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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - Raw Diet in IMHA Dogs
| My friend swears by the above claiming it saved her Dog's life. I realize it may not be OK for Immune effected Dogs due to bacteria, but have heard that most dry foods have a simular bac. count. Any thoughts on this? Thanks, T. |
| T.Rose Erie |
| I don't know about the raw diet--it's always been out of our price range--but we switched to Canidae when Bravy had her problems. Canidae is "human grade" food (in other words, it's safe for humans to eat) whereas a lot of dog food on the market has such appetizing things as wood chips in it and is made from the rejected parts of meat, etc. I don't know if switching "saved" Bravy but the better diet and vitamins (there are vitamins for dogs) seems to help her overall well-being. Inna |
| Inna USA |
| My girl is in the second year of being treated for AIHA. Her diet consists of a grain free kibble (Innova Red Meat Evo) in the morning and raw diet patties at night. She has been on a similar diet since she was a pup. We have never had a problem with bacteria in food. After 10 years of feeding raw we are happy with the results. The change to a raw diet or a grain free kibble is not to be taken lightly. We did extensive research into our dogs diets and decided this was the best plan for us. One of the most challenging aspects was finding a vet that was on board with the diet. According to some vets my dogs should all be dead by now because of the bacteria and unbalanced nutrition. Guess my 14 year dogs did not get that memo. Luckily our current primary vet believes in a natural approach. And our girl’s specialist and I have agreed not to discuss a raw diet!-) |
| Susan Bethel |
| I was a little leary about raw when Cody was ill and found that The Honest Kitchen provided a good solution. It is dehydrated raw.... dehydrated at a low enough temp to keep the enzymes and "live" part of the food intact but high enough to kill bacteria and pathogens. It is made in a human food plant in SanDiego. They have several grain free foods and also some with grains.... lots of organic ingredients. Their website is really worth a look. They are also a Whole Dog Journal approved food. |
| Betty Dallas |
| Having fed a raw diet for over 10 years now, I can say I have heard all the negatives posed by vets and experts in the veterinary world. This is a very complex topic. If you asked the opinion of every person who feeds a raw diet in the US you would most likely get a slightly different version from EACH PERSON. What are the facts? Well, in a nutshell, there have been very few studies done because dog food companies would never run such a study that might prove that their kibble isn't as good for dogs as "real food." What complicates this also is that dog's digestion is different in some ways from humans. So it is faulty to apply the same kind of thought pattern to determining the safety and efficacy of a home made diet. In addition, dog food does not have the same rigorous testing and standards that human grade food has in the US. As Josh pointed out, there can be some pretty nasty looking ingredients in dog food that would probably not be allowed in human grade food. I attended a Canine Nutrition seminar about a month or so ago with the vet in charge of the nutrition program at Cornell. This was the followup seminar, the first last year was looking at dog food and regular feeding. This second one was how to feed dogs with disease processes. There are many illnesses that dogs can have that are slightly different from human illnesses. And he explained the proper diets for a number of them, not including autoimmune however. This vet occasionally does Iditarod. The food requirements are very difficult and one of the major problems they must avoid is diarrhea, it just can't happen. What many of the drivers end up doing is abandoning kibble and feeding raw, which works very nicely. So this Cornell vet decided to determine what was the level of bacteria in this food, was it contributing to diarrhea and illness and compare it to kibble to see if bacteria was the agent that caused the diarrhea and illness. They tested all matter of kibble and raw. And the results were surprising. There was, in some cases, high levels of bacteria in the kibble taken right off the shelf! Sure there was some in the raw diet as well, but what became apparent was that healthy dogs "throw off" this bacteria quite well. They have an extremely acid environment in their stomach and that kills most bacteria. Their digestive tract is much faster so they eliminate this stuff much faster, leaving less time for it to cause problems. So why were kibble fed dogs getting diarrhea on the Iditarod? Well, he posited that it was the additional roughage items in the kibble that might be causing the diarrhea. So fiber isn't always the best thing for dogs because they have a harder time digesting things like wheat. When Chance had non regenerative Anemia, he also had neutropenia or was not making white blood cells so he had an extremely compromised immune system. The specialist advised me to stop the raw diet. I did so reluctantly, but understood why I needed to do that. I cooked the foods he had received in his raw diet. When he got better, I transitioned him back to the raw and this is when he began to really recover well. Would I do it the same way? It's tough to say. However, I am very glad he is back on it now. For anyone considering a raw diet, education is essential to doing it correctly. There are certain requirements that must be adhered to in order for it to be balanced properly. Just feeding meat is very dangerous and can lead to nutritional deficiencies. But it's not THAT hard to do and I actually save money by feeding my large dogs a homemade diet. Patrice |
| Patrice NYS |
This thread was discussed on 22/04/2009
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