Ask the French Bulldog Geek - Raw kills dogs?
bullmarketfrogs June 21st, 2008
Hi there - I was going to switch my French Bulldog Angus McGoof over to raw food. I have heard a lot of good stuff about it.
But my veterinarian told me not to because she said raw food can kill my dog!! I bought a really good book called Give Your Dog a Bone and it seems reasonable but now I am afriad to.
My vet says if I feed Angus raw I should get a new vet. What should I do?
Carol writes-
Well, first off - love Angus’ name!
That said, I was personally quite surprised to learn that there are still veterinarians around who are so vehemently opposed to raw feeding. As a long time raw feeder who is acquainted with literally hundreds of other raw feeders, I’m always taken aback to learn how many misconceptions there are about raw feeding.
However, after making inquiries among the vets I speak to, I discovered that veterinarians might have a very valid reason for advising their patients against feeding raw - legal repercussions. Many veterinary associations, including the AVMA and the CVMA, have issued policy statements in which they advise their member veterinarians to not recommend raw diets to their patients. The basic suggestion in their statements is that doing so could leave veterinarians open to legal action from patients unhappy with the results of raw feeding. There’s also a subtle implication that veterinarians who recommend raw, or remain neutral on the topic when patients raise it, might be engaging in behaviour the associations consider to be professional misconduct. This has left some veterinarians, even the ones who personally feed raw and consider it to be a valid choice for pet nutrition, reluctant to leave themselves ‘hanging in the wind’ legally by recommending it to their patients.
Personally, I’ve been feeding my dogs raw, in one form or another, for almost 11 years now. In that time, I’ve never had an issue with salmonella or any other form of contamination (although apparently it’s unsafe to eat tomatoes in Canada or the USA right now). After all, it all comes down to proper food handling - washing hands and surfaces, not letting raw sit out at room temperature. The sorts of common sense things we should be doing when preparing our own food.
I decided to ask some other French Bulldog owners about their experiences feeding raw. In the process, I also learned some interesting facts about why Veterinary Medical associations are so adamantly against their member vets recommending it to patients.
Michelle writes -
I have been feeding raw for 8 yrs. All of my dogs are healthy. I started by reading Give your dog a bone. Great book!
Charlotte writes -
I’ve been feeding raw food for the past five years. I recently lost a French Bulldog to old age - 13 1/2 - which is quite an accomplishment for this breed, and I have two hale and hearty Frenchies at 16 months and 10 1/2, as well as a Pug, 4, who eat raw and thrive on it. As an added bonus, I have no problem with canine allergies, gas, and my dogs urinate less because they are not processing large amounts of grain. The 10 year old suffered from serious ear infections and hot spots - he has not had an ear infection or a hot spot since he went on raw 5 years ago. The 13 1/2 year old that recently died suffered from severe gastric pain and allergies, those went away when he went on raw.
I cannot imagine going back to standard dog food after feeding raw.
Shirley writes -
I have been feeding raw for years - I have never had any problems. The difference in my raw fed and raised puppies compared to kibble fed puppies is like night and day my puppies have solid hard bodies and great muscle development and the kibble kids are almost boney compared to them. I also have a 13 year old and a 9 year old and an 8 year old male all very healthy and my oldest boy sired a litter at age 10 - so yep I am a great believer of raw food.
Wendy writes -
I have a 2 year old Frenchie that has eaten raw from 8 weeks on. She has only been sick 2 times; once with an ear infection and once after eating some chicken jerky that was recalled (later). She has a tendency to swell up with vaccine administration and we prophylax her with benadryl. Other than that she never is sick, rarely needs to see the vet and is full of vim and vigor. Her coat is beautiful, she does not have skin issues and her teeth are nice and white.
I do chop the boney meat into small pieces for her.
Good point, Wendy. I grind my raw chicken on the bone - no matter what the books tell you, most Frenchies just aren’t able to chew through the bone, meat and tendon of a raw chicken piece without there being a real choking hazard.
I suppose at the end of the day that you have to weigh up what matters to you - do you want to feed raw to Angus badly enough that you’re willing to find a new veterinarian? An even better question to ask yourself, in my opinion, would be “Do I like this veterinarian enough to put up with her blackmailing me out of my personal choice in pet nutrition?”.
A veterinarian and patient should be able to engage in dialog as two equal adults, and not as ‘punishing parent, chastised child’.
Carol
