Re: Feeding raw meat

"Rocky" <2dogs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Fri9748C686F91E0australianshepherdca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> One doesn't normally call another an idiot when it's simply a
> matter of opinion. Still, parasites springing unbidden from raw
> meat is an opinion you're welcome to.

Parasites can certainly be contracted by ingesting raw meat in which the
infective stage of a parasite resides. People occasionally get
toxoplasmosis from raw beef. I don't think dogs are immune to that, though
I could be mistaken, there.

This page seems to contain reasoned info about feeding dogs raw meat:
http://www.vetinfo4dogs.com/drawmeat.html

An excerpt:
Evidence for the risk of feeding raw human-grade meat must be inferred from
studies in humans because of the inability to track animal cases. There are
numerous cases of well defined, well tracked food poisonings from raw or
undercooked meat in the U.S. Perhaps pets are less susceptible to infection
from these meat sources but that is not really very likely. If several
people die from undercooked hamburgers in Wisconsin, it is pretty likely
that a pet or two was affected as well.

There are no tracking agencies for diseases in pets. It is unlikely that
statistics exist for overall infection rates for campylobacter, salmonella
or almost any other disease. Without widespread pet insurance and in the
absence of a CDC or similar program in veterinary medicine it will be a long
time before valid statistics become available.

There are a number of confirmed cases of salmonella suspected to have
originated in raw meat in dogs. There have been studies done on greyhounds
due to the suspicion that a condition known as "Alabama rot" or cutaneous
and renal glomerular vasculopathy is caused by a strain of E. coli which is
suspected to be linked to the prevalence of raw meat diets among racing
greyhounds.

Yes, pets do get exposed to Salmonella and possibly other pathogens when pet
foods are contaminated by poor handling, rat or mouse feces or addition of
contaminated foods to the diet. There have been reported cases of this
happening in pets but I was unable to find specific references -- although I
am sure it can be done.

Wild animals do suffer from salmonellosis, toxoplasmosis, campylobacter and
other illnesses. There have been documented cases in a number of species and
there have been cases of human exposure after eating or contacting many
species, including at least one case of salmonella food poisoning after
eating a rattlesnake (it is in the list of references under Salmonella in
the PubMed database but I can't remember the exact reference). I have
treated wildlife for a number of years in association with WildCare, Inc.
and have seen food poisoning on a number of occasions, some of them
confirmed through lab testing or necropsy exam. People seem to believe that
wild animals live a long and carefree existence and nothing could be further
from the truth. They are heavily parasitized in many instances, suffer from
nutritional deficiencies on a regular basis and often die very young. I do
not know the specific reference but from memory I think the average lifespan
of foxes studied in one study was 9 months. This is a far cry from the
lifespan we expect from our pets.

When I started in practice 19 years ago it was unusual to treat a 20 year
old cat. I have at least ten feline patients over the age of twenty and at
least two dogs in that age range in my practice. This is probably due in no
small part to nutritional improvements which came about primarily through
the feeding of well formulated and safely preserved pet foods. While that
does not directly address the feeding of raw meat diets it is hard for me to
understand why pet foods are knocked by some people who favor the diets that
were prevalent when dogs lived closer to ten or twelve years and a fourteen
year-old cat was thought to be ancient.

Please think this through very carefully. Ask your vet if you can read
through his or her textbooks and then look up the references cited in them
if you want to really research this subject.

There may be benefits from feeding raw meat. Like everything else, you have
to weigh the risks against the benefits. Like most issues in veterinary
medicine it isn't possible to find hard figures to base your assessment on.
There are definite risks. Are you sure of the benefits?

People ate raw meat for a long time (and still do, sometimes with no
problems) but I'm not going to take chances with this, personally. [end
excerpt]

flick


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Feeding raw
    ... Two days ago I fed the three cats and Scooter Dog each a raw chicken wing. ... The canned and dry food we feed is just a substitute. ... Do you grind up the meat and bones in a meat grinder? ...
    (rec.pets.cats.anecdotes)
  • Re: Fire, Food and Fish - Homo erectus didnt need fire to cook
    ... > raw carrot or two, using no cutlery other than a handaxe). ... > from tapped coconut tree sap. ... > They make fish kinilao, shellfish, squid and cuttlefish kinilao, and ... > As for meat, raw steak tartare (very popular in Belgium as Filet ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • fire &/or coast?
    ... just try making a real meal out of a chunk of raw steak and a raw carrot or ... fish or meat by washing it in vinegar). ... Please have a look at the coconut idea in the files. ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: Eating raw meat (was Re: How Many Food Rules Do You Break?)
    ... there is no reason a steak can't be eaten dead raw... ... meat that requires more vigilence... ...
    (rec.food.cooking)
  • Fire, Food and Fish - Homo erectus didnt need fire to cook
    ... woodland/savannah, like game meat, tubers, roots, stems, etc needed ... raw carrot or two, using no cutlery other than a handaxe). ... My Filipino neighbours eat a majority of their fish raw - ... from tapped coconut tree sap. ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)