As a bare minimum, after reading this article, I hope that I can inspire you to Throw Your Dog a Bone – once a week, twice a week, preferably every day. I would also dearly love for you to question the use of dry kibble and canned food as a species appropriate diet for your pet.
As part of my Diploma in Holistic Animal Health and Nutrition I’ve been reviewing historical literature and research papers on raw food diets along. In the late 80’s veterinarians had begun to question the inadequacy of processed food diets. A handful of Australian veterinarians were trying to educate pet owners about Kibble – or what they’d termed ‘Pet Junk Food’. The suggestion back then was that heat treated extruded kibble and semi moist canned food were no better for your pet to eat each day than MacDonald’s is for people to eat every day.
By the 90’s these veterinarians were openly registering dissent. This growing number of Australian veterinarians who were questioning the appropriateness of commercial diets called upon the AVA to conduct research. Unfortunately, the pet food industry and veterinary profession alliance was (is?) extensive, strong and hostile to criticism. The problem was, that the large Kibble companies (Mars, Nestle etc) were funding huge scholarships, providing funding for research veterinary schools right across America.
Amongst other things, it had been noted by these dissatisfied veterinarians that feeding animals canned sludge or dry kibble was resulting in periodontal disease (PD). It was also noted that animals with PD were more at risk for certain types of cancer and other life threatening diseases.
So what is PD? It starts with gingivitis. Gums become inflamed. Gingivitis can be cured in 4-7 days, PD cannot. Severe PD leads to dying rotting teeth, advanced bone loss, tooth mobility and tooth loss. Animals have sore, bleeding gums, abscesses, halitosis and worse still, suffer excruciating pain. The most severe and devastating consequences include the spread of bacteria to other organ systems that can result in peritonitis (affects the stomach), glomerulonephritis (kidney) and endocarditis (heart). Periodontal Disease in cats and dogs became one of the largest chronic and common conditions seen by Australian vets – the pandemic was running at around 80%.
Eventually some vets took to lobbying the AVA by writing numerous articles and letters for inclusion in the monthly journal. Under pressure, the AVA eventually did conduct research but only in to PD – not the link between commercial food, PD and cancer. Guess what they found – canned food and kibble was not appropriate for removing the tartar build up on teeth and gums.
How did the market respond? Big Kibble companies marketed their biscuits differently. In the mid-late 90’s the market became saturated with ‘Plaque Control’ ‘Tartar Control’ or ‘Oral health’ biscuits. Do these biscuits work? Not really. In order to clean each and every tooth your pet would need to chew through each one. Most owners will tell you that pets tend to inhale biscuits, not chew them. Also, what happens to biscuits when you ‘chew’ them? They tend to turn in to sludge, which can build up anyway on the gumline.
This situation reminds me of some of the disasters we’ve seen with well marketed items such as Cigarettes and Diet Coke. We have seen experts claim these items will not harm our health, or in fact even purport that some items are good for our health. It’s only been in the last decade that the truth is finally reaching the people.
The crux of this issue is this: regular daily massage of the ‘gingival sulcus’ (space between the tooth and tissue) keeps the problem at bay. A natural raw diet that includes raw meaty bones provides this massage – processed foods do not. If you feed kibble, get down in front of your dog and have a look at his gums and teeth for yourself. Google Images shows pictures of the different stages of PD. Compare what your dog’s mouth looks like to the pictures. Make your own assessment. Talk to your vet. Throw your dog a bone. Best yet, consider a species appropriate diet for your pet – one that includes raw meat and bones on a daily basis.
When feeding bones, it is important to
– Never feed cooked bones. They can splinter causing severe problems, even death
– Always give bones under supervision
– Remove bone fragments from dogs once they become fractured (small pieces)
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