Are any of your hunts feeding a raw diet or supplementing with uncooked poultry? We started feeding raw turkey drum sticks and wings about a month ago in addition to the kibble we’ve always fed in the kennel. The hounds love it and I was looking forward to using it as “worry” at the end of each hunt. Today I mentioned it to our vet and she freaked out saying it was a very bad decision and we would eventually get into big trouble with the bones. I was very surprised by her response because I thought raw diet was so excepted today. She said she had warned one client repeatedly about feeding raw meat with bones and eventually that animal did end up in surgery because it had a bone stuck in the intestines.
The turkey has been working out so well and it’s less expensive per pound than kibble and I already see the hounds weight and coats improved. Just wondering if anyone on here has experiance with raw diets.
Thanks
I recently posted in the Around The Farm forum about this topic- well not for feeding hounds, but for feeding my pet dogs. Here is the link http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?t=246781&highlight=barf
Diabloshalo put me in touch with a woman who was very helpful with my questions.
I am currently feeding my dogs salmon, veggies, and beef, in addition to their kibble. They also get raw chicken wings once a week. Even before I started feeding them raw regularly they got a fair amount of raw food. My husband and I raise or hunt/fish 90% of the meat we eat and we process it ourselves, so our dogs get all kinds of scraps. The only problems that I have encountered is some digestive upsets following too many rich meals in a row (salmon season = fish skins/meat = rich).
In researching this I found very divided schools of thought- as well as some “conspiracy theories” :eek::). In your case you might look for more information on dog sledding/mushing or working dog sights, as many mushers feed raw meat and you are also feeding high performance dogs.
I am not an expert so I would advise you to read some books, talk to lots of people, do some research and make your own decision. On my post I think there were some book suggestions. I hope this helps !
Many clubs feed beef and horse meat.
Old animals that are blind, broke their leg or some reason for which they would be put down regardless.
CSSJR
I don’t know what they do now, but I remember a few years ago the huntsman was telling me about switching to raw and how much more energy the hounds had. He also told me something I found interesting about the way they fed in England back in the day, like a grain/oatmeal concoction that they would prepare, then up-end and let get crusted on the outside and have several of those ready to feed day to day. Something like that.
On a personal note,
I love the Wysong brand of dog food and their “Archetype” food - all cold processed meat for dogs and cats.
xeroxchick - I’ve been in the kennels at Huntland and it was pretty amazing. There were huge kitchens and overhead bins and an entire system set up for feeding hounds a mash of a mixture of ingredients.
Which of course, included meat and bones. It was an incredible and amazing place, with poems about hounds and horses and proper hound care inscribed on the walls.
I wonder how old this vet was, and how much real life experience she has with working dogs.
Maybe she is more used to obese, allergy plagued house pets who need knee replacements at the age of 4 - not real, healthy working dogs.
My dogs have always eaten meat and bones - all of them died at ripe old ages - and not from choking.
A student of mine is a small animal vet, and she warns against feeding raw diets due to the risk of bacteria in the meat being transfered to the humans. There are certain bacteria that can end up on their paws and coats that can get people quite ill (but that do not affect dogs). Might not be as big an issue with working dogs that don’t sleep on the sofa and bed though.
I microwave a beef or turkey dinner for my dogs, just cooked enough to kill the bacteria.
I would also worry about chicken bones choking them or ripping their intestines.
Raw feeding is very popular in the breed I show in the AKC world. I know tons of people who do it, a lot feed raw chicken, some from local farmers, others just buy it at the grocery store. Haven’t heard of anyone whose dogs have gotten sick from a properly intruduced raw diet. Know multiple people who wean their puppies directly onto raw. One of my best friends feeds entirely raw, entirely meat, weans puppies directly to raw, feeds farmer souced meat (poultry, buffalo, rabbit) when she can, venison during deer season and frozen chicken from Kroger in emergency situations. She’s never had any issues related to her dogs’ diet.
[QUOTE=JSwan;4759428]
xeroxchick - I’ve been in the kennels at Huntland and it was pretty amazing. There were huge kitchens and overhead bins and an entire system set up for feeding hounds a mash of a mixture of ingredients.
Which of course, included meat and bones. It was an incredible and amazing place, with poems about hounds and horses and proper hound care inscribed on the walls.
I wonder how old this vet was, and how much real life experience she has with working dogs.
Maybe she is more used to obese, allergy plagued house pets who need knee replacements at the age of 4 - not real, healthy working dogs.
My dogs have always eaten meat and bones - all of them died at ripe old ages - and not from choking.[/QUOTE]
My daughter is a veterinarian.
At my age, I have dealt with many veterinarians.
So remember this:
All veterinarians are not created equal.
CSSJR
I have a 9.5 yo great dane that has been raw fed since 9mos old. I have a tiny chinese crested that is also raw fed. Yes, there are still vets that are rabidly anti-raw. If possible can you find a more accepting vet? Educate yourself and make up your mind, but it worked for me and my dogs.
In regards to the worry of bacterial contamination from dogs to people
I’ve heard this argument and am puzzled by it.
Assuming common sense food safety and feeding practices are used and that the humans in contact with the dog are healthy (not very old/young, immune compromised etc.) is there any more of a risk from raw fed dogs than from kibble fed ?
I don’t think so-
I guess my feeling is that they are dogs. Its not like if they are fed kibble they won’t continue to do dog “things” like eat horse manure, perhaps roll in something dead if they get the chance and -sorry- they will still lick themselves. I don’t think feeding only kibble makes anything that much safer, just my thoughts…
I was always told that the dangerous bones were cooked chicken bones because they splinter with very sharp edges.
I always heard that raw bones were not so much a problem.
As for people being infected by what the dog eats, we are making things worse by being so scared of a germ.
Regularly we read of children getting dangerously ill from e. coli picked up from a petting zoo.
Why? Because they have no immunity. Think of how much you are exposed to it working around the stable, with dogs in the barn, cats in the barn, cattle in the same pasture, etc.
How many times in years past I sat in my truck on a cold miserable winter day waiting for a young hound to come in; drinking my coffee and half way through my sandwich and here comes said hound. He is nasty, wet, rolled in something…repulsive as can be.
I pick him up, put him in the back of the truck, get back in the truck and finish my sandwich and coffee.
I expect I have been exposed to everything a dog can possibly pick up.
Gee…come to think of it, maybe that is why at 82 I am beginning to get weak. Who knows what my condition would be if I had used rubber gloves, hand cleaner, hot water, soap and alcohol to clean my hands.
Oh well, too late now. I have ruined my health. I can’t ride more than 4 hours now and those long 2:30 drives home after hunting really tire me out.
CSSJR
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Return the selection of senators to the state legislatures as our founding fathers intended. This is the only sure way to return to the states their lawful rights under the Constitution. Senators will then, as actual representatives of the states rather than the people, protect states rights and prevent the federal government from destroying the states with unfunded mandates
Great post, Claude!
I used to work at a kennel that fed raw dog food, aptly named B.A.R.F. Biologically Appropriate Raw Food. It was basically whole chickens put through a grinder, bones & all, with some veggies mixed it and then frozen into giant “musher blocks”.
The dogs LOVED it. Their coats were more shiny, skin problems seemed to lessen (dandruff, hot spots, itchyness etc) and it was MUCH easier to clean up after the dogs (firmer drier poops due to less filler). You could really see the different it made between conventional dog food and the raw diet. Their bodies used a lot more of the food and wasted less.
The only downside was definitely the chance of harmful bacteria. This wasn’t really a problem if you handled it properly. Only un-thawed the amount you needed, kept it in a cool place until feeding, washed dishes & kennels out with soap/bleach & water etc.
As for feeding bones, I think it’s just cooked chicken bones that are a big issue. If you’re worried about it, maybe buy a meat grinder and put your turkey/chicken legs & wings through that first to be safe.
Assuming common sense food safety and feeding practices are used and that the humans in contact with the dog are healthy (not very old/young, immune compromised etc.) is there any more of a risk from raw fed dogs than from kibble fed ?
several laboratory studies have demonstrated that dogs fed raw tend to shed salmonella bacteria in their poop more so than kibble-fed dogs. No one has shown this is a problem for people; presumably if you were cleaning up the poop of a raw-fed dog you’d have a slightly greater chance of contracting food poisoning from the salmonella. But I know tons of people who feed raw diets and none of them seem to suffer from bouts of food poisoning.
Oh, I saw a youtube video once of a pack of hounds being fed raw- they had piles of whole chickens laid out in rows, and had the hounds assembled and someone gave a single and the whole pack leapt on the chickens for gobbling, it was quite entertaining.
