[theBCnut]

No, Perfect Form doesn’t have a supergreen supplement in it.

[Hater and Molly’s Mom]

BC Do you give them that supplement everyday?

[Dog_Obsessed]

Thanks BC! Does Perfect Form count as a green supplement?

If I do decide to bag Fromm completely, which it sounds like I might have to do, do you think Chewy will give me a refund? This won’t impact my decision, I’m just wondering. It was only $12.99 anyway so I could just take a loss.

[theBCnut]

When mine start grass eating, I give a seaweed, spirulina, alfalfa, or some other supergreen supplement. Since I started giving supergreens all the time, nobody has gone back to grass eating. Gideon used to graze like a cow.

If she is trying to eat non food items, it could be a zinc deficiency.

[Dori]

Hi Cheryl. The only one of Primal’s actual raw foods that has a heavy fat to protein ratio is the beef but I believe that is true of all raw foods. I feed rotation to my three dogs so none of that bothers me and as I have said so often a every single food that you feed your dogs does not have to be complete and balanced. Balanced and complete has to be met over the long haul. If you are feeding a meal that is not complete and balanced in a rotational feeding plan, you don’t have to worry so long as the other meals, or at least most other foods in rotation, are complete and balanced. As you do your due diligence and research into feeding raw, whether it is commercial raw or home made raw, not every single meal has to be complete and balanced.

The ingredient in Pro Den Plaque Off for animals is dried seaweed meal, that it. Why or how it works I don’t really know. I’ve used it for quite a while in addition to brushing my dogs teeth daily. It seems to help. How much? I can’t really say but as it is not an ingredient that any of my dogs are sensitive or intolerant of I continue to use it daily in their morning meals. When I add or offer any new ingredient, supplement or food to my dogs I always do it in their a.m. meal. I don’t give anything new in their dinner meal. I don’t want to deal with any issues or surprises in the middle of the night.

[crazy4cats]

In addition to what Patty mentioned, I think if the supplement actually contained what the label says it does, it would be good to use almost like a topper for some of us. I tend to buy budget friendly kibble without any extras in it. Like right now, finishing up a bag of Eagle Pak. It could pump up the protein, add some goodies, enzymes and probiotics. But since the company has some possible issues, maybe not such a good additive after all.

[crazy4cats]

BCNut and Aimee-
Thanks again. That’s another good point! Will probably not buy again and try to find the supplements elsewhere.

Agt-
I explained exactly why I bought it.

[mike s]

We are fostering a bear-hound dog that has a tumor on the outside of his scrotum that bleeds a lot. The vet wants to castrate and do an ablation but his red blood cell level is too low to undergo surgery. We are feeding him high iron foods such as beef livers. Does anyone know of a superior dry dog food high in iron or a supplement that we could give him? Thanks. Mike

[mike s]

We are fostering a bear-hound dog that has a tumor on the outside of his scrotum that bleeds a lot. The vet wants to castrate and do an ablation but his red blood cell level is too low to undergo surgery. We are feeding him high iron foods such as beef livers. Does anyone know of a superior dry dog food high in iron or a supplement that we could give him.

[aimee]

C4C,
The Fortifier has essentially the same nutrient profile as all the NL diets do. So no need to worry about over supplementing as adding this to your dogs diet is essentially the same as if you mixed in a few kibbles from one of their foods into what you are currently using.

[Kristin C]

Hi Cheryl – I am not familiar with those supplements, but have you ever looked into green tripe? It provides probiotics and digestive enzymes. It’s incredibly stinky! I feed it to my dogs in their food sometimes and give them tripe treats regularly.

[aimee]

Kristen,

I ‘ll give you a bit on my background as it buried in numerous posts I’ve posted over the years. I have a strong background in science, hundreds of credit hours. I started out as a biology /biochem double major. Didn’t finish the degree… married my prof and became a mom. But as a wife of a prof I now could take classes for free, and I’ve taken a lot of classes! As part of my education I have taken a class which covered feed formulation for large animal, many many hours evaluating diets primarily for cattle and hog production as problem based class work. It was all very “mathey” and all hand calculations so I have a basic understanding of how to do nutritional calculations it isn’t hard to do … just time consuming.

Because of my background when I evaluate a company or product I look at the nutritional numbers posts and see if they “add up”.

The reason I said so far only balance it makes sense to me is because of the precision of the feed recommendations. I think the amount of supplement should vary depending on ingredient use. Use as much as needed and no more. Keeps costs down. Also specific vegetable fat recommendations are given which vary depending on meat source to meet linoleic needs as they should.

When I looked at the KBPF supplement I see that the nutritional information posted doesn’t meet AAFCO. I found it odd that though they post a decent amount of information there is nothing about linoleic acid. I would not be at all surprised to find that the diets as made are deficient. The company doesn’t have recommendation for vegetable oils and I doubt that there is enough dried egg in the product to meet needs. There is no break down of the nutrient profile of the supplement.

See Spot Live longer does a little better job… but vague instructions like add up to 20% whole food by volume… really turn me off. Nutritionists never balance by volume way too much variation. Huge difference to a nutrient profile/calories if you add 20% liver by volume vs 20 % green beans vs 20% chickpeas. It is all very odd.

The “synthetics” in balance it don’t bother me, perhaps because of my nutritional background. The NRC tables are based on highly bioavailable “synthetics” and the user of such tables is cautioned of a need to convert if using natural sources whose bioavailability may be poor. Even SSLL acknowledges the need for synthetics. I have to wonder if the dried spinach in SSLL isn’t somewhat of a filler window dressing. People like to see natural ingredients so marketers will oblige them.

Cheryl,

It doesn’t surprise me that all the recipes from balance it come up with deficiencies unless supplement is added as the recipes are based on just a few ingredients. It isn’t a “ploy” to get you to buy their supplement. Recipes are free when using their supplement but you can purchase recipes that use common supplements to balance them.

Is balance it perfect? I think it is good at what it is, but may not meet all peoples needs.
I’ve never used the supplements myself as majority of calories my dogs eat are from commercial foods.

[Cait Y]

Ok so I have lurked here for a little over a year, and recently started making my own raw cat food via Lisa A. Pierson, DVM because one of my boys almost died after getting into the Dry food AGAIN and his whole GI system blocked up because he cannot handle the lack of fluids in dry food. He is such a picky eater that I had put off the raw diet dreading that he would turn his nose up at it like he did the other high quality raw/semi cooked food I tried buying him. He LOVED the home made food, he even batted off his BFF to eat his food too!
HoundDogMom, other raw feeders please bear with me I know that the whole shebang I know as of now it is 6 pages long. I am trying to paint the whole picture with the dogs, their special needs and what is causing me confusion with the Raw feeding books I have read. There is so much going on right now in my personal life that I am having a very hard time understanding this and if anyone could help point me in the right direction or even a book or website or from experience I would be so very very grateful.
The biggest reservation I have about feeding Raw to the dogs (who LOVED the scoop of homemade cat food I gave them as a test) are the bones and sadly the limited ingredients I can use for my Special Needs Hound.
I have a 14 yr old Walker hound (Forest) who has like no teeth left and was just diagnosed with cushing’s disease but has some pretty abnormal liver tests because of the damage that was done while he went undiagnosed. His liver is so enlarged it displaces his stomach sideways and upwards which makes EASILY digestible food a must. He cannot have food high in phosphorus, copper or ammonia which means little to no red meat and lots of poultry, eggs and pork. He also has problems with chronic Constipation so I would have to be VERY careful about the amount of bone I add to his diet but I also want enough in there to give him the nutrients he needs. Since he is older he also burns a LOT of calories, He is on Vital Fresh pet Turkey or Chicken and gets 1.5 lbs a day. I don’t know what is causing him to burn so many calories except for old age or maybe his body is trying to repair itself – all he does is lounge in the lawn and do his hound dance for food – people or animal whichever he can mac on at the moment lol
My 3 yr old yellow lab (Nova) is also a high calorie burner but she is super active, we do scent tracking, retrieving, and lots of walking/running on the grass. She will go until she drops which I have never seen before, so now I watch her very closely for signs she is over heated. She eats up to 2 lbs of the above dog food a day but is still losing weight on occasion when her activity jumps up again. She has always had double the amount of Eosinophils in her blood that she should at a “normal” rate. She has been checked for parasites so the best I can come up with is that she might have GI issues going on intermittently – she doesn’t transition food gracefully and really doesn’t tolerate even high quality kibble (after research it’s not such a mystery anymore) which is in part what turned me onto Freshpets Vital.
To top it all off I have a Four month old female lab puppy (Ellie) that is still growing. I have her on 2 lbs of Freshpets vital but I am worried that she is not getting something in her diet as well. She has three white lines running across her nails – each nail on every paw. In my experience when the horses have white lines or even indents it means either they were very very sick or have a mineral/vitamin deficiency of some sort. I know when Ellie came to us she had a severe infection of hook and round worms. Her infection was so severe at 8 weeks old that the vet said she would have died untreated – thank you OCD and taking her to the Vet the same day she was brought home lol. They were resistant to the normal worming meds and for 2 months we battled with getting them under control and gone. If Dogs are like horses that would cause the lines because of how sick she was during this (Great going Lemon law Florida) yet I also worry because I know parasites in small animals or even large can cause a huge system imbalance with nutrients which hinders growth.
OK Limited ingredients – because of Forest I have to stick to Chicken, Turkey, and Eggs as a main protein source due to his liver problems and because Rabbit in completely unviable to me unless I want to raise them myself. I have no local butcher – the closest one is three hours away so Chicken and Turkey liver will have to do for organ meat – sometimes I can get chicken hearts once in a blue moon. For Fats I have to choose VERY easily digestible fats from an animal protein because with Forests Liver problems his biliary system can be overloaded very easily and that would be disastrous. Maybe I can add some duck occasionally to his diet?

Copper Issues:
If ammonia restriction is required, feed less red meats and organs since they produce the most ammonia. You may not want to eliminate them entirely though, as they have important nutrients that help with liver function.
Instead, cut back. Feed more poultry, fish, eggs, and pork. If feeding red meat, even in small quantities, buy the absolute best quality you can afford. Preferably grass fed, antibiotic, and hormone free.

Meats generally low in copper are:
• Beef (muscle meat, not organs)
• Eggs
• Turkey (white meat)
• Chicken (white meat)
• Rabbit
• Fish
Meats generally high in copper are:
• Lamb
• Pork
• Pheasant or Quail
• Duck
• Goose
• Salmon
• Organ Meats
When feeding organs for copper issues, some animal livers contain more copper than others. Beef liver is higher in copper than chicken or pork livers. Regardless, the zinc and b vitamins in liver help to reduce the risk of copper toxicity. Though if your dog has an issue with copper, opt for chicken or pork liver. (http://primalpooch.com/raw-feeding-guidelines-dogs-liver-disease/)

I have read Unlocking the Canine Ancestral Diet and Dr. Pitcairn’s New Complete Guide to Health of Dogs and Cats. I have some major issues with either of the books, UtCaD is so absolute – if you feed this protein then you need this oil. First of all Canola Oil? Corn Oil? Soybean Oil? Walnut oil? Flax and hemp seed oil? I own horses and I would NEVER give them Corn oil with the GMO crap going around I don’t trust Corn or Canola at all. If I am not comfortable feeding to my strict Herbivores I am definitely not OK feeding it to the other animals. By the way the 2,000 lbs animals have had major GI upset from Canola, Corn, Soybean and Flax seed oil. I’ve given it to them in small amounts – 3 tablespoons a day and I have seen a massive systemic effect that made me take them off of it immediately. It was supposed to give them the right ratio of Omega’s 3 and 6 plus help my older guys move and keep weight on since it was winter. The recommended Ratio of 6 to 3 fats are 10:1 to 5:1 for dogs – I have read that small fish or Krill are the best to supplement dogs with because of the low contamination rate and it should not carry Salmon Sickness. Soybean oil is also something I would never give my dogs or humans or anything because of the way it can mimic hormones and interrupt the function of the Thyroid. Also Kelp is recommended a lot, but there are so many negatives that came out during the feeding kelp to horse’s fad that I will not touch the stuff. If it can affect the horses with the amount of iodine to the point horses became toxic I don’t trust the manufactures. It was not that kelp was being fed in large amounts there was absolutely no regulation on what type they harvested or what it contained. Missing link for dogs is a product I am familiar with and they do make it for dogs with trace minerals but it is flax based. Won’t this completely mess up the balancing? Does anyone here feed this instead of kelp?
The Missing Link Ultimate Skin & Coat:
Active Ingredients (per tbsp)
Flaxseed Dried Kelp
Glucosamine Hydrochloride (Vegetarian) Zinc Monomethionine
Freeze Dried Beef Liver Lecithin
Blackstrap Molasses Chromium Yeast
Rice Bran Selenium Yeast
Primary Dried Yeast Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6)
Sunflower Seed Niacin (Vitamin B3)
Dehydrated Alfalfa Garlic Powder
Dried Carrot Yucca Schidigera Extract
Shark Cartilage Powder* Riboflavin (Vitamin B2)
Freeze Dried Fish Protein Powder Thiamine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B1)
Freeze Dried Oyster Powder Folic Acid
Barley Grass Leaves Powder Cobalamin (Vitamin B12)
Guaranteed Analysis Amount
Crude Protein (not less than) 18%
Crude Fat (not less than) 28%
Crude Fiber (not more than) 15%
Moisture (not more than) 10%
Linoleic Acid (Omega 6) 450 mg
**Linolenic Acid (Omega 3) 1000 mg
**Not recognized as an essential nutrient by the AAFCO Cat/Dog food nutrient profiles.

Also if everything is so precise that does not leave room for error such as what if the chickens were raised on Florida soil which is heavy in limestone and deficient in other areas – rather than let’s say somewhere in the bread bowl what about if they were fed a corn based feed and another batch was fed free range? If the meat analysis is different it throws everything off and we all know that meat from south Fl is very different than meat from MI or IN – same principle goes with growing vegetables even organic. How much of a God Factor is there for the abundance of some micronutrients and lack of others? UTCAD also has an abundance of some nutrients way over the NRC guidelines – are dogs different in the fact that they can rid themselves of excess things very easily? I know in humans and horses Vit E and Selenium can be deadly because it builds up in fat and the body doesn’t flush it out like the water-soluble vitamins?
Dr. Pitcairn’s New Complete Guide to Health has a lot of oat meal, rice, beans?! Half and Half milk, whole milk, whole wheat bread corn? That sounds not so great for dogs and especially not for cats like it says it can be. What about kidney beans? With feeding my dogs I have learned they do OK on rice occasionally when they have an upset GI but if they are on a diet with rice too long they get backed up. Also the beans – the dogs seem to have issues with digesting them like people sometimes do – why are there so many carbohydrates? Why cannot I do sprouted microgreens or carrots or even baked potatoes because I know the dogs tolerate those vegetables very well. Also Brewer’s Yeast? Isn’t yeast as a whole bad? It’s in everything and I know Nova already is prone to yeast infections in her ears and when she gets a UTI – Also can Brewer’s yeast cause or attribute to bloat? Milk – isn’t milk products bad if they are in large amounts such as 2 cups milk plus 2 cups rolled oats and 2 eggs and calcium powder? Everything to me seems so skewed.
Also RMB are out of the question – Forest cannot eat them and Nova and Ellie are gulpers – they came from a large litter and it would be just my luck to end up in emergency surgery with one of them. I have a grinder to which I can grind the bone up with the meat and I know the purpose of the bone was for dental health but if I make Meat Jerky and other goodies can I replicate that without worrying about emergency surgery or broken teeth?
Since I own a grinder already for cat food why cannot I grind bones to supplement their food with? So far in my research the basic recipe and consensus I have come across is as follows:
16% Organ meat
10% – 25% Bone
The rest of the food would be muscle meat and muscle meat
Meat is very high in phos and the bone is high in Cal which means the Cal to Phos ratio should be 1.2 to 1.5:1 although 1:1 to 2.5:1 is ok as well. I just need to make sure the dogs consume more Cal than Phos but the question is do I need to add bone meal or can I grind my own bones to supplement?
Here is what the Article analysis the bone content to be in prey animals:
Bone Content In Raw Foods
When sourcing bones for your dog’s diet, it’s a good idea to know the approximate amount of bone in commonly sourced foods. Here is a quick guide to help you keep your dog’s bone content in the right range; between 10% and 25%.
Chicken Whole chicken (not including the head and feet): 25% bone/Leg quarter: 30%/Split breast: 20%/Thigh: 15%/Drumstick: 30%/Wing: 45%/Neck: 36%/Back: 45%/Turkey/Whole turkey: 21%/Thigh: 21%/Drumstick: 20%/Wing: 37%/Neck: 42%/Back: 41%
Pork Feet: 30%/Tails: 30%/Ribs: 30%
Beef Ribs: 52%
Rabbit Whole rabbit (fur and all): 10% Whole (dressed): 25-30%

From this can I remove the proper amount of bones or add more bones in to balance or would you suggest a bone meal powder? Also I have yet to factor in the percentage of vegetable/fruit/microgreens in the recipe – I am just so lost so if HoundDogMom could help or someone else could chime in I would be so grateful. I am trying very hard to learn as much as I can but between the animals and two sick family members and special needs animals by the time I have a moment to sit down I am out like a light for the night or my brain is so frazzled everything looks like it was written in French. Am I over thinking this? I just don’t want to screw Ellie up – she has already had such a bad start with the worm infection – and Forest needs nutrients to rebuild his liver correctly and I wanted to see if this change in diet would help Nova’s Eosinophils come to a normal level. Also has anyone ever seen white lines on every toenail that grows parallel with the skin? Any help would be so appreciated there is just not a lot of room for error with Forest right now with his liver Alt levels 4 times what they are supposed to be. They cannot stay on the Freshpet much longer because to feed the dogs its 19 dollars a day and that’s not a very good long term solution.
Thanks so much everyone~!~ I Hope everyone had a great New Year and wonderful Holiday
`RedMare

[crazy4cats]

Hi-
Has anyone tried the Nature’s Logic Food Supplement? Here are the ingredients:

INGREDIENTS: Spray Dried Chicken Liver, Porcine Plasma, Whey, Flaxseed, Montmorillonite Clay, Brewer’s Yeast, Dried Egg Product, Egg Shell Meal, Cheese Powder, Kelp, Suncured Alfalfa Meal, Almonds, White Fish Meal, Tomato Powder, Chicory Root, Apples, Blueberry, Apricots, Carrots, Pumpkin, Cranberry, Spinach, Broccoli, Parsley, Artichoke, Rosemary, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus Casei Fermentation Product, Dried Bifidobacterium Bifidium Fermentation Product, Dried Enterococcus Faecium Fermentation Product, Dried Bacillus Coagulans Fermentation Product, Dried Pineapple Extract, Dried Aspergillus Niger Fermentation Extract, Dried Aspergillus Oryzae Fermentation Extract, Dried Trichoderma Longibrachtum Fermentation Extract, Mixed Tocopherols.
Direct Fed Microbials*:minimum 100,000,000 CFU per pound (in descending amounts, L. acidophilus, L. casei, B. bifidium, E. faecium, B. coagulans)

I bought some mostly because it has the montmorillonite clay in it that I think helps with my dogs’ digestive issues. But, it also appears to have some other good ingredients along with digestive enzymes and probiotics. It is also high in fiber which seems to help my dogs. But, I’m having second thoughts as I don’t want to over supplement my dogs if I am already feeding a balanced kibble with toppers. Any thoughts?

[Cheryl Pepper Millie Sophie]

Kristen,
I also can’t understand why a website that allows you to design homemade meals would use a synthetic supplement-its counter productive.
I also want to mention no matter what meals I tried to design it was ALWAYS recommended that the diet was not balanced and that I needed t add the BalanceIt, so now I am truly wondering if all the site wants to do is lure one in with the hope of providing the fur-kids homemade meals and zappo selling their products!!!

[Kristin C]

I am going to tag onto what Cheryl said, I don’t mean to offend either. But, Aimee, it’s a little confusing why Balance It is the only dinner mix/supplement that makes sense to you but you’ve never used it. Dogaware.com does not recommend it, it’s an entirely synthetic product. But since I don’t know anyone’s background I am going with it’s just a matter of opinion. I find the dinner mix/supplement category a bit confusing and since there are too many ingredient variables to consider I am guessing they will not be reviewed. Since I don’t eat an entirely balanced meal every day myself and don’t really worry about it I am just going to continue feeding my dogs as much whole food variety that I can and hope the new SSLL product is not too far apart from the old formula, because it works for us.

[aquariangt]

amazon and sportdogfood both have it, and it seems to be the same price. The only 3 bags that are under 30 lbs that I can find are the Yukon, The Joint Supplement one, and the Hi Pro-all in 5 lb bags. No 15 lb that I can find either

[aimee]

Hi kristin,

I’ve never purchased or used balance it supplements. I have made lots of recipes on the site though just to see how it works. It is super duper easy and a lot of fun to play with! Not sure how you got the idea that you had to download or purchase anything or go through a vet. Just scroll over homemade food tab and click on autobalancer EZ. You can pick ingredients from the lists and the program then gives you options that vary in protein and fat content. After the initial options are presented you can customize it by entering your dog’s weight and what protein and fat percentage you’d like the diet to have. The recipes are free to look at, the program tells you how many deficiencies are present if you don’t supplement and you can see how much supplement you need to use /batch. For me that is where the “fun” lies. It is interesting to see how adding particular ingredients changes the profile, the number of deficiencies and the amount of supplement needed to balance the recipe. I’ve found that the amount of supplement can vary significantly depending on the ingredients/fat levels that you choose to use in the diet. That’s why there isn’t a “standard” recommendation in regards to how much supplement to use. the program calculates out the least amount needed based on the base diet. I love that it gives you a full nutrient analysis for the recipe and detailed instructions.

Have not looked at See Spot Live Longer.

[Lisa R]

My 7 year old chocolate lab has had a rising BUN count in his blood. His creatinine level is increasing very slightly, not proportionally in the manner the vet would expect if if we’re kidney disease. Additionally, his BUN continued to go up on RX kidney food and meds. The vet is baffled and doesn’t understand what the issue is.

I think it’s related to his diet in some way. He has always been, as my vet called him, a “fat magnet” since we rescued him 3 years ago. He gained a ton of weight very quickly when he first came to us, despite never being fed table food, etc, and continued to gain on small servings of RX diet food (from not quite 80 lbs to over 100). Currently he is on a very low quantity of weight mgmt IAMS, supplemented with green beans to fill him up. He was losing very little, very slowly and finally showed a big decrease in weight when we eliminated rawhide from his diet (unless it’s kidney disease and it just happens to coincide with the elimination of rawhide).

I think there is some dietary issue and he needs a different kind of food or supplement….maybe there is some intolerance for food we are feeding him and he needs grain free or salmon or freeze dried or something…but I don’t know what to try. The vet is advising against anything high protein in case he does have kidney problems but I’ve reqd every that is not necessarily a factor in kidney isses for dogs. But she doesn’t know what we should try.

Any thoughts?

[Kristin C]

Hey Cheryl – go for it! I make my dog’s food, but as of a few months ago I have added the SSLL supplement because I am paranoid.

I looked up the Just for Dogs website, and it’s probably not something I would personally use. It appears they cook their food, I do raw (with 1-2 x per week kibble + FD). Their “balanced” supplement is for dogs with GI problems under vet care. They also do not ship frozen.

Don’t get too frustrated. Most people on the DFA forums have been through all the questions and doubts too. Just find what works best for you and your dogs. And consider it a process that you can re-evaluate and make better.

[InkedMarie]

I use ground raw. Boone gets about 3.5 oz bony and 1 oz boneless. The bony has meat, bone, tripe & organs. I do have some that has no tripe so I add that. He gets eggs and salmon oil a few times a week. He gets rib bones to gnaw on and I skip the boneless at that meal. Thats it.

Edit: he does get a joint supplement, apple cider vinegar & Bug Off Garlic as well.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 3 months ago by InkedMarie.

[InkedMarie]

The best food would be a higher protein grainfree food. Grains are inflammatory. Is she on supplements for her joints? There are many out there. Ones I use are Liquid Health K9 glucosamine, organic tumeric (the Whole Dog Journal just had an article on this), Dog Gone Pain and Traumeel.

[Bobby dog]

Cheryl H:
KBPF is one of the dinner mixes I suggested you look into on the review side. Aimee was kind enough to look at the company and found some very interesting info in regards to what they have posted on their website and the pre-mix formulations. Read her January 4, 2015 at 11:54 pm post.

I want to start making some home cooked food for both my dog and cats, but have not had time to research it. The info that Aimee posted is the type of research that I feel is necessary before I buy a supplement. Unfortunately, I just don’t have the time right now. KBPF is no longer on my list of pre-mixes to research, one less company to look at. lol

If you are interested in speaking with a Veterinary Nutritionist, you can find one here:
http://www.acvn.org/

You can also contact a University that has a Veterinary School to see if they offer nutritional consultations with their Vet Nutritionist. Most that offer these services will do phone consultations with you and your Vet. Tufts, Cornell, U of Minnesota, U of Tennessee, UC Davis, and Penn Vet are some schools that offer this type of service; I am sure there are many more.

[Cheryl Pepper Millie Sophie]

Susan
Thank’s for the info. Will look into further, just briefly looked at it this am.
Weekends are a better time lately to do in-depth research.
Also am looking into “Balance It”-soo much out there it can get overwhelming and very confusing. Kristen, I agree with you on the supplements.
Kristen, have you checked out “the justfordogs”site?
What does KBPF stand for??
thanks again everyone

[Kristin C]

Hi Aimee – so you make all your dog’s food and use Balance It? That’s it? I checked out the website and the supplement doesn’t give use instructions. It looks like downloading or purchasing recipes, or going through a vet is the only way to get that information. The ingredient list looks like all chemical based supplements to me, as opposed to whole food ingredients which I prefer not only for myself but for my dogs as well.

Have you ever reviewed the See Spot Live Longer product?

[aimee]

Hi Hater and Molly’s Mom and Dog Obsessed,

To answer your question, “how can they distribute their product saying it meets standards if it doesn’t?” all I can say is “Who is there to check and hold them accountable??” No one really… so companies are on the honor system and can do as they like.

Some companies are simply marketing machines. Because the companies don’t study or understand nutrition they themselves can’t even see that the information they post doesn’t make any nutritional sense. Marketing companies, like THK, have as their primary concern getting people to open their wallets.

I reported Grandma Lucy’s to my state feed control official for the same type of nonsensical nutritional information that I see with THK. The state feed control official issued an immediate stop sale order, but I’m sure I’ll see it back on the shelf. The inspector can’t be there 24/7 and “marketing” companies, as opposed to nutritional companies don’t seem to be concerned if a product doesn’t properly nourish an animal.

For THK, base mixes don’t have to meet AAFCO as they are labeled for intermittent/ supplemental feeding. In regards to their complete mixes… well the company won’t answer that question. THK just sticks to their story that they meet AAFCO despite that their self reported nutritional information says otherwise. Apparently they don’t understand enough about nutrition to see how foolish it all sounds The reality though is that it is anyone’s guess what is actually in the food. Who knows if the nutrient information they post is correct or if the stuff they post is incorrect and the diets do meet AAFCO. For me though it doesn’t matter… if a company posts nutritional information and it doesn’t “add up”, I won’t use their products.

[Elizabeth A]

I’ve been ordering strictly pastured, organic meat and poultry deliverd to my home through http://www.uswellnessmeats.com for my family’s consumption. They also sell “pet burgers” which is mixed raw organ meats/ muscle meat that comes from solely pastured, organic animals. It is raw, delivered frozen in 1 lb bags, costing about $5 a pound. I give it to my older dachshund as a treat to supplement his canned Wellness diet. He loves it! I think it releases his “inner wolf.” haha Just wondering if anyone else has come across this product. They also sell pastured beef bones of varying sizes with the marrow. Some of their beef comes from Tasmania/New Zealand where the air/pasture/water purity is high. Just passing it on. My doxie is a rescue dog I’ve had since he was 4 and now turning 16–still full of life!

[Jon h]

Hi Kristin, that might be the topic of another thread. We have high confidence that it is environmental allergens as it appears to be seasonal and no variation/elimination of food has changed the irritation.

However in this thread I was hoping to address solely the theory that honey supplementation helps build immunity to environmental allergens which seems to be spreading like wildfire in the canine natural remedy world yet no scientific basis as far as I’ve been able to find has ever been presented in favor of this idea. I’ve only found scientific resources that discredit this idea.

[Caitlin H]

Hello (:

I have an almost 7m old rough collie pup. I want to start feeding him RMBs, but I’m worried about keeping the calc/phos in check. If I gave him, say, 1 chicken neck every 2 days or so and fed him a bit less kibble on those days would that be ok?

Also, I’m getting some raw green tripe tonight but I’m not sure how much of it to feed. I’d like to give a little bit each day or maybe every other day. He’s getting about 4c/day of kibble, so should I give him a few tablespoons of tripe to supplement or cut out some kibble and give him a more significant portion? Basically, how much should I give him to where he’s reaping the full benefits of it?

Thank you so much to anyone who answers!

[DogFoodie]

Hi Ezra,

Glad you posted over here. I was just trying to reply to you on the review side, but was having trouble.

A couple of things…, it’s odd to me that the fish oil supplement your vet recommended used peppermint as a carrier. I can certainly sympathize with your fish woes. You mentioned that your pup also has environmental allergies, but that the fish oil might have made it much worse. While you have things pretty well controlled, I think would I’d try adding fish oil to his food and see what happens. If he reacts, stop and you’ll have your answer about the fish oil. I’ve been using Ovega-3 and Springtime Naturals Skin and Coat Oil. Both are vegeterian and I’d recommend both.

The change in bowel movements could be the result of the increase in peas. Is he gassy at all? I believe, the other varieties of NVI LID, have a bit less pea protein. I really would encourage you to try one of those. I would also recommend adding a digestive enzyme to his food – I had great luck with Swanson’s BioCore, which works great at digesting carbs. Canine Caviar Lamb and Pearl Millet is fish free as is Canidae Pure Sky, which is a duck based food. Canidae is also a Diamond product if that concerns you. Addiction Viva La Venison is also fish free and uses potato as a binder. As we talked about on the other side, Acana Duck and Bartlett Pear (not Singles) and Lamb and Apple (not Singles) would both be good fish free choices, also.

I know you said you feed other proteins for treats, but I really think it’s important to rotate proteins in kibble, too. Even though NVI LID Duck is far and away my dogs best food, I’m constantly looking for others to rotate it with. I rotate brands with varying proteins and binders. I’d encourage you to rotate varieties of ZiwiPeak that you use also.

I think you also said that transitioning him from one food to another food takes a long time. That’s OK, he’ll adjust, the important thing is to keep rotating. If he’s not used to switching, he doesn’t have optional gut health; keep rotating and he’ll improve.

[Jon h]

Hi everyone,

So I’ve lurked here for a while now collecting information regarding nutrition and have come across an interesting topic. I became interested in natural allergy remedies as it seems our Australian cattle dog has some itchy skin problems the vet believes is related to allergies from the environment.

Now before we get on to the topic of honey I would prefer that this be a FACT based discussion not a personal opinion, anecdotal evidence type discussion. Unfortunately as humans we are able to make extremely irrational and unfounded correlations especially when we don’t understand something or want something to be true (ie we desperately want a natural remedy to be as effective or more effective than a pharmaceutical remedy). This has no place in the canine nutritional world (or human) as toying with an animals nutrition based on weak non-scientific beliefs is in my opinion horribly ignorant and in some cases an unethical thing to do. So please keep responses scientific in nature and cite articles if you can (petmd, blog posts and natural canine health daily articles type sources with no references don’t count as scientific!)

The theory behind the honey supplementation seems to be this: Local honey supposedly contains local allergens and supplementing with it acts similar to a vaccine by exposing the animal to low levels of an allergen and helping to develop an immune response to the allergen.

Now this sounds all fine and dandy in theory and certainty a naive layman will take this as face value and argue this as being fact (i’m am trying to be an informed layman!). But does this actually have any scientific value? That is what I want to find out.

I have read several claims that in fact there is no scientific basis for this. The argument is that bees do not extract pollen from the common plant sources of airborne pollen which cause the allergic reactions in our dogs. They of course get pollen from flowers and a few other sources, they do not collect pollen from say pine trees or most grasses. Any contamination during transport or in the nest from the common local allergens is said to be negligible and will not help build an immunity.
example of a study on humans:
http://www.annallergy.org/article/S1081-1206%2810%2961996-5/abstract

There is also a Finnish study on humans which took 3 groups, one group as a control, one supplemented with regular honey and one supplemented with a honey that had birch pollen added to it. The Ones taking the honey with birch pollen saw improvements and had to use less antihistamines to control their symptoms while the ones supplementing with regular honey saw no difference.
abstract:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21196761

Now my problem is that I see honey toted continuously on natural canine remedy sites. However I do not see a signal study either in humans or canines showing any truth to the theory. Any evidence is extremely weak correlation evidence with no control or consideration for other variables. All actual scientific studies of this theory i’ve personally come across show that their so no truth to this theory. So is this just a myth?

The second problem I see that REALLY concerns me is there are huge ranges of supplementation dosages. Some references say to feed your dog 1/4 teaspoon per week while other such as the lady in the non-scholarly article below say two tablespoons per day for larger dogs (in her case her lab and staffordshire terrier). Now that is extremely worrisome to me as there are 17 grams of sugar per table spoon of honey. if I am to assume her dogs weigh approximately 80 pounds (upper end of pure lab retrievers and beyond the upper limit of staffordshire terriers) then I estimate their daily requirement of calories (using online calculator) to be 1630. If there are 64 calories per tablespoon of honey (google) this would mean they are getting 7.9% of their daily intake of calories straight from simple sugars. Comparing this to my daily intake of ~2300 cals (because from my understanding canines metabolize simple sugars similar to the way humans do) this computes (if i’ve done my math right) to 48 grams of straight simple sugars a day for me. This is over my targets for the day even making the assumption that my other foods have zero sugars in them…. Now assuming that the dog is already getting sugars from their regular food source you are probably doubling their recommended sugar intake per day. This doesn’t seem right to me at all as a human consistently doubling their recommended sugar intake daily would be a good candidate for type 2 diabetes. So why are people recommending this to do to our dogs?

Michele Crouse interviewed about honey supplementation (under “honey for dogs” section)
http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/issues/10_9/features/Bee-Honey-Products-Help-Canines_15967-1.html

I’m hoping this sparks some interesting conversation. As you can probably tell I am somewhat against this theory. Mostly because I have yet to see a shred of scientific evidence for it and I don’t personally like adding or subtracting things from my dogs diet based on personal opinions and weak, unfounded theories. I’d be interested to see if there is actually research supporting this idea.

Is there any truth to this theory? or are people just pumping their dogs full of sugar and added calories?

[Cheryl Pepper Millie Sophie]

I purchased a jar of “EverPup” on Amazon and wondered if anyone is familiar with it? It is a powered supplement.
I usually give my older gal human supplements tailored to her weight, but I thought when the time comes I might give this to my 6 month old.
It states it is 100% human grade.
Also, can anyone recommend a good probiotic & digestive enzyme? I have been using the Mercola D.E. & Probotics for quite some time and not happy with the results.
I got a sample size of the H.K. Perfect Form and so far are very pleased with the results, I was wondering if this can be used on a long term basis?
Has anyone used the H.K. Pro Bloom?
Thanks again for any input.
Cheryl

[Dog_Obsessed]

I found the ingredients on another website, here they are:

Beef, Wheat Flour, Beef Liver, Chicken, Pea Fiber, Molasses, Vegetable Glycerin, Sugar, Bacon, Natural Hickory Smoke Flavor, Calcium Sulfate, Lactic Acid (as a preservative), Pea Protein, Sodium Lactate, Sea Salt, Flaxseed Oil, Potassium Chloride, Carrageenan, Celery Extract, BotaniFits™ Botanical Blend (Green Tea, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Cranberries, Peppermint, Chamomile, Rosemary Extract, Dandelion Extract, Blueberries), Choline Chloride, Mixed Tocopherols (a preservative), Ascorbic Acid (Source of Vitamin C), Zinc Proteinate, Vitamin E Supplement, Iron Proteinate, L-Carnitine, Glucosamine HCL, Taurine, Dextrose, Chicory Root Extract, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin A Acetate, Copper Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Niacin, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Biotin, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Calcium Iodate, Folic Acid, Sodium Selenite.

They don’t look great, with wheat flour as the second ingredient, but it wouldn’t be horrible as a one time thing. 🙂

[John H]

We have always used Krill and Salmon oil, alternately to supplement our Golden’s diet. We recently tried the organic Coconut oil and after a few days we noticed improved mobility as well as decreased itching in the dry heated air inside the house. We strongly have urged friends to use both and we received positive feedback from them also.

[Dori]

Hi Barbara. Sorry I haven’t chimed in sooner, it’s been a very busy day. As I’ve mentioned to you before, it has been a very long road to achieving a quality to Katie’s life. My favorite and most trusted commercial raw foods are: Primal Raw Formulas (the formulas are the only one of their foods that are complete and balanced), Nature’s Variety Instinct Raw Foods, Answer’s Detailed Raw Foods (a bit difficult to find but any pet store that carries their raw goats milk should be able to order in the food for you), OC Raw, Stella & Chewy’s (I go back and forth with my feelings about the taste of their food for my dogs but as a company they are top notch), Vital Essential Raw, Nature’s Logic Raw. With all of this said I continue to always be on the look out and continue to tweak Katie’s diet. The companies that I mentioned are the ones that I feel very confident and comfortable with feeding to my dogs; but you always have to be on the look out that if any of these foods you feed to your dog don’t agree with them, look for different ingredients in the foods that may be the culprit. Katie cannot have any fowl whatsoever. Sometimes a food may be labeled “bison”. Please make sure that there is no other animal protein in the food. Sometimes some companies will add chicken fat, turkey fat, or some poultry to up their protein requirements for their label. Also some companies may have an over abundance of peas or some other ingredient which may bother your dogs. I have not found that to be the case with any of the above mentioned companies and foods. I do have to be careful which foods from these different companies I feed my dogs because Katie cannot have poultry of any sort, duck, lamb, quail. I stay away from all those. The only kibble that is fed to my dogs on very rare occasions is Nature’s Logic Kibble. They are not strictly a grain free food because their formulas contain millet which is a pseudo grain. For some bizarre reason Katie, who cannot tolerate any grain whatsoever, doesn’t seem to have any reaction to millet. It started out as an error on my part. I thought Nature’s Logic was a grain free food. It wasn’t after some time that I found it contained millet which I didn’t realize it was grain free. I was looking for a kibble that she might be able to eat because my husband who, on the rare occasion has to feed my dogs, is very squeamish and hubby is a bit on the lazy side, and just wants to be able to scoop a food and pour into their bowls. It doesn’t happen often because I don’t like feeding them kibble. Anyway, if I can be of further help please ask away and I will do my best to answer any and all questions that I can.

Just a quick add on to my post is that I do rotate brands, proteins within brands, etc. etc. My very favorite of all commercial raw foods is Primal. Without a doubt I have no qualms about recommending Primal Formulas. Primals Pronto Formulas are also an easy way for you to transition into commercial raw feeding because they are small little bits that you can scoop out frozen and put in bowls and wait till they soften (approx. 15 minutes) and then feed. I have three dogs…..5 lb. Yorkipoo, 6 lb. Maltipoo and a 7.3 lb. 15 year old Maltese. They have been eating these high protein, moderate to high fat, low carb foods for approx. 3 years. None have developed any issues from eating high protein, moderate to high fat foods. Many will scare people into believing that some foods have too much fat to feed dogs. It’s not the quantity of the fat or the protein for that matter, it is the quality of the fats and proteins in the foods. Huge Huge difference. As I’ve said, I have spent years figuring all this out, researching ingredients, companies, supplements in the foods and I’m very confident that I feed my girls high quality foods with high quality ingredients from companies that I trust implicitly and companies that, to my knowledge and investigation, have never had recalls.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 3 months ago by Dori.

[Walt R]

Thanks all for your suggestions. I have been doing the antifungal shampoo every 2 days for the past week and I have not notice much difference. I also got a spray for the paws but that too has not helped. I did supplement his food with probiotic powder but again, no change. In fact, I want to say it’s worse.

I am thoroughly convinced his issue is INSIDE… that it’s in his saliva, in his mouth. He licks himself and then it gets on the bed linens and then they smell too.

The most convincing reason why I think it’s his mouth/insides… when he takes a deep breath and breathes out…. the fritos smell is huge. almost as bad as bad gas.

I’m very sensitive to this which is why it’s a problem.

Anyhow… I agree, that I need to start with food.

Unfortunately it’s challenging to spend $50 on a bag of dog food. Time is limited too with how much I work.

I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but for now, I want to remain with dry food.

There are 100’s of makes/formula’s out there. Something has to work.

As mentioned previously, when we got him we tried many of the regular brand foods and everything made his coat smell and he had bad gas. We stumbled upon the Purina Pro Plan Select Salmon formula and life was good for nearly 2 years. We had small bouts of this frito breath smell, but it would go away. This time… it’s not.

Can anyone recommend other dry dog foods to try?

I have read… no potatoes, sweet potatoes, grains, peas, sugars, yeasts, etc… but it seems no matter what I look at, one of these ingredentis in in the food. Sometimes it’s 7 or 8 ingredients down the list…

Which prompts the next question… if the potatos or peas are 7 ingredients down… do I need to be concerned?

I do not have a distributor near me for Victors. I was recommend Blue Wilderness but it has the Peas and Potatoes. I was also recommended Zignature Trout/Salmon but it too has peas further down the list.

Any other thoughts?

I don’t mind buy a 6lb bag here and there and start trying to find the right ones again. But it’s challenging with there being so many to choose from.

Thanks again for all your help. I will continue on with the shampoos, probiotics, etc…

[DogFoodie]

I really like Herbsmith products. They have one called Calm Shen for dogs with anxiety. Herbsmith products follow TCVM principals. Here’s a link: http://www.herbsmithinc.com/home/Canine/Herbs/CalmShen/default.asp

Here’s a link to the Mercola product: http://products.mercola.com/healthypets/bladder-health-for-pets/ Don’t buy it without calling them first to make sure they’re shipping you fresh product. It’s an excellent product.

A couple of excellent books on making homemade meals that are properly balanced are, “Real Food for Healthy Cats and Dogs” by Karen Becker and “Unlocking the Canine Ancestral Diet” by Steve Brown. In a nutshell, I found Dr. Becker’s book great for recipes and Steve Brown’s book for the supplement information.

[stephw4]

I have not added any supplements yet. I have never heard of Mercola Bladder Support. But I will look it up. I think that I am going to switch back to making my own food, add water to their food and look into a supplement. I actually have 4 doxies but only 2 with this issue. These 2 dogs are also the most insecure and get stressed easily. So if that is an issue I am not quite sure what to do about that. If you read on Dog Food Advisor he says Royal Canin food is terrible and if my vet recommends it I should change vets.

Thanks everyone for the input. It helps to get different opinions.

[InkedMarie]

have you added any urinary supplements? What about adding some warm water to their raw?

[crazy4cats]

Hi All-
There are a lot of recent posts regarding loose stools. Please check out this link: http://www.dogaware.com/health/digestive.html

I believe it contains a lot of great information regarding different types of diarrhea and loose stools. My favorite subject. LOL!!!

I learned about the following supplements on that site and have had pretty good success rotating them: Gastriplex by Thorne, Perfect Form by The Honest Kitchen, Vetri-Pro BD, by Vetri Science, Phytomucil by Animal Essentials and canned Fruitables Digestive Supplement.

Of course, make sure to have a thorough fecal test done to check for Giardia and Coccidia. They are both fairly common with puppies and sometimes hard to detect.

Good luck! It is a frustrating issue.

[crazy4cats]

Hi Sarah-
I’d definitely play it safe and feed your pup as if it is a large breed. There is a good chance she will be if she is 3/4 golden. She is going to be beautiful! Right now, I’d worry more about her joints than cancer. You can always supplement with fish oil or sardines/salmon if you can’t find an appropriate fish based food at this time. I have two three year-old 3/4 lab, 1/4 golden mixes and I give them each one tin of sardines per week and then a krill oil pill each on another day. I also feed them eggs, beef hearts a few times per week with their kibble as well. Good luck and have fun with your pup!

[Jeffrey]

Hi All,

I wanted to post a happy update. We’ve been using Annamaet Grain-Free Salcha Poulet Formula for 4 months now and have had excellent results. I really had no idea how poorly our pup was feeling until we changed foods.

She went from not wanting or walk or play to being happy again. We are back to walking 1.5 miles a day and she is anxious to play several times a day. Not just that, the play sessions have extended since she’s been on this food. When she was unwell, we’d toss the ball 3 times and she was done. Now she is like a machine and goes on and on, with a nice bounce in her step.

One word of advice, don’t supplement the dogs diet with human treats. It will defeat all of your efforts. I found this out the hard way. I thought she was all better so I started giving her various table scraps and we had a large setback. Lesson learned.

Thanks again for the helpful advice and recommendations.

Jeffrey

• This reply was modified 11 years, 3 months ago by Jeffrey.

[DogFoodie]

If it’s your hope to use a fish based food for the Omega 3’s, you’re better off adding sardines, fish oil or another form of Omega 3 supplement to the food you’re feeding.

Here’s an article written by Steve Brown, who many consider to be one of the authorities of raw feeding: http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/issues/15_12/features/Fats-Chance_20658-1.html

[Sarah]

Hello Dog Experts!

I would love to get your suggestions on what would be the best food to get for our new puppy Pearl who is 3/4 Golden Retriever and 1/4 Border Collie mix that the breeder refers to as a Coltriever. We have had her since she was 10 weeks old and is now 13 weeks and weighs 12 lbs and is a very active and happy pup. She is currently on Taste of the Wild Puppy which was what the breeder was feeding and we have switched between the Wild Prairie and Wild Pacific Salmon formulas and she has done well on both but seems to like the Wild Pacific Salmon formula more. She has a long and very fluffy puppy coat still and the Vet suggested having her on a fish based puppy food for both her longer coat and to help with the cancer that is so prevalent in Goldens. My understanding is TOTW is a good food for the price point however, I am looking to find what the best food would be for her. I joined the Editors Choice but the large breed Puppy foods listed were not fish based. I don’t mind paying more $$ as it is important to me to have her on the best food possible. Our vet is not pro Raw food and we currently are not looking to go that direction except for possibly supplementing. If anyone has suggestions on supplements we should be adding I would love to hear those as well! I am also scratching my head on whether I should be doing all dry or a wet/dry combo for her food.
These are some of the suggestions we got from Mud Bay for her dry food (a local high end pet store):
1. First Mate Puppy
2. Instinct Salmon (it’s not a puppy formula but they said that it has the same protein and fat ratios as a puppy formula would have)
3. Acana (they didn’t carry but said was great)
4. Orijen (they didn’t carry but said was great)
I appreciate the help, the more I research the more confused I get and would love to hear from people’s personal experiences!
~Sarah

[Sarah]

Hello Dog Experts!

I would love to get your suggestions on what would be the best food to get for our new puppy Pearl who is 3/4 Golden Retriever and 1/4 Border Collie mix that the breeder refers to as a Coltriever. We have had her since she was 10 weeks old and is now 13 weeks and weighs 12 lbs and is a very active and happy pup. She is currently on Taste of the Wild Puppy which was what the breeder was feeding and we have switched between the Wild Prairie and Wild Pacific Salmon formulas and she has done well on both but seems to like the Wild Pacific Salmon formula more. She has a long and very fluffy puppy coat still and the Vet suggested having her on a fish based puppy food for both her longer coat and to help with the cancer that is so prevalent in Goldens. My understanding is TOTW is a good food for the price point however, I am looking to find what the best food would be for her. I joined the Editors Choice but the large breed Puppy foods listed were not fish based. I don’t mind paying more $$ as it is important to me to have her on the best food possible. Our vet is not pro Raw food and we currently are not looking to go that direction except for possibly supplementing. If anyone has suggestions on supplements we should be adding I would love to hear those as well!

These are some of the suggestions we got from Mud Bay (a local high end pet store):
1. First Mate Puppy
2. Instinct Salmon (it’s not a puppy formula but they said that it has the same protein and fat ratios as a puppy formula would have)
3. Acana (they didn’t carry but said was great)
4. Orijen

I appreciate the help, the more I research the more confused I get and would love to hear from people’s personal experiences!

~Sarah

[DogFoodie]

I’ve never tried Glandex as my dog’s anal gland issues usually are simply food related. When his anal gland start smelling strongly, I know it’s time to switch food; but occasionally, that’s when I’ll also add some Firm Up, a dehydrated pumpkin and apple supplement during the switch to speed the transition up.

Maybe some others who have experience with Glandex will weigh in. I know I’ve heard several others mention having used it.

[Charlotte P]

What foods have you all switched to/had success with? My dogs have always been on grain-free, supplemented with pumpkin and goat yoghurt. Right now I have two, both are rescues… Phoebe is about six years old, she came to me four years ago, and her health is fine except for a reaction to yeast supplements which I tried as a flea treatment alternative (They are both on Comfortis now). Leo, also about six, came to me four months ago and has the anal abscess issues, was underweight, and ended up having TWELVE teeth removed – he was already missing five! Over the years, dry and canned foods I have tried include Natural Balance, Spring Naturals, I and Love and You, Wishbone Lake, and of course, home-cooked meals. Has anyone had success with any of these? How about Orijen, Acana, Blue Buffalo, or Taste of the Wild? Do I need to go raw? For the dry, I had the best outcome with Wishbone Lake.

[Cheryl Pepper Millie Sophie]

Thank you Susan,
I WOULD LOVE to have an endoscopy done, but the internist fears putting her under,
She has pulmonary hypertension along with a mild heart murmur.
I truly feel her GI problems stem from an inflammatory condition in her entire body, mainly caused by neglect of her teeth & gums, the bad bacteria hides in her GI tract, she is being treated with everything except the antibiotic, the Reglan seems to be helping with her motility issue.
I MUST FIND a diet for her. Like you, the premium kibble which I have been giving her (soaked) no longer works. If only I could balance the cooked turkey, chicken, bison, with something I could stay away from the hydrolyzed vet diet. I know Rabbit was too rich for her, she vomited that up. I, too, could never rotate foods. Have you every tried the Honest Kitchen grain-free Base Mix topped with a cooked protein? I tried it, she loved it, but threw it up, I was also giving her the kibble, which may have caused the problem. I am thinking of trying the HK again about a TBSP. no kibble of course. I just don’t know what would be the best way to go for her wellbeing. I have been fighting this since I got her 3 years ago.If the vet diet will keep her with me, then I must do it.
I had to stop all her supplements, which worries me greatly.
Thank you very very much for your reply.

[Dog_Obsessed]

You could try adding some of The Honest Kitchen’s Perfect Form supplement to improve his stools. Here is the link to it on the THK website: http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/treats-supplements/supplements/perfect-form

[Dog_Obsessed]

The Medicam was basically until further notice. They want to do x-rays on her though they said if she gets better with rest and meds then we might not need them. She is on a Glucosamine/MSM supplement, but it is hard to tell if it helps or not.