This is the face of an itchy, smelly, sweet-but-tormented dog. For three and a half years, I've taken her to vets (changing vets when I felt I'd reached the end with one, or another didn't trust me to make good decisions on her behalf), tried different diets, given her various medicines, lovingly prepared herbal bone broth for her to slurp with every meal, and bathed her with Head and Shoulders every few weeks in an attempt to reduce this yeasty-fungusy thing she's got goin' on.
Today begins a new chapter in the search for relief. I bought a meat/bone grinder, and I've started transitioning her to a raw diet containing meaty bone, organ meats, and a super food supplement meant to help detox her (Spark). I am practical, mostly, and if I hadn't been dragged to this point kicking and screaming, there is probably no way I'd be freshly grinding raw dead things every few days for my dog to eat. I might have even, sometime in the past, made fun of people who do this. Sorry.
This is definitely one of those learn-as-you-go things. What I've learned up to this point is:
- Dogs are supposed to be eating raw food
- They totally frickin' love it
- Their diet should contain at least 20% raw meaty bone
- There should be some organ meats (maybe 10% of the mix)
- They should be eating 1% of their body weight in raw food twice daily
- The rest is pretty flexible
- They don't NEED vegetables, but can and will eat them. The veggies have to be cooked or fermented.
- Raw food at the pet store is a gazillion dollars
- Farms and butchers will sell you "spare" parts for cheap
- You can get a pretty good grinder for $150-175
- Feeding raw can cost less than feeding kibble
The proponents of raw food for dogs make a lot of lofty claims, including: You'll save a ton of money on vet bills, a raw diet can help curb behavioral problems and clear up just about any physical ailment, even the best kibbles contain road kill and euthanized pets, and dogs eating raw food don't poop much. Based on what I've heard, my totally reasonable expectations are that Bodhi stops biting people, Gracie stops itching, and they both only poo a little. No biggie. I'll let you know how it goes.
