Natural Dog Care

We have chosen a more natural way for raise our dogs because so many dogs die young of cancer and all signs point to poor ingredients in dog food and over-vaccination as two of the major causes. Below is more information about the diet and vaccination changes we have made.

A Whole New Diet

I recently switched all of the my dogs to a raw prey-model diet. That means all of their meals are made up of raw meaty bones (RMB). They eat chicken with bones, turkey with bones, pork, beef, organ meat and green tripe. We no longer wanted to feed kibble because of a variety of reasons including the cancer-causing chemicals known to be in many pet foods, dog food recalls, and the unpredictability of even the best dog food formulas. Raw food is much easier for dogs to digest and it is simply the best, most natural food for dogs and the bones keep their teeth healthy too.

For more information about raw feeding, visit these links:

Here are some resources to learn more about what's really in dog and cat food:

Vaccinations

Our adult dogs also started on a reduced vaccination schedule this year. Our vet, Quiocassin Veterinary Hospital already has a relatively reduced vaccination schedule with Parvo/Distemper only required every three years after the first booster around one year of age and bordetella only required every year instead of every six months. This is much better than the annual vaccinations most vets want to do, but it is still much more than dogs need. Tucker and Leeloo got titers this year for Parvo/Distemper. Tucker's titer showed that he had plenty of immunity. Leeloo's titer showed that she needed a booster. Then, we learned a little more about titers. They don't show the dog's true immunity levels because they only measure part of a dog's immune system. Here are some resources that explain more about vaccinations and titers:

Other Resources