[lwilcox]

I'm new to this forum and need some thoughts on switching my 7 year old Yorkie, Ruby, from Verus fish and potato canned food to Primal freeze dried raw diet. Ruby has been and continues to be plagued with multiple health issues. She had a mast cell tumor removed when she was 7 months old, has oily skin with an over-production of yeast, started having seizures 2 years ago and has suddenly developed food allergies and pancreatitis. We have had the environmental allergy testing done and no reactions. We love our vet and appreciate everything she has done and is doing to get Ruby healthy. It's very hard to find a food that will work for the pancreatitis and the allergies. Our vet is currently working with a nutritionist to develop a home cooked diet with venison as the source of protein. Recently I spoke with a Primal Pet Foods representative who suggested I try their raw formula. I have been on their site and read pages and pages of testimonials about how this food helped dogs with many issues like my Ruby. However, when I talked to my vet about this switch she was not in favor of raw diets especially with a dog that has been on "regular" dog food for 7 years. I would love to hear opinions from others who may have switched their dogs to a raw diet. Ruby needs something because I do not want to keep her on this food and the Temeril P to control her itching. Thank you for your help.

 

[jagger]

Sorry to hear your pup is having so many issues. If you're looking to switch to full raw, there is no age limit or requirement. No such thing as a dog that is too old. Friends have a 14 year old shihtzu cross that's blind and deaf, they feed raw chicken feet and bones now to better the dog. The extra glucosamine and chondroitin in the chicken feet have done wonders, loosened him up.

Most vets are so tied to kibble or commercial foods in general, and some will use anything negative to keep dog owners from looking in that direction. Our last vet used the fear tactics to get us to put our dog back on kibble - glad we didn't listen. If you really want single source protein, raw is the way to go because you control what your dog is eating, and you know exactly what they are eating. Allows you to rule out quite a bit with diet. With anything commercial, there is so much unknown.

 

[naturalfeddogs]

Primal is still a commercial food. If you want the benefits of a true raw , single protein diet prey model may be the one for you.

 

[KerriAnn]

@naturalfeddogs, @jagger and @annageckos have all helped me switch. I would love to help you but I am new to all of this too! The three mentioned above gave me a lot of info on the raw food diet. I have a thread called "how to start a raw food diet" on the dog food portion of this forum. There is a lot of information that you may be interested in it was a long post

 

[annageckos]

I'd switch to a fully raw diet. I've helped switch over older dogs and cats. One dog was over ten, closer to twelve. She wasn't doing well and they didn't think she had much time left. She lived to seventeen. A raw diet can really help. I wouldn't do a premade raw or freeze dried, you don't really know what is in it. Though it is better than kibble, IMO.
Many traditional vets are against raw feeding, but in my experience alternative (holistic, homeopathic) vets are more open minded and many recommend raw.