Itching, Scratching, Ear Infections: Why we switched to Raw Meaty Bones

[Trudy Harlow]

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 dying of cancer, Paddy started itching and scratching like crazy.  I thought it was the emotional stress in the house, but many months later, he was still at it and was working towards the skin on the fronts of his front legs. The fur on the bottoms of his feet between his pads was deep reddish brown. In addition, he started developing one painful ear infection after another. I finally started reading about canine allergies.  While I had no idea what he was allergic to, I did know that allergens are like building blocks -- your body can tolerate a number of them for a long time, but as you become more exposed to some allergens and create more and more building blocks, the tower of building blocks gets more and more wobbly and eventually it will collapse, at which point you develop allergic reactions to things.  [BTW, this analogy was given to me by a prominent human allergist.]  I figured, in Paddy's case, the more possible allergens I removed from his environment, the better. So, after a lot of reading, I decided to switch him to raw food.

I was a little worried about how to deal with raw food for Paddy.  We travel a fair amount, and he often goes with us.  I initially tried dehydrated foods that were a mixture of protein, veggies, etc.  They turned to mush when I rehydrated them and he totally refused to eat them (I didn't really blame him).  Then I tried frozen raw venison and lamb patties, made respectively by Instinct and B.A.R.F.  These patties are mainly meat with add-ins of various kinds.  He liked these for about 6 months, and then suddenly refused to eat them anymore.  Sadly, and with a real sense of frustration, I returned him to TOTW kibble, topped with Dave's canned meat and one Stella's freeze-dried lamb patty crumbled over the top, which he frankly ate with great relish.

All this time, his itching really didn't improve, and the ear infections kept on coming.  I even sprung for an allergy panel for him, and that produced very little useful information -- just a big reaction to dust mites, but obviously much more was going on here.

By the end of 2011, I was over the top with frustration.  While Paddy is generally a happy boy, his allergies seemed to be getting worse, and I was getting really concerned about his chronic ear infection.  The antihistamines did nothing to help except, occasionally, make him sleepy.  He was scratching constantly, even in the middle of play and walks.

In January of this year, I started reading more about feeding simple, raw food, the kind of food that dogs' ancestors, wolves, ate.  The more I read, the more sense it made to me, although I had many concerns about how to feed chunks of meat cleanly and safely in my home.  I wasn't squeamish; I was just worried about having to mop the floor a lot, I guess.

In my next entry, I'll talk about how I made the decision to switch and how we did it.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Interesting. Looking forward to reading more.