Well I finally made the choice to put my pup on an all nautral diet and It was the best thing I have ever done. I know alot of people have had problems with very loose stools, vomiting, etc.. but so far none of those are the case here. No bone fragments in his stool his breath is fresh as can be and he does not itch anymore. That was the reason I swithced no to my vets liking either. My pup was picky to begin with and when I finally found kibble that he would eat he had some sort of allergy to it. Itch Itch Itch. The vet offered me steroids not something I am willing to do and then I asked about changing him to a barf diet, well, we did it anyway. I had concerns because of all the anti raw info but I did enough research to feel comfortable and I figure if its good enough for Ed it must be good <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

There's anti raw info out there? Where, i wanna see i wanna see!

Great post Ann - I used it as a tesimonial on the web site in the article on all-natural diet. Anyone whose dog has allergies need to try all-natural as their first option and not the second or third thing to try after giving their dogs steroids. Remember - no more vaccinations (other than rabies)

I'm with Chris. If there is anything anti-raw out there I want to see it. I think it's the best thing I have ever done for my dogs! I have been feeding raw for about a year to four dogs...had one that went through a brief spell of of the runs for about a week after I feed her too much beef liver.

Debbie

Here is just some of the peer-reviewed information regarding the infectious dangers of a raw diet, additional problems that would be nutritionally based would be to time consuming for me to look up:

1) The influence of feeding and maintenance system on occurence of Toxoplasma gondii infections in dogs. Smielewska-Los et al., 2002. Pol. J. Vet. Sci. 5(4):231-5.

2) Epidemiological and serological aspects in canine toxoplasmosis in animals with nervous sysmptoms. de Brito et al., 2002. Mem. Inst. Oswaldo. Cruz. 97(1):31-5.

3) Preliminary assessment of the risk of Salmonella infection in dogs fed raw chicken diets. Joffe and Schlesinger, 2002. Can. Vet. J. 43(6):441-2.

4) Public health concerns associated with feeding raw meat diets to dogs. LeJeune and Hancock, 2001. J. Am. Vet. Med. Assoc. 219(9):1222-5.

5) Transmission of Yersinia enterocolitica 4/O:3 to pets via contaminated pork. Fredriksson-Ahomaa et al., 2001. Lett. Appl. Microbiol. 32(6):375-8.

6) Risk factors for Echinococcus granulosus infection: a case-control study. Campos-Bueno et al., 2000. Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 62(3):329-34.

Thanks Ed. I did my homework on this one and can already see good results. I wish I could say that everything is better but we are dealing with vaccinosis realted behavior issues. I am working with a great homeopath to get it under controll. I think once people get over their fears about alternative methods you will see a whole new age of healthy dogs. Thanks again for all the great info on this site.

The difficulty with judging the pro's and con's of BARF and natural diets is that it's pretty hard to get unprejudiced info. And the contributors to the arguments are not always predictable: Ann Martin is one of the leading opponents of the BARF diet, and has written a book against it. But her other book opposes the kibble produced by commercial dog food producers! Some people move toward either cooking their own food for their dogs, or feeding meat and a processed food meant to be added to meat, like Martin's K9 Formula. (Not the same Martin, by the way.)

Here's a pretty decent website for the "contra" side of the question:

http://www.secondchanceranch.org/rawmeat_links.html
(a few of the links are old)

And here's one that provides a huge quantity of info, both on BARF and on processed food products and feeding: http://www.bowchow.com/dogfeeding.html

Gotta love the internet.

Oops. My mistake. Martin did not write a book, but rather a chapter, against BARF.

About a year ago I contacted a breeder to see about getting one of her puppies.

In the course of our conversations, she told me she raw feeds her dogs and does not give vaccinations and prefers her puppies go to homes who will continue with her regime. I told her I had been feeding raw, but quit because of there being so much controversy about it and not being confident enough to know if I was doing it right or not.

This wonderful lady not only em'd me samples of her diets, which were very easy, and non time consuming to prepare, but also got me onto a *no vac's* list, and I have never looked back.

My two current dogs are *rescues* and have had health problems since the day I got them. Of course they were all caused by the kibble I was feeding, eventhough I was feeding a *premium* brand, and all the vaccinations, HW and flea/tick preventatives I was assulting their bodies with!!!
At that time we had been dealing with (unsuccessfully) another bout of sarcoptic mange. This time the *Revolution* I used before was not making it go away!

I consulted the homeopathic Vet on the list and started treating my dogs for vaccinosis. The change in them has been dramatic, and one thing about homeopathic treatments rather than using drugs (which does not cure diseases etc., but just drives the condition inside to reappear later or appear later as a chronic disease), once a dog is cured by homeopathic means, the condition is gone and will not come back.

The reason I contacted this breeder to begin with is because my older male BC was not doing well and I didn't think he would last much longer. Now he is acting like a puppy again himself, and I am confident he has years ahead of him yet.
p.s....I'm still getting that puppy this spring, however!