14 Month BARF Report on Sadie

[mhikl]

14 month BARF Report on Sadie, female, age 11, weight 13 kg , 28.6 lbs (about a half kg or 1 lb overweight)

Sadie started her BARF diet early January 2011 at 33 lbs and quickly gained another 3 lbs. The weight came off by summer. Now all seems to be going well. The only problems are 1. tear-stains have returned, 2. straining during BMs*, 3. Her torn ligament from a year ago still has occasion to hurt, and adding crushed flax seed or psyllium has helped during bone feeding with her straining.

At least 1 hour before breakfast: 1 tablet of each - sieraSil tablet, Glucosamine/ Condroiten, MSM, and (¼ tablet Robaxin at breakfast & supper when I notice limping)

Feeding
I feed Sadie the following, daily:
Breakfast: ⅓ meaty chicken back* (fat cut off but I leave the skin) +1tsp fresh crushed flax seed with ½ C water + 1 tsp Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar (*back usually has some meat still on)
and one of the following mixed into the warmed water-flax-cider mix
A- 45g (1.5 oz) low fat raw hamburger - or -
B- 1 X-large egg (whites lightly cooked until white in colour) yolk raw, old shells are dried and powdered for use)

Supper: 60-80g (2-2 ½ oz) any one of
A- Raw pink salmon 2 − 3 times a week (skin, flesh & bone)
B - Low fat raw animal meat, beef, pork, lamb, 1 − 2 times a week
C - organ meat (beef liver, chicken kidney, tripe, lung) 3-4 times a week (All hand held for her to do some chewing instead of gulping. All foods that she can just bolt down are fed this way.)

Night snack - small piece of beef heart (which she tears by pieces while hand held otherwise it is gulp and “where’s my snack” attitude.)

Bits and pieces of raw green vegetables when I am cooking. Occasionally a chicken neck (3-4 times a week) I have pounded and then hand hold to maker her chew it more.

I am fearful of beef or pork bones as I can’t figure out which are the soft kind to feed her. She has one canine tooth in which the pulp is showing. I am hoping the dried egg shells and chicken backs are enough calcium for her.

Ageing
I notice she is slowing down when she first gets up to move from a lying state and the torn ligament continues to be a problem if I am not vigilant with her “meds”. I try not to give Robaxin very often. Sadie is quite active when we walk or doing our rope chasing (fishin’) exercise most days.

Am I doing anything out of order or are their suggested modifications to our routine.

Namaste,
mhikl

PS My previous dog died at 14 yrs from a rare liver cancer. She was small like a Corgi but finer boned and may have had some Corgi in her. She always had to have her anal glands cleaned and she was on a low calorie diet from a top rated dried dog food company I got from the vet. Moh always seemed to be round without any stomach definition, but I don’t think she was terribly fat. Had I known then what I know today, she wouldn’t have suffered that horrid disease, I firmly believe. Sadie has a loose stomach, I can feel her organs, so I don’t think she is overweight.

Sadie’s breed seems to live up to about 15 years of age though 11.3 is the standard. Time will tell if she is healthier on this diet and lives to twenty, my goal. I met a guy who put his dog on the BARF diet when it was 12 years old and it was past 21 a year ago. The dog lives (lived?) on a farm. It was a medium size dog, larger than Sadie. Corgis have an average span of 11.3 which means she could pop anytime now.

Just as Moh loved here exercise, Sadie loves her walks and rope chasing activity and can run after it for half an hour if I let her. I limit her heavier exercise periods to 20 or so minutes because of her ligament problem and her age. She also will just stop and bark at me and the rope, trying to gain energy to chase some more. But I then call it quits. Three years ago I couldn’t tire her out. Except for really cold days she does her heavy rope chasing exercise once a day with one walk a day, about 5 blocks in total.

I also do a month episode, for times a year with each season of a Milk Thistle supplement to strengthen and cleans her liver. I believe the Milk Thistle is what kept Moh alive for over four months after her liver was discovered to be consumed with cancer.