Trudy Harlow's Blog (4)

We have now been on RMB for nearly 6 months and Paddy is doing extremely well.  Last year at this time, he had had one long, continuous ear infection -- we'd get it treated and cleared up, then as soon as we finished the treatments, we'd be back at the vet's with another one.  This year, since January, he has had only one ear infection, and that was in, I think, March.  Yes, he still itches pretty regularly, but he has no hot spots, very little discoloration on his feet and around his mouth,…

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post this follow-on to my blog about switching Paddy to RMB.

It's been a mixed bag, but mostly good.  He still has some itching -- although, prior to all the trees bursting into bloom here (and my starting to sneeze continuously), his itching was markedly reduced.  In fact, it had all but disappeared.  With the tree pollen -- which he did not react to on the allergy test we had done last year -- he is itching a lot, especially on his face, and he has…

As Paul Harvey used to say, "And now for the rest of the story..."

Early this year, through the Raw Feeding group on this website, I ran across the Yahoo Raw Meaty Bones discussion group.  I joined and "lurked" for a while, reading the posts.  I have to say, I was totally intimidated by the idea of switching Paddy to a diet of nothing but meat and bones.  Like most dog owners, I was raised on the idea that bones, especially chicken bones, are bad for dogs.  So how could he eat them…

Paddy and I have taken a long, circuitous route to get to this point.  When he first came to live with us, at 8 weeks old in 2008, he was on some premium brand puppy kibble, and he graduated from there to the adult version.  I was careful to give him grain-free, quality kibble.  After feeding Purina One to my last dog, it was a revelation to me -- all the new, organic, healthy kibbles were just amazing.

We stuck with this diet for two years.  And then, in the midst of my sister's…