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Norman Allan
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Update on my dogs diets
(and see Lisa's comments below)

 

 
 

Rita's (and therefore Lucky's too) diet has changed: I took her off carbohydrates.

Rita, who is now a ten year old beagle, has lipomas - fat nodules or tumors. She had one on her tummy somewhere between half a ducks egg and a goose egg - it hangs down perhaps a inch - one on her flank about he size of half a hens egg, and half a dozen smaller lipomas, some hard and some soft. She has had many of these for many years, five perhaps.

Last summer when I went to the vet for flea-killer I had him look at rita's lumps. He thought that some of them should be surgically removed. Giving it some thought I thought: she's had these for four years. Her life expectancy is maybe four or five years. The lumps are not syptomatic, so why medicalise the poor dog. But what to do.

I cut back, a little, on the quantity of her dinner. Then my friend Dee suggested carbohydrate is the main source of stored fat and that I cut the carbohydrate out of Rita's diet. So, since last winter I have taken the rice out of the dogs' diet and have added bran (wheat bran, mostly). Sometimes a lot, but if their stool is soft then only a little - one to three tablespoons.

So, it is about six months now and most of Rita's lumps are getting a little or a lot smaller.

 
   
 

Mornings:

  • raw meat, i.e. ground chicken(from the Menonites),
  • hot/warm water, but it's more complicated than that.
  • and grated yam or carrot, since I've started medicating with grated burdock root, bone meal, and (as a supplement) glucosamine.
at small wonders they just suggested that I add seaweed (flaked dulse), fish oil, and vitamin C (I though dogs manufactured enough of their own vit C - but I've added dulse and fish oil) and vit D
 

Evenings

  • vegetable and poultry-parts stew (I stew enough for 5 to 7 days, mixed vegetable, diced carrots, beets, celery, yams, broccoli, parsnips, zuccini, whatevery, and chicken livers andhearts [Menonite or organic],
 
   
 Hi Dr. Allan -- I was clicking around on the internet and landed on your site. I saw your page about your dogs and thought I'd share my two favorite resources with you too.

1. Happy Dog dog food (www.happydogfood.com)
It's everything but the meat (and the burdock root :)...but everything else) for a healthy raw-based diet. Great stuff! Super easy!! I use the grain-free formula with my five dogs.

2. Herbal-dogkeeping.com
My friend Robert is BRILLIANT and one of the leading canine herbalists in the world. All of the conditions on the right side of his site are clickable -- he tells you what herbs help with the condition.

Hope those are helpful to you!
Lisa (and Abby -- my Aussie/Border Collie/Cattle Dog mix)

 

 

Norman Allan

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