Posts Tagged ‘home cooking’
Home Cooking on A Budget
January 28th, 2010
Tip 1 Grow some Fruits and Vegetables
If you have a small garden, growing some fruits and vegetables can be a rewarding and frugal experience. I’m sure doggy would enjoy some time in the fresh air and sunshine! Some easy veggies for the novice gardener include tomatoes, beans, celery, eggplant. If you are already an ace gardener then maybe you could leave us tips on other easy plants to grow. (squash? cucumber)
Tomatoes and beans will need some trellis to wind up on. A quick trip to the garden or hardware store will be in order.
Eggplants are fairly hardy plants that sprout up with little assistance here in Hawaii. There are several varieties of eggplant avaliable to grow. I really like the thai eggplant. It is long and slender and one eggplant would be the perfect size fruit for a doggy meal. Not to mention I could make a little Green Thai Chicken Curry for myself.
When I was a little girl, we once tried to grow potatoes. It worked and a tree grew in the pot we planted in but when we dug up the roots the potatoes were… small. I’m not sure if our failure was due to our climate, the pot, or that we were not patient enough but I am certain that it wasn’t so hard. Cut a potato in half and bury it preferably in a really big pot. A plant should soon sprout.
Home cooking and Raw food Diet Nutrition Basics
October 25th, 2009
Dog nutrition is just like human nutrition. The latest news is always changing things up and shaking the established status quo of a balanced meal. Doesn’t it always seem that tofu is good for you one moment and then the next causes cancer? The same goes with dog nutrition; what was hailed as a break through last week may be old news by this week. We all hope to stay up to date on the latest studies but realistically most of us won’t get the memo. My best advice is to feed a varied diet that is as fresh as possible that makes sense to you. And maybe avoid those foods that apparently are really, really, probably still will be really, bad for dogs this week!
Dogs need at least approximately 10-15% fats and 10-20% protein in their diet. They also need some fiber and carbohydrates to be healthy. When preparing a home meal for dogs, it should start with a high quality protein source.
While the most common proteins are chicken, beef, and fish, some dogs may benefit from novel proteins like rabbit especially those prone to allergies. It is also recommended that pets sometimes be fed organ meats and not just flesh. These meats provide different concentrations and combinations of nutrients. Introducing proteins one at a time will help to avoid allergy riddles.
The next important aspect of a balanced diet is fats. Like people, many pet dogs lead a rather sedentary lifestyle with abundant food sources generously donated by their owners. In people, increased tv watching and microwavable food lead to..? Obesity! That’s right! Many pet dogs and cats are fat. And just like humans it’s unhealthy for a dog to be over weight.
Too much fat contributes to obesity, but at the same time fats are necessary for over all health and to promote optimal skin and coats. Some fatty acids cannot be produced by the dog and need to be obtained through dietary sources, usually meats. Fish oil can be supplemented from the local health store to encourage healthy skin and fur. Oils can also come from plant sources like plant oils and from seeds and nuts. Small amounts of oil are sometimes included in recipes to provide this need.
In commercial pet food, frequently the major ingredient is from starch. Dogs require some carbohydrates but not nearly as much as we humans consume or is present in commercial pet foods. Starches often are allergy culprits and are another huge contributer to obesity in pets as it is quickly metabolized and has a high caloric content. In general, starches are the least important contributor to a healthy diet for dogs.
Dogs should eat produce! Fresh fruits and vegetables are great sources of vitamins and minerals that dogs need. Some healthy snacks for dogs could be a few nuts or a carrot stick or celery. My dogs love some fresh cut melon or apples. There are some plant types of foods dogs should avoid but the vast majority are great contributers to a healthy diet. Fruits and veggies should make up a hearty portion of home cooked and raw dog food diet meals. A variety of produce should be offered to make sure doggy gets all of the different nutrients he needs.
As a last note, dogs on a home cooked diet may still need their diets supplemented with a multivitamin. This question will require some research by owners to decide if a supplement is needed by their dog.
Urinary Tract Infections in Dogs
October 20th, 2009
Over the past few months I’ve been at war with Emmala’s stubborn bladder infections. The dog bladder infection issues in my household have not only inspired many vet visits but also intensified my interest in holistic health for dogs. It is was the primary motivation for switching to home cooking and forced me to reevaluate the quality of my dog’s lives.
On a Wednesday, Emmala seemed fairly happy and healthy but by Thursday, there were some pretty serious signs that all was not well. Wednesday night there was the bloody urine. Because I still use puppy pads when my dogs are home alone, to my boyfriend’s dismay, and I happened to notice a few red drops in the middle of a puppy puddle. The blood was fairly subtle, maybe only five or six drops.
By morning, I was awakened by Emmala whining to go downstairs earlier than normal. Actually, she never whines at all. After ignoring her until I could no longer (cruel me!), I brought her outside. Once outside, Emmala squatted probably nine or more times. By her third squat I was already on the phone with the vet.
Upon inspecting the squatting area, I observed that she was leaving literally only a drop of blood. The rest of thursday, Emmala was slightly more lazy than she normally is, and definitely looked sad.
Because I was worried that bloody urine could be a sign of an even more serious problem, I took to the internet. It turns out that urinary track infections were the most likely culprit. I was lucky to have caught the infection so quickly. Many owners won’t spot bloody urine when their dog puddles in the grass and may not observe any changes in their pets bathroom habits if they do not already know how often their pets urinate. Blood in the urine is definitely the most dramatic symptom that signifies something is wrong.
Other symptoms are malaise and straining during urination. Dogs may also regress in their potty training, spotting in incorrect places or having dribble problems. “Excited urination” may actually be a UTI. If your dog has potty training problems it could be an infection instead of a training problem.
If you suspect that your dog has a UTI, make sure your dog does not go to the bathroom the morning of your vet appointment, especially if it is small. I made the mistake this morning of letting Emmala use the potty before we left. As it turns out, she is a small dog with a very small bladder. Being empty, the small bladder was impossible to find even using an ultrasound and a long needle. I ended up having to leave her there for three hours to “re-brew” so to speak.
My vet recommended that the culture and sensitivity test were the most reliable test to diagnose UTI. It takes around three days in which a sample of the bacteria in the urine is grown in the lab and then that culture is checked to see which antibiotic it is sensitive to. Without this testing, choosing an antibiotic is a guessing game. Because Emmala was presumably incredibly uncomfortable because of the UTI’s advanced progression, the doctor opted to have the urine gram tested. The lab also checked to see the basic type of bacteria present, whether they were cocci, rod or the spiral guys.
I received the appropriate antibiotics which are administered twice a day with food for probably two weeks. The total for my visit today came out to about two hundred dollars. Fifty for antibiotics, fifty for the office visit, thirty for the ultrasound, forty or so for the urinalysis, and another 10 for a cytosyntesis.
Some dogs are more prone to bladder infections especially older dogs. Dogs can also develop bladder stones which can harbor bacteria. Bladder stones can be caused by diet as in Emmala’s case. My vet also recommended cleaning the vulva area to try and prevent bacteria from entering the urinary track.
UTI’s are very common in dogs but are sometimes hard to diagnose. In people the first sign of a urinary infection would be the burning during urination, but because dog’s can’t talk it is up to us owners to be vigilant and watch our dog’s behavior.
Home Cooking for Dogs and Food Allergies
October 13th, 2009
Home cooking for dogs is about as much science as it is art. While the basics are simple (cook food for your dog and don’t poison them), the nuances keep sprouting up all around while learning to cook for dogs. My first concern was dog allergies from food.
Dog Food Allergies
After home cooking for my dogs for about two weeks, I noticed that the dogs became really itchy. I mean, waking up in the middle of the night to scratch and consequently waking me up, too, kind of itchy! Initially, one of my dogs was moderately itchy while on kibble but after the myriad of foods I had fed them, both of them were crazy itchy.
My poor dogs were obviously victims of food allergies as their diet was their only recent lifestyle change. Dogs usually aren’t born with a food allergy but begin to develop it as they eat the food repeatedly. Symptoms of allergies may be subtle like paying a lot of attention to their feet to open sores on the skin that could lead to secondary infections. Frequently the dogs display excessive scratching. Dog food allergies might also cause intestinal upset, but I’m sure most owners avoid these foods after one bad run in. In some cases, food allergies may manifest as acute respiratory problems. Please use your discretion if you think your dog is having trouble breathing and take them to the vet!
Identifying the source of food allergies is challenging if it is a food allergy at all. As dogs can’t talk, they have no way of informing us which foods make them itch. If one is not keen on taking the dog in for medical allergy testing, a practical and systematic approach will be necessary. Try to observe the dogs while feeding them a restricted diet and carefully adding sources of possible food allergies. If testing for protein allergy, for instance, use the same starch in the recipe.
My first suspicion for my dogs’ allergies was the source of starch. Starch tends to often be the culprit for food allergies. After eating brown rice the itching seemed to increase, so I switched them to potatoes. In nature, a dog would be much more likely to dig up a tuber as opposed to eating rice that needs to be processed with opposable thumbs.
If it is not the starch the next probably suspect is the protein source. Dogs tend to develop allergies to food products they eat regularly. Since the most common protein in dog food tends to be beef products, that can be a source of dog allergies. Sometimes finding a food with fish protein or something less common like duck or rabbit can resolve an allergy.
If after testing, there still seems to be an itching problem, there may be other problems going on in the puppy.
Introducing New Foods
If you find a recipe that seems to keep your dog happy and not itchy that’s great! But a dog can’t be expected to eat the same recipe for their whole lives. Home cooked dog food is not all-inclusive like kibble or commercial food. It only contains the vitamins and minerals in those particular foods unlike supplemented commercial foods. New allergy approved foods will have to be added to the doggy menu.
Simply make sure each food does not produce a reaction in the dog. Add foods one at a time and monitor them for up to a week looking for adverse reactions. Make small changes and record the results.
Some dogs, like people, have more severe allergies. French bull dogs are notorious for their itchy skin that may be cause by their environment or their food and may require steroids. While moderate allergies may just produce a lot of feet licking or scratching, skin allergies caused by food can include scaly skin, baldness and sores. These dogs often have many allergies that will take plenty of perseverance to resolve.