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Diet Management in Dogs
Balanced dog dietary needs
Dietary needs and homemade diets for dogs
Cancer diet and pancreas
Feeding duck
Puppy diet questions and Coprophagia (stool eating)
What constitutes a complete and balanced diet in Giant Breeds
Veggies in diet
Restricted diet
Necessary protein in dog food
Enzyme deficiency, special diets and supplements
Diet problems in new puppy
Adding oil to diet
Puppy diet problems
Feeding options for dogs and cats
Dietary concerns for older dog kidney and liver function
Calcium supplements and puppies
Tasha's chicken and rice diet
How to get a small dog to eat dog food
Eating pine straw
Feeding Bones
Thin but healthy
Renal Failure and Diet
Poor Appetite
TD diet and urinary problems, any link?
Heat and Appetite
Corn oil
also see Grass eating
also see Diarrhea
also see Digestive Problems
also see Treats
also see Raw Meat Diet
Questions: Hello Dr. Richards,
I want to be able to give my Poms a good balanced diet while at the
same time seeing to it that they are not fed food that will cause renal
and/or liver failure in the long term. I understand that grains are not
readily digested by dogs (being true carnivores) and the lower quality proteins
are considered to contribute to eventual renal failure. Is this correct?
I've heard too that dogs are lactose intolerant and if so, why feed them
cottage cheese? What I'm hearing is that it is best to feed dogs a diet mostly
of meat because that is high quality protein which dogs do readily digest
and are therefore much better for the kidneys and liver to handle. Please
comment. BTW, the link below is an interesting one because it gives
forth reasons not to give raw food and bones. So what is a fur parent to
feed their fur kid(s) for good health?http://www.secondchanceranch.org/rawmeat.html
Tony A.
Answer: Tony-
Dog are not true carnivores, because they can produce the essential
amino acids and do not have to ingest them in their diet. Cats are true
carnivores.Feeding all meat, or nearly all meat diets to dogs almost inevitably
leads to feeding an improperly balanced diet, especially in the calcium and
phosphorous ratios. There is no evidence that I know of that feeding
more protein than is necessary for maintenance and repair of the enzymes,
muscles, etc. in the body has any benefits. It doesn't make a lot of
difference to the dog's system if the protein is high quality or low
quality as long as it does meet those needs. It is necessary to feed
higher quantities of poorer quality proteins, though. This is bad for dogs who
already have kidney failure because it increases the amount of protein
products the damaged kidneys have to deal with. It seems logical that it
might help the kidneys to feed lower amounts of higher quality protein
throughout life but there really isn't much evidence to support a
beneficial effect except in dogs who actually have kidney insufficiency.Cooked grains are nearly 100% digestible for dogs. There really isn't a
lot of question about this based on the results of feeding studies. I am not
sure why people come to the conclusion that grains are not good for
dogs.It is estimated that about 50% of dogs are lactose intolerant, to some
degree. I think that a smaller number of dogs actually show recognizable
signs of lactose intolerance after ingesting milk products, though. This
is just based on observing patients in our practice, though, so I could be
wrong. Given this, you could make a case for not including dairy
products in a diet that you were formulating.There is a lot of confusion about diet and truthfully, what we do know
for sure about optimum diets for pets is almost certainly much less than
what we don't know. The therapeutic diets have made this issue even more
confusing for pet owners. Many people think that if a diet is good for
treating a condition then it should be good for preventing it. This
isn't necessarily true, though. In some cases, it is even possible to
demonstrate that this conclusion is false. Right now, it takes a great deal of
research to sort through these issues and even then, some of them are
just not possible to understand with certainty.Personally, I think that the commercial foods are a good bet. The big
Mike Richards, DVM
companies spend a great deal of money making sure their products meet
the needs of dogs and cats. They have a vested interest in keeping their
customer's pets healthy and in doing all they can to make their live's
longer. A pet that lives for 20 years eats a lot more pet food than one
that lives 10 years. A healthy pet's owners are more likely to stick
with the brand of dog food they are using because they perceive it may be
part of the reason. Why wouldn't these companies strive to produce these
effects? I know that my patients are living longer than they were
twenty-two years ago when I started out in practice. I think that good
quality pet foods are one of the reasons. This is my side of the food
argument. I know that there are lots of disagreements with this and you
are free to take a different approach to feeding your pets. If you do,
please have any diet you do come up with analyzed by a nutritionist to make
sure that it is adequate.
9/12/2001
Dietary needs and homemade diets for dogsQuestion: Dr. Richards,
From what I remember in Zoology 1A class, dogs are anatomically
carnivores with a short and very highly acidic digestive system designed for the
quick digestion of food. I remember reading that the very acidic digestive
system kills bacteria and other pathogens that would render sick or
even kill humans. Could you please explain how kibbles and canned dog
foods these days can be digestively reconciled with the structure of the
dog's digestive system? I understand that all processed dog foods are made
primarily made of grain such as rice, corn, wheat and barley. How
long does it take the digestive system to fully assimilate these grains?
The longer it takes food to be digested, does that not increase the
chances of allergies and digestive upsets?Too, I read somewhere that oatmeal is the best choice for dogs among
the grains because it is higher in protein and fat content. Is there any
truth to this information?I want to wean my dogs away from commercially prepared foods and give
them something fresh and wholesome to eat which would be better for their
health.Tony A.
Answer: Tony-
I don't think that it is known with certainty whether dogs are better
able to resist bacterial infections than humans or other species. The
nutritional books that I have say that dogs are modified carnivores,
well adapted to an omnivorous diet. The predominant carbohydrate source in
the common grains, including corn, barley, rice and oats is starch. When
starches are cooked, including using the extrusion process commonly
used in producing commercial dog foods, the starch is more easily digested then
when it is fed raw. There is no significant difference in digestibility
in the starches found in the grains mentioned above. Dogs are able to
utilize nearly 100% of the starches in cooked diets containing these starches
and at least 60% of uncooked starches in these diets. Dogs do not digest
raw potatoes efficiently and probably only use about 40% of the starch in
these diets. (Much of the above information comes from "Small Animal Clinical
Nutrition, 4th ed." by Hand, et. al. The carbohydrates in these diets
is reported to be rapidly assimilated. I do not think that transit time
has too much to do with food allergies. I believe that the current thinking
on food allergies is that they occur when inflammatory processes in the
bowel allow the body to become sensitized to an entire protein, which
normally doesn't occur because they are broken down prior to absorption.I am traveling and don't have access to the protein and fat contents of
oats but it is unlikely that either one of these ingredients is of
great importance from the carbohydrate source in a balanced diet.It is definitely possible to formulate home-made diets that are safe to
use, with the help of a nutritionist who knows the dietary requirements
for dogs. If you wish to do this it is important to have a nutritionist
evaluate the diet you plan to use to be sure it is nutritionally
adequate.
I know that Dr. Remillard, who is a board certified veterinary
nutritionist offers this service online and there is a link to her site on the link
page of our site.Mike Richards, DVM
9/9/2001
Question: Dear Dr. Richards,
I came across some of your writings on the Internet about pancreatitis
and subscribed to your newsletter today. Thank you for offering this
service.I have spent the past few months learning about new cancer therapies
involving diet, herbs, and vitamin supplementation. Based upon the
results of my research, I have been trying a novel therapy on a boxer
dog ("Max") with a large primary lung tumor. So far the dog's
condition has steadily been improving, so I am optimistic that the treatments is
working. The main focus of my treatment has been:- A high fish oil diet with minimum Vitamin E.
- Sodium Ascorbate with Menadione sodium bisulfite and low dose Ionic
copper given four times per day.
- Ampicillin 250 mg/3 times per day along with sho-saiko-to, a Chinese
herbal anti-inflammatory.I have been doing weekly blood tests and everything has been normal
except for consistent elevation of Amylase and Lipase which have been
as follows:8/3/01
Amylase 1677 (Normal Range: 276-1007)
Lipase 1438 (Normal Range: 117-578)7/31/01
Amylase 1478
Lipase 10177/23/01
Amylase 1386
Lipase 7017/19/01
Amylase 1476
Lipase 5037/7/01
Amylase 1302
Lipase 761The dog exhibits no symptoms of pancreatitis, so I am unsure whether
the elevated lipase/amylase levels are simply a reflection of the high
fish oil diet, or if they are a warning sign. Also I am not sure what if
any other tests I should perhaps do to ensure that this diet is not
harming the pancreas.Please let me know what you think I can best do to protect the
pancreas, and let me know if you think the numbers above mean something is going
wrong with the pancreas, or if you think the elevated levels simply
reflect the change in diet and should not be of concern.
(Unfortunately I don't have any levels taken before the special diet was begun.)Thank you very much for your time. If you are interested in a copy of
the cancer research review I am preparing, please let me know, and I
will e-mail you a draft when it is ready.Sincerely,
Jeff
Answer: Jeff-
Corticosteroids and heparin can cause increases in lipase levels when
they are being administered but usually these are very slight rises, or
increases for an individual patient that don't even put the level out
of the normal range. It is reasonable to presume that some other
medications could also cause rises in this enzyme level, including herbal
preparations.
However, I have not seen any specific reports of this occurring with
any of the medications or preparations that you are using. This doesn't seem
to happen with amylase levels based on searching the literature, but I am
not sure that it can be totally ruled out.The most common causes of rises in both amylase and lipase levels are
pancreatitis and chronic kidney failure. It is a good idea to check the
lab work carefully for signs of either of these conditions and to look for
clinical signs such as vomiting, diarrhea, lack of appetite or
increases in drinking and urinating.Amylase and lipase can increase when pancreatic cancers are present but
do not always do so. In addition, there is some evidence that intestinal
obstruction or decreases in intestinal motility might also lead to
increases in serum amylase and lipase levels. Finally, there are
individual case reports of several different types of cancer leading to increases
in amylase and lipase levels in the blood stream, so these rises may be
due to the cancer that you know to be present.I couldn't find any evidence that fish oils led to increases in amylase
or lipase as a direct result of supplementation if pancreatitis doesn't
occur. There are some reports of pancreatitis or gastrointestinal disturbances
in dogs being supplemented with fish oils but this doesn't seem like a
common problem.My best guess is that the increased levels of amylase and lipase are
either related to the disease process associated with the cancer and are
therefore not a problem on their own, or that they are not indicative of a
current problem. It is reasonable to be cautious if you want to be, though. An
ultrasound examination to try to rule out pancreatitis and continued
monitoring of kidney function would be worth considering if you wished
to try to rule out these conditions.From a dietary standpoint, the best diets for control of pancreatitis
are low fat diets but the best diets for cancer control are moderate fat,
moderate to high protein and low carbohydrate (along with increased n3
omega fatty acids and possibly arginine supplementation based on Dr.
Ogilvie's work). In the situation in which cancer is known to be
present and pancreatitis doesn't seem likely based on clinical signs, I would
opt to go for the diet that is most likely to help with the cancer.I would appreciate a copy of the cancer research review that you are
working on. Thank you for offering this.Mike Richards, DVM
8/30/2001
Question: Dr. Richards,
Are you familiar with the brand name of dog food
called "Wellness," manufactured by a company called
"Old Mother Hubbard."? If so, they offer a wide variety of
both canned and dry dog foods, including DUCK as the
main source of protein. My (finicky) dog finds it quite palatable,
but I have no experience feeding a Duck based food to my
dogs. Other than it being greasy, (which may prove bene-
ficial to my dog's dry coat), is there any reason for me to
NOT continue to feed this food, when I have the option
of feeding Chicken, Beef or Lamb instead?
VoxAnswer: Vox
There is no reason not to feed duck as the protein source. If it works, switching to another protein
source could cause problems if the dog you are feeding it to is sensitive to the protein source you
choose. So if you decide to change, you should think about what protein sources the dog has eaten
previously and try to avoid them.
Mike Richards, DVM
11/29/2000
Puppy diet questions and coprophagia (stool eating)
Question: I have a 12 year old Shep mix that eats feces. She is allergic to many
foods so she is fed a lamb and rice food which works well. I have a 9
month old lab puppy (approx 60 lbs) that I got at the age of 7 weeks. I
feed the puppy Eukanuba Large Breed Puppy food. Unfortunately, the
puppy food has chicken which is one of the foods that my older dog is
allergic to. So when the older dog eats the younger dog's feces, the
older dog has itching, etc.1. Do you know if there is any problem feeding the puppy something like
Forbid or meat tenderizer to see if it will deter my older dog from
eating the feces?2. When should I switch the puppy to an adult food? What would be the
recommended daily calcium level for a lab puppy to help reduce dysplasia
problems? How does the calcium level recommendations change with age?Thanks for your help. Gladys
Answer: Gladys
1) There is no reason that I know of that you could not feed the puppy
Forbid (tm) or meat tenderizer, to see if it would discourage your older
dog from eating the puppy's feces. Our experience with using these things
has been variable, with some successes and a lot of failures, but we have
not seen any harm from using them so we still try them despite the fact
that they only work in a small percentage of dogs. And because we don't
have a better suggestion.2) Calcium requirements are a difficult subject to really get a firm
understanding of, so if the following explanation doesn't make sense,
please let me know. Most of the following information involving specifics
of requirements comes from "Small Animal Clinical Nutrition, 4th ed." by
Hand, et al.There is no clear guideline for when to switch from puppy food to adult
food, but the switch should be made about the time that the puppy's bone
growth (including increasing bone density) stops. This varies from breed to
breed but probably is somewhere between 10 months and a year of age for
most Labradors.The most common mistake made in feeding puppies is to feed too much
calcium. This is easy to do. The second most common mistake is probably
feeding foods with improper calcium/phosphorous ratios. This isn't usually
due to a problem with the commercial food, it is usually due to feeding
supplements or snacks that contain either calcium or phosphorous and
unbalance the ratio found in the food.The first thing that you have to understand about feeding calcium is that
the percentage of calcium required in the food is very dependent on the
amount of energy that the food provides. A food that provides a high degree
of energy will require a higher amount of calcium and a food that provides
smaller amounts of energy should have lower amounts of calcium. I have not
seen a figure for the maximum amount of calcium in very high energy foods
but if a dog food provides less than 3.8 kilocalories of metabolizable
energy per gram of food (< 3.8kcal/g ME) then the calcium level in the
food should not exceed 1.5% on a dry matter basis.To convert the calcium percentage in dry dog foods to a dry matter basis,
multiply by 0.9 (90%) to convert to dry matter from the label (as fed)
percentages.For canned food it is reasonable to multiply the percentage of an
ingredient on an "as fed" basis to a dry matter basis by multiplying it by
4. This is not as precise as subtracting the percentage of water to figure
out the dry matter and then dividing the percentage on the label by the
percentage of dry matter but it is easier.The new big breed puppy foods have higher calcium levels than adult dog
foods. They also have a lot more energy per gram (or cup, or any other
measure). So the puppy eats less of the food to meet its energy
requirements. This is important to realize, because if a puppy is fed an
adult dog food that has a lower amount of calcium, but it has to eat two or
three times as much of the food to meet its energy requirement, it will
actually consume more calcium from the adult food, even though it has a
lower calcium content on a percentage basis. Puppies need about 1% calcium,
on a dry matter basis, for foods that provide 3.5kcal /g ME (about the
average).You might have to call the dog food company to get the number of
kilocalories per gram of food, or you can check out Ohio State's web site
on nutrition, which might have your dog food listed (I think we have a
link to this on our link page).Now that I have confused you, it has occurred to me that you asked the
wrong question. It might be possible to cause problems with hip dysplasia,
or other orthopedic disorders, by feeding excessive calcium, but the
biggest problem is feeding excessive calories. You want to keep your Lab
puppy thin while he is growing up. If you haven't done this, it may be too
late now -- but it still wouldn't hurt to cut back on the food if he is
overweight. The reason that the large breed puppy foods are a good idea is
that they have enough calcium and energy to allow you to feed adequate
amounts of calcium while meeting the puppy's energy needs, without making
him overweight. So it was good to choose one of these foods.Once the growth phase is over the calcium requirements drop. On the other
hand, the risk of feeding too much calcium and causing orthopedic problems
also drops some. Adult dogs only require about 0.6% calcium on a dry matter
basis for foods providing 3.5 kcal/g MEIn your situation, in which the puppy's food causes problems in the older
dog, I think it would be reasonable to make the transition to an adult food
anytime between 10 months and a year of age. You should make the transition
gradually, taking a week or so to switch entirely.Hope this helps some. Good luck with the coprophagia (stool eating)
behavior problem.Mike Richards, DVM
1/9/2001
What constitutes a complete and balanced meal for adult Giant Breed dogs
Question: Dr. Richards,
I've studied AAFCO regulations and other sources
of K9 Nutrition as to what constitutes a complete and
balanced meal for adult, Giant Breed dogs (with low levels
of exercise), but I'd like YOUR opinion as to what YOU would
recommend to be desirable levels in the following categories
(in canned food) to be fed on a daily basis. (I feed a combination
of canned food and dry kibble, twice daily, but that's irrelevant
to my question, as I am looking for your reply as to total
daily percentages).Total daily % of Protein: ?
Fat : ?
Fiber : ?
Carbs : ?Thanks, Vox
Answer: Vox-
You feed a mixture of canned food and dry food. This does make a huge difference when figuring
out the appropriate protein levels, based on mixing canned food with dry food.To give you an example of this, which has more protein on a dry matter basis, a canned food
containing 8.5% protein or a dry food containing 21.5% protein? To figure this out it is necessary
that you know that canned food is usually about 75% water. So when the water is removed, all the
other ingredients increase dramatically as a percentage of the dry matter in the can. In general it is
assumed that the protein percentage on the label of a canned food can be multiplied by a factor of 4
to get the amount of protein that is present on a dry matter basis. So the 8.5% protein in the canned
food becomes 34% protein on a dry matter basis. On the other hand, the amount of water in dry
food is only about 10%, so it is reasonable to increase the protein level on the bag by 10% to get the
amount that would be present on a dry matter basis. So the dry food is only 23.7% protein on a dry
matter basis.In order to figure out how much protein you are feeding, you have to figure out the amount of protein
in each type of food, on a dry matter basis. The minimum protein requirement to sustain life is pretty
low. It is estimated to be about 6% on a dry matter basis for adult dogs and about 10% for puppies.
However, this assumes that the protein is high quality and that adequate caloric intake is occurring so
that the protein is not used for energy by the body but for the specialized jobs that protein has in the
body. Since this assumption may not be valid, it is usually advisable to give more protein than is
required, which is why the AAFCO standards call for 18% protein for adult dogs and 22% for
growing dogs. My opinion is that a good quality food only needs to meet this requirement and that
more protein is unnecessary.Carbohydrate and fat percentages also have to be compared on a dry matter basis. The same factors
apply to them -- multiply by a factor or 4 for canned food and increase by 10% for dry food. In
dogs, carbohydrates serve several purposes but the most important one is energy production. In this
function, the amount of carbohydrate necessary is influenced by the amount of protein in the diet.
Very high protein diets allow proteins to be broken down and used as an energy source, lessening
the need for carbohydrates. However, there appears to be less problem from high carbohydrate
levels than from high protein levels in dogs, so most dog foods are high in carbohydrates and lower in
protein. I think this is best. Carbohydrates can be as much as 60% of the diet.Fat is necessary as a building material for hormones and other active substances in the body, as well
as serving as an energy source. Very little fat is actually required in the diet to meet metabolic needs
in dogs, so there really isn't a published minimum fat content that I am aware of. Dogs like fat in their
diet and fat is a good source of energy, which can make it possible to meet energy requirements
without having excessive protein. I have heard that if a food gets much below 8% in fat, on a dry
matter basis, it starts to get less palatable and this effect is worse the lower the fat percentage goes. It
is important when looking at canned foods to remember that the fat percentage is also multiplied by a
factor of 4. Canned foods often have 6 to 8% fat on an as fed basis, which is 24 to 32% fat on a dry
matter basis.So, if you convert the protein amounts on the can and bag to a dry matter basis and then average
them based on the amount of canned food fed and dry food fed, the percentages that I would be
comfortable with are:Protein: 18% for adults, and 22% for puppies on a dry matter basis
Carbohydrate: 30 to 60% on a dry matter basis
Fat: at least 10% on a dry matter basisMike Richards, DVM
12/16/2000
Question: The UK Cancer Research Campaign says humans should eat
at least five portions of fruit or vegetables a day to reduce the risk of human cancers.
Is there any reason not to feed the dogs one and a half human portions
of cooked vegetables a day in the hope this will reduce their cancer risk?
I am thinking of potatoes, carrots, cabbage and the like. Dogs are about
45 to 50 pounds in weight.Answer: I would lean towards green beans (string beans), carrots and peas,
personally, but I don't see any problem at all with feeding dogs some
vegetables. We commonly recommend this as a way of giving more food to dogs
on diets without adding many calories. One of my dogs really likes raw
potatoes and it doesn't seem to bother her to eat them.Hope this helps some.
Mike Richards, DVM
Question: Mike,
Following his endoscopy we were told Zeus's vomiting was caused by food
intolerance.For six weeks we fed him white fish and white rice. This worked very well;
the vomiting stopped.Now we have added chicken to the white fish and rice, and in the coming
weeks we are going to add cooked beef and lamb.I am worried whether he will get all the vitamins, minerals and other
nutrients he needs on such a restricted diet. How safe is this diet?Zeus is seven and looks fine now. We were told that the most probable cause
of this reaction is wheat products in the dried complete food we were
feeding him.Thanks, John
Answer: John-
It is usually OK to feed a restricted diet, even without vitamin or mineral
supplementation, for about 2 months. After that point, there is the
potential for deficiencies in vitamins or mineral balance to exert an
effect starts to become pretty worrisome. There are commercial diets
available that are balanced (Waltham, Hill's, Purina, Innovative Diets and
other manufacturers all have these diets). It is also possible to use home
made diets and have a veterinary nutritionist help with the formulation ---
but I wouldn't pay for the nutritionist's services until you know what
foods you have to avoid, so the food trial has to be complete. In most
cases of food sensitivity there will not be a reaction to vitamin or
mineral supplementation as long as you don't use flavored vitamins or
mineral supplements. So you could ask your vet about this. We usually just
add a multi-vitamin tablet and a calcium supplement for the short term and
then try to get a formulated diet for the long term.Mike Richards, DVM
11/4/2000
Question: How much protein should be in her food? What % is enough?
Wicker is not fixed yet.. will that make a difference in the urine discoloration of my lawn?
Thank you again!
Alicia
Answer: Alicia-
The AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Officials) standards call
for a minimum of 22% protein for a growing dog and 18% for an adult dog for
foods using the most common ingredients. Most dog foods tend to contain
higher protein levels than these minimums. Dogs can actually do well with
much lower protein levels if the protein is of high quality.I didn't answer the part of your question about whether or not spaying or
neutering would help with discoloration of the grass by urine. I have not
found any information that suggests that spaying or neutering makes any
difference.Mike Richards, DVM
6/28/2000
Enzyme deficiency, special diets and supplements
Question: Dr Mike,
Hey, it's me again! Do you know of any companies that sell prescription dog
food and/or prescription medicines for pets that have really good prices?My boyfriends' dog, Dusty (a golden retriever) was just diagnosed with an
enzyme deficincy. According to his vet, she'll need to eat prescription dog
food (Hill's Science Diet ID) sprinked with a few teaspoons of Viokase-V
twice a day for the rest of her life. He's currently paying about $135 for
a 12oz container of the Viokase-V. I'm not sure how much he's paying for
the dog food, I just know that it's a lot more expensive than the Iams he
currently buys for his other dog.If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears! Lynn
Answer: Lynn-
I don't know of any source for the prescription diets but it is likely that
there is some online source by now.It might be a good idea to get a second opinion on the enzyme deficiency,
since this is a lifelong illness that requires expensive therapy.
Confirming this type of illness is worth the cost.It is sometimes possible to get beef pancreases and use them as a source of
enzymes rather than using Viokase (Rx) or Pancreazyme (Rx). Of course, it
is easier to get beef pancreas if you live near a beef processing plant. It
takes some experimentation to figure out the dose a dog needs and it is
inconvenient and messy but it is usually a lot less costly than the enzyme
supplements.At the present time, I do not know if there is a significant advantage to
using a bland or low fat diet but if your boyfriend's vet has had good
experience with doing this I don't see any reason not to give it a try.
However, if cost is a really important factor, the dog food is much less
important than the enzyme replacement therapy, whichever one you use.Mike Richards, DVM
6/4/2000
Question: Dr Mike,
I recently acquired a little Rat Terrier puppy from a breeder. He is 10
weeks old and weighs 5 pounds. I am having a difficult time getting him to
be interested in eating HIS food. It appears that the breeder would let the
dogs gather around their table, and the adult dogs would get handouts. The
little ones now seem to think that is the only way. I have purchased a big
bag if 'IAMS' puppy food, but he really doesn't want anything to do with it.
The breeder had him on 'Sportmix--for adults', which is made from
byproducts. My vet thought the IAMS puppy was a much better alternative and
I agreed. Now the little guy seems to boycott the IAMS, hoping that he will
break me.He has been to the vet 2x and he is checking out fine. I think he just
likes people food more than his own, and he is just stubborn enough to hold
out for it. Can you think of a way that I can get this guy back on his
food? Even if it is little by little. Or can you point me toward a list of
ingredients so that I can make him something that is nutritionally
sound.....that he might eat? I just lost my other dog of 16 years in
April, so I am an easy target for the little furball to push around right
now. I think he knows it too.I should mention that he had a reaction of sorts to his 8 week shots. Was
constantly itching the area. So, the vet put him on something called
'clavamox' (I don't have the box right here, so I may be off a little)
anyway, do you think that might be causing his fussy eating issue? I know
it seems to make him kinda tired for about 2 or 3 hours after I give it to
him. If his appetite problem is because of the medication, he only has
tomorrow yet to take his last dose. I just don't know what the typical side
effects of that drug are. I asked the vet and they said that 'he'll eat
when he's hungry--puppy's sometimes forget to eat entirely and then they
catch up the next day.' I would like to believe that, but when the little
thing is only 5 pounds to begin with, I get nervous.Thanks for your help, any suggestions are very much appreciated.
JoAnne
Answer: JoAnne-
Clavamox (Rx), like most antibiotics, will sometimes cause
gastro-intestinal discomfort which could be leading to the variable
appetite that your rat terrier is exhibiting. If it is the cause, his
appetite should improve within a day or so of stopping the antibiotic.It is likely that you are correct in your assumption that he has developed
a food preference at this point which is different from the one that you
would like to encourage. There are a lot of different approaches to this
kind of problem.It can help to add warm water to the dog food a few minutes before feeding
it. This makes the food softer and seems to enhance the flavor some. If
water won't work, beef broth or chicken broth might help to make the food
more palatable.Canned food is more attractive to many dogs than dry food. There is no
reason not to feed canned food from a nutritional standpoint. It is more
expensive and less convenient, but those aren't nutritional issues. It is
possible to get some dogs that eat primarily human foods to switch to
canned food and then to gradually switch to dry food, over time.If he likes "Sportmix" because he is used to it, you might find that it is
best to go ahead and use this particular food for a few days to a few weeks
and very gradually introduce the Iams food that you would prefer he eat, a
few pieces at a time. Kellogg's cereals had a slogan a few years ago that
said "No food is nutritious until someone eats it.", which I think applies
to a lot of things other than breakfast cereals. If that is what he likes,
feed it for now and work with him to get him on a better food, over time.It is possible to make home made diets that meet the nutritional needs of
puppies and adult dogs but it is actually fairly hard to be sure that the
diets meet the nutritional needs entirely without excesses that might be
harmful, such as excessive calcium or excessive phosphorous. If you do wish
to take this approach, the best thing to do is to find a nutritionist who
can help make the formula. Dr. Remillard, a veterinary nutritionist, has
plans to establish a website for this purpose (dietary formulation), if she
has not done so already.I worry about small dogs that skip an entire day's meal, due to the higher
rate of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) among the small and toy breeds when
they do not eat consistently. This conflicts with the need to train them
to eat what is offered, since it isn't as easy for me to tell a client just
to wait until the dog is hungry and it will eat, even though I do think
that is an acceptable approach for bigger dogs. So I have a few patients
in my practice whose owners have not converted them from hand feeding of
table scraps. For these dogs, I advise feeding a well balanced diet by
trying to roughly follow the "food pyramid" and supplementing vitamins. It
isn't a perfect approach but sometimes it seems like a reasonable
alternative, to me.Mike Richards, DVM
5/17/2000
Question: Mike,
Our last vet recommended we feed the dogs one desert spoonful
of vegetable oil a day. I changed it to olive oil because this
seems to be recommended for human health in preference to corn
or sunflower oil.Is there any reason not to feed the dogs one desert spoonful
of olive oil a day?Do you have any thoughts about what oil is best?
Dogs are well.
Thank you. John
Answer: John-
The only reason I can think of not to feed dogs a spoonful of oil would be
the caloric content, if they have a tendency to be overweight. Oils are
high in calories. Otherwise, there is are no harmful effects that I am
aware of to this practice.The idea is usually to provide essential fatty acids that may not be found
in high concentrations in the diet. Currently it is probably easiest to
achieve this effect by using one of the dietary supplement products, such
as DermCaps (tm) or EFA-Z (tm) that contain the essential fatty acids in
high concentrations. There are a lot of these products on the market so
your vet may prefer, or carry, different brand names. Fish oils are a good
source of these fatty acids, too.If adding calories is the idea, I don't think it makes a lot of difference
which oil is used.Dogs do not get the athlerosclerosis (cholesterol plaque) problems that
humans get, so I am not sure there is any advantage to olive oil in dogs
but it does have a nicer taste, at least in my opinion.Mike Richards, DVM
4/28/2000
Question: Dear Dr. Richards,
I have a black lab puppy (18 weeks) who has been having some dietary
problems, and am wondering how to proceed. We were feeding her
Eukanuba for large breed puppies, and she developed diarrhea about 2
weeks ago. Our vet recommended feeding her chicken and rice until her
system settled down, and then gradually introducing her food again.
She did well on the chicken and rice, and then we began easing her
regular food back in. As we increased the amount of eukanuba, she
began to get diarrhea again; however, if we kept the amount about
50/50 eukanuba to chicken and rice, she was fine. My questions are,
Does this sound like a food allergy? Are labs predisposed to these
kinds of allergies? Also, do you think we should have our vet test
her, or should we just continue with the chicken/rice diet? I worry
that since she's a puppy, that there are supplements in the commercial
food that she needs.Thanks in advance for your thoughts about this!
SusanAnswer: Susan-
It does sound like your lab puppy may have a sensitivity to one of the
ingredients in the Eukanuba. Usually this would be a food allergy but
sometimes there are specific problems with digestion of certain nutrients
(like wheat gluten or milk) that occur, too.It is going to be necessary to come up with a nutritionally balanced diet
soon. It is generally OK to feed a diet like chicken and rice for two to
three weeks even though it is not balanced for some nutrients and does not
contain all necessary nutrients. When it is obvious that a longer term
solution is necessary it is important to use a more complete and balanced
diet. The easiest way to do this is to feed a commercially available
limited antigen diet. A number of companies make these now, including
Innovative Diets, Hill's, Purina and Waltham. These diets contain unusual
protein sources, like duck, venison, salmon, egg or even proteins altered
to be less antigenic. It is OK that these are not puppy foods as long as
they say on the label that they meet the needs for all stages of
life. Most adult dog foods can make this claim.If a limited antigen (one protein source) diet works well it would probably
be a good idea in a puppy this age to try to figure out which specific
ingredients cause problems. The method for doing this is to add them back
into the diet, one at a time and evaluate the response. If you add beef to
the diet and the diarrhea returns, that may indicate a problem with beef.
If you stop it and the diarrhea stops, it would be enough confirmation for
me. If beef is OK, then you can try corn, wheat and other ingredients
until you find the ones that are a problem.An alternative, since chicken seems to be OK, is to find a diet that only
contains chicken. This can be hard to do, but there I think there are some
commercial diets with chicken and poultry by-products only. Usually if the
label just says "animal byproducts" there will be beef in the by-product
source. Just read the labels carefully.If you discover over time that the diet isn't the cause of diarrhea,
because it keeps coming back despite dietary limitations, then a different
approach to the problem is necessary. For now, though, it does look like
diet is likely to be the problem.I do not know of any studies that show an inherited tendency towards food
allergy in Labrador retrievers but they do seem to have a slightly higher
tendency towards this problem. Many (maybe most?) cases of food allergies
in dogs have itching as a sign, especially itchiness affecting the feet or
ears but diarrhea and/or vomiting can be the only clinical symptoms in some
dogs.Good luck with this. Remember that just switching brands of commercial food
randomly isn't going to work well because the basic ingredients are often
the same. You need to feed a food with protein sources the puppy has not
been previously exposed to and then figure out the ingredients that are
causing problems.Mike Richards, DVM
4/2/2000
Feeding options for cats and dogs
Question: hi im a student studying animal sciences in australia
i was interested in you site and i wanted to know the diffrence between free
will feeding, time restricted feeding, and quantitive feeding and there
advantages and disadvantages for dogs and cats
you help would be appreciated
thankyou
anne
Answer: Anne-
Free will feeding is leaving food out (available to the dog or cat) at all
times.This type of feeding works pretty well in cats but often leads to obesity
in dogs. If there are multiple dogs in your household free feeding can keep
the whole group calmer and may allow less aggressive dogs more access to
food, though. Some cats will become obese if they are fed free choice,
though. Other feeding methods will be necessary for these cats.Time restricted feeding is feeding all that a dog or cat will eat within a
specific time period, like ten minutes to fifteen minutes.The current thinking (from "Small Animal Clinical Nutrition, 4th Edition"
by Hand, Thatcher, Remillard and Roudebush), is that there isn't much
advantage to timed feeding in dogs because most of them will eat more than
they need to eat within a short time period. I think that this method is
helpful in puppies, sometimes, though. Puppies need more energy so if they
eat a little extra it usually isn't a disaster and they don't eat quite as
much as they do if fed free choice. Cats sometimes do not eat enough if
they are fed by a time restricted method, since they tend to eat slower and
to eat smaller quantities at one time. If a cat is being fed using this
method and it is losing weight, this should be a concern.I am not sure what quantitative feeding means for sure. I am assuming that
it means measuring the amount of food that the dog or cat receives and
feeding that specific amount daily. This is the preferred method of feeding
for dogs because it keeps them from becoming obese if done correctly yet
still provides the necessary amount of calories for their lifestyle. It
isn't a bad way to feed cats, either. Many dogs will still want more food
and it takes some resolve on the part of their humans to resist feeding a
lot of additional calories in the form of treats, though.Hope this helps.
Mike Richards, DVM
3/21/2000
Dietary concerns for older dog kidney and liver function
Question: Hi Dr Richards:
How are you? It is the first time I write and ask questions, so please be patient with me!
2 of my dogs are quite old. One is 13-1/2, Baby, male - a mongrel and Gwei Gwei, male,a silky terrier , at least 12 years old. Gwei Gwei has been having kidney problems for the past 5 years (on k/d diet) and recent blood test showed it is getting worse,and I just found out Baby has both kidney and liver problems too. Their recent blood tests are:
Baby
A/G Ratio 1
Albumin 38
Alk. Phos 177
Urea (BUN) 15.9
Calcium 2.82
Creatinine 178
Prot(T) 78
ALT (SGPT) 205Gwei Gwei
A/G Ratio 0.6
Alk. Phos 55
Albumin 28
Urea (BUN) 32.3
Calcium 2.39
Creatinine 243
Prot(T) 74
ALT (SGPT) 35Judging from the above, can you please tell me if their problems are serious or just moderate or minor. My vet is kind of busy and would not have all the time to explain to me. I am really worried as they are quite old.
My vet asked me to put them on low protein diet, Hills U/D diet. Gwei Gwei has been on K/d for the few years, but Baby is starting just on the U/D now. The following are my questions:
(1) Is it true that there are good and bad protein, and that good protein are fine for kidney and liver problems? My vet said I can give my dogs cottage cheese or yogurt (good high protein stuff). Is it true?
(2) Which is better, canned food or dry food? I notice the U/D canned food is just 2%, while the dry food is 8%. (By the way, why are all the dog food ingredients say min - %. If it says min 2%, it could mean 80% too!) However, people told me usually canned food are more salty and dry food are always better and healthier. Right now I give Baby (36 lbs) a can each day plus some dry food.
(3) I have been told by a nutritionist that the preservatives BHA and propyl galate may cause danger to a dog's health. I just got a big bag of Hills U/D dry food and found out that they have these 2 items as preservatives. I want to return it. Do you know anything about these 2 preservatives being hazardous to animal health?
(4) My vet also gave me a home-made low protein recipe - rice, hard-boiled egg, vegetable oil, salt, calcium carbonate, and balanced minerals/vitamins.
What is balanced mineral/vitamins? I got a Sold Gold Seameal - mineral & Vitamin supplement which contains Vitamin D, E, B12,phosphorous Biotin, folic acid, calcium,magnesium sulfur, copper,iodine, iron, zinc, niacinr, ioflavi, thamine, ascorbic acid. Are they balanced and sufficient?
Is calcium the same as calcium carbonate, which means I dont have to put in calcium carbonate separately (because I cant get this power at health or pet stores).
Also, is brown rice better than white rice, and is flexseed oil better than vegetable oil? Should I replace them with these two items?(3) Baby loves muchy sticks (made of raw hide). Are they high protein too. I give them 6 sticks each day. Is it too much?
(4) If I mix some fish or meat with canned food, Gwei Gwei will eat much more. My vet told me maybe fish is better protein than chicken or pork, however, the other vet told me fish is too much mineral, I should use chicken. What would you suggest?
(5) I have been giving them some herbal tea (Flora Essence) for the past 3 weeks (for detoxification &cleansing). It seems Gwei Gwei is more alert and much hungrier than before and asking for food frequently. Is this normal? Is the herbal tea good to the kidney and liver problems? Will there be any side effects? Can I give them on a daily basis. Right now I put in 2 tablespoons in the water bowl.
Thanks Dr Richards for the patience. Look forward to your reply soon.
Take care. Lily
Answer: Lily-
I think it might be easiest to explain what is known about protein and kidney disease first and then try to apply that to your questions.
The kidneys are filters for the blood stream. This would be an easy task if it was acceptable just to remove everything that wasn't water or a blood cell from the blood. If the kidneys did that, though, then there wouldn't be protein to repair the body, there wouldn't be adequate amounts of potassium to make muscles work, no nutrients for energy, etc. So the kidneys have to be capable of removing substances that do not belong in the body and preserving substances that do belong. This is a very difficult task.
Proteins are among the substances that must be preserved. Doing this is a lot of work for the kidneys and when they are damaged it is even harder. Due to this, a theory was developed that limiting the total quantity of protein a pet eats but making sure that the protein is high quality would be better for the kidneys, since they would have less work to do.
One of the problems with proteins is that they are all broken down in the digestive tract into their separate amino acids, or short combinations of these amino acids. Then they are reconstructed by the liver into proteins the body needs. The liver uses individual amino acid "building blocks" for this process. The right amino acids must be present in order for proteins to be built.
If there is a great excess of some amino acids and small quantities of another, the body can only produce the amount of protein that the smaller quantity will allow. The rest of the amino acids that can't be used right then are converted into energy. This conversion process produces the waste by-products that are harmful to the body and that the kidney must filter out.High quality proteins are ones that closely match the proper mix of amino acids the body needs. Ideally, there would be exactly the right number of every amino acid and no excess of protein material, making both the liver and the kidneys happy. In general, animal source proteins, such as meat, milk and eggs are higher quality than plant source proteins. This is because the animal that produced these items already made the proper proteins and so they are already in the proper mix. That is why cottage cheese is considered to be a higher quality protein source then soy, for instance.
There has been a lot of controversy in veterinary medicine about the validity of the theory that lowering protein levels is beneficial to the kidneys, for chronic kidney disease. At the present time, I believe that the general consensus among researchers is that there probably is not much benefit to the kidneys in protein restriction, except in acute kidney disease.
However, there is some benefit in phosphorous restriction in the diet and low protein diets are usually also lower in
phosphorous than normal diets. In addition, there is very good evidence to support using lower protein diets when liver disease
is present.Now on to your questions. I may miss one or two, so please feel free to ask for clarification.
Dogs do not tolerate loss of kidney function as well as cats do. So I consider almost any rise in kidney values to be worrisome in a dog, unless I am convinced it is occurring due to dehydration rather than real kidney problems. In older dogs, this is not usually the case. It is best to monitor kidney values closely and to use supportive treatments, such as fluid therapy, potassium supplementation, calcitriol administration, low phosphorous diets and possibly even angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE inhibitors) early in kidney disease. There is information on these medications on our web site.
Your questions:
1) There are proteins that are better quality than others. However, the idea is to give limited quantities of the high quality proteins. If there is more protein in the diet than the body needs, the liver still has to convert it into energy, making its job harder and then the kidneys have to filter the by-products of this conversion process out of the blood stream. So there isn't a "safe" protein source that can be fed in unlimited quantities.
2) Canned food is better for patients with kidney disease. The reason this is true is that canned foods contain a great deal more water. Water is the kidney's best friend when they are not working well. The more water the dog drinks or gets in its food, the better. It is acceptable to use dry foods and just add water to them, though. In fact, I would add as much water to either canned or dry food as your dogs will tolerate and still eat their food.
The difference in protein percentage is due to the water. That is why it is better to compare protein levels in foods on a "dry matter basis". This is the percentage of protein in a diet calculated as if all the water has been removed. Unfortunately, most dog food cans don't list protein amounts in this manner so you have to call the manufacturer to get this information.
You are right about the problem with listing "minimum" and "maximum" allowances rather than exact analyses of the amount of ingredients. Since protein is expensive to add to the diet it is usually reasonable to assume that it will be close to the listed minimum, though.
There is some evidence to suggest that very low protein diets, such as u/d are not a good idea in chronic kidney failure. I would lean towards moderate protein restriction and stick with Hill's k/d or l/d diets, Purina's NF diet or one of the other available moderately restricted diets, personally. Perhaps your vet has a reason for this recommendation that I am not aware of, though..
3) One of the problems with nutrition is that it is almost impossible to say that a particular ingredient will never cause problems. This is true of the preservatives. I am not aware of any scientific studies that really support the worries over preservatives but when the words "might cause harm" are used it is nearly impossible to deny. My personal belief if that the preservatives found in most dog foods do not cause problems. If this worries you, though, you do have the option of making appropriate diets at home or buying commercial diets with other preservatives or without preservatives.
4) When using a published recipe for making a dog or cat food it is really important to follow the directions. The diets are formulated to meet the needs of the pet and changing ingredients can lead to imbalances. This is particularly true of calcium. So the best approach would be to find a source of calcium carbonate or to find a recipe that has ingredients that are available to you. If you read the labels on calcium supplements available from your pharmacy you might find that one of them is composed of calcium carbonate. I have ordered a new nutrition book which is supposed to come in the next two to three weeks. If you haven't found a diet that works for you by then there may be one in the new book, so check back with me in a couple of weeks and I'll see.
Human multi-vitamin supplements are usually the best available balanced vitamin sources. If you are already adding a calcium source to the diet it is best to find one that doesn't have additional calcium, if possible.
5) Rawhides do contain protein. It would probably be best to give Baby a smaller number of rawhides per day. Something like two a day might be a good compromise between making her happy and limiting protein.
6) Unless you are feeding the whole fish (bones and all) I don't think that there is a significant difference between feeding fish and chicken and I'd just use the one that Gwei Gwei likes better.
7) I will have to check on the herbal tea question when I get back home but I don't know of a problem from memory. It is good to add water to the diet any way possible, in general, though. Since Gwei Gwei appears to feel better it seems reasonable to me to continue this practice for now.
The best thing that you can do for a dog with spinal disc problems is weight control. Since it is a lot easier to control weight in a pet that is getting adequate exercise, I would favor letting your Peke run some. It is a good idea to avoid jumping and high impact activities but running should not be a big worry.
I hope this helps some.
Mike Richards, DVM
3/19/2000
Calcium supplements and puppies
Q: Hi, I am a new subscriber. I very much appreciate and enjoy your
responses to questions and your advice.My question: our breeder has recommended Cal D Tron Cal/Phos tabs for our
4-1/2 month old Doberman male pup. Mfr recommendation: 1tab/5# body wt,
which means Pele is getting 8 tabs/day. Per Tab Dosage: 135MGmin-150MGmax
Cal; Phos 105MG. Vet says not to do...maybe one tab per day. What do you
say?Also, what about yogurt? Should I give it as a preventative to anything? Is
it ok as a treat....we do not give Pele any table food yet (difficult, since
our 12yr old cat cleans our dinner plates), but I hear yogurt is good.We love this pup (our first) so much that, of course, we want the best...I
could spend a fortune on supplements but don't want to be stupid. I have
been solicited to provide him with Super Blue Green Algae, Hokamix 30, whatever.
Should we turn to supplements or rely stricly on his food...right now he
is on Purina One Puppy 2.5cups 2x day...he is about 42lbs now and is almost 20
weeks old.
A: Michelle-
I think that it is unnecessary and potentially harmful to supplement
calcium in a puppy. I would not even recommend using one tablet.I see no harm in giving your dobe yogurt if you want to do that, as long as
you don't give too much. Yogurt is recommended by many veterinarians as an
aid in the treatment of diarrhea on the theory that it adds beneficial
bacteria to the digestive tract. In general the recommendation is to give
around a tablespoon full of yogurt per day.There are all kinds of dietary supplements that are recommended by various
breeders, veterinarians, dieticians and other "experts". I can't say that
some of these products do not provide some sort of benefit but there isn't
much reliable information on them. I don't use any supplements but I do
feed them table scraps in small amounts (and in great variety). I try to
keep the amount less than 10% of their total calories.Mike Richards, DVM
3/18/99
Q: Hi! Found your site by accident but glad I did. I am now cooking for Tasha and make her a mixture of five cups of rice (uncooked), but boiled with 11 cups of chicken stock, two whole chickens, (boiled for 1 hour, skinned and deboned, and no cartilage, etc), mixed with carrots, celery and peas. Tasha weighs approximately 32 pounds now (used to weight nearly 50 pounds in her youth), she has terrible hips but still can walk. How much of this food mixture should I give her per day? Do you think the 3 cups a day is enough for a 32 pound dog? She really likes the mixture and I think is very happy that she can finally eat "human" food!
A: It is hard to figure out from recipes exactly how much of a food should be fed. Three cups sounds like a good starting point. From there, I'd recommend adjusting the dosage based on weight gain or weight loss. Decrease if weight gain gets excessive and increase if weight loss continues -- and also check with your vet in this case.
It is nice to spoil our older friends when the time comes!
Mike Richards, DVM
How to get a small dog to eat dog food, if possible
Q: I have a problem with this little dog that we found. She refuses to eat any type of dog food. She will nibble on the dry cat food that we provide for our 5 cats. I was enable to set an eating time schedule for her i.e. the same time as the cats. She seems to eat late in the evening or early morning 1AM or so we noticed. She, of course, will eat anything we eat but I don't believe in this practice and would rather have her on a proper diet. How can I convince this creature (she is a Pomeranian type weighing about 20lbs. She must be a mix, although our vet said she was a Pomeranian) to eat dog food and not people food and/or cat food, which I believe might be too rich for her. Believe me we have tried to make her eat dog food from the beginning even to the point of hand feeding. Maybe making my own dog food would be best for her. Do you know where I can find well balanced recipes for this if this is what you should recommend?
A: Getting dogs to eat what you want them to can be frustrating. We have worked with a couple of dogs (these are usually smaller dogs) who absolutely refused to eat anything but what they wanted. Several times I have read that dogs won't starve themselves and it is OK to wait them out and get them to eat what you want them to eat, but I can remember at least one patient that I was pretty sure actually would have starved itself to death. Once in a while, a problem leading to the reluctance to eat can be found on careful exam of their oral cavity or on a more general checkup. Most of the time, it really just seems they are being stubborn.
In general, dogs are more fond of canned foods than dry foods. For small dogs it may not be too expensive to just feed a canned food. There are a number of good canned foods on the market.
It is generally OK to let a dog eat cat food. The reverse is not true. Cats need to have higher levels of several amino acids in their diet than dogs do. The extra protein levels necessary to achieve this don't harm a dog. On the other hand, these diets might be a little more likely to help your dog get fat if she is so inclined.
Home-made diets are tricky. There are a number of recipes for homemade diets in books and magazines. There are several whole books devoted to this topic, such as "Feeding Fido". However, to the best of my knowledge, there is not much follow-up done on these diets to ensure that they do meet dog's total dietary requirements. In all honesty, if you eat a well balanced diet and you share it with Belle in its balanced form (not just giving specific portions of the diet like all meat), it is probably OK to make her meals from yours. Unfortunately, most people don't feed themselves well balanced diets and dietary problems probably affect dogs faster than people due to the differences in metabolic rate and aging. If you elect to make diets at home, collect several recipes and vary the diet between them to give the best chance of hitting all the essential nutrients.
That leaves the last option, figuring out how to get Belle to eat a dry dog food that is already balanced for you. Many of the dog food companies give out sample sizes of their foods. You might try collecting some of them and using them as treats (so that you aren't continually changing Belle's whole diet) until you find one or two she really likes. The most palatable diets are the premium ones like Iams, Science Diet, Bil-Jac, etc. Even though these diets cost more, it is often about the same price to feed them as lower priced diets since less food is usually necessary.
Mike Richards, DVM
Q: I HAVE A 10 WEEK OLD JACK RUSSELL, SHE EATS VERY LITTLE CAN FOOD AND NO DRY FOODS LOVES TO EAT PINE STRAW IS THIS NORMAL. HOPE THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM.
A: Pine straw sometimes will cause problems because the pine needles can be hard to digest or to pass through the digestive tract. This sometimes results in problems with constipation and might even cause intestinal blockage, although I can't remember seeing a blockage associated with it. This is probably a small risk but if it is possible to limit his access to the pine straw it might be a good idea.
Many small breed puppies eat a normal amount for their size but the amount seems very small to their owners. It doesn't take much food to keep a small puppy going. Ask your vet to assess your Jack Russell's weight and if it is OK for his size, he is probably doing fine. There is no problem with feeding canned food if he prefers that and you don't mind.
Mike Richards, DVM
Q: I have recently been subjected to some fairly ferocious deriding for objecting to my adult german shepherd being given a bone from the lamb roast. I have always been of the belief that it was dangerous to give a dog cooked bones for fear of them splintering and sticking in the animals throat or digestive tracts. I would appreciate your thoughts in order to silence my critics or set my beliefs straight and allow my dog a long denied treat. Thanks J.Melbourne, Australia
A: Personally, I agree with your stance. I think it is a mistake to feed dogs any bones which they are capable of breaking into pieces of any significant size. While I have no personal experience with lamb bones and how susceptible they are to breaking up into pieces I suspect they are small enough that they could be a problem.
However, most of the problems we see with bones are not major life and death problems, like obstructions. We see several dogs every year with bones lodged across the roof of their mouth leading to pain and infection and we see a number of dogs with severe constipation problems related to ingestion of bones. I have heard of deaths from esophageal puncture and intestinal obstruction associated with bones but I can't remember personally seeing such a case.
I think it is better to error on the side of caution with bones in most cases. I recommend against feeding them for that reason. Lots of people get away with feeding their dogs bones of all types, so most of the time this isn't going to cause problems. Choosing whether or not to feed bones is just a matter of how cautious you want to be.
It's just like wearing a bike helmet. Most people never have a head injury if they don't -- and many people don't worry about the risk. Personally, I like my head the shape it is. I don't care if other folks think I'm too cautious. You have to do what's right for you.
Mike Richards, DVM
Q: We are the proud parents of a 1 and 1/2yr female boxer that is only 49 lbs. She looks thin, (evidenced by her spinal column, hips and ribs). She eats well, 2-3 cans of food mixed with 2 cups of dried food a day plus a milkbone or 2. My vet says she is healthy with no signs of disease. However we are concerned about her being so thin! She is very active....plays and runs all the time. Could she just have a high metabolic rate? And if so..then would you recommend changing her diet to one of active dogs? Thanks...
A: Thinness is often in the eye of the beholder! I find that many clients want their dogs to weigh more than they should. While I can not tell you if that is the case with your dog without seeing her, I'd suggest calling your vet and asking what your dog's ideal weight should be, based on his or her exam. If the answer is 49 pounds, then I wouldn't do anything different. If the answer is 55 pounds, then a performance diet might be a good idea. If the answer is 50 pounds then just increasing her normal food a little might be sufficient.
Your vet can help with suggestions for good foods available in your area, if that is necessary.
Mike Richards, DVM
Q: Dear Doctor, We have a three year old female golden retriever who was diagnosed 1 week ago with probable JRD. She was critically ill at the time. We were given a list of instructions for care including maintaining a low-protein diet. Because she had no appetite we have been preparing her meals. We have learned quite a bit about the benefits of a low-protein diet high in amino acids. Our problem is we have not been able to find out what the daily allowance of protein in grams should be. We are feeding her small meals 4 times a day, this appears to be working well and she has not had a vomiting episode in 4 days. She weighed 36 pounds at the of her diagnosis, she weighs 40 today. Before her illness she weighed 54. Could you please give us some guidelines for daily protein allowance? Everything we've researched points towards this type of diet being very helpful. We know that if we can get her through this crisis we can use a prescription diet but for the immediate future we feel she needs home prepared food. We know Bretts prognosis in not good but we are going to try to do everything we can for her. Thank you for any information you can provide.
A: I think that the current thinking on low protein diets is that the protein level is not as important as the phosphorous level. In trying to evaluate these diets several researchers have come to the conclusion that they work primarily because low protein diets tend to be coincidentally low in phosphorous. There is no clear connection between the low protein levels in food and progression of renal disease in recent studies. This really doesn't matter from a practical standpoint, since the best way to keep the phosphorous in the diet low is to keep the protein level low. Phosphorous levels should be kept as low as possible, about 0.3% of the diet (basically, this is as low as is practical - it is very very hard to get the phosphorous level lower than this).
It is desirable to try to keep the protein level at 14 to 19% of the diet (this is an average based on the recommendations I could find for renal failure diets). For a dog that weighs 44 lbs, approximately 1350 calories are necessary for maintenance per day. This is usually supplied by about 4 cups of dry dog food, which should weigh between 350 and 400 grams. I can not find a recommendation for protein in grams/day/lb. but using the above recommendations, it would appear that 400 grams of dry dog food at 15% protein would provide 60 grams of protein. I am assuming that would be the approximate amount necessary.
In general, renal failure in dogs does have a poor prognosis. We have seen several cases of early onset renal failure in recent years in which the dogs did do quite well on controlled diets and aggressive fluid therapy. I don't know if we have just been lucky but I do think giving this a really good try is worthwhile. I wish you the best of luck.
Mike Richards, DVM
Q: We have a 3 year old husky that will not eat enough. He has not eatin in about 3 days? He will eat scraps off the table. He will also eat frozen dog food left by our dogs that are outside? When he eats the frozen food he usually eats to much and gets sick. Our Vet told use to try "IAMS" and he promptly sniffed it and walked away. He has lost four pounds and our Vet said: that it is not good. We also have two other dogs that are fine. One is a Siberian & one is a Malamute.I have owned Huskies for at least 35 years and never had a problem with any of them eating? I had 33 dogs at one time and Raced Dog Sleds. Our dogs always ate Parina meal and we bought that 2,000lbs at a time. This Siberian has tried every Dog food Made. Suggestions? Thank you in advance,
A: The best advice I can give you is to tell your vet the Iams suggestion didn't work and ask him or her to set up a time to examine your Husky. I realize that this hasn't been your experience, but in our practice these guys commonly skip a meal or two and then eat like crazy the next meal. Your vet might be having similar experiences and may have thought that just changing foods would be incentive enough to encourage eating. Since it wasn't, it is time to do more.
Almost anything that makes a dog sick can lead to not eating, so there are just too many possible problems to even make a guess without an examination. I wish I could help more.
Mike Richards, DVM
TD diet and urinary problems, any link?
Q: Dear Dr. Mike, Do you know of any relationship between urinary tract disorders and the the new dogfood "TD" (the food was developed to keep tartar off dog's teeth)? My bichon has been on it for 3 years (he is 6) and developed calcium, kidney stones which had to be removed. His symptoms were frequent urinating and blood in urine.
My friend's norfolk terrier (same age) has just been found to have crystals in his urine (unknown type) - his symptoms are frequent urination and occasional accidents in the house (very unusual for him). He has been on "TD" for 3 years also. Another's friend pomeranian (same age & diet) has frequent loss of appetite and accidents. (I know all 3 may be unrelated- the only common variable is the TD - Thank you!
A: I am not aware of any reported correlation between TD and bladder stones or urinary tract disorders. In truth, I do not suspect that there is one. However, it takes a long time for trends such as that to be noticed and to show up in the veterinary literature.
It would be reasonable to call Hills' 800 phone number (it is on the bag of food) and ask this question. Hills has responded in the past to problems with its foods responsibly, once they have been proven to occur. The biggest problem I am aware of, taurine deficiency in cat foods, was discovered in part due to the persistence of a cat owner who felt there may be a problem with the food.
Urinary problems are pretty common in dogs and it is pretty likely that this is totally coincidental.
None-the-less, I think I'll watch my Cavalier King Charles Spaniel a little closer for signs of urinary tract disease since he has fed TD for a couple of years now, too!
Mike Richards, DVM
Q: Can one expect a dog's appetite to decrease in hot weather. Both my Chihuahua and Rottweiler don't seem to want to eat as much food now as a few weeks ago. We live in Texas--weather is really getting hot. This is the first summer with the dogs. They are both around 2 years old. Their health seems to be excellent--just have noticed they don't eat as much as before. Thanks
A: Terence-Hot weather can lead to lower appetites and lower activity levels in dogs. During hot spells we always see a few dogs with vague histories of "not doing right" and often we can find no specific cause. So I tend to believe heat is the problem and that it can cause dietary and activity changes in many dogs.
Mike Richards, DVM
Q: Our miniature schnauzer is 5 years old. When a puppy we were told by a groomer to put a tablespoon of corn oil to about two cups of food. This has been done religiously. Have now moved to a different state. I was told recently by our new vet that I SHOULD NOT give corn oil as it is dangerous. I was advised to stop immediately. Our schnauzer has a gorgeous coat, no itching and is extremely healthy. Have we just been lucky? Is corn oil bad for her? The corn oil was suggested as the miniature schnauzer is supposed to be predispositioned for dry skin. Please give me your thoughts on this. Thank you.
A: Barbara- I am not aware of any potential toxicity associated with corn oil. That doesn't mean your vet doesn't know something I don't, but I did check several literature sources prior to answering this question. If your dog is overweight, perhaps your vet is referring to the risks of obesity. Corn oil does add to the calories in the dog food and the benefits may be minimal for the haircoat (there is a lot of argument over the relative merits of different oil compositions and haircoat/health benefits). At present, the predominant view is that the essential fatty acids are the active ingredients of oils as far as skin health benefits go and that it is best to use an essential fatty acid supplement such as DermCaps (Tm) or EFA-Z (Tm). There are a number of other similar formulations of these, too.
Mike Richards, DVM