When Dogs Itch in Winter by Shelley R. Epstein, VMD, CVH

This has been an unusually itchy winter for dogs here at WAH, so we thought it might be a good idea to discuss this topic. Typically, November or December comes, and the number of itchy dog cases drops off precipitously. But this year, the opposite has occurred!

Believe it or not, the number one cause is fleas! Yes, fleas. In the cold weather.

Itching from fleas is typically random on the body. Some dogs will “corn cob” their legs, chewing them up and down the length. Most dogs just chew and scratch anywhere on their bodies, with some dogs focusing on the lower back/tail/anal area.

And we’re seeing these problems even on some dogs that have been faithfully wearing flea/tick preventive products! Why is this, you may be wondering?

Quick flea trivia for edification and cocktail party banter:

Fleas love 80 degrees and 80% humidity. Obviously, not the current conditions, but sure describes this past summer.

Another fact: One adult female flea will lay 2000 eggs, which drop off your dog or cat and land wherever the dog/cat goes: your yard, house, bed, sofa, etc. Fleas are particularly appreciative of you if you have carpeting. They get way down in the pile where it’s really humid. They don’t love you as much if you have hardwood or laminate floors because the surface exposes their precious eggs to the air and dries them out. But they can make due with the cracks those floors provide.

So, putting these facts together, we had a tremendously fruitful season for flea reproduction! And even though it’s getting cooler and occasionally drier, many fleas have survived and found a safe haven on your dog (or cat).

What about those expensive flea products that you’ve been using faithfully? Could you still have a flea problem?

Yes, for a few reasons.

First, the products all work in slightly different ways. The best products, of course, would kill the fleas before your dog is bitten. By the way, it is believed that the flea saliva is what stimulates an allergic reaction in the dog. So of course, you’d like the flea to diet before it bites your dog.

Advantage and Advantix (the latter also kills ticks) both kill the fleas before they bite your dog. But occasionally we’ll see dogs with fleas who are wearing this product. Take a close look at your dog. If you can easily catch a flea and it doesn’t hop off your finger, it was already poisoned by the product. The fact that your dog had fleas this late in the season means your dog’s environment has a flea infestation.

Here’s a trivial fact, actually studied by a Pew family member. We’ve known that the flea life cycle is egg-larva-pupa-adult. Well it’s those pesky pupa that can survive a nuclear holocaust, or at least the climatic ravages of winter. And (here’s what the Pew person found out) those pupa sense the vibrations of the normal host- dog or cat- walking by and instantaneously molt into adults and hop on the dog or cat. Then the Advantage/Advantix starts to poison them, before your pet is bitten.

It’s a common misconception that if your house were infested, you would have the fleas hopping on you. As you can see from the Pew studies, the fleas (thankfully) much prefer the dog or cat, and will only hop on you if your dog or cat is too filled up with fleas. We’ve heard numerous stories of people going into abandoned homes that were previously occupied by pet-owning people…and the fleas swarmed onto the poor unsuspecting person, actually coating their pants black! That’s really gross, but you get the point.

For these situations, we recommend one dose of Advantage/Advantix now and one in a month, then resume when the ideal flea climate returns. Oh-here’s another great trivia fact about fleas and Advantage: The product coats the skin cells which fall off around the house, and the poor unsuspecting larva eat them and DIE! This gives the product an environmental effect. In the past 15 years or so that the product has been out, we’ve seen a marked decline in the need for house products to kill fleas.

But in those rare cases in which the fleas are still in the house and hopping on the dog, even if you are using one of these products, you may need to call in an exterminator. Most companies use products to instantly kill any adult fleas, and they use growth regulators to kills the eggs. Most will give you a 90-day guarantee.  But remember, nothing kills the pupa, so expect the problem to resume, hopefully to a lesser extent, when the weather warms up. Hopefully the flea product on your dog will suffice next season.

But what about Frontline? Honestly, for the past few years, we’ve observed that this product is not working as well for flea problems. The company insists that independent studies on fleas collected from all over the country show no resistance to the product. They offer two explanations for why their product might “seem” to not be working:

1.     There’s a wild animal roaming your yard at night, depositing flea eggs in the yard, a source of reinfestation for your dog and

2.     Perhaps your dog is at the high end of the dose range so naturally there will be less product spread on a larger surface area.

But this doesn’t explain why Advantage seems to be working under those same conditions. We have no doubt that Frontline placed in a petri dish with fleas will kill them. So we don’t have any great explanation for the failures that we’re seeing many times a week. In any case, we’ve stopped recommending this product for flea control.

This blog is not to promote any particular flea product. We’re just letting you know which ones we use and have the most experience with, good or bad. This past season, we started using Vectra, and we have not had any complaints about its efficacy. And if you prefer natural products, we’ve found the cedar oil sprays are very effective, although they require much more frequent application, up to daily if you have a bad problem. They are more labor intensive as you must be sure to coat every square inch of your dog or the resilient fleas will find that one area that you’ve missed. We do currently carry Dr. Ben’s cedar oil flea/tick spray.

So the #1 cause of itching this winter is likely fleas.  The warm humid weather is a conspirator. And some flea products aren’t working that well.

The #2 cause of itching in the winter is inhalant allergies. Of course, dogs can have both problems (allergies exacerbated by fleas).

Typically, allergies appear as licking/chewing the toes and feet, with some dogs rubbing their eyes, muzzles, ears, and armpits/groin. In contrast to flea-induced itching, allergies tend to focus on these areas only.

Allergies can be to just about anything. In the winter, the most common allergens are house dust mites and molds. Some dogs are even allergic to cats and humans.

The treatments are numerous and largely palliative.  Here is a list of possibilities:

1.     Antihistamines

2.     Diet improvement. Visit our webpage on diet: http://wilmingtonanimalhospital.com/info_nutrition.php

3.     Dietary supplements, like fish oil, Missing Link, etc.

4.     Allergy testing and allergy vaccines at a veterinary dermatologist’s

5.     Steroids like prednisolone. We use Natural Hydrocortisone which has far less side effects than its chemical derivative prednisolone.

6.     Immunosuppressive drugs like Atopica.

7.     Shampoos to soothe the itching or treat secondary infections

8.     Antibiotics for secondary infections.

It’s important to emphasize that fleas and inhalant allergies comprise about 85-95% of the skin problems we see in dogs in the winter. However, there are many other causes of itching in the winter. It’s always best to let one of our veterinarians examine your dog to assess the condition and make individualized recommendations for treatment and prevention. Please see our website for more information about our hospital and how to schedule an appointment: WilmingtonAnimalHospital.com. If you're already a client, you can visit our website and sign on to Pet Portal to access your pet's reminders, receive email reminders (and text messages if you'd like), and many other great free services.

Vaccinations Part I – Canine Vaccinations by Alison Ladman, VMD

If you’ve been searching the Internet, talking to certain breeders, or possibly hearing the experience of friends, you’ve likely heard that there’s some controversy when it comes to vaccinating dogs and cats. On the one hand, more vaccines exist to protect your pet from illnesses varying from the deadly parvovirus to the preventable periodontal disease. On the other hand, cancer, allergies, and autoimmune diseases are becoming more and more common. Is there a connection? Should we minimize the number of vaccines we give?  It is important to note that vaccines can prevent disease or minimize symptoms of a disease, but they will never make your pet healthier. 

A little background first:  For many years, it was common and routine for most veterinary hospitals to give yearly vaccinations to dogs and cats.  The focus of annual hospital visits was on the “shots” and not necessarily on the health of the pet.  Approximately 16 years ago, WAH changed the focus of annual visits to focus on the overall health and wellness of pets, making vaccinations secondary.  After all, wellness is about the big picture, not just administration of any and all vaccines on the market.  In all circumstances, doctors at WAH make every effort to avoid giving more than one vaccine on a given day.  We find that this approach limits vaccine reaction frequency and severity – which is always a relief to pet owners and to us!

 

Of course, it is important that all dogs receive certain “core” vaccines to prevent them from getting life threatening diseases like canine parvovirus.  At WAH, we start all puppies out with the pediatric series of vaccines.  We only recommend the core vaccines – parvovirus, distemper virus, and rabies in puppies.   We advise vaccination of puppies with a parvo and distemper vaccination every 4 weeks until they have reached 16 weeks of age.  Rabies vaccination is given as the final vaccine in the pediatric series in compliance with Delaware law and is considered “good” for one year this first time it’s given.

At WAH, we also treat our adult patients differently than what was the historical norm for vaccination in veterinary medicine.  Instead of giving adult dogs yearly “shots,” we tailor protocols to the pets’ lifestyle and risk.  Does your dog visit nursing homes or hunt in the woods?  Or does your dog never leave the house except to use the bathroom?  Do you take in foster pets from local shelters? 

The doctors at WAH use this information to determine  the best approach to vaccination and assessment of immunity for your individual pet.

We aim to limit vaccinations, so we advise checking “titers” for parvovirus and distemper virus.  A titer is a blood test that assesses the level of immunity an individual patient has developed to previous vaccines.  This titer helps us to assess whether a patient needs to have “booster” vaccinations.  In many cases, dogs have lifelong immunity from the vaccines they were given as puppies.  Unfortunately, titers are not permitted for rabies virus, so the rabies vaccination is given every 3 years as required by the state of Delaware.

There are two “non-core” vaccines available at WAH – bordetella (kennel cough) vaccine and canine influenza vaccine.  We only offer these upon request for patients that will be boarding in a kennel or daycare where this sort of vaccine is required.  If your pet boards at WAH, we do not require dogs to be vaccinated for either bordetella or influenza.  To learn more detailed information about vaccinations, please visit our website where we discuss them in more detail.  http://wilmingtonanimalhospital.com/info_vaccines.php

The bottom line is that at Wilmington Animal Hospital, we make every effort to focus on the overall health of our canine patients.  Vaccination is important, but it isn’t the most important part of keeping your pet healthy.  We will work with you to determine the best way to provide and assess immunity for your dog – we want your pet to be protected and to be as healthy as he or she can be!

Feeling Better with Kidney Failure, Part 1 by Shelley R. Epstein, VMD, CVH

Kidney failure in dogs and cats has many causes, but it does not have to be a death sentence. As you know, at Wilmington Animal Hospital we integrate whatever therapies work to do the most we can to help our patients. We have many tools in our box when it comes to helping dogs and cats with ailing kidneys!

Kidney failure in dogs and cats is not an all-or-none diagnosis. Pets don’t have either “good” kidneys or “bad” kidneys, but rather have varying degrees of good or bad. What does this mean?

The kidneys are made of millions of little functional units called nephrons. As we age- and by we, I mean our dogs, cats, and us- the nephrons start to shut down, one by one.  A human by the age of 40 has lost about 20% of these nephrons, and the only difference she would notice is possibly needing a little bathroom trip in the middle of the night. The rate at which this aging of the kidneys occurs varies from individual to individual.

The most common cause of kidney failure is getting old. As the healthy pet ages, if he is not afflicted with a problem that leads to his death, Mother Nature holds in reserve her mechanism by which no being may live forever- and that is called kidney failure. In other words, we all will die sometime, and if nothing else causes our death, then kidney failure will.

But…At Wilmington Animal Hospital, we have many tools that we use to slow down the rate of kidney failure while making cats and dogs feel good. In this first of two blogs on kidney failure, we’ll review the conventional options, including an exciting relatively new one.

First, what are some of the time-tested “conventional” treatments?

Conventional therapy for kidney failure is usually aimed at addressing the excesses and deficiencies that occur from a lack of kidney function.

The excesses include:

1.      Build-up of “uremic toxins.” The kidneys are not able to filter these out, so they remain in the bloodstream and suppress the appetite and sometimes cause ulcers in the mouth and gastrointestinal tract.

2.      Build-up of phosphorus in the blood. Like the uremic toxins, the kidneys simply lose their ability to filter this out of the blood and place it in the urine. High levels of phosphorus also suppress the appetite.

3.      Elevated levels of parathyroid hormone (PTH). This hormone increases as kidney failure progresses. And, like a vicious cycle, elevated levels of this hormone make the kidney failure worse. Wouldn’t it be nice to neutralize this pesky hormone?

The deficiencies include:

1.      Fluid loss. The blood runs through the kidneys, at which point the kidneys are supposed to put the fluid portion back into the bloodstream and put a limited amount of fluid down into the bladder for urine. With decreasing kidney function, more water goes into the bladder and less back into the bloodstream, causing dehydration.

2.      Protein loss in the urine because damaged kidneys leak protein from the bloodstream into the urine.

3.      Anemia. The kidneys produce a hormone which tells the bone marrow to make more red blood cells. In some cases of kidney failure, the kidneys stop making this hormone, and less red blood cells are produced. In addition, the presence of uremic toxins, or “uremia,” can shorten the lifespan of the existing red blood cells.

Collateral damage: Hypertension (high blood pressure)

Not every patient develops every problem above. Likewise, the conventional therapy is tailored to the individual patient’s needs:

1.      Fluid therapy to rehydrate and help flush out the uremic toxins. Some patients need hospitalization initially, but most can receive this therapy at home.

2.      Phosphate binders taken orally to bind up the phosphorus that is eaten in the diet. This prevents the phosphorus from being absorbed from the intestines into the bloodstream in the first place, so the phosphorus levels stay low.

3.      Diet modifications if the pet will allow it. Good luck with this with cats.

4.      Erythropoietin (EPO) injections to stimulate the bone marrow to make more red blood cells. Sound familiar? This is the “blood doping” hormone that got all those Tour de France cyclists in trouble. But at least we know it works.

5.      Oral medication to slow down the protein loss from the bloodstream into the urine

6.      Blood pressure medication which slows down the kidney failure and prevents other problems associated with high blood pressure

7.      Calcitriol therapy to combat elevated PTH levels. Read the next paragraph!

Calcitriol therapy is relatively new- it’s being increasingly used in veterinary medicine. We’ve been using it for the past 3 years with tremendous results. By lowering the PTH levels which are making the kidneys fail, the rate of the failure slows down, and, most importantly, the patient feels a lot better and eats more!

Calitriol is a vitamin D relative. It comes in a tasty liquid that is given either daily or twice weekly, usually with meals. Patient compliance is rarely an issue.  We are very excited to be able to offer this relatively safe and very effective treatment for your pets!

If your dog or cat is in kidney failure, or if you have an older pet who has not had his/her kidney function checked in a while, you might want to schedule a consult with one of our veterinarians:

WilmingtonAnimalHospital.com

(302) 762-2694

           

           

Options for Arthritis in Dogs: Not another article about drugs by Shelley R. Epstein, VMD, CVH

First, could your dog have arthritis? Arthritis can affect dogs of any age. This condition develops typically when the bones of a joint don’t move normally. The smooth lining of the joint, known as the cartilage, starts to wear down, and this is painful. Over time- weeks, months, and years- the body responds by forming new bone that looks like bone spurs on X-rays. The joints may swell, and the nice sticky joint fluid, or synovial fluid, becomes thin and watery, losing its ability to lubricate the joints. The most common locations for arthritis are the knees, hips, and elbows, with the wrists (carpi) and hocks (tarsi) less commonly affected.

Arthritis can develop in the knees secondary to a condition known as “luxating patellas,” which is fancy terminology for the knee cap moving around in the wrong direction- side to side, versus up and down in its designated groove. This condition affects mostly small dogs. People often report that their dog “skips” when on walks- that’s actually the kneecap locking in the wrong position, then moving back into its correct position. 

Arthritis can also develop in the knees after an “ACL” tear. This is a torn ligament in the knee, and it results in the knee being unable to move in its normal hinge motion. The result is the abnormal wear in the cartilage. Even dogs that have had surgical repair of torn ACLs will develop some degree of arthritis in that knee. This can be severe, too. The dog may persistently limp or act stiff in that leg. We see a lot of this condition in Pit Bulls and Labs, especially.

Larger breeds can develop arthritis in the hips secondary to poor formation of the hips known as hip dysplasia. German Shepherds, Labs, Golden Retrievers, and Rottweilers commonly suffer from this condition, but it can affect any breed. These dogs are slow to rise from lying down, especially after they’ve been lying for a while. Slippery surfaces are particularly difficult for them.

The veterinary pharmaceutical companies have been particularly effective in marketing drug answers for arthritis. The pain is gone within hours and the dogs can run through beautiful fields of grass. At WAH, we reserve these drugs for our cases that don’t respond to any other therapies. Why? It turns out that all of these drugs can have side effects, including potentially fatal ones. If your dog is placed on one of these drugs, it would have to have bloodwork testing every 3 months to make sure the liver and kidneys are still happy. And you would need to keep a very close eye on the stools to make sure there is no evidence of bleeding from the stomach or intestines. (The stools would look dark and tarry, signaling digested blood.)

What are the kinder therapies that we recommend at WAH?

The simplest therapies are joint supplements containing GAGs, which is short for glycosaminoglycans, and which is why we like to shorten that to GAGs. You’ve probably heard of glucosamine and chondroitin. These are GAGs. The green-lipped mussel is also a natural source of GAGs, and VetriScience makes a wonderful supplement from this called Glycoflex Classic. Most dogs find relief and an increase in joint function on this supplement. Some dogs, in more advanced stages of arthritis, require even more joint support, and VetriScience makes levels 1, 2, and 3 for these dogs. By the time you get to the Glycoflex 3, they’ve thrown in just about every nutritional supplement known to help joints, and it seems to work.

For the past year, we’ve also been using Trixsyn, which is a joint supplement made from hyaluronic acid, or “HA,” that is actually made by bacteria. HA is the substance that bathes the joints. This particular supplement, when taken orally, has been shown in studies to go directly to the joints. It seems to work well when Glycoflex doesn’t. This supplement is in an almost-tasteless thick liquid form.

Ozzie: Read his story:http://wilmingtonanimalhospital.com/site/view/143142_OzziesLaserTestimonial.pml

For the past 3 years, we’ve been offering laser therapy.  We use a Class IV laser, which is the most effective in treating arthritis. The dogs just hang out with the owners while a tech runs a probe over and around the affected joint(s). Depending on the size of the dog, this takes anywhere from 4 minutes (one knee in a small dog) to 16 minutes (2 hips in a large dog). While the laser is stimulating all the good inflammation and squelching the bad inflammation, while the cartilage is being stimulated to heal, and while the nerve pain is going away, the dog’s happy hormones known as endorphins start to flow, making this a great experience all around. The results have been AMAZING.  For more information, visit: http://wilmingtonanimalhospital.com/site/view/137905_ClassIVLaserTherapy.pml

Acupuncture is another therapy that we have found to be very effective in treating arthritis and the rest of the dog that is sporting the bad joints. We have two veterinarians on staff, Drs. Green and Hanna, who are trained in acupuncture. This usually requires a series of 4 weekly treatments. For more information on acupuncture, visit: http://wilmingtonanimalhospital.com/services_acupuncture.php

Steve Fries, DC, has been our right arm for many years now. He’s a chiropractor who’s trained for over 1000 hours in animal chiropractic, and who devotes most of his practice to animals. He’s been coming to WAH to adjust our patients for over 10 years.  Most dogs with arthritis develop misalignments (known as subluxations) in their spines secondary to shifting the weight unequally. Some throw out their backs at the time of the trauma that resulted in the ACL tear, for example. Dr. Fries has been absolutely indispensible in our anti-arthritis drive. By realigning the spines and working on the arthritic joints, he’s restored the quality of life to hundreds of our patients. Here’s more on Dr. Fries: http://wilmingtonanimalhospital.com/veterinarians.php

And finally, the diet. Many dogs find relief from converting to a raw or home-cooked diet. It seems that the less the food is processed, the more anti-inflammatory it is for the dog. We’ll talk about diets for dogs in a later blog. For now, you can visit:http://wilmingtonanimalhospital.com/info_nutrition.php

Inaugural Blog: The Raw Facts on Feeding Your Cat by Shelley R. Epstein, VMD, CVH

Raw diets for cats? When it comes to feeding cats, Ben Franklin had it right: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”   In my estimation, the number one cause of problems in cats is an inappropriate diet…and conversely, the easiest way to reverse many problems is to convert cats to a more species-appropriate, a.k.a. raw diet.

If you’ve seen me in the office with your cat, you know I just about stand on my head to get you to feed high quality diets. Cats need to eat high protein, grain-free diets, with high quality, easily digestible ingredients. This just about rules out most of the commercial cat foods out there. Sorry.

Think of their wild diets: mice, moles, birds… Now think of the typical dry pet food: Meat-by-products, corn/wheat/rice, soy protein, and a host of added single nutrients to make up for the deficits that cooking this food to high temperatures causes. And while the mouse is 80% water, the dry food is only 10% water- way too dehydrated for a creature that derives most of its fluids from its diet.

Canned food is a little bit better: 80-90% water.  Since it doesn’t have to stick together in neat little pellets, it doesn’t have to have as much grain added to it. But it’s still cooked, and still tends to have its share of fillers and added nutrients to compensate for those that are destroyed from the cooking stage.

And then there’s the concern about how meats are altered in the cooking process. This alteration may actually change the proteins so that the carnivorous cat’s system recognizes these proteins as foreign, as shown in one study.[i] In my observation, this is one reason for the rise in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that results in vomiting and/or diarrhea that we see in cats. Many of my patients with this problem have normalized with a combination of change to a raw diet plus homeopathic prescribing.

What are some other problems that can be prevented with proper diet? The big ones include diabetes- these cats always seem to be eating dry, grain-containing diets and become overweight; obesity- cats don’t use carbs for an energy source so they convert dietary carbs to fat; protein malnutrition- yes, even obese cats can have skinny toplines thanks to the high carbs and relatively low protein content of their ingested calories; hairballs; greasy haircoats and lack of grooming; low energy couch potato syndrome; periodontal disease (Have you looked in your cat’s mouth lately?); and a host of other problems.

What diets do we recommend? Again, if you’ve seen me in the office, you know what’s coming. I really love raw diets for cats. It’s tough to beat a raw diet when it comes to the proper form of nutrients.  The good news is that there are many companies making these diets commercially, so besides taking the time to visit some of the more upscale pet stores to purchases these, (shout out to Concord Pet Supply, GiggyBytes in Glen Mills, Four Paws in Media, and Good News Natural Foods in Dover and Milford- if I missed your store in the DE/PA region, feel free to Facebook Wilmington Animal Hospital to get in your free plug!), the major challenge is converting your cat to this better diet.

Let’s briefly touch upon converting your cat to raw foods. If your cat is already eating canned food, you’re halfway there. Simply defrost a small portion of the raw food in the refrigerator, and for each canned food meal, hide a ‘pinch’ of the raw. Note that the defrosted raw will start to smell raunchy after 24 hours, so you might want to refreeze it and defrost a second portion during this conversion process. Just keep alternating those two defrost-refreeze-defrost portions.

After a few days of sneaking in that pinch of raw, start sneaking in two pinches for a few days. You get the idea- it’s a very gradual, underhanded process, aimed at deceiving your cat’s highly selective (and addicted) nose and tastebuds. After a while, you’ll find you can totally eliminate the canned food.

The greater challenge is converting from dry to raw. I will defer this explanation to my colleague Dr. Lisa Pierson, who has the excellent website catinfo.org.  She has a section devoted to “Transitioning Dry Food Addicts to Canned Food.” From canned, you can convert to raw as above.

What about the safety of raw diets? Yes, it’s true that if a cat eats food laden with Salmonella, for example, the bacteria may pass in its stool. But it is EXTREMELY rare for a healthy cat to become infected with Salmonella. So rare that it is really not an issue. It is FAR MORE COMMON for cats to become diabetic eating commercial dry diets!

What about the transmission of Salmonella and E. coli and other bad guys to the humans in the house? First of all, if we’re talking bad bacteria in the litter box, I’m going to assume that you wash your hands thoroughly after cleaning the box. If we’re talking direct transmission from cat to human, this would theoretically be a concern if the cat ate the contaminated raw food and then licked the human in the mouth… and the human was immunocompromised, very young, or very old. You can see the odds are very slim.

But get this: Many of these commercial diets have a LOWER risk of spreading Salmonella and E. coli than the foods you eat! Why? First of all, there are laws mandating that food is safe. Here’s a quote from the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine’s “Manufacture and Labeling of Raw Meat Foods for Companion and Captive Noncompanion Carnivores and Ominivores” guidance document:

It is unlawful to introduce into interstate commerce any food, including food for pets and for other animals, which is adulterated (Section 301(a) of the FFDCA). Among the circumstances in which a food will be deemed adulterated are when: (a) it contains any poisonous or deleterious substance that may render it injurious to health.[ii]

The document goes on to say that Salmonella and E. coli fall under this category.

 Manufacturers like Nature’s Variety use a high pressure pasteurization to kill the pathogens, and they also test their batches for the bad guys.[iii] Bravo! tests each batch before sending it to market.[iv] (I asked the owner, Bette Schubert, what they do with contaminated batches. She told me they send it to a wolf sanctuary.) Compare this to the chicken you buy in the supermarket which has a 30% chance of hosting Salmonella! So the odds of your bringing bad guys into your house are actually greater with your food than with your cat’s commercial raw food! (You should inquire with each company about their testing.)

And one more note about contamination in pet foods. There are many documented outbreaks of Salmonella and E. coli in humans exposed to commercial dry and canned pet foods. These are NOT sterile diets! Most of the infected are the very young.[v]

Finally, what alternatives do you have if 1. You’ve tried and tried and your cat won’t eat raw food or 2. You simply will not feed raw food to your cat?

Again, let me emphasize that raw is the best, in my opinion. But many cats will do well on grain-free canned diets. More and more companies are producing these. As of this date, we have the most experience with Wellness CORE and Instinct brands, and the cats look good on these. Would you consider feeding one meal a day from a can and the other as a raw meal? (I never quit.)

References:

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[i] Cave NJ, Marks SL. Evaluation of the immunogenicity of dietary proteins in cats and the influence of the canning process. Am J Vet Res 2004;65(10):1427-33.

[ii]http://www.fda.gov/animalveterinary/products/animalfoodfeeds/petfood/default.htm Last visited October 9, 2011.

[iii] http://www.naturesvariety.com/learning/raw/quality. Last visited October 9, 2011.

[iv] http://www.bravorawdiet.com/qualityassurance.html. Last visited October 9, 2011.

[v] Behravesh, MS, Ferraro A, et al. Human Salmonella infections inked to contaminated dry dog and cat food, 2006-2008. Pediatrics 2009-3273. http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2010/08/09/peds.2009-3273 Last visited September 11, 2011.