Cooking for Your Best Friend
When my husband I bought our Rottweiler puppy, Lea, I began researching her nutritional needs. Rottweilers grow so fast, they have different requirements than small dogs. I felt like commercial dog foods fell short in this department, so I decided to start cooking for her, so I could be sure that she was getting adequate amounts of protein, as well as the calcium and vitamins that her growing body required.
Our pets are with us such a short time, big dogs even less time, and this made me sad to think about. At this writing, Lea is 3 years old. Though she is still young, the average life of a Rottweiler is a mere 7 years. My husband had two Rotties previously that lived only to be 5 and 6 years old. I decided that in order to give Lea the best chance possible at a long and healthy life, I would make sure she got proper nutrition.
I started off well enough…..I began cooking Lea eggs when she was just 8 weeks old. I also gave her low-fat cottage cheese as a snack. She seemed to really enjoy this, so I started making her “casseroles”. These consisted of primarily chicken (though sometimes I used beef), combined with a variety of vegetables, rice, broth, and a little cheese. I mixed things up from time-to-time, because who wants to eat the same thing all the time, right? I didn’t just do this blindly…..I read several books on canine nutrition requirements, and since I am a nurse with a background in nutrition, I found it pretty easy to calculate calories and protein/fat/carb ratios. I kept this up for the first year of her life. After that, I continued to feed her eggs every morning, but I got lazy about everything else.
About 9 months ago, Lea became very sick with an illness that couldn’t be diagnosed, and almost died. After 10 days in the hospital, we were able to bring her home. She had contracted the tick-borne illness, Bartonella. In humans, this is known as “cat-scratch fever”. I will talk about this more later on, because I learned some things about the medications that we give our animals, and I think more needs to be said about it. For now, though, let’s continue on the same track….
Lea recovered, but we became hyper-sensitive to her needs. We watched her like a hawk. If she sneezed, we jumped. We had come so close to losing her, and the thought of it happening anytime soon panicked and terrified us. She seemed to be doing well, until the first of this year, when she started regurgitating. This had happened before, but the times were so few and far-between, that I didn’t feel like there was any cause for concern. She always seemed irritated that she had lost her lunch, and when she ate again, she kept it down just fine. Until she didn’t. She regurgitated 4 times in 24 hours. That’s when I knew something was wrong.
Let me be clear that regurgitation is different from vomiting. Regurgitation occurs when it all comes up at once. Vomiting involved heaving. That’s the simplest, least-gross way I can explain it. Lea wasn’t vomiting. I thought the problem might be stomach acid, so I gave her a Pepcid. I wasn’t really sure of the dose, however, and it was Friday, so I decided to go ahead and bring her to the vet. They thought I was on the right track with the Pepcid, told me how much to give her, and we went home. By Tuesday, when it still had not resolved, she went back to the vet for a GI series and some labwork. She was diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis. It was most likely related to the Bartonella that she’d had. For a week, she at nothing but the awful “prescription food” that the vet provided. It smelled awful, and apparently tasted worse, as she waited until she was on the brink of starvation before she would eat it. I investigated and found that this food was basically nothing but nutritionally sound, low-fat food, that tasted terrible. Why couldn’t I make nutritionally sound, low-fat food, that tasted great? So I rededicated myself to my dog’s nutrition, and started making her food again. I ordered a new book (that is FANTASTIC) and made Lea a turkey, brown rice, peas and carrots medley, that she LOVED. I felt so bad for feeding her that prescription garbage for the past week. It probably helped, however, because she needed to eat less and rest her stomach. At least that was good.
The name of the book is “Feed Your Best Friend Better”.
My new book sparked my knowledge and desire to cook for Lea, as well as my Chihuahua, Maddie. (Maddie is also thrilled that I decided to go this course.) Even though I was feeding Lea and Maddie "high-quality" commercial dog foods, I researched the ingredients and found that their food contained code-words for "chicken parts". Ugh. I was feeding my fur-babies ground up chicken-parts. Now, don't think that this means the dark meat is mixed together with the light meat....this means the beak is mixed together with the feet, and everything in-between. I was disgusted.
I know, I know, I KNOW that dogs will pretty much eat anything in the wild. This does NOT mean that this is GOOD for them though. Even if eating garbage doesn't hurt your pet, does it help them? It may not directly cause harm, but does it give them the nutrition that they need to fight illness? NO. It does not.
As a nurse, I specialized in chemotherapy. If there was one thing I knew, it was that if my patients did not receive adequate nutrition while they they were receiving chemo, they did not fare as well. Nutrition is very important in helping to fight any illness. The commercially-prepared dog foods on the market today, are lacking. One of the nutrients most likely missing in your dog's diet is Omega-3 fatty acids. Increasing these in your dog's diet is extremely beneficial in resolving a variety of skin conditions. Lea had long suffered with "allergies" and dry-flaky skin. Upon addition fish-oil to her diet, this resolved and her hair is always soft and shiny. Dog food manufacturers sometimes tout this as an ingredient, but often only drops are included - not nearly enough to be of any benefit.
Dogs need roughly 60% of their calories from protein, 20% from carbs, and 20% from fats. (Less fats, if they suffer from pancreatitis, like Lea.) If you decide to cook for your dogs (why wouldn't you?!) This is important to know. I will try to share with you as much nutritional knowledge as I can, so you can confidently feed your pets better. When you do, they WILL thank you. :-)
