Testimonial From a Dog Food Convert

I am very happy to share this article written by one of my clients. I think we can all agree that diet plays a huge role in our well being and when we have other illnesses, the quality and the content of our diets can play an even greater role. Unfortunately, not many of us have the time to cook for our selves, let alone our pets. Very often I see clients caught up in trying to sort out the best commercial food by reading labels. Pet food labeling is both confusing and deceptive. The key to sorting out the pet food dilemma is not label reading or consulting the pet store clerk, it is education. The effort Kira made for Adler has really paid off. Recently, when he was visiting my office for his semi-annual examination, he was not overweight (he had been), he had a beautiful coat, his epilepsy was well controlled and we are now able to decrease his anticonvulsant doses! I am grateful that Kira was willing to share her and Adler's story. JAH

DOG FOOD CONVERT

In April of 2010 our 6 ½ year old German Shorthair had his first seizure.  This was the start of a journey through medications, feeling helpless, many questions and also having our dog’s annoying side effects of meds almost drive me and my husband crazy.  We have been working with Dr. Hass since the beginning of this journey and got to a point in January of 2012 where the seizure frequency was twice a month and he was 20 lbs. overweight.  In addition to introducing a new medication, Dr. Hass suggested trying a hypo-allergenic diet based on some of the described symptoms.  I knew that the prescription dog foods were very expensive so she suggested a home-made diet.  

My first reaction to this was only crazy people make food for their dogs.  This reaction was based on childhood experiences working in a vet office.  I took care of the boarding animals and we had one lady in particular who would drop off Ziploc bags of pasta with marinara sauce and veggies for her enormous St. Bernard dog.  I was taught by the vet techs that this was crazy and that the dog wasn’t getting the essential vitamins he needed.

After some thinking, research at the library and visiting some blogs on line I changed my mind.  The mid to high price low fat “natural” dog food I was buying was obviously not working and Adler had this overall dullness about him.  Born and raised in San Francisco, I was taught the healing power of food and natural supplements and figured if I would do it for me why not my dog?  Even if he didn’t have a food allergy, he did not appear healthy or happy after trying multiple name brand pet foods.

After taking the plunge the visible changes in Adler were immediate.  He dropped the extra pounds, had more pep in his step and we were able to cut his meds in half or more.  His seizure frequency also decreased dramatically.  On a recent visit to see Dr. Hass she asked if I could share this success story with others as we both acknowledged it wasn’t easy to figure how to start.  I will warn you though.  There is no going back.  Your dog will most likely not want dry dog food ever again and the benefits of homemade food are so apparent that feeding store bought food just seems like a bad idea.

Original recipe by Donald R. Strombeck  (provided to me by Dr. Hass)

High-Fiber, High-Carbohydrate, and Low-Fat Diet (for 12-13 lb dog)

1 ¼ cups oatmeal or rolled oats, cooked

3 ½ oz (1/4 cup) kidney beans, canned

1 egg, large, hard-boiled

1 cup mixed vegetables, cooked and drained

1 ½ calcium carbonate tablets (600 milligrams calcium)

1 multiple vitamin-mineral tablet

To convert this recipe for larger weight dogs, I eventually discovered through a pet blog online that you need to use a nutritional calculator (the one I used is listed below, but there are many out there).  Using a multiplier based on weight / pounds is not correct.  

http://nutritiondata.self.com/

Food prep and cooking:

First you need to confirm how many calories a day your dog needs.  This is usually shown on the side of a pet food bag or you can search online or ask your vet.  Keep in mind the amount of activity per day can vary the calorie intake.  Then you can input the food ingredients (keeping the correct ratio) into the calculator until you have the right amount.  I entered the ingredients for the original recipe to see how many calories and grams of protein it provided to give some idea of a base line.  Once you figure out how much food is required in a day you multiply for a weeks’ worth of food.  For Adler this came to 6 cups of food per day (he is fed 3 cups twice a day due to meds and his insane hunger).  For one week’s worth of food I have the following recipe:

Adler’s recipe:

Oatmeal, cooked

• 18 cups old fashioned oatmeal (about 1 ½ 42 oz containers)
• 22 cups water

(2) 32 oz bags frozen mixed veggies, cooked and drained

(4) 15.5 oz cans of kidney beans

18 hard-boiled eggs

This recipe makes 1 more serving than required for a full week.  I recommend doing this so you have an extra bag on hand in case you can’t make food at the normal time.  This also allows you to build up a buffer of additional food in the freezer over time.

At this point my recommendation is to jump right in and start cooking.  During the first two weeks you need to mix the food with your dog’s current food so you will only be making half of the total quantity.  About a month into making this food I was able to find the exact recipe that worked.  

I make Adler’s food once a week.  I would prefer to make two weeks at a time but I found that it was an overwhelming amount of food to make without purchasing a set of enormous pots to cook with.  I cook everything separately and then split the ingredients evenly into to two large pots and mix to combine.  Then I scoop 3 cups each into quart size freezer bags and flatten the bags to allow for easy stacking in the fridge / freezer.  I leave 6 bags in the fridge and the remaining 8 or 9 go into the freezer.

Adler is crazy about this food.  I’m not sure if it is because he connects it with me making food (used to and still does get small amounts of table scraps) or if he is just crazy for any food based on his meds.  In addition to this food, Adler’s favorite treats are carrots and ice cubes.  I have also considered dehydrating slices of sweet potato for something chewy.

Supplements:

Second you need to decide what calcium and vitamin supplements to add to your dog’s food.  Based on my library research I had a pretty good idea of what a dog needs to stay healthy, but the trick was to find something that didn’t had a lot of other additives and was affordable!  There are many companies out there with some pricey vitamins for your pet .  

Vitamin supplement:

I found “Be Well for Dogs” at 1-800-PetMeds.  One bag last me about 1 ½ months and costs around $17.00 (usually there are always coupons too).

http://www.1800petmeds.com/Be+Well+Dog-prod10845.html

Calcium carbonate:

Based on reading I found that you can use leftover egg shells as an inexpensive way to provide calcium and with all the hard boiled eggs in this recipe it is feasible.  However, this does take extra time so I chose to purchase calcium tablets and give them to Adler right before eating (he is very good at taking pills at this point).  I confirmed how much calcium he needed using one of the charts in the reference books.

Reference material:

Home-prepared dog & cat diets : a healthful alternative 1st ed.  By Donald R. Strombeck  

The holistic guide for a healthy dog by Volhard, Wendy.

I see there are even more books out there since I did my research over a year ago.  I found that each author had a different take on exactly what was right and wrong regarding the food and supplements a dog requires and most do not dive into vegetarian diets too much.  I read them all and used the information I felt was consistent and not too extreme.