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BARF Diet = Healthy Animals
I have owned Hunt-Point-Retrieve gundogs for the last 22 years, and like most people, bought dog food in large sacks without a second thought (apart from seeing which version was on offer this week). When my male Weimaraner suffered from gastric torsion at 8 months old, I did wonder if his diet was to blame. Of course it wasn’t. I was feeding a very good quality, rather expensive complete food, the ideal diet for a dog. I did however change him to a lower bulk, even more expensive imported diet, on veterinary advice. He was put to sleep at six years old, with dilated cardiomyopathy – heart failure.
His best friend was my castrated German Shorthaired Pointer, Motto. A working gundog and house pet, fed on the same food, he suffered skin problems for most of his life. He usually looked as if he had a mild attack of moths, and at intervals would chew the skin of his feet, sometimes taking off the entire surface of a pad overnight. The vet took skin scrapings and could find no trace of mange or skin infection, and Motto regularly ended up being treated with steroids and antibiotics. A Vizsla bitch puppy, raised with loving care on the same very expensive, low allergy diet, joined him. She seemed to be a healthy little dog, her only problem was a rather miserable phantom after her first season. I telephoned a supplier of homeopathic remedies on the advice of her breeder, and a course of tablets cleared up her phantom pregnancy in remarkably quick time. I was impressed, and the next time the GSP began chewing his foot, I telephoned the homeopathic supplier for advice.
She didn’t sell me a bottle of pills this time; she sold me a book, ‘Give your Dog a Bone’. I read it. Then I re-read it. Then I gave away a large sack of very expensive dog food and cleared out the freezer and spent some time searching out all the local old-fashioned butchers’ shops. Then I took a deep breath and offered each dog a chicken wing. The GSP looked at me as if I had grown horns and a tail. Excuse me, but I RETRIEVE stuff like this! The Vizsla, who like many of her breed was a fussy eater, snatched it out of my hand before he could change his mind, scuttled under the dining table and produced loud crunching noises. The GSP cautiously accepted the next wing and started nibbling. Then they crunched in stereo.
We graduated to breast of lamb, chicken carcasses, turkey necks, liver, hearts, eggs and minced fruit and vegetables, cottage cheese, yoghurt and minced meat. The only convenience food that they ate was an occasional can of baked beans, pilchards or sardines. My skinny, fussy Vizsla became a nicely rounded garbage disposal unit in a ginger coat. The old GSP grew glossy, healthy new hair without a single bald patch, and although he continued to chew his feet, the episodes became fewer and less intense, until now, at almost fourteen years old, he has not chewed for a couple of years.
I bought another Vizsla bitch puppy, and she was thrown her first chicken wing at eight weeks old. No problem, boss, got any more like that? This one never learned the meaning of ‘fussy’. As far as I can make out, the only things my velociraptors don’t like are banana skins; when they raided the fruit bowl, they spat the skins out after eating the contents. They love carrots, I peel them straight onto the kitchen floor, although the peel rarely hits the lino. They also crunch up the stalks of cabbage and calabrese with every sign of enjoyment.
A third Vizsla, a male, joined the pack just over a year ago. All very much enjoyed their bones, meat and veggies, and all seemed to be very healthy. Then one day, I was stroking the older bitch’s ears and felt something odd; thick, hot patches near the end of the flap. I turned the ear over. Dogs aren’t supposed to have fur on the inside of their ears. She had ringworm. Panic! Off to the vet we went, returning with griseofulvin tablets and anti-fungal shampoo, and the grim warning that there was no way I would be able to prevent the entire pack catching it, and probably would catch it myself as well. I spent weeks handling the dogs with rubber gloves, shampooing dogs and scrubbing floors, dreading the old GSP catching ringworm. We had already decided that if he did, he was too old and frail to risk giving griseofulvin, because of the possibility of liver damage.
The puppy developed a tiny patch on one ear, but with aggressive use of the shampoo and careful separation of dogs (not easy in a small cottage), I managed to avoid the other two dogs catching it at all. No doubt I was lucky, but I like to think that their healthy diets helped to boost their immune systems sufficiently to fight off infection.
I am proud of the fact that my dogs are working gundogs, who are capable of doing the job for which they were bred, and are also of show quality. Both the bitches have been regularly placed at championship level and the young dog qualified for Crufts at his first show. The bitches work together as a brace in the beating line throughout the season. All three adults have gained their Kennel Club Good Citizen gold awards, the pup has his bronze and is training towards his silver. Most importantly, they are fit, healthy, happy dogs who are a pleasure to live with.
I wonder if my Weimaraner would have got torsion if he had been fed on a BARF diet; fermentable carbohydrate is not natural food for dogs and I would be very interested to know if the incidence of torsion is lower in dogs fed on BARF.
By Sylvia Glanville-Hughes
