. March 2010

Antibiotic Overuse: Stop the Killing of Beneficial Bacteria, Nature, August 2011

Everything You Didn’t Know You Need to Know about Your Dog’s Vaccination

Pet Vaccines

Here is an article from Kim Campbell Thornton published on: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/8572826/ns/health-pet_health/t/still-vaccinating-your-pet-every-year/#.V2yedleNmHl

Kim Campbell Thornton is an award-winning author who has written many articles and more than a dozen books about dogs and cats. She belongs to the Dog Writers Association of America and is past president of the Cat Writers Association. She shares her home in California with three Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and one African ringneck parakeet.

We aren’t veterinarians, and wouldn’t presume to tell you what to do for your pet, but what we can do is share with you the list of things we found in our research to both stop doing and to start doing, in order to support your pet’s health from this point forward. As always, we recommend you consult with a Holistic Veterinarian or a Naturopath that works with animals.

Vaccinations have saved many pets’ lives over the years, but they aren’t without risk. Now, with new research showing that immunity may last longer than once thought, veterinary experts say it’s safer to decrease the frequency of most shots that typically have been given every year.

Side effects from vaccinations range from mild itching and swelling to anaphylactic shock leading to death. Cats may develop vaccine sarcomas, which are cancers that develop at the site of the injection. And dogs may develop certain autoimmune diseases.

Veterinarians have suspected for years that annual vaccinations for cats and dogs aren’t necessary, but large, well-controlled studies just didn’t exist to prove it one way or the other. With the exception of rabies vaccine, the U.S. Department of Agriculture doesn’t require data beyond one year for any vaccine.

With that being the case, vaccine manufacturers arbitrarily recommended annual vaccinations, and most veterinarians, concerned about liability issues, concurred.

Sometimes immunity lasts a lifetime
More recently, however, several published studies have shown that immunity provided by some vaccines lasts for much longer than one year and in some cases for a lifetime.

“We know that for [canine] distemper and parvo, for example, the immunity lasts a minimum of five years, probably seven to nine years, and for some individuals for a lifetime,” says veterinarian Jean Dodds, founder of Hemopet, the first nonprofit national blood bank program for animals, located in Santa Monica, Calif.

“For cats, so far we have challenge data out nine years showing that immunity is still protective,” says Dodds. And with rabies vaccine, new data indicate the immunity lasts for at least seven years, she says.

What does all this mean for your dog or cat? As with many other aspects of veterinary medicine, vaccinations are becoming individualized, but in most cases, fewer and less frequent vaccinations are the way to go. Most animals need only what are known as core vaccines: those that protect against the most common and most serious diseases. In dogs, the core vaccines are distemper, parvovirus, hepatitis and rabies. In cats, they are panleukopenia, calicivirus, rhinotracheitis (herpesvirus), and rabies as required by law.

Three-year interval recommended
“Current vaccine protocol is to properly immunize puppies and kittens with two or three doses, starting later than we used to, maybe at eight weeks and not earlier than six weeks,” Dodds says. “Then you can give a booster at one year and either repeat it every three years, stagger it by giving one vaccine per year instead of combination vaccines, or do titers instead.” Titers are tests that measure the level of antibodies in the blood, which would indicate that immunity still exists.

That recommended three-year interval was a compromise decision. “Annual boosters for the core vaccinations are excessive for most dogs and cats,” says veterinarian Link Welborn of North Bay Animal and Bird Hospital in Tampa, Fla., and a member of the most recent panel of veterinarians that revised vaccination guidelines for dogs and cats. “Limited studies suggest that booster vaccinations for many of the core vaccinations last for at least seven years. However, given the limited number of animals involved in these studies, three years seemed like a reasonable compromise.”

There’s also an advantage to giving single rather than combination vaccines. “Giving more vaccinations increases the likelihood of side effects,” Welborn says. “Separating vaccinations allows the veterinarian to determine which vaccine caused a side effect if one occurs.”

If you’re concerned that your dog or cat will develop a vaccine-related health problem, but you want to make sure they’re protected against disease, annual titers are an economical alternative.

They’re reliable and costs are comparable to those for vaccinations. For instance, at Canyon Animal Hospital in Laguna Beach, Calif., the rate for a combination distemper/parvo titer is $39. If the dog turns out to need a vaccination, it’s given at no additional charge. Titers are also available for cats.

Consider changing veterinarians if yours claims that titers are too expensive to perform, charges $50 or more for them or wants to vaccinate because a titer level is “too low.”

“Any measurable titer to a specific antigen means you’ve got immune memory cells,” Dodds says.

Skip the annual exam, too?
So do these new recommendations mean that your dog or cat no longer needs an annual veterinary exam? Don’t get your hopes up.

The physical exam your veterinarian performs is far more important than vaccinations. In a recent study on longevity, 16 percent of dogs and 20 percent of cats were found to have subclinical — meaning signs weren’t yet obvious — diseases that were diagnosed through an exam and routine lab work.

“Many people, because the animal is living with them, don’t notice subtle changes in the behavior or the clinical state of the animal that a veterinarian would notice,” Dodds says.

Welborn likes to see veterinarians and pet owners working together to perform an annual lifestyle risk assessment. That means looking at the animal’s environment and habits to decide whether it needs such non-core vaccines as those for feline leukemia or Lyme disease or canine cough (probably not, unless the exposure risk is high) and whether it needs changes in diet or exercise levels to prevent obesity and its attendant problems, which include arthritis and diabetes.

“Care should be individualized for each pet,” Welborn says. “The days of treating all dogs and cats the same are gone.”

Diet for the Average Pregnant Dog

Healthy Dogs

When we breed our dogs we want them to be as healthy as they can possibly be.  This helps to ensure not only a good number of puppies can be conceived, but also that both they and their mother will be be healthy and free of complications.

Probably the one most important ingredient you can add to your dogs diet, is animal based protein.  A lot of the dog foods claim “high protein content,” but lets be honest, if the protein isn’t animal based, its not real protein.  Real protein is full of “complete” amino acids.  Plant based proteins are not complete, either in the human or the animal world, and will NOT build healthy bodies like animal protein will.  The nervous system, muscle tissue, brain growth, and connective tissue development can all suffer ill effects of an incomplete protein diet.

So what do you feed your dog to ensure healthy puppies, a healthy mother, a good birth experience and an ample milk supply?  Here are some ideas.

If you want to add kibble to the following good foods, you can do this, but it should never be the mainstay of your breeding dog’s diet:

  • 3 ounces of organic* raw meat twice a day (chicken, beef, fish for some breeds, venison, squirrel, rabbit).  Notice pork is not on the list.  Pork is loaded with worms of all kinds, and you don’t want to endanger your dog with these worms.  
  • 2 raw, organic eggs and the shells (for calcium) once daily
  • 2 ounces of raw, organic half and half.  The fat content in this milk assures healthy brain and nerve development of the puppies.  Half and half is also the best source of phosphorus known to man, therefore supporting bone and hip development.
  • 2 ounces of raw sweet potato 2-3 times weekly.  This supports the elimination of some types of worms that can be threatening to the developing puppies.  
  • Grass, that is organic and unsprayed – on demand.  Your dog will choose what kind and when to eat grass as her body’s needs make those demands.  Grass serves a multipurpose need.  It supports the dogs need for fiber so it can have good bowel movements, and it kills a number of parasites in the dogs.  Dogs should never be allowed to eat grass that has chemicals on it however, as this will put both she and the puppies in jeopardy.

*Organic: This indicates the product was not contaminated with antibiotics, hormones, vaccines, or other harmful chemicals.  Meat that contains these products will not digest in your dog’s body any better then they do your’s.  They are also typically full of worms, yeast (fungal spores) and chemicals.  Her body has enough to deal with without the addition of harmful substances in her food supply.