Natural Pet Health

Although you can get commercial food for your dog, the ideal way to feed is to use a combination approach of both commercial food and fresh people foods. Most commercial food is good for your dog, although it lacks nutrients and vitamins that fresh food has. Vets will tell you that fresh food is good, providing you don’t overdo it. All dogs love fresh food as well, as they can smell it a mile away. If it smells good to them - they’ll want it.

Most commercial foods will offer your dog great sources of protein and vitamins, although fresh food contains far more essential sources. Chicken and meat for instance, have far more protein and minerals than any type of commercial dog food. Fish is another great choice, as it contains a lot of the protein your dog needs to maintain a healthy brain.

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Tips for promoting food safety in pets

While pet owners often take extra precautions in the kitchen when preparing food for their own meals, it is likely that the same hygienic habits are overlooked when handling their dog or cat’s food.

Although the pet food scare of last year may have altered consumer pet food buying habits, it is likely that the knowledge of how to properly feed a pet its daily nutrition requirements is still inadequate — which can impact their overall health and Well-Being.

Many people think of their pets as “garbage disposals”, as many dogs and cats have the tendency to eat any leftover scraps or nibble on grass, plants, or other inappropriate snacks… therefore giving the false perspective that their stomachs are infallible to afflictions.

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It is a mad jungle out there when it comes to selling dog food. Seeing the number of brands, the different types of sales pitches adopted by marketers and the fancy names with tongue twisting ingredients printed on labels, it appears the focus is on attracting buyers and grabbing a share of the whopping $ 11 billion pie..

In addition, each manufacturer launches numerous types of pet food under one brand. There are moist, semi moist and dry dog foods. Their use of terminology, like ‘premium’, ‘super-premium’, and ‘Gourmet’ are mere nomenclatures since they hardly mean any thing. Even though the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) regulates what must be printed on the labels. The warnings are all mentioned in small print and therefore do not serve to warn the consumers adequately.

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Understanding dog behavior is important before arriving at any conclusions about the reasons behind certain types of behavior. Much as humans feel offended at certain things and resort to Aggression, dogs too respond similarly. Just as certain foods do not suit humans, there are many foods that should not be fed to dogs.

If you continue to feed your dog with a diet that disturbs his system, he is liable to show his irritation in his behavior. Persistent feeding of unsuitable diet ultimately leads to aggressive dog behavior .

Dogs are not obligate carnivores and can be often seen hunting for roots and fruits. Dogs evolved from wolves. In the wild if you see wolves and dogs eating an herbivore prey that they have killed, you may notice they first go for the stomach area of the carcass. That is where they will find roots and leaves and berries. Many times you can also see dogs eating grass.

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Most pet owners don’t know that their refrigerators are likely to contain common human treats that can kill or severely harm their pets!

While for pet owners the passing holiday season means overeating and an expanded waistline, for our pets, being overindulged with too many table scraps could result in a fatal outcome.

Recently, the ASPCA ran a report on toxic foods for pets, and for most of us, the foods that can hurt your pet are a shocking surprise.

To ensure your pet’s health and safety, take a look at some foods that can be harmful:

Chocolate—This delicious treat is made with cocoa beans, which contain a chemical called theobromine that is toxic to dogs. Keep this in mind, especially on Valentine’s Day!

Grapes—While the exact reason why they are harmful is unknown, they have been linked to cases of acute kidney failure.

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1 cup Powdered milk

1 cup nutritional yeast

3 Tablespoons Spirulina

2 Tablespoons kelp powder

2 Tablespoons Comfrey root powder

2 Tablespoons Comfrey leaf powder

2 tablespoons Nettle leaf powder

¼ cup bone meal

Make sure all Herbs are finely powdered. sift together. Add two tablespoons to food each day.

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How Low Quality Foods can be Hurting Your Pets

A few short months ago, pet owners everywhere were afraid to feed their pets for fear of what they might be ingesting. Every time you turned on the news, there was an update on the “Pet Food Scare”.

Although the situation has now subsided after more than 60 million bags and cans of pet food were recalled, concerns with production and safety standards were raised regarding the high levels of hazardous food that slipped through to the retail market. The situation caused pet owners to question the quality and safety of even the well-recognized brands on the market.

Disturbing Findings on Nutritional Content

James Morris and Quentin Rogers, two Molecular Biologists at the University of California at Davis, found a lack of information on the bioavailability of nutrients in many of the common dietary ingredients used in pet foods. “These ingredients are generally by-products of the meat, poultry and fishing industries, with the potential for a wide variation in nutrient composition,” the biologists stated.

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Being the largest and the most exposed organ of the body, pet skin is likely to be affected with mild to severe conditions. One of the major dog Skin Problems arise from allergies. Allergies can cause canine or feline Acne. Allergies may arise from contact with an allergen or from food that does not suit your pet.

Before starting treatment for any type of allergy it is of paramount importance that you establish the cause of allergy. It is erroneous to assume that only new foods cause allergies and consequent Itching. The truth is that any food can cause an allergic reaction in dogs - new or old. The commonly known Skin Condition of ‘hot spots’ can develop if your dog becomes allergic to his routine diet that he is no longer able to digest.

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This week I had the first case in history of raisin toxicity ever seen at MedVet. My patient was a 56 pound, 5 yr old male neutered lab mix who ate half a canister of raisins sometime between 7:30 AM and 4:30 PM on Tuesday. He started with Vomiting, Diarrhea and shaking about 1 AM on Wednesday but the owner didn’t call my emergency service until 7 AM.

I had heard somewhere about raisins AND grapes causing acute renal failure but hadn’t seen any formal paper on the subject. We had her bring the dog in immediately. In the meantime, I called the ER service at MedVet, and the doctor there was like me—had heard something about it, but…. Anyway, we contacted the ASPCA National Animal Poison Control Center and they said to give I V fluids at 1 1/2 times maintenance and watch the kidney values for the next 48-72 hours.

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If the reason behind Cancer was known then it would have helped a great deal in finding a definite cure for the deadly disease. But apart from the fact that there are certain carcinogens that cause Cancer, very little is known about what causes Cancer. In the recent years there has been a significant increase in the incidence of cancer in dogs and Feline Cancer causing lot of concern to pet owners.

It has been proven that there is a high probability of some cancer cells present in a body. A perfectly conditioned and healthy body does not let cancer take roots. It is the Immune System of the body that inhibits these cancer causing cells from multiplying.

When the body is unhealthy, the Immune System triggers off certain changes in the body to fight back. When cancer takes root, the Immune System causes certain symptoms to appear in the body. These symptoms are basically the body’s mechanism to fight back in order to self-heal.

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