Raw Pet Diets - Part II

Pros and Cons of Raw Pet Diets
By Dr. Moira Drosdovech


By now, I believe many pet owners have either heard about the raw diets for pets, know someone who feeds it or may feed it to their own pets. Estimates in the Lower Mainland are that raw diets account for 10% or more of pet food sales. That is quite astounding for diets that have only became popular in the last 5 years or so.

In Western Canada alone, the quantity of commercial raw pet diets produced monthly now easily exceeds 200,000 pounds. This figure does not include the diets prepared at home.

Most of those opposed to feeding raw diets to pets have concerns about the safety of it for the pets as well as for their human caregivers. The concern for the pet safety usually includes the potential for bones to obstruct the intestine or perforate the bowels, bacterial or parasite contamination, and nutritional completeness.

First of all, a primary concern is the practice of feeding raw bones as part of the diet. These bones can be in the form of “recreational” marrow or knuckle bones or they can be raw meaty bones, which include turkey necks, chicken backs, pork hocks, and others that are completely consumed as opposed to gnawed on.

As to the benefits of bone-chewing, I find at my practice that dogs allowed to chew on raw bones have cleaner teeth and healthier gums than their friends fed dry food and biscuits. I cannot overemphasize enough how important it is to have a healthy mouth.

If I see a dog with tartar on their teeth that would normally be sufficient to require an anesthetic and dental cleaning, I will simply recommend 2 raw bones weekly for 4-6 weeks. When they come back for their recheck, the teeth are white. This will not work for those dogs with loose teeth and gum infections because they will usually not chew on the bones.

Potential problems with bone-chewing include obstruction of the esophagus or intestine. I know of two dogs in the past 5 years with problems of this nature, both with lodging of a bone in their esophagus. I have seen none blocking the intestines.

The only time I have seen painful constipation after eating bones was when they had been cooked. Cooked bones should be avoided at all costs as they tend to splinter more readily and do not digest as well.

Always use common sense when choosing a bone for your pet, taking into account the size of the dog as well as how fast they like to eat. Never use those that have sharp points or cuts that may allow a chunk to be broken away and swallowed.

Concerns for human safety include the potential for transmission of food-borne illnesses from the pet to the humans, especially to immuno-compromised individuals.

The main fear in feeding raw diets is the risk of bacterial contamination for the human caregivers. While I do not wish to minimize this issue, I can confidently state that this has never occurred to my knowledge in the 5-6 years that I have been recommending the diet. Nor are there any reports of human Salmonella infection from raw-fed dogs or cats in the data supplied by the Centre for Disease Control to 2002.

There is one recent veterinary report which involves two cats on raw food in Colorado that died 9 months apart and were found to have Salmonella in their body tissues. The assumption is that they died of Salmonella poisoning from the raw food. However, the cats were indoor/outdoor cats and just as easily could have obtained Salmonella bacteria from eating a wild bird, which are known to harbour Salmonella and often die in large numbers themselves from these bacteria.

In addition, one of the cats had recently been vaccinated which was suggested by the following quote from the paper as a potential stressor contributing to its death: “A recent report described a possible association between an outbreak of fatal salmonellosis among cattery-raised kittens and their earlier vaccination with a high-titer modified-live panleukopenia vaccine.”

My point is that there were very likely other factors involved in their deaths. Also, this is only one report while there are literally thousands of household pets now eating raw food in North America.

Carnivores have a very acidic stomach environment and much of the bacteria they consume is killed off quickly. In addition, they have a much shorter bowel than humans and the food exits more quickly. These physiological differences could explain why dogs can munch what the cat leaves behind in the litter box and never get ill!

The raw meat that you feed your pets is no different than what you would feed yourself; it is all human grade or organic. It is no more dangerous to handle than what you handle for yourself. Again, common sense is a must and proper hygiene is crucial.

It is pretty obvious that I will need to do one more article on this hot issue before I can say “Enough said!” Next, we’ll look at the nutritional completeness of the raw diets and a little more about dry foods.