Go Back   Pet forum for dogs cats and humans - Pets.ca > Discussion Groups - mainly cats and dogs > Dog food forum > Feeding raw food to dogs & cats - B.A.R.F - RMB - Homecooked diet

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old February 28th, 2012, 03:00 PM
mhikl's Avatar
mhikl mhikl is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Calgary, Canada
Posts: 70
14 Month BARF Report on Sadie

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.
__________________
Know History, Not Just Your Folklore.
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old February 29th, 2012, 12:00 AM
pbpatti's Avatar
pbpatti pbpatti is offline
Senior Contributor
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Edmonton
Posts: 2,874
Welcome back, long time no read...I did not finish reading your post but I will go back now and finish it. So nice to see you again.
__________________
It Is What It Is
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old March 3rd, 2012, 04:13 PM
mhikl's Avatar
mhikl mhikl is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Calgary, Canada
Posts: 70
Busy is just an excuse

Keeping informed is the journey to good health and a healthy outlook, pbpatti, so I am on a life quest for knowledge. pets.ca has a lot of good ideas to offer. I have my favourite sites together and am determined to check them more regularly. Health, literary, politics, philosophy/spiritual, and general education about sums it up. Dogs hits about five out of five of these studies.

I think back on my life with dogs and my movement from commercial dry food, to homemade, to BARF and wonder how I could have thought I was right ever time. Yes, I provided what I thought was the best quality at the time but how do we really know? How do we really know our doctor or veterinarian is the best one around with the best knowledge and our best interests at heart. They probably are as well informed as they can be for the time, just as I was as well informed as I could be at the time I was thinking as I was. But commercial, dry as sand packaged meal, as animal fit? Now that takes a special disregard for the obvious.

The trick to clearer thinking is getting out of the box of the times, and thinking beyond assumed norms. Some actions and thoughts are just plain crazy for what they are. Anything that has to be advertised ad nauseam using bad spelling like frebreze, swiffer, and Charmin must be suspect. I've never ever seen lint on anyone's bum before and why a bear would want to use toilet paper is beyond thinking straight. And dirt talking and dreaming of being picked up by a mop, such foolishness needs to remain in the head of the nuts who think such things up. Obvious they do no pass the Sheldon test and were not tested for sanity by their mothers.

So, what one thinks is best on Monday may be seen as irrational by Wednesday. The realisation of an irrational thought is a wake up call to all reality: how ever could I have thought that business companies selling dried dog food had anything other than visions of dollars danced in their heads?

And so my journey continues. Is BARF, as it is generally presented, the best diet for my dog? And is it one, or is it two meals a day? How about BARF grazing, is that the ultimate dog diet? My dog doesn't take a step in any direction when at least one eye is not on the lookout for something edible. It is her relentless quest, no matter how full her stomach may be, no matter how soon after her last gorged at the dog bowl? Is a wolf in the wild ever satisfied or is it always sniffing the undergrowth for a choice piece of animal, god-knows-what, or vegetable left over? Sure sums up my Sadie.
__________________
Know History, Not Just Your Folklore.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off


Forum Terms of Use

  • All Bulletin Board Posts are for personal/non-commercial use only.
  • Self-promotion and/or promotion in general is prohibited.
  • Debate is healthy but profane and deliberately rude posts will be deleted.
  • Posters not following the rules will be banned at the Admins' discretion.
  • Read the Full Forum Rules

Forum Details

  • Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8
    Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
    vBulletin Optimisation by vB Optimise (Reduced on this page: MySQL 0%).
  • All times are GMT -5. The time now is 10:29 AM.