DOG FOOD

“Here is a test to see how much you know about what is toxic to your dog:

http://www.funtrivia.com/quizdetails.cfm?quiz=197844

Dog care can be so confusing when one vet or book says one thing and another book or vet contradicts the other.

I read in one book broccoli is good and it's not good in another book. Don't even try to find out if a raw diet is good, because there are two sides to that story! You can make homemade cooked meals, but they have to be supplemented with vitamins and minerals, and you are never sure if what you are feeding the dog is right.

One thing I can say is your dog is not a garbage pail for your unwanted fat that you trimmed from your meat or any other junk you want to throw away.

Avoid foods with BHA, BHT or Ethoxyquin which Eukanuba has and it's considered a premium good food. Today good foods are preserved with vitamin E and other natural things.

Your dog's food ingredients should contain meat or poultry, such as beef and beef liver or chicken and lamb etc. as the first two ingredients, and not chicken then rice or wheat etc. You can find foods that are better that don't contain by products too. They are sold in pet stores and not in Walmart or a grocery store.

Then theres the subject of vets for "fixing" your pet and dental work. My vet insists on a blood workup to see if the dog can handle the anesthesia (an extra $50), but another vet says that is only necessary for older dogs.

The latest thing is charging an exam fee when you get yearly shots. I found myself another vet for that when my vet insisted on an exam ($45) for my 2-1/2 year old dog. Exams and fecal tests are good every year, but I don't think they are necessary. Maybe I'm wrong? Then there is heartworm preventative medicine. I haven't even investigated into that yet since I put mosquito killer on my dog and that's how they get heartworms.”

“All I know is that chocolate is bad for dogs...heard that over the Christmas holidays.

Mosquitoe killer makes dogs get heartworms. Wow, I didn't know that.”

“Very enlightening. Yet another reason my dogs don't get table scraps.”

“I used to give Honey Eukenuba but the gas was enough to gag a maggot off a shlt wagon. Now it's nothing but Iams large breed.”

“Raisins are toxic to dogs as well.”

“I read it's the pesticides on grapes and raisons that are no good, then I heard it's the grapes themselves. Then I read onions are not good, then I read they are okay if cooked. Then I read broccoli is no good, then I read another dog nutition book with broccoli as part of the their recipes for homemade meals. It's all very confusing and frustrating.

My chihuahua is going in for dental cleaning at a cost of $187. and that's with $20 off since February is dental care month. Then I have to have her checked to see if she has heartworms and that is $50, but will be $20 less since they are doing a blood test before the dental work.

I'm used to my parrot I have for 11 years and needs no vet care, plus indoor cats that are fine as long as they don't get sick.

If your dog gets heartworms which are really prevelent in the lower states, the dog can die, plus they are hard to treat and expensive to treat if infected.

Oh, and let me not forget the anal sack squeezing for $12. if you don't want to do it yourself. A full or partly full sack makes the dog scoot on your carpet.”

“Change vets.

My wife has a 14 yr. old dog. Maintanence (sp?)is high, but not all that is necessary.”

“When I had a mix German Sherpard...alot of years ago....we only brought her in for her yearly shot. And when she was 1 or 2 years old...she had to eat some big pills for heartworms.....that's it. Very low maintenance. She lived up to 12 years old.”

“chicago, chihuahuas are known to lose their teeth early in life if they are not brushed. I know that to be true. I just don't believe they need to be cleaned professionally every year as the vet recommends, even though I have read it too in dog books for Chihuahuas. If you brush them enough, you should not have to clean them professionally often. They get gingervitis just like us which can effect their heart and kill them.

My vet did want a $45 exam fee to give her the yearly shots, so I found a vet that held a clinic for shots only at $21. My vet w/exam wanted $77. Some vets insist on exams with shots now. My internet friend in Queen, NY said her vet wanted to charge a $47. exam fee for her dog to get microchipped. An exam is not necessary.

I do know someone who has 6 year old chi and half his teeth are gone, partly to not cleaning them and partly can be due to a poor diet, like just feeding meat from the table.

Also, a chi can live up to 20 years, so they can build up a lot of tartar over that time. People that don't clean the teeth like those they see in chihuahua rescues need teeth pulled and that can add up, pulling plus anesthesia, so it's best to keep them clean.

stanlee, the U.S. plus the lower U.S. states tend to have more heartworm problems in dogs. I know I have mosquitos year round. I just saw one in my house yesterday. It's 60 degrees today. Sometimes we never get a real frost to kill them and there is one that lives pretty much year round in WA. My backyard for some unknown reason has tons of mosquitos, especially in the summer. I have no standing water or mossy or wet areas either.

This past summer, I sat between two tiki torches with citronella burning in them and still got bit.”

“Yeah, that's true...warmer climate areas tend to have more venomous critters....and bugs that carry bacterial.

Bring on the Big Freeze...”

“The best heartworm med IMHO is Interceptor. It takes care of all ascarids including pinworm. They cause the runs and are highly infectious for humans too.

The flea control of choice is Frontline. Fleas are where your pooch gets tapeworms.

I know this sounds gross but to make sure tapeworms are not a problem I check their poop right after they do the deed. You will see the proglotids moving in the stools.

Unless something happens I take my animals to the vet once a year.”

“My vet is pushing Frontline, because he says it stays on the dog longer if the dog goes in water alot, but I believe he probably just makes more of a profit on it. It kills ticks and fleas, where Advantix kills ticks, fleas and mosquitos.

sticks, my vet uses interceptor.

I have a map of where heartworms are pevalent, but I don't know how to post it. I have a download for it, but it does not produce a link that I can post after it's downloaded, but basically, heartworm is on the east coast and southern east coast states.”

“http://cal.vet.upenn.edu/merial/hrtworm/hw_3.htm

This link tells you about heartworm and what it takes to spread it and shows where it is prevalent in the country. You can click on the colored map to enlarge it. My vet is a mother jumping son of a b!tch for trying to get me to spend money on a test, plus give my tiny dog unnecessary meds. These vets have no conscience!”

“I have a dog that had heartworm when I took over his care...long story.

He was successfully treated and now gets a heartworm test every year, even though he is on heartworm preventative. The treatment is not only expensive, but very difficult for the dog to go through. Treatment effectively poisons the dog. The most difficult part was keeping him calm for 8 weeks after treatment. The dead heartworms can break off, get into the heart and cause a heart attack in the dog if they get their blood pumping.

Do your dog a favor and get him on heartworm preventative.”

“ski, according to the internet research I have been doing, I found a chart that tells you when you need to start treating your pet since the weather being warm enough is what creates the enviornment for the heartworms to thrive, which also means if your state gets cold to a certain degree, you can stop giving the pills for those months.

My vet also said the heartworm preventative is not guaranteed and I guess that is why you have your dog retested to see if he has heartworms.”

“Our dog is on heartwarm preventative year-round and gets the blood test annually. Also gets Frontline.

The vet is a friend whom I trust.”

“My vet recommends that I feed my dogs food, so, duh, of course I'm gonna. I'm not one to second guess a trained vet.”

“My beagle died last year at 19 years of age. She ate table scraps, cheap canned dog food and dry dog food (usually mixed.) I never brushed her teeth and she still had them all. She had cateracts and was deaf. She got one asprin a day for arthritis. She did occasionally get heartworm pills and was usually treated for ticks and fleas.

While she was taken to the vet when necessary, she was very low maintenance.
It cost $800 for her to die. This is directly due to the vet playing on our sympathies and love for the creature; even trying to make us feel guilty about not doing procedures that would only guarantee two more weeks of suffering survival. Now days, most vets are in the business of making money. They know how to milk you and so does the entire pet industry.

About feeding the dog:
Dogs are scavengers. Their systems are made to survive on what they are provided. Anything you give them is better than what they would eat naturally.
Just feed the dog what it likes in moderation and let it die happy.”

“Happily snacking on some carrots. Then I read this:

I used to give Honey Eukenuba but the gas was enough to gag a maggot off a shlt wagon. Now it's nothing but Iams large breed.”
Nigal
9:49:02 AM
1/18/05

Before I knew it I had inhaled carrot. You can imagine what happened next. The carrot bits on the screen are gone but the keyboard is going to be difficult.”

“If it were up to my vet, I think he would have my dog live at his clinic on a permanent basis while he did a bunch of unnessary testing and surgeries.

The Chihuahuas do have dental problems where they build up tartar and lose their teeth more than other breeds for some unknown reason. You have to brush their teeth on the outside. The saliva and the tongue keep the inside of the teeth clean.

I figure if I keep Capri's teeth really clean and have her last professional cleaning done at 16, she won't need them done professionally when she may be older and can't take the anesthesia. That's if she lives to be 16. Since Chihuahuas can live to be 20 years old, I refuse to let her go any sooner:)

So I mentioned the vet's technician says they have to do a $55 test to make sure my dog can handle the anesthesia, so I say wow, that's a lot of money, then she says they charge $100 for the test when they reach 8 years old, because it's a bigger blood test. I was just thinking as she said it that I would not be bringing my dog back there at that time.

I just really happy I found out we don't have heartworm problems here, before I submitted my dog to tests and medicine she didn't need.

Those b@astard vets always play on the sympathy of us pet owners and make us scared not to do certain tests.

My mom's vet said her cat had cancer and would die in one week. I had told my mom she should have put the cat to sleep right there and then since it would be hard to pack him up later and bring him. Well, it's 3 months later and the cat is doing fine. He may have cancer, but he does not show he is in any discomfort. To think I would have had him put to sleep if I was there to advise my mom on what to do.”

“My dog, before he died, suffered from occasional attacks of acute pancreatitis. Since the vet said this was aggravated by fat in his diet, I started making his food with chicken, rice, & egg. He lost weight on this diet but seemed to have a lot more energy, and it also reduced the number and severity of the pancreatitis attacks. It was a hassle making his food but it was worth it to have him around for another year or so. I did supplement this with doggy vitamins to compensate for the limited diet.”

“my dogs are on a home made diet of sorts. They get cooked oatmeal in the morning for b-fast and then reduced portions of their dog food at night.

You can feed almost any healthy human food to dogs besides onions. Also if you're looking for a good dog food, look at Nutro. Iams was good until they were bought out a few years ago, now they are crap. I've had my dogs on Nutro for the past few years (after the Iams buy out), and their coats and energy level increased even more. The introduciton of the oatmeal breakfast helped out a ton after that.

As for parrots, they really need more vet care then a dog. An annual check up is a must, as parrots tend to hide disease from you. You rarely see symptoms until it is very advanced. Even then it's often hard to diagnose the disease once you determine he has one.”

“death, I've had my parrot 11 years with no vet check ups.

I tried Nutro Ultra Natural and my dog doesn't like it. She does like Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance and Chicken Noodle Soup for a Pet Lover's Soul, so I am feeding her those two premium canned foods. Eukanuba uses some preservative called ethy....something or other that may or may not cause cancer, so I just stopped feeding her Eukanuba. Eukanuba is better than Iams according to the Eukanuba co. and Nutro Ultra Natural is the better canned food over their other ones like Ultra Max.

I will also throw in a chicken stew with potatoes and carrots to give her a break from canned food. It doesn't have all the necessary vitamins and minerals, but it won't hurt her to eat it for a few days here and there.

Home prepared foods do need supplemental vitamins and minerals and bone meal. I just got out a bunch of nutrition books from the library, so I'm up on what a dog needs, if the books are correct that is:)”

“i'm kinda touchy on parrot health how since my bird got sick. He had very few symptoms, just occasional shivering (not cold related) and the beginnings of lethargy. Was in twice for it. First time he had elevated liver enzymes and a bacterial infection. Got better after meds. Had a relapse and blood work showed a severly depressed immune system. Low white blood cells and zero Globulin. So he's on doxycycling injections for 7 weeks to treat for psittacosis. All that from just shivering and lethargy.

My dogs are on nutro natural choice. I steer clear of canned food the keep teeth clean. Euk used to be a lot better a few years back. Then they were bought out by someone and the recipie changed. That was when I changed from them to Nutro and I haven't looked back. My dogs get 50% kibble at night and 50% cooked oatmeal for breakfast. Since the addition of the oatmeal, I have seen marked improvment in their coats, muscle tone, even energy level. My 11 yr old sheltie acts and looks like he's half his age. Only tell tale sign is a little gray in his face and a slight limp (which i swear he's faking for attention. X-rays prove nothing's wrong, and it comes and goes with needs of sympathy).”

“Lipstick hiker, unfortunately it sounds like you need to change vets...it is obvious you are lacking faith in this particular doctor. You don't go to a human Dr. you don't respect so don't go to a vet you don't respect. Just as an FYI: If you have truly witnessed dogs dying from and going through heartworm treatment, you would use the frontline. Frontline is provent to be the most effective and is a great product. Basically, if you have mosquitos were you live, you have potential heartworm issues. And vets DO NOT always play on the sympathy of owners(once again, find one you trust) there are millions of us out there. If an animal can live a good, quality, useful life and it's owners are for that..great. If the animal is suffering, dragging on the inevitable then the alternative decision should be used. Just my humble opinion. But, really I would suggest you find a Doctor you like.”

“Even thought there are many vets where I live in Harrisburg, I drive about 30 minutes to one I trust. It's worth it.

When I lived in Allentown I went to a vet who was ripping me off big time, but I didn't know it. It wasn't until I moved and started going to Good Hope Animal Clinic in Mechanicsburg that I realized I was being ripped off. A $240 office visit was now $50. My vet at GHAC truly cares. A tear came to his eye when I asked him what to do if my dog dies (he's 15).

Trust is important.”

“everestnut, I would travel if I could find a vet that someone can recommend. It seems that everyone I know is not real happy with their vet, not because of bad care, but because they think they are padding the bill or their prices are too high.

As far as Frontline vs. Advantix, the vet's techinician said they were switching to Frontline only because it was more effective after you bathed the dog or if the dog swims. I wonder why they aren't concerned about mosquito bites that Advantix covers as well as the ticks and fleas. A dog can get the west nile virus, but they don't seem to address that problem. My dog gets bathed one every few months, so I have no problem bathing her at the end of the month and reapplying the Advantix again.

death, did your vet ever say why your parrot became ill? My parrot is very healthy. I give him what I think is the best food, Pretty Bird for African Gray Parrots, plus fresh fruits and nuts.

My dog turned her nose up on the Nutro Natural. It's like with Eukanuba, I'm throwing a lot of it away. Take a look at the Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance and Chicken Noodle Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul as alternatives if you want to switch off on brands occassionally. I think it Pet lover's soul and not Dog Lover's Soul, but I'm not positive. I don't have a can of it in the house. I bought one to see if she liked it so now I have to drive back to the store to get more, and the store is 20 minutes away. It's not sold in many stores, but the internet site for the food has a store locator, but it's best to call to see if they have it in dry or canned, whatever you prefer, because they may have just one or the other or not have it in stock. My closest store is actually an animal feed store. The manager of Petsmart recommended it and they don't even carry it.

Sarge, you are real lucky to find a real caring vet. I hope I can find one too. Good luck with your dog. My dog is a 3-1/2 pound chihuahua, so when she dies, I will bury her in something that can be dug up if I move, plus I would like her in my casket with me when I go.”

“well we're not quite sure if that's what it is. He had an initial appointment where the doc decided to have him back in for a biopsy, so he gave him an injected antibiotic. When he came back, he ran some more bloodowrk and decided that the biopsy wasn't necessary, but couldn't test for psitt since the antibiotic he gave efectivly killed the active infection. So if he had it, it wouldn't show up for another few months. If it is, then he'd have to have been exposed. The particular disease is strange since it can either kill within 2 weeks of contact or stay dormant for years. Some birds can have it without showing symptoms, but infect other birds. Some will live for years symptom free then suddenly start showing symptoms. Since he has had no contact with other birds since I've had him, and he's only 8 months old, the only possibility is that he was a carrier from the breeder. He eats Zupreem pellets and all kinds of fruits, veggies, breads, ect. Basicly if i'm eating it, he runs over and asks for a piece. If he can have it, then I give him some.

Oh yea, FYI, petsmart does have a guarentee on all their premium foods. If your dog doesn't eat it, you can bring back the leftover portion for a full refund. Dogs will also tend to be more picky about eating the more you change foods. Some just take the addition of a little chicken broth until they start eating it readily. Then slowly reduce the amount of broth added. I think it might be worth your time to also check her teeth? Does she chew on toys readily? Sometimes refusing kibble may be due to a sore tooth, which explains why she will readily eat canned food.

Finding a good vet is hard. Luckily two of the best Avian vets in the region are close to me. One is 10 min from my apt here and the other is 45 min from where I grew up. The vet I use for my dogs ended up moving close to my bird vet, but i still make the drive.

My dogs get frontline. I'm pretty sure it's the one that soaks into the poors and is transported by the lymphatic system. So after initial treatment bathing has less of a tendency to take it off. Even then I still only bathe every 6 weeks and then with an oatmeal based shampoo. It's not as harsh and will not strip out the flea meds as easily as other shampoos.”

“death, what kind of bird do you have? I don't let my birds near other birds since they can pick up diseases. I was going to let my bird sit on the table and eat out of my plate when I got him, after I weaned him off soaked pellet food, but I decided it would be come a problem. As it is, when he sees us eat, he leans forward looking for something, so I give him a treat and my dog a treat so everyone is happy.

My parrot loves mashed potatoes. I read that uncooked ones are not good for them. I also read that some peanuts, I believe because of their shells can be toxic. I never really found out why, but it is strange since most bird foods contain peanuts in their shells.

The Ultra Natural canned comes with broth and she still doesn't like it, but loves the other two I feed her. She changed back and forth between those two with no finicky problems.

When I bought my chihuahua, she was very thin, and didn't eat hardly any of the dry food the breeder gave me that she was eating at her home, so I switched to canned food. I have her checked by a vet and he checked her teetht too. Even after her baby teeth came out, she since did not want to eat dry food. She doesn't like to chew her chew toys too much, but eats a lot of all natural chicken jerky, which I think is why she doesn't have a bad tartar problem. I know people with older rescue chihuahuas that are always having to have teeth pulled, so keeping their teeth clean is a major issue. That's why they must be cleaned at home with occassional professional cleanings. The technician checked her teeth this week and they were fine except for some tartar build up. I have a toothbrush and paste for her, but haven't used it yet.”

“yea i've heard chihuaha's tend to be picky eaters and are prone to teeth Problems.

Tony (my bird) is a Indian Ringneck. He's had no contact with other birds, even indirectly since I've had him. Tony used to sit with me at the table until he started stealing food from my plate. I drew the line at him taking a piece of toast. Here at school I eat close to his play table, so he's on there and begs me for food. He usually gets a piece to munch on, or I get him some bread.

So far he loves bread and pasta. He's also a big fan of sweet fruits like apples and oranges. If you give him brocolli and couliflower he'll eat it, but only when he feels like it. Peanuts can have a fungus that grows in the shell. It's not all of them and usually in the cheaper ones. He gets peanuts in a toy occasionally that he absolutly adores. Raw potatoes are bad as well. In general any veggie that comes straight out of the ground isn't all that great for them. Onions are really bad. He also doesn't seem to like the red and yellow pellets in his food. So he leaves the red ones in the bowl and dumps the yellow in his water.”

“deathM, my parrot used to leave certain color pellets too, and then he started eating all of them. He likes pasta and broccoli. He says broccoli, potato, cracker and a ton of other things and phrases. He knows what some words mean, so if you say a food item, you better have it handy to give to him. He also knows the word "shower" means. He gets sprayed with a misting bottle as a bath, so don't say shower either unless you have a misting bottle.

I'll never forget when my ex-boyfriend was sitting in bed watching tv with his porkchop on his plate that was on a tray. His cat was laying in front of the plate, then she looks away from the plate, and starts patting around his dish with her long hairy paw. She reached over the chop and all without looking, slowly starts to drag it off his plate. The funny thing too was that she has her entire paw and leg over the chop as she pulled it. Our furry, feathery companions are priceless!”

“I got that dog food's name wrong that I am starting to feed me dog. It's called Chicken Soup for a Dog Lover's Soul.”

“hmmm i haven't heard of it. There's a store around here somewhere that carries a lot of the hard to find foods. Might have to take a look in there.

Tony doesn't say much but my mom's quaker is quite a chatter box. I swear he's also ADHD. He's the bird that will munch on a peanut shell until he opens it and finds the nut. Then he attacks it, drops it, and runs away to hide in the corner of his cage. Half an hour later he discovers the peanut again and starts the whole process again.”

“deathM, I threw some peanuts in their shells outside in my yard for some blue jays one day, then I did it again, but they didn't see them, but my dog did and she brought each nut int he house, opened it and ate the nuts. What a mess!

You know we have wild quaker parrots in Brooklyn, NY? They live right on my mom's block. They build these huge nests, and you can hear them with their unique voices. I read that they have different rooms in their nests. It's really huge and they make them on top of the wires on telephone poles. I have video of them standing on the "doorway" to their nests. The woman that I got my parrot from bred quakers.

I was surprised to find them living outside. I first noticed them in the cemetary in Brooklyn where my father is buried. They have huge nests built into the archway at the entrance of the cemetary.”

“yea, that's why quakers are banned in some states. They're cool birds, but after seeing the amount of noise one bird can make, I can't imagine what an entire flock could do”

“deathM, I can defintely hear them chatting away, but other people don't even notice them.

Right now I have a big dog in my backyard. We found him in front of our house and called the owner's from the telephone numbers on the tags. I called his vet too and he is microchipped and got his rabies shot for 2004, so the owner's will definitely want him back.

My husband gave him one of our dogs chew sticks and he buried in in the dirt part of our backyard. I don't think we need to give him anymore of them, lol.

I gave him water and a can of dog food and he ate it like it was nothing. It made me think about how expensive it is to feed a big dog. This dog is part lab. My dog costs about $2. a week to feed, and that's with feeding her premium canned dog food.”

“My dog became ill 5 minutes before my vet was to close and I live minutes away and they told me to bring her to an emergency clinic that was who knows how far away and they charge an emergency fee too of $75 for an exam.

I'm through with that vet. The Petsmart vet also agreed Eukanuba had some preservative that was suspicious in it where my vet denied it and pushes their food. My vet sucks!!!!!”

“Any rpeservatives in table scraps? LOL!


I saw in a pet magazine that they are making special teeth cleaning food now. It is formed to be fiberous and these fibers clean the teeth. I bet it's expensive.”

“there's a few teeth cleaning foods out there already. i believe science diet makes one but u need a prescription for science diet; u can only get it thru ur vet.”

“...and a second morgage.

Honey's a very good dog when it comes to meds, grooming and the like so I'm going to get a doggy tooth brush for her.
last edited: 1/30/05 6:20:32 AM”

“LOL, they're really not too expensive... and you don't need to get it ALL the time. i figure, if it's teeth cleaning, then u should be okay with using the prescription a few times a week and still get the same effects (i worked at a vet hospital for 4 years).”

“My "old" vet said with my dog's teeth cleaning, I would get this hard food, so by what everyone is saying, I'm thinking it's one that helps remove plaque. My dog doesn't eat hard food, but they said to mix it in with her soft food. I just think they are worse than drug pushers, trying to get your dog to like something, then having to go back to them to purchase it.

Nigal, my dog nutrition book from the library on all breeds of dogs says 80% of dogs get gingervitis, so cleaning a dog's teeth is good no matter what the breed is. Giving them rawide to chew always helps remove tartar.

Nigal, actually there may be preservatives in table scraps depending on what scraps you give the dog, plus there may be hormones or other crap in chickens or beef that they feed them.

I found another good looking dog food called Pet Promise. It was advertised on the internet site for that health doctor, Andrew Weil, but the store is 2-1/2 hours away from me that sells it.”

“Btw, before anyone goes putting Crest on a brush for their dog's teeth cleaning, the pet stores sell teeth brushes w/chicken flavored paste that's safe for the dog to swallow.”

“A great thing my parent's use for cleaning their dog's teeth are these dog chews called "Greenies." They keep her teeth and gums very clean and healthy.”

“Honey and I use the same paste. We both love the chicken paste! LOL!”

“I bought a greenie for my dog and she went right to it and consumed 1/3 of it, then left it flat. I bought her a fresh one and she will not touch it. Did I mention that she's a brat?

Costco has these great reasonably priced real chicken jerky for about $11.+ for 2 pounds of it w/no preservatives and that's what I give her. It's easier to buy high quality foods and snacks for a small dog. I try to just give her one jerky stick that I divide into 3 pieces and she eats them when we eat dinner, so as to ward her off from wanting our food.

This dog I found and returned to their owner this past week ate 1-1/2 cans of my dog's food just as a snack and my dog would take one week to eat that much.”