The Dish by Darcy

Dear Darcie, First off I want to tell you that I love reading your blog and have been reading the poncho comic since the very beginning. The reason I am writing is I need your opinion and advice concerning raw food diet for one of my dogs that has some medical issues. She is a 10 yo chocolate lab that about 6 years ago developed pancreatic issues and diabetes. This was caused by a vet damaging her pancreas during surgery to extract 5 pounds of cat food that she devoured that we did not know why she was acting like her stomach was in pain, at first I thought it was bloat. The vet did xrays and exploratory surgery and found the cat food in her stomach and intestines. As the result, I now give her insulin twice a day and pancreatic powder twice a day. Can you tell me from your experience of feeding raw food diet to a dog, that this would improve her health that maybe that I would not need to give her so much medicine a day and maybe bring her spirit back to life. The only thing she wants to do is lay around. The only food that seems to allow her to maintain a good weight is the cheapest off brand dog food that the local grocery store sells. Everything else gives her diarrhea and goes straight through her plus I have to give her twice as much powder in her food. With the other brands of kibble her insulin level goes up and down and hard to maintain a good level. The levels balancing is a risk for her to have seizures. I think that I may have to still give her pancreatic powder to her food so that the nutrients would be digested into her body.
I know that there maybe information that I am not giving you that would help you answer this. But not sure at this time, it is a complex issue with a lot of information. Please let me know if you need any more information concerning this and I will respond. I trust your opinion and experience about caring for dogs and welcome any advice. Everything that I have read on the internet about the raw food diet goes on the advice that the dog is normal and healthy. Thank you for your time Cheryl M.

Dear Cheryl,

I’m sorry that you’re having to go through this with your girl. Let’s see what I can do to help you guys.

Let’s start with the food she’s willing to eat now. You already know it’s junk so you won’t take this personally. There isn’t any nutrition in it. She may as well be eating the bag. Even if the makers of these kinds of foods started with whole simple foods with no dead, dying, down or diseased animals in it, including possibly euthanized companion animals and their flea collars and sick milk cows and all the meds that were in their bodies, they cooked the food until there was no nutrition left. The bag is worth more than what’s inside. They spent billions of dollars on advertising to get you to buy it, they didn’t put the money into the food. Some dogs can continue to breath a long time on this junk, not necessarily at their best, but for a lot of years. And it always amazes me that at the end of their life when they die of cancer, kidney failure, diabetes, heart failure, or something else that isn’t natural, the owner says, well, Darcie you must have been wrong, she lived a good life on that “crappy” food.

Aside from not feeling good because she isn’t eating right, laying around and not wanting to do anything could be depression, just like it happens in people with diabetes and with people who live on fast food. If a body isn’t getting good nutrition, it’s impossible to feel good physically or emotionally. It’s hard to get up in the morning much less live the whole day through with a good spirit. Poor old girl.

Did you ever wonder how depression medicines that are selling faster than ever, overweight people who are developing diabetes, and fast food companies making billions are related to each other? Let’s see. Hmm. Could it be the same for the dogs? Junk food doesn’t have any place in our diet if we want to live a happy, wholesome, healthy, good spirited life. Next time you’re at the fast food place, look around you. What do you see? Do you want to look like that? Food for thought. Now think about your dog. People are feeding their dogs the same processed poison.

I do question the surgery for a gut full of food but you did say exploratory. The surgery must have been done because the doctor didn’t know what they were looking for, weren’t able to diagnose some thing so went to surgery just to see what they would find. Surgery seems to be the answer for a lot of vets and for human doctors, too. It’s such a major undertaking and can result in life long problems and empty wallets. I’d have done anything else first and I’m sure that was your thinking at the time, too. Your doctor and you may not have thought you had the time to try something else, like a laxative or maybe some pumpkin to push what the dog ate through the system. Wouldn’t it be nice if we all had a crystal ball so we knew how much time we had to figure things out and what the answers would ultimately be? And wouldn’t it be nice if we could absolutely trust the judgement of these people who put their pants on just like we do except they went to vet school?

I’m not sure about raw food for a dog who has had the surgery your dog went through, we don’t know for sure what condition her digestive system is in now, if it can handle what Nature intended for her to eat. But if she is still pooping out what she is taking in, that is good news. It probably means that the food, and I use the term loosely, is moving through her system as it should. I have some ideas that won’t hurt your dog to try. I would do this if she was mine.

If she was my dog, I’d start cooking for her in my own kitchen. She has a lot of years left to live if you can control her diabetes and get her to eat the nutrition she so desperately needs.

So…start with the same raw diet that I love so much but cook it. You can do this at home. Use your own good simple foods, no added salt, sugar, preservatives, color dyes. Stay away from processed foods like flour, added sugar, and shortening. Steam everything at first to see how she accepts the food, don’t fry. Baked is fine.

All veggies and fruits should be pureed so she can get all of the nutrition out of them. A whole piece of carrot goes into the mouth and out the other end pretty much as whole as it went in. Your dog’s digestive system is naturally ready to accept and use predigested foods, like you’d find in a bird, rabbit, or mouse’s stomach. Nature intended for dogs to eat raw food, they do not have pockets for their matches, but when we’ve messed up that natural process, sometimes we need to interfere again.

Bake or steam your meats: chicken, beef, lamb, venison, turkey, fish. What ever she likes.

Dogs need whole raw bones, but right now, you just want to get some nutrition into her so don’t worry about that too much yet. Do not feed her cooked bones.

If she turns down veggies, mix them in with a ground cooked meat.

If it was me, I’d stay away from grain, especially processes flours and meals: corn, wheat, rice, etc. My dogs do better without grains. The only time that grain is available in Nature is at harvest time, October and November. It’s there to add fat to an animal who has to survive through a long, cold winter. Our dogs live in the house with us, they don’t need added fat. Thus, they don’t need grain.

When you are feeding a dog, you don’t have to feed a balanced diet daily. Have it come to balance over a week’s worth of food.

Do not feed raisins, grapes, chocolate, caffeine, onions. I don’t like white potatoes or almonds for my dogs, either.

Watch Nature. Feed your dog veggies and fruits that are in season, farmer’s markets are great. In your girl’s condition right now, you might stay away from too much of the acid fruits that could upset her stomach, at least until she shows some improvement. Make the food simple and make it easy on yourself, you’ll be more likely to keep doing it.

You might consider giving her a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in her water or give it to her straight, some dogs love the taste. I’d like an acidophilus Pearl a day to start, again watch the additives to supplements, too, no colors or added sugar. And plain yogurt.

This is another lesson about what cooked foods can do to a dog. She ate the cat kibble because it appealed to her. What was on that, anyway? Used french fry grease? Maybe. Read the label on that food to find out what she ingested. It might give you some clues to why it didn’t move through. Overeating doesn’t necessarily mean a stopped up gut. It often means that you’re going to be pretty uncomfortable until everything finally passes on through.

Because of the diabetes, you may want to feed her several times a day. You’ve been working with her for a while now so you know when her blood sugar needs your attention. You might keep the powder in the diet for a while until you are sure she doesn’t need it any more.

I suggest strongly that you find a holistic vet who believes in dogs eating what Nature intended for them to eat. They will be able to help you get your dog to a happier, healthier place. (I’m not a vet nor a certified nutritionist. I have had great luck helping my own rescue dogs and other people’s dogs, too.)

A cooked diet of good foods is the next best thing to raw and better than the dog food she’s been eating. Don’t swallow the malarky that you shouldn’t feed your dog from your own table. (I think that rumor was started by the dog food companies.) I hope this will help get your girl on the road to recovery. I know that you love her. You have good instincts. You’ll do good by her.

Here’s a note for everyone who is feeding a crappy dog food made of corn and wheat with meat by products and they want to do better for their dog. Sit down, have a good cry for what you’ve been doing to your dog. Then stand up and make a change. In about two weeks time, your dog will be feeling much better and will come to you to thank you. I have never seen it fail. The dog feels better and wants you to know that they know you are the reason. It will bring tears to your eyes.

If you can feed yourself at home, you can feed your dog at home. You can do it. Just do it.

Let us know how she does on the cooked diet. If she does well with it for the next 60 days, you might consider some raw just to see how it goes. It’s what I would do if she were mine.

Take a picture of your girl today. Start a daily journal. What does she weight, what do her eyes look like, how do you think she feels, what did she eat today, blood sugar, how much exercise. All of it. In one week, take another photo, keep doing that so you can see the changes in her. If you don’t take a photo and journal, you’ll forget what it was like when she is healthy again. A journal isn’t hard, a few minutes a day, and it will help keep you on the right track for her.

Don’t forget exercise outside in the sunlight. Walk at her pace every day, twice a day. Don’t over do. Hopefully soon she’ll have you out running circles.

Keep reading Pooch Cafe at SitStay.com every day. You need as much laughter in your life as you can get. Poncho, a very funny dog, is good about delivering a laugh a day.