Dog Vaccination Worries

Dog vaccination has been raising a lot of controversy, with dog owners torn between wanting to protect their dogs from serious and often deadly health threats and worrying about adverse canine vaccine reactions.

Conventional veterinary medicine, perhaps influenced by a pharmaceutical industry with its eyes firmly on the bottom line, supports a canine vaccination protocol involving multiple yearly dog vaccinations, often using combination vaccines called 5-way or 7-way vaccines which are meant to protect against five or seven canine diseases.

Mounting evidence suggests that canine vaccines may cause severe and often lingering dog vaccination reactions in certain canine breeds or families, including anaphylactic shock, nervous system disorders, liver or kidney failure resulting from bone marrow suppression, among others.

Dr. W. Jean Dodds, DVM, states that “… recent vaccination of genetically susceptible breeds has been associated with transient seizures in puppies and adult dogs, as well as a variety of autoimmune diseases including those affecting the blood, endocrine organs, joints, skin and mucosa, central nervous system, eyes, muscles, liver, kidneys, and bowel.”

The only way to avoid the consequences of over vaccination for your dog is to discuss canine vaccination schedule and protocol with your veterinarian. Make sure you go into your next vet appointment prepared, with a full understanding of all aspects of dog vaccination, including the facts uncovered by recent studies. You owe it to your best friend!

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Feeding your dog some easy homemade dog food is the simplest way to ensure that carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals are included in his diet. One thing to remember is that both dogs and cats differ from humans in terms of dietary needs. Canines and felines require high quality protein and fats with some carbs, supplemented with vitamins and minerals in order to thrive and not just survive.

Carbohydrates come mainly from plants in the form of grains, vegetables and fruit. If your dog’s diet does not provide enough carbs, extra stress will be put on the liver for it to convert proteins into glucose, not the most efficient use of protein. Though not directly related to energy production, vitamins have their own role to play, and a vitamin deficiency can have serious consequences and interfere with vision, bone growth, nerve function, blood clotting, and a lot more.

Minerals play an important role in the proper functioning of the body, whether human or canine. They transport oxygen in the blood, help promote muscle metabolism, ensure that the nervous system will function properly and even play a role in hormone production.

Insufficient amounts of phosphorus or calcium will likely result in cartilage and bone weakness. Minerals are interactive, therefore it is important to maintain a proper balance between the various minerals. In some cases, one cannot function without the other: both iron and copper are needed to produce hemoglobin.

When it comes to home made dogfood and recipes, I’ve so got you covered … sometimes I amaze myself. What would you say to a couple of hundred canine cuisine recipes designed to please the most finicky palate? The Mint Rice Hamburger will satisfy the hungriest dog, and the German Shepherd Casserole is simply divine. The Weight-On Meatballs? To die for! I think it’s my favorite home made dog food recipe … well, one of my favorites.

Try a few of my natural homemade dog food reciepes, and you’ll see what I mean. You’ll be the Martha Stewart (or the Jamie Oliver) of the K9 Kitchen, and your dog will only have eyes for you! And if you don’t find something to tempt your pooch, check his pulse, stat!

Easy homemade dog food and recipes your pooch will adore - it doesn’t get any better than this. They say that “the fastest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”, but I bet you didn’t know that holds true for canines as well.

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You may be surprised to hear that nutritious dog food must contain a certain amount of fats. Though we often think of fats as bad, specially if we happen to carry an excess of it, fats are necessary to the proper functioning of the canine body and form a crucial part of the healthiest dog food.

The main role of fats is to supply the body with energy. In a minor way, fats also support strong cells and help absorb nutrients. The kind of fats I am referring to are essential fatty acids (EFAs) which, just like amino acids, need to be consumed since they are not produced by the body. Essential fatty acids are a must if you wish to protect your pet from allergies, arthritis and cancer.

A dog that carries a little extra fat gets protection from the cold, as well as a bit of extra cushioning not only for his body but for his internal organs as well. Though dogs are generally quite efficient at using fats to create energy, too much fat will only end up getting stored in the body, resulting in obesity as well as heart disease, diabetes and even osteoarthritis.

Essential fatty acids that are beneficial to your pet have nothing in common with rancid restaurant grease, or the rendered animal fat or vegetable fats deemed unacceptable for human consumption which end up being sprayed on dry pet food in order to make it palatable.

That’s why it is vital for you to control your canine’s intake by taking charge of his diet and supplying natural, nutritious dog food. The healthiest dog food you can offer your best friend has a lot in common with the healthiest human food. A variety of protein and fats sources, but also some carbohydrates, supplemented with vitamins and minerals.

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With all the confusion created around the raw canine diet, the fact that high protein dog food still makes dog owners nervous should not come as a surprise. Perhaps we need to shed some light on what constitutes nutritional and non-nutritional dog foods to start with.

My ancestors the wild dogs and wolves have been consuming meat as their prime source of food for tens of thousands of years, as long as they could find prey. They have supplemented their diet with plants, which became a nutrition staple when protein was unavailable.

But let’s be clear about something here. Eating plants simply adds a few carbs to our diet for better balance. Grains are not high on the ideal canine menu, specially corn which is of very little use to us though it ends up being added to commercial dog food as a filler. Being plentiful and cheap, it often shows up as a primary ingredient - so much for canine health!

I know I’m on the right track when experts agree with me. “In general, high-quality animal source proteins provide superior amino acid balances for companion animals, compared with the amino acid balances that are supplied by grain proteins. The protein in grains is not as balanced or available as the protein in high-quality animal sources…” state Case, Carey and Hirakawa in Canine and Feline Nutrition.

Protein is the foundation of homemade healthy dog food. A favorite of mine is liver which is full of phosphorus and vitamins A and B1, but lamb and beef are good too, and so are organ meats like liver, heart, kidney, etc. If your dog has a sensitive stomach, he’ll find chicken and turkey easier to digest. And let’s not forget some fish for our Omega-3s, specially salmon and herring.

But did you know that the best protein of all comes from eggs. Oh boy, I LOVE eggs in any shape or form: raw, soft-boiled, hard-boiled, in an omelette, and my Scrambled Eggs Doggie Style … just divine! Try this recipe on your pooch, and you’ll spoil his appetite for anything else.

But a balanced canine diet actually includes a lot of food varieties you would find in a healthy human diet. So high protein dog food means more than just meat. We have to have fats too.

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Homemade dogfood just seems like the perfect all around solution to me, when you consider what Dr Michael Dym, DVM, has to say about pet health: “Over the past 40 years and 17 generations of dogs and cats, we are seeing tremendous increases in chronic ill health in our pets that was rare back in the early 1960’s … The two biggest factors in our pets’ population health decline over these generations has been the severe overuse of multiple vaccines and nutrient poor and toxin filled commercial pet foods.”

It is a well known fact that many commercial pet foods contain artificial ingredients which cause allergic reactions in many pets. Your pet’s itching, vomiting or diarrhea may well be caused by the histamine released by his immune system as a result of food allergy. Propylene glycol is often used in moist pet foods as a preservative to keep them fresh, but it has been linked to anemia and bloat.

Dr Dym also stresses that “Preservatives & other chemical additives may also cause cancer. Natural diets improve pet allergies, arthritis, diabetes, chronic vomiting & diarrhea.” Another reason why healthy dog food you make at home is bound to be healthier for your pet than a bowlful of artificial ingredients. Add to that the fact that you won’t need a degree in chemistry to be clear about what you are putting in your pet’s body. There is something to be said for transparency.

And finally, poor quality pet food laden with unnatural ingredients will leave your pet defenseless if he ever has to fight disease, as he will not be able to produce enough antibodies to defend himself. Besides, a healthy, nutritious diet which meets all of your dog’s nutritional needs is the best way to prevent disease in the first place.

Just like people, dogs are omnivores. A variety of foods will be needed to meet their dietary needs and ensure optimum health. The best homemade dogfood will include protein, carbs, fats, vitamins and minerals in the right amounts. Basically, meat and vegetables, plus some supplements.

We will be taking a look at the requirements of a healthy canine diet. If you dog suffers from any illness or condition, please consult with your vet to customize an appropriate diet to meet his needs. Next, we’ll examine the role high protein dog food plays in a healthy canine diet.

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