Healthy Dog | Natural Dog Food's Canine Chatter

Is Your Dog Overweight?

Sep 172010

Blu

I haven’t been able to post much lately – it’s a time thing. And I’m not talking about all the time I spend on my internet businesses either. It’s the major fundraiser for Madison Community Services I’m in the middle of, the smaller fund raiser for the Madison Lions Club, the upholstery job for my mom’s friend I promised and my Leo Club meetings that have started up again.

Did I mention I am also driving my stepson to college every day because he didn’t get his license in time for his commute, AND I am being published in January and my book is due!!!!

Needless to say I am stressed and can’t seem to catch up, so the bottom line is that this post is going to be extremely brief. Why bother at all to post? Because our Blu seems to have a weight problem. He is no longer a healthy dog! LOL

Blu walks 3 miles everyday, is on a special diet and runs our fields with Peach, Milly and Andy several times a day and yet he is still about 10 pounds over his ideal weight.

WHY? I have no idea but I am going to try to figure it out. I’ll let you know when I do. How do I know he is overweight? I performed the following ‘test’ described below and he failed terribly. Not to mention he weighs in at 105 lbs!

Try these two quick tests to determine whether your dog is carrying more weight than he should:

When you run your hands along your dog’s ribcage, can you feel his ribs? You should be able to count the number of ribs as you move your hands along your dog’s body – if you can’t then he’s carrying too much weight.

Running your hands along your dog’s side, does he have a ‘waist’ – by that I mean does his body tuck in in front of his hips? If there’s a straight line from his hips to his shoulders, then he’s overweight.

That’s it for now and I’ll post more on this topic when I learn about it!

Dog Health Alert from Natural Dog Food Ct.com

Aug 262010

Evamist: Dog Health Alert from Natural Dog Food Ct.com

I was recently made aware of this warning and thought it important to share. This article appears on FDA’s Consumer Updates page, which features the latest on all FDA-regulated products.

Keep Children and Pets Away from Evamist:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says children and pets should not be exposed to Evamist, a drug for women that is sprayed on the skin to treat hot flashes caused by menopause.

The agency also wants consumers to take precautions to ensure that children and pets do not make contact with skin where Evamist has been sprayed.

Evamist contains the estrogen hormone estradiol. It is sprayed inside the forearm between the elbow and wrist.

FDA, which issued its warning on July 29, 2010, says it is reviewing reports of adverse events in children and pets who were inadvertently exposed to Evamist.

Adverse events reported in unintentionally exposed children include

premature puberty, nipple swelling, and breast development in girls
breast enlargement in boys

FDA has also received reports of inadvertent exposure in pets. Pets exposed to Evamist may exhibit signs such as mammary/nipple enlargement and vulvar swelling.

“Women using Evamist need to be aware of the potential risks to children who come in contact with the area of skin where this drug is applied,” says Julie Beitz, M.D., a director of drug evaluation with FDA. “It is important that people know to keep both children and pets away from the product to minimize exposure.”

Advice for Consumers

FDA recommends that women using Evamist

not allow children to come in contact with the area of the arm where Evamist was sprayed
not allow pets to lick or touch the arm where Evamist was sprayed. Small pets may be especially sensitive to the estrogen in Evamist. Contact a veterinarian if your pet shows signs of nipple and/or vulvar enlargement, or any other sign of illness
wear a garment that covers the arm where Evamist was sprayed if they know they cannot keep a child or pet from making contact with it
talk with their health care professional if they have questions about the possibility of exposing a child to Evamist
read the patient package insert when picking up a prescription for Evamist

If Contact Occurs

If a child comes in contact with the part of the arm where Evamist was sprayed, FDA recommends

washing the child’s skin with soap and water as soon as possible
contacting the child’s health care professional if the child begins to have any of the following signs or symptoms: nipple or breast swelling or breast tenderness in girls, or breast enlargement in boys. Be sure to tell the health care professional that the child may have been exposed to Evamist

You can report any side effects from the use of Evamist to FDA’s MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting Program online or by mail, fax, or phone.
o Regular Mail: Use postage-paid, pre-addressed FDA form 3500
o Fax: 1-800-FDA-0178
o Phone: 1-800-332-1088

At this time, it is unknown whether unintended exposure can occur with other topical (applied to the skin) estrogen products.

FDA continues to review adverse event reports and evaluate ways to reduce unintended exposures.

Legal Disclaimer

If your pet is showing any signs of distress or you suspect your pet is seriously ill, CONTACT YOUR VETERINARIAN immediately.

Discover Truth Behind Natural Dog Food Ingredients

Healthy Dog, Natural Dog, Natural Dog Food No Responses »

Aug 072010

Let’s Talk Natural Dog Food Ingredients

Many will say that the most important thing to know about Natural dog food in general is that it must be made of human-grade ingredients. What does that mean exactly? Technically it means that they will not put anything in your dog’s food that is not for human consumption as well. Here’s the problem: there is no legal definition whatsoever for the term “human grade” when it comes to pet food. It is a buzz word that has been around since the dog food recall scare back in 2007. We need to dig a little deeper to find out what is best for a healthy dog.

A Closer Look at Kibble and Natural Dog Food Ingredients

Some of the ingredients listed in a variety of dog food are: poultry/poultry meal, chicken, lamb byproducts, lamb byproduct meal, avocado, corn, carrots, brown rice. It all sounds relatively healthy doesn’t it? Well here is some additional information that will make you think twice: One manufactures that promotes their kibble as a healthy and natural dog food has Avocado as an advertised ingredient. They Proclaim:

“Why the avocado? Many of the nutrients your dog needs for a healthy skin and coat can be found in the remarkable fruit known as the avocado. Nutrient rich avocados contain vitamins A, E and C in abundance. They’re also an excellent source of balanced nutritional essentials for your dog’s skin and coat health—and good health in general.”

Well, this is what the ASPCA had to say about avocados as a natural dog food ingredient:

“Avocado leaves, fruit, seeds and bark contain a toxic principle known as Persin. The Guatemalan variety, a common one found in stores, appears to be the most problematic. Other strains of avocado can have different degrees of toxic potential. They can cause difficulty breathing; fluid accumulation in the chest, abdomen and heart; or pancreatitis.”

Now whose advice are you leaning towards? For a list of other foods you should avoid giving your healthy dog go to: Foods Your Healthy Dog Should Avoid

The Main Ingredients in your natural Dog Food. Now here is where it gets a little tricky:

Is “chicken & chicken meal” and “poultry/poultry meal” the same thing? The answer is a resounding NO!

When a meat source is named such as chicken, beef, venison, etc that is clear enough but what is “meal”? A basic definition of meal is this: consists of meat and skin, with or without the bones, but exclusive of feathers/hair, heads, feet, horns, entrails etc. and have the proper calcium/phosphorus ratio required for a balanced diet.

Contrary to what many people believe, meat sources in “meal” form are not inferior to whole, fresh meats as long as they are from a specified type of animal, such as chicken meal, lamb meal, salmon meal etc.

What about Lamb by products and Lamb byproducts meal? Are they the same? Again the answer is no.

Byproduct meals, even if a species is identified (chicken/beef/turkey/lamb byproduct meal etc.) should be avoided because highly questionable ingredients may be used in these rendered products.

To make it more clear take a look at the chart below. High quality natural dog food should have the ingredients in the right column not the left

Natural Dog Food Main Ingredient Summary


Avoid: Generic Ingredients	GOOD: Specifically Named Meats, etc
Meat, Fish, Poultry, Liver, Glandular Meat byproducts, Fish byproducts, Poultry byproducts, Liver byproducts, Glandular byproducts Meat byproducts meal, Fish byproducts meal, Poultry byproducts meal, Liver byproducts meal, Glandular byproducts meal Meat and Bone Meal, Fish and Bone Meal, etc. You get the picture!	Chicken ,Chicken Meal Beef, Beef Meal Turkey, Turkey Meal Lamb, Lamb Meal Duck, Duck Meal Venison, Bison, Salmon, etc.

Other things to avoid:

Any food that contains corn (ground or otherwise) as a first ingredient, especially if corn gluten meal is also a main ingredient and no concentrated source of identified meat protein (e.g. chicken meal, lamb meal etc.) is present.
Corn gluten or soy(bean) meal as main ingredients. Note: Not all dogs tolerate soy products! Small amounts, especially of organic soy, are okay as long as a dog is not sensitive. There are only very few products on the market that include high quality soy ingredients, none of them sold at grocery stores or mass retailers.

Keeping your canine friend a healthy dog is confusing in today’s food market so we will continue to discuss the topic here at Natural Dog Food Ct.com Come back and see us soon!

Natural Dog Food:What Does that Really Mean?

Healthy Dog, Natural Dog Food No Responses »

Aug 062010

Natural Dog Food's Peach

Discover if a Natural Dog Food Diet will Help Your Pup Become a Healthy Dog

That’s Peach on the left and I was told to put Peach on a natural dog food diet about two years ago. She was a rescue and we had no way of telling how old she was. What we did know is she was panting all the time and it concerned me. My vet proceeded to tell me she would benefit from a diet of “natural” dog food and gave me a recipe for homemade dog food. I love Peach so I immediately tracked down all the ingredients and then went home and became Cheryl the Canine Chef!

It didn’t take me long to become curious about what ‘Natural dog food’ really means.

I decided to look up the word natural and got the following:

Not altered, treated, or disguised
Present in or produced by nature
Of, relating to, or concerning nature

The problem comes when trying to associate the word natural with dog food. The Association Of American Feed Control Officials definition for “natural” as it relates to pet food is:

“NATURAL… A feed or ingredient derived solely from plant, animal or mined sources, either in its unprocessed state or having been subjected to physical processing, heat processing, rendering, purification extraction, hydrolysis, enzymolysis or fermentation, but not having been produced by or subject to a chemically synthetic process and not containing any additives or processing aids that are chemically synthetic except in amounts as might occur unavoidably in good manufacturing practices.”

Whoa! What the heck does that mean? As if it wasn’t confusing enough other terms popped up in my research.

Other terms for natural dog food kept popping up

Some of the terms I came across where Organic Dog Food, Raw Dog Food and Holistic Dog Food. Since holistic is also a synonym for alternative methods I kind of thought that ‘going natural’ may also refer to turning away from the conventional and using alternative methods instead.

That got me interested in finding out about regular conventional dog food and what ingredients they use in them. A found out a lot! So much in fact I’m going to do a separate article on the topic. I think it is important to understand what is in your ‘regular’ dog food so you can discover the real benefits of feeding good quality food, but I digress!

I finally had to come up with my own definition of Natural Dog Food

“NATURAL…Food that addresses the health and well being of your pet as well as hunger. Derived from human grade ingredients and include sufficient amount of nutrition, vitamins and minerals to offer complete and balanced diet.” That’s a little better isn’t it?

Here are Some Common Ingredients in Natural Dog Food

Hormone free meat
Whole Grain Rice
Probiotics
Omega 6 and 3 Fatty Acids
Digestive Enzymes
Aantioxidant vitamins
Chelated minerals (minerals which are better absorbed)
Natural Skin and Coat Conditioners.

I hope that helps to explain a little bit about natural dog food and start you thinking about why you should consider it for your dog. We’ll continue to delve into this topic in additional articles so please come back soon!

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