Dear Darcie, As a faithful follower of your newsletter, I am sitting here stunned to read about diabetes and diet. I have been told by several vets that the only role diet plays in canine diabetes is that of low fat. Please tell me what you helped the pet parents of the lab to do to change the diet. I have a Min-Oin on insulin twice a day. I always read labels and none of my five dogs eat anything with any preservatives or dyes. What else can I do? Thank you. Diane
Hi Diane, Pretty incredible, isn’t it? Diabetes can be turned around in people too. With the right diet and exercise, great changes are being made in this world.
The chocolate lab simply started a raw food diet. Within 5 days her blood sugar was returning to normal. I see it over and over. When we feed dogs the diets that Nature intends for them to eat, they get well. It generally happens pretty quickly.
Processed foods are the culprit behind most illness: cancer, diabetes, kidney and liver disease. The dogs and we humans simply can’t process those kinds of food without diseasing our bodies. Since the 1950s, dogs and humans have suffered a great deal of illness and early death. That’s when dry dog foods, McDonalds, Kool Aid, and the TV dinner started being sold in the US.
A local breeder came to me just a few months ago. He’d started having dead puppies in the womb. The vets couldn’t figure it out. I suggested that he stop feeding processed dog food to his dogs and go to a raw food diet. Within just a few months, the animals are strong again. Crazy.
The thing I find most amazing in all of this is that our veterinarians continue to sell foods made of corn, they sure do keep a nice clientele that way. Three vets told me to my face that if they didn’t sell that food, they wouldn’t have a practice. They know what keeps dogs sick. It happens in our human medicine too. When doctors prescribe medicine for people without diet and exercise changes, they are simply keeping that person sick. Money talks. Just nuts!
There is a website you might like http://www.maximizedliving.com/story.aspx
I follow the Maximized Living nutrition plan and daily exercise and it works! (I don’t recommend things that I don’t experience first.)
The information is the same for our dogs as it is for us. We are all made the same way. A dog and a human digestive system have not changed from the very first of us on this planet. We were not intended to eat corn and certainly not in the quantities that it’s available to us in processed foods. It’s in nearly everything we eat. A cob of corn at a picnic is a nice thing. But corn is in nearly every label of processed food. Look for corn, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, anything ending in ose is a sugar of some sort…it’s not good for us.
People and all animals are intended to eat things that rot. Simple foods that grow, including meats, birds and eggs. Not processed foods and sugars. Corn is an exception, if you study how corn came about, you’ll get a better explanation about why it should NOT be in our diets. When we do it right, we get well and stay well.
Corn is cheap. Why are people paying huge amounts of money for dog food or breakfast cereal that’s basic ingredient is corn? You’re paying for the advertising, marketing and the box or bag. Cattle growers feed corn to fatten a steak for us but those cattle are killed early before they start showing signs of illness. How can anyone expect a dog to eat corn twice a day for it’s whole life and still be well? It can’t.
Speaking of corn fed cattle, I have stopped eating it. I eat only grass fed beef. It’s good for me and it tastes so much better! No hormones or antibiotics in the meat I eat. Ever wonder why our human girls are starting their cycles earlier and earlier? Think hormones in our food.
I personally try very hard to eat right, I exercise daily. I treat my dogs the same way. I’ve helped turn dogs with illness into dogs bursting with health. Rewarding. That’s what we want for ourselves, our families and our animals. It’s a simple change.
Something that dogs need to eat that people don’t is raw bones. Dogs simply cannot be well unless they are ingesting the raw bones that Nature intends for them to eat. Don’t let your vet or the massive dog food marketing machine scare you away from what your dogs really need to be well.
SitStay.com carries the book Raw Dog Food. It’s a simple explanation for how to feed our animals. There have been wonderful books written about the raw food diet and SitStay has sold them all. This one is the simplest to understand and start with, get it to give yourself permission to start feeding your dog the way Nature wants them to eat. I think you’re going to be incredibly happy when you see the changes in your dogs.
I’ve been on a mission for over 15 years to help people keep money in their pockets instead of paying vets to diagnose and treat things they don’t even know about. My opinion is backed up by dogs (and people) who have found wellness.
I hope this helps. 
Hugs to your dogs (and the cats too),
Darcie (Founder of SitStay.com)
Unfortunately Darcie I have a wife who is a brittle diabetic, we have been married for over 20 yrs. She is insulin dependent and trying to get her to eat properly is quite another story. Also trying to get her to exercise and loose weight, well that too is another story.
Now as to our dogs and what they eat. Five years ago our oldest dog who lived to be fifteen used to have terrible ear infections. I had read about processed dog foods i.e. Alpo and the like possibly contributing to the frequency and the severity of ear infections. He would have them six or seven times a year. I started him and his sister on hollistic dog food, Blue Buffalo to be exact, both dry and canned. After a few months the frequency and severity of his ear infections dropped to between two and three a year. Really glad I switched over from processed foods. Have even went to more natural treets for our dogs, I purchase from SitStay Yummy Chummies Wild Alaskan Salmon treets on a regular basis in the 2.5 lb bag for I cannot find them here in NC in that size and all the dogs love them. I also give my two girls (Cheyenne the Siber-Mal and Starr the Malamute) Blue Buffalo Salmon Biscuits as a special treat when they are good!
When Cheyenne turned one, she seemed to have packed on the pounds, that was in 2001. When that happened it was off to the Vet. and had her tested for being a diabetic dog, luckily, the test results we negative, another reason I had her tested was and is she consumes quite a lot of water, another sign she might have been diabetic..
Siberian Huskies are supposed to be a rather slender dog, females ideal weight should be between 45- 60 lbs. She weighs in right about 80 lbs. For awhile she had been tipping the scales right at 98 lbs. and it worried me! She too has been on Blue Buffalo dog food right along with her adopted sister Starr and since I started her on it she has lost over 20 lbs. Starr the female Malamute, Cheyenne’s adopted little sister is a big girl too. Female malamutes weight can range between 60 lbs. and 80 lbs. With Cheyenne being half Siberian and half Malamute, what I’ve got is a Malamute trapped in a Siberian Husky body.
I have Cheyenne checked at lest once a year to make sure she is not becoming a diabetic.
Here shortly my beloved Cheyenne will turn 12 years old. Her birthday is 10-02-2000, she and her liter mates were born during a four day freezing rain and ice storm we had in NC in 2000. Being born that close to Valentines Day I have always considered her our Valentines Day puppy!
Well I’ve gotten long winded once again so it is time to cut this short, a great big Arrroooooowwww from Cheyenne and a big Mal-a-Howling from Starr to you and SitStay!
Just a note for everyone. Processed foods are any raw food that has been altered in any way. Dry and canned dog foods are processed foods. – Darcie
Hi Darcie, what kind of raw bones are OK for my dog to eat and which should I stay away from(he is kind of small, about 25-30lbs.) I really want to do it right from the start instead of learning by trial and error. What about the danger of bone splinters in the throat and/or intestines one is always warned about?Also, what raw foods should I feed him? I really would appreciate if you could enlighten me. Haven’t bought any books on the subject ’cause money is kind of tight right now but I do want to keep my pooch healthy!!! Thanks for your help! I always read your “Dish” religiously. Best wishes and keep up the good work
Angela
Dear Angela, Raw chicken wings, necks and backs are good for all dogs. Healthy mice are good food. Rabbit. Don’t worry, if you can feed yourself and your family a healthy diet, you can feed your dog…just for the dog it’s raw. Check out some books at your local library, that’s free!
– Darcie
Darcie—Would you comment on what you know about dogs and teeth? I have two dogs, one a rescue, who are 7 years old (Schnoodle and Cocker). They have always been fed very high quality food, mostly raw or close to raw, (except for the rescue’s earlier life), and yet both of them have developed dental problems over the last year. The rescue (Cocker) had to have a lot of teeth pulled last fall, and now the Schnoodle, raised by us from a puppy, has one tooth that needs pulling and another questionable one. The only thing I haven’t done so much, that I know you will recommend, is raw bones to chew on. I do feed dental chews and do an enzyme dental toothpaste that I get from the vet two or three times a week, and I have had the Schnoodle’s teeth professionally cleaned three or four times over the last two years. Funny (not so funny really) I emerged last year from a few years of intense stress with lots of dental problems of my own. Maybe the dogs were taking on some of it with or for me…Thank you for what you do and offer! PS, I meant to add that I haven’t done the raw bones to chew on because of new carpets and cold weather! Open to suggestions. – Rue
Dear Rue, Ah, yes, I’m told by some of the best that dental problems can be hereditary. I sure hate the idea of pulling dog’s teeth and unless it’s absolutely hurting the dog if you don’t, it’s probably not the right direction to go. I saw a dog whose teeth were coming in to crooked that they were biting through his lips, very sad. Generally when I hear about dogs losing teeth…doesn’t seem to be a hereditary thing in these cases…it’s because the dog didn’t get raw bones in the diet. The raw bones I’m talking about are like chicken, rabbit, mice…bones that they can eat and digest, not like femurs which are great for marrow but are recreational bones. Put down a towel and ask the dog to chew raw bones on that. Supervise and teach, soon they will stay on the towel for you. Kate does.
I hope that helps some. – Darcie
Dear Darcie, Unfortunately you are very mistaken when it comes to diabetes. If you have the gene for diabetes, you will get diabetes. You will eventually need insulin. That’s probably true in dogs also. Yes, diet and exercise can slow it down, but ONLY in Type 2s. Also sadly, the worst sympthom of uncontrolled diabetes is extreme hunger, and extreme hunger for carbohydrates, which makes it pretty difficulty to control. And yes, I have Type 2 diabetes and am on an insulin pump. Both parents had been diagnosed with diabetes, and my father and his parents died of complications from Type 2 diabetes.
You have a lot to learn. Kathleen
Dear Kathleen, There is new medical and scientific evidence and experience and cures with a change in diet and the right kind of exercise in both people and dogs. Please change doctors if your doctor is telling you there is no hope. Find someone who is teaching Maximized Living, you can find them online and a doctor near you at their website. Don’t let this disease win over your good health any longer. I’m sorry that you’ve had heartbreak in your family. Processed foods are the enemy. Not me. I wish you the best! – Darcie