Re: are your critters really that unhealthy?

["Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

I can tell you what we see coming into the dermatology service.  We do see a
fair amount of food allergies, which shows up in a variety of ways, and it's
associated much more often with the bargain-brand foods than it is with the
premium brand foods---yes, there is a big difference in quality.  We had the
internal medicine faculty telling us a few weeks ago that the brand Ol' Roy
is made out of dogs that have died from eating Ol' Roy (she was kidding,
everyone simmer down).  As far as I know, we haven't had any severe
allergies that haven't resolved with switching to a different protein
source.  Beef is the protein *most* assocated with allergic problems, and it
doesn't make a bit of difference if the beef came from home cooked meals or
commercial diets.  I already mentioned the golden retriever we treated this
week with a chicken allergy, and even though that diet was home-made
'organic' chicken, it wouldn't have been any different on any other
chicken-based diet.

There's alot of really good clinical nutrition work going on right now,
especially in the areas of prescription diets to treat specific diseases,
including cancer in pets.  Unfortunately, very little in horses or other
large animals, but alot of the research being developed in small animals is
potentially applicable to horses, as well, ie the effect of soluble fibers
on glucose metabolism and on healing damage to the intestinal mucosa.

Home-made diets are terrific if they're properly formulated and balanced,
and that goes for feeding horses as well as dogs and cats.  But if they
aren't balanced correctly, they can cause disease and poor health as quickly
as a lot of infectitious diseases can.  Alot of the problems you'll see with
homemade diets are that some ingredients aren't all that easy to find and so
the owners things, gee, how much could it matter if I just skip that one
thing?  But it does matter, you have to pay attention to details with
home-made diets, for *any* species, including horses.  Top quality
commercial diets (again, for any species)(okay, with the exception of
commercial ferret diets) really do have alot of research and well-qualified
thought that's gone into them, they don't just throw any old thing into the
bag willy-nilly.  As I mentioned before, I feed my crowd commercial diets
(canine, feline and equine) and if I thought I could improve their health by
mixing up their food by hand (and obviously, I know how to balance their
diets that way), then I would.  I'm very happy with the commercial feeds.

This is just my own experience and opinion, of course.

Susan G


----- Original Message -----
From: <guest@endurance.net>
To: <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Sent: Saturday, March 10, 2001 9:05 PM
Subject: RC: are your critters really that unhealthy?


> Jonni <jonnij@ntws.net>
> I just wanted to ask....do many of you really have problems with the
health of your critters when fed these commercial feeds...with or without
animal by products in them? I can not remember any of our dogs or cats over
the last 25 years having allergies, skin problems, or serious health
problems. All have lived well in to old age. We have a 14 yr. old dog now,
that has been fed what ever dog food was on sale of the "better" brands, but
not the "best" super expensive brands. She has only been to the vet for
shots and check ups. Am I just extra lucky with our animals health????
>
> I have a cousin that years ago cooked meat and rice everyday for their
many dogs. Those dogs always looked horrible...poor coats etc., and had the
NASTIEST breath! They thought they were doing the right thing for
them.......
>
> Jonni (who can't seem to post except as a guest either)
>
>
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