The Crunchy Dog

[ECingMama]

We have a new love. He's a 4 year old Golden. We've had him for a month.

I started him on 2 TBSP of DE...he's a big boy. I need to take him to the vet to find out how many pounds need to come off him. He was with a family where the 3 year old was feeding him all his unwanted food.

He's the best.dog.ever. I think he was a gift from God. I won't go into that story, but I do want to know what I should do to keep him healthy.

I'm going to look into making him lypospheric Vitamin C (for our use too).

Will DE prevent heart worms? I've found sites that say yes. I'm okay giving it to him every day.

Should I switch him to organic, grain-free food? He's eating Costco's adult food now.

Is there something natural for flea and tick prevention? (other than brushing him with DE)

Would you get pet insurance?

[Soliloquy]

I do think grain free is better for dogs. They are hunters who will also scavenge when in the wild. We have been pleased with Taste of the Wild dog food. My ideal would be raw meat plus some additions but it's not doable right now. I have read that Costco regular dog food is pretty good. I didn't like Costco grain free because it had a lot of garbanzo beans in it as protein-- difficult to digest.

I'm not convinced that de prevents heart worm. The vector is a mosquito so it enters right into the blood, bypassing the digestive tract. I don't see how de would help with that. (I do think de is very good for dogs, though.) Heart worm is much more rare in the US than the vet pharma companies would like us to believe. IIRC my state has had 1 case in the last ten years. The overnight low has to be above 45° for at least 90 days for transmission to even be possible. For us, that's a short window of opportunity. You can use sheep drench as prevention. Not natural but much cheaper than the meds from the vet.

---------- Post added at 10:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:04 PM ----------

We don't have pet insurance.

There's a vet on YouTube that has a great series on the over-vaccination of dogs. (They don't need shots every year.) I'll try to find a link.

[Codi]

We love Taste of the Wild too for our lab. Grain free only makes sense for dogs, IMO...how would a wild dog ever get grains? We do grain free treats as well.

Planning on garlic supplements for flea prevention per a friend who did that with her dog his whole life who got zero fleas.

[mamacat]

Some things say that garlic is poisonous for dogs yet it is in some supplements . Is there an affordable grain free food?

[domesticzookeeper]

Originally Posted by Codi

Grain free only makes sense for dogs, IMO...how would a wild dog ever get grains?

Wild dogs eat organ meat Which for ruminants would include a large amount of undigested or partially-digested grasses and grains. Still, it's really not a significant enough portion of their diet for them to require it regularly

---------- Post added at 08:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:16 AM ----------

Originally Posted by mamacat

Some things say that garlic is poisonous for dogs yet it is in some supplements

It is considered to be toxic: http://veterinarymedicine.dvm360.com...-dogs-and-cats

[JoannaV]

Another Taste of the Wild user here. I buy the two formulae that are rated 5 stars on dogfoodadvisor.com.
We don't do anything for flea prevention because it doesn't seem to be a problem for us. Would probably be different if we had cats.
As Lisa said, a lot of vets will still recommend more frequent vaccinations than is necessary. Studies have shown them to have much longer effectiveness.
We do currently use a heartworm prevention med. We currently do it every 45 days when the temperature has been above a certain level, uh can't now remember exactly but where we are it ends up being most months. I reevaluate every year. It's hard to be crunchy because most of the information out there is non-crunchy.

We don't have pet insurance. However, we did spend $12k on saving our dog after an accident earlier this year. So you kind of have to figure out in advance what you would do in the case of an accident or extreme illness, and then decide if you want insurance. In our case this year, it was a day-by-day thing. It wasn't like we were deciding "$12k or dog" but more that once we'd spent a certain amount it would've seemed a waste not to see it through. So that's something to remember, that you might end up with a situation where you can't know the final cost when you are making the initial decision. I'm still not interested in insurance that covers preventive care etc, but catastrophic insurance makes sense if you'd want to use it. I think Trupanion was the one I saw advertised at the animal emergency hospital.

[mamacat]

That Diamond Natural food does look healthier than what we are using now and is less $

[AngelaVA]

We get Wellness Core food, it has a probiotic in it and is grain free. My dogs have both done well on it. I would prefer to raw feed and read up on it at once time but it's logistically just too difficult for me.

My oldest dog is a rescue that had heartworm when he was rescued and had to go through treatments even after all the treatments it took a long time to go away, so anyway I do treat for heartworm, and for fleas and tics because we have had them both in the house at one time or another and it's not something I would care to repeat.

I bathe them with Castile soap.

So anyway we aren't totally crunchy just on a few things.

[mamacat]

We have been experimenting with Pau D'Arco for fleas and ticks https://books.google.com/books?id=Qk...cks%3F&f=false after reading this I think will try and give orally too.I think it may work because only place have found a tick is near face where didnt apply it yesterday.Have to scroll way down link for the part about pets.

[AngelaVA]

I don't think there is anything wrong with giving dogs scraps as long as you are choosing which scraps to give them. Eg my dogs only get meat, egg or dairy scraps and every once in awhile a tiny bit of rice or bread mixed in. No kibble is going to be perfect I think it's good to have some other food mixed in to help make up any potential gaps and also just - would you want to always eat the same thing all day every day? JMO of course.

[ECingMama]

My dog was just bit or scratched (I can't tell.) through a fence by a mean little dog. Sigh. I washed it with castille soap. Now I'm googling everything else. Poor buddy.

---------- Post added at 05:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:25 PM ----------

So far the recommendations are turmeric, collodial silver, grapefruit seed extract, and lavender essential oil. Add green tea, calendula, and silicea homeopathic remedy. Add raw honey.

[Soliloquy]

My dog has been in his share of fights. (Unknown/Neighbouring dogs come on to our acreage and he gets them off. For which I'm thankful.) He's always been fine. I hope your doggie is okay, too.

---------- Post added at 05:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:54 PM ----------

Originally Posted by AngelaVA

I don't think there is anything wrong with giving dogs scraps as long as you are choosing which scraps to give them. Eg my dogs only get meat, egg or dairy scraps and every once in awhile a tiny bit of rice or bread mixed in. No kibble is going to be perfect I think it's good to have some other food mixed in to help make up any potential gaps and also just - would you want to always eat the same thing all day every day? JMO of course.

Our dogs get raw eggs, meat drippings, gristle, etc.

[sweetpeasmommy]

Dog saliva has many awesome healing properties so I rarely treat anything not clearly in dire need.

I prefer grain free but can't do money wise any longer.

I use conventional flea and tick treatments. We have like mutant fleas or something and every couple years what once worked stops working. Natural stuff never worked at all. We live in the woods in the country and fleas will jump on you just walking outside. Ack. And ticks are a part of daily life.


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[houseforjoy]

http://dontwastethecrumbs.com/2015/0...k-collar-dogs/
saw this today so thought i would post it for you

---------- Post added at 10:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:55 AM ----------

i've also heard good things about geranium essential oil for ticks, esp deep woods ticks

[Soliloquy]

Our dog trainer highly recommended this product for cleaning ears and it's worked fabulously for us. It has gentian violet and colloidal silver to combat yeast and other creepies that can over-populate dog's ears.

Best done outside. You squirt a good amount in the ear (usually takes two people to accomplish this) then massage just below the ear vigorously to work it down. Let the dog go, he'll shake and get a lot of it out but enough will stay in to treat the ear. Then, with a q-tip, reach in and pull gunk UP. If there's no gunk, you can use it occasionally as a preventative. If there's black gunk or bleeding, use at least weekly until it clears.

http://www.vitacost.com/liquid-health-k-9-ear-solutions