Holistic for Dogs!

Posts Tagged ‘raw food diet’

I eat raw salmon all the time and it has never occurred to me that it could cause serious disease in my dogs.  The cause of salmon poisoning is not limited to salmon, it also can come from any fish that migrates from salt to fresh water to spawn.  It is most commonly caused by fish from the west coast where the primary hosts (snails) are found.  Other examples of fish able to carry richettsia are trout and steelheads.  Be sure to cook these fish well before feeding or avoid them if cooking is undesirable.  I’m sure not every single salmon out there is necessarily a host but you never know which one is.

In a nut shell, salmon can carry a worm that can be a host to a organism known as richettsia.  When the dog eats the salmon flesh, small cysts in it can hatch out in the dog’s stomach.  The flukes then infest the dog and also release the richettsia.  Salmon poisoning disease may be a bit of a misnomer as it isn’t a poisoning so much as an illness.

Richettsia infestation can cause swollen lymph nodes, high fever, dehydration, diarrhea, vomiting, and lethargy.  Discharge may be seen in the eyes and nose.   Dogs usually fall ill quickly within about a week of eating infested fish.  If a dog becomes severely ill and raw fish was fed to the dog recently it is important to mention that to the vet treating the dog.

If you have fed your dog raw salmon, don’t panic.  When caught and treated properly, most dogs survive their encounter with richettsia.  Extra vigilance needs to be taken to watch the dog’s condition as the mortality rate of untreated dogs can be as high as 9 out of 10 dogs.   Contact the vet if the dog has eaten raw salmon and ask for directions.  If no symptoms have presented and are instructed to carefully observe here are some basic things to watch out for.

Watch out for these symptoms up to a month after fish consumption.

If the dog has a change in its behavior, acting more morose than usual take the time to feel their lymph nodes and take its temperature.  Two of the easiest places to feel for swollen lymph nodes is in the “knees” of the back legs (the largest bend in the back legs) and under the chin.  The lymph nodes under the chin are analogous to our own.  If a firm sac is felt in these areas that indicates a swollen node.  The temperature of the dog may become elevated to as high as 107 degrees a few days after consumption before falling back to a normal temperature.  If the dog begins to vomit and pass bloody stools bring the dog to the vet and inform the vet of the situation.  Symptoms may be appear as severe as some of the most dangerous infections like distemper and parvo.

Once at the vet, a stool sample may be taken or a biopsy of the lymph node to confirm the infestation.  The vet may administer liquids to maintain proper hydration as well as use a combination of a deworming drug and antibiotic to clear the infection.  After proper treatment recovery should be fairly quick.

I really have never heard of this disease before a few weeks ago and I can imagine thinking salmon is a great raw food as we often eat it in sushi.  It is important though to feed only cooked fish that may harbor this disease or exclude them from a raw diet.  We need to be vigilant of our dogs normal behavior.  This disease definitely requires vet treatment and should not be taken care of at home.  And don’t worry!  Humans are immune to this disease and our sushi is still safe for humans .

Technorati Tags: raw food diet, richettsia, salmon disease, salmon poisoning

When I took my dogs in for a food consultation, I received some basic guidelines on what to feed them and how much.  Along the way, I’ve realized that there are a lot of things I wish someone had told me.  I was expecting a doggy stomach ache with the food change but not some of the other issues.

Tip one

When starting a home cooking or raw dog food diet, start off slowly.

I started from kibble and began by soaking the kibble to introduce more moisture into the diet.  Even with this large amount of water, the kibble had enough substance to easily be processed by my doggy’s stomach. After soaking kibble I moved onto canned food.  The canned food really wreaked havoc on my dogs’ stomach and I had a lot of cleaning to do.  Ew.  If I could have done it again, I would have definitely skipped the canned food.

In retrospect, the best way to introduce the new diet would have been to add one new food to the diet at a time.  By planning out a complete meal, each part of the meal can be added to the diet and judged whether or not the dog benefits from it.  A complete meal would consist of a meat, vegetable, and a starch.  Since every dog is different, a little research would help to determine the approximate needs for a dog.  Many dogs are allergic to certain starches and by adding some starch first to the kibble, it will be easy to tell if the doggy is allergic.  To completely switch over to  home cooked or a raw dog food diet, wait at least a few days to  add a new ingredent and cut back on kibble proportionally.

Tip 2

If your dog does have allergies

If the dog begins to scratch excessively, cough after meals, or shows intestinal upset, it may have a food allergy to one of the new foods.  For my dogs it was the rice that was causing allergy.  Eppie began to scratch intensely after meals and also started to cough immediately after meals.  Not to mention the terrible upset stomachs.  I suspected a food allergy so I switched them to potatoes.  Since then Eppie hasn’t had any symptoms.

Tip 3

Buy a Food Processor!

This is just a suggestion based on my fervent wish of having one as I slave away chopping potatoes and veggies and chicken into itty bitty pieces.  Chopping the food into small pieces might not be necessary at all but it does save time when I cook the potatoes.  I also feel like it’s easier for my dogs to eat!  It cuts down on the mess in my house because my dogs do not feel the need to not so sneakily carry away big pieces to eat on the couch.

Technorati Tags: Home Cooking for Dogs, raw food diet