Things I've Learned From My Dog: Raw Food Diets

It's no coincidence that my first real "meaty" post (oops...no pun intended!) on this blog is about raw food diets. The raw diet is probably the best thing I've learned from Indiana's experience, and something I wish with all my heart I had learned about 11 years ago when I became a parent. Alas, I had to learn the hard way. Don't make the same mistake I did! Learn about raw food now, read about it with an open mind, and give it a try. I guarantee you won't regret it.

I first learned about the raw food diet from the wonderful Dr. Karen Becker. On our first consultation with her, after Indiana's cancer diagnosis, she explained that it was vitally important that dogs with cancer eat a grain-free diet. Standard commercial kibbles and canned foods are PACKED with grain (mostly corn). Honestly, grain isn't good for a healthy pet, let alone one with a weakened immune system. Cancer feeds off carbs (especially true for tumor-based cancers), so feeding a diet high in grains is essentially feeding the cancer. Indiana had struggled with weight problems her whole life, so we had her on a kibble that we felt was the healthiest. While I won't name names just yet, it was a "premium" kibble, and it was the "weight management" formula, which Dr. Becker informed me was around 80% grains. Gasp! Aren't dogs carnivores, for heaven's sake?

And so we began our slow transition to raw foods. Both Indiana and Isis were put on canned foods alone--no kibble (canned is so much healthier for dogs, because it has more meat and more moisture). Slowly, we added in raw foods over a period of about eight months. Dr. Becker was really careful with Indiana, because of the fact that she's missing part of her stomach. We also added in a digestive enzyme, Prozyme (it's good stuff) to help. We still use Prozyme today, with all of our pets.

A lot of people have a tough time with the idea of a raw diet. They worry about the bacteria. Well, many vets think dogs' stomachs are much more adapted to bacteria than our own, making the bacteria not a big deal. Plus, if you handle the meat properly (keeping it frozen, etc.), bacteria shouldn't be an issue. We've fed raw exclusively for two and a half years now with no problems whatsoever. For crying out load, doesn't your dog eat poo or dead animals off the ground? I know mine do. No bacteria there, uh uh.

Other parents are concerned that raw food is "gross." I'm a vegetarian, folks; if I can do it, you can do it.

Another worry about raw food is the cost. Is it more expensive than kibble? You bet. Is it worth every penny? No doubt. I won't deny that not every family can afford to feed a raw diet. But every family should consider a raw diet and see if they can swing the cost. I'm going to be incredibly unhelpful here and tell you I have no idea how much I spend each month on pet food. It's a lot. But feeding our kids the healthiest diet possible is a big priority for Jim and I, and we're willing to make budget cuts in other places in order to keep our kids in fresh meat. I feel so good about feeding raw, I'll always find a way to make it work.

The biggest obstacle you'll reach is probably your veterinarian, unless you're blessed to have someone like Dr. Becker. I'll save the drama for another post, but I'll just make this statement: vet school nutrition classes are taught by the commercial pet food brand manufacturers. A bias there, perhaps? Do your research, follow your gut instinct, and sometimes you just have to do your own thing. I actually had an oncologist basically tell us we would kill Indiana by putting her on the raw diet. Hrmph. Shows how much she knows.

So I've talked a bit about common raw food concerns. You're probably still wondering--if it's so controversial, what makes it so great? Aha. Here's where it gets good. The benefits of a raw food diet include, but are certainly not limited to:

• weight control (Indiana is at her ideal weight for the first time EVER!)
• decrease in allergies (many pets are allergic to grains)
• immune boosting (fresh, chemical-free ingredients--it's ideal!)
• improved joint function
• clear skin and shiny coat

Take those benefits and multiply them by 1000, which will then tell you how awesome the raw diet is. I seriously understate it.

It's important to mention that kibbles aren't the best diet for a pet. They're processed--highly processed. I could blabber on forever about this (and I will later, trust me), but Dr. Becker puts it best, I think:

"To think we could sustain life on a 100% processed diet is conceivable, but to thrive…it’s not possible. Much like trying to sustain your kids on Ensure© liquid beverage; it’s 100% nutritionally complete but if that’s all kids were fed generation after generation, overall health would deteriorate. All life requires living foods for health. Can you and your pets survive on canned/boxed foods? Sure. Can you or you pets thrive on canned/boxed foods? No. It’s that simple."

Over the next week or so, I'll be sharing more about my pets' diets with you. I make a homemade diet (vet-approved), so I'll share pictures of our process. I ask you to follow me with an open mind, and I encourage you to do your own research. There's a lot of information out there, both pro and con, and I suggest you read both. I'll talk about diet a lot over the course of this blog, as diet is the fundamental building block of health. I also happen to be pretty obsessed with the topic!

I'll leave you with a few great websites about food:

• Dr. Karen Becker, DVM, NMD of Natural Pet Animal Hospital
• Primal Pet Foods, makers of my favorite raw foods
• DogFoodAnalyis.com. Find out how your pet's kibble rates
• The Dog Food Project. Anything and everything about diet

Life After Cancer

Last week I shared with you the story of how Indiana was diagnosed with cancer. Today I want to talk about what happened after.

The first month or so after Indiana got sick was an emotional rollercoaster. We were thrilled that Indiana had survived her surgery, but we still had the cancer to deal with. My poor dog had been through so much and looked like a patchwork dog.

My poor dog is missing hair all over,

including her beautiful mane of neck

hair. Her legs are all shaved too. I think

her eyes tell a story of what she went through

as well. Those are not my Indiana's eyes.

The only real problem we had with Indiana was nighttime incontinence for several weeks following surgery. Indiana sleeps in bed with us, and every night she would wet the bed. There's a lot of urine in a 90-pound dog. (Though at this point, she weighed closer to 80 pounds, having lost nearly 10 pounds in the 5 days in the hospital.) We started setting our alarm clock for 1 or 2 in the morning, and taking Indiana out to go to the bathroom. Our vet explained that the urinating was probably as a result of too much cortisol in her body--that's the body's stress hormone. Her body had been through such a shock that it was producing too much cortisol and that in turn was making her have to go to the bathroom a lot. In time, probably 2-3 weeks, the problem went away, and Indiana was fine. It was yet another sign though of what hell she had been through.

We returned to the U of I two weeks after Indy's surgery, at which time we were out of the woods, surgery-wise. Yay! We had found out in the previous weeks that Indiana's cancer was called leiomyosarcoma, a cancer of the smooth tissues. The oncologist told us that if you have to get cancer, it's one of the best ones to get, as it grows very slowly and can be cured. The surgeon had achieved clean margins with Indiana's tumor, but we still couldn't be 100% sure that there were no microscopic cancer cells floating around elsewhere in her body. The oncologist's recommendation was 4 rounds of chemotherapy. We knew that if the cancer ever came back, and we hadn't done any type of treatment, we would never forgive ourselves. We knew the chemo came with some risks, but the doctors would be very careful, and we had to give her a final chance to beat this cancer.

Prior to Indiana's first chemo treatment, the doctors ran an echocardiogram on her heart, to make sure it was strong enough to handle the chemo drugs (doxorubicin--which can be cardiotoxic). Imagine my shock when the oncologist came back and told us they had found a mass in her right atrium. My stomach dropped, and I just felt ill. My Mom was with me at the time, and I just remember crying once they took Indiana back for her chemo. How, after all we had been through, could there be something else?

The doctor explained to me that because the mass was on the inside wall of her heart--where all of the "electronics" are located--that a biopsy would be very dangerous and even life-threatening. Because the treatment for a heart mass (most likely hemangiosarcoma) would be the same as the treatment for her stomach cancer, we easily made the decision not to biopsy.

The doctors couldn't be sure what the mass was. Maybe it was cancer (again, most likely hemangiosarcoma, one of the worst cancers out there) or maybe it was a blood clot (which could dislodge and kill her instantly) or maybe it was something else entirely different. We wouldn't ever know. Though my heart was broken once again, I actually felt bad for our oncologist, who seemed not to want to share this news with us. He was so kind about it though.

Heart mass or not, Indiana's heart was strong enough for chemo, so we started that day. The first round gave her some nausea and diarrhea (which is scary after you've seen your dog nearly die after vomiting and pooing blood before), but after dose two, we learned to administer drugs to her proactively, to prevent the upset. She sailed through the rest of her treatments with no problems! I even joked that perhaps the vet tech forgot to give her any drugs, because she didn't act any differently.

Indiana received four doses of doxorubicin, each 21 days apart. After the fourth dose, our oncologist said he felt comfortable ending there--six is the max a dog can have anyway.

After the chemo was over, we did another echocardiogram, and the mass was still unchanged. We weren't sure if it was because the chemo was keeping the mass from growing, or because the mass wasn't responding. This was pretty disappointing. We wanted with all our hearts to find the mass gone. Why wasn't it responding to one of the most powerful chemo drugs out there?

After we found Indiana's heart mass, I was so frightened. Everything with the stomach mass had happened so quickly, that I didn't have time to really process it all. We just dealt with it. But now with this new problem, I was out of my mind. I needed to do everything to help her. Out of desperation, I decided to turn to holistics, to complement the traditional treatments we were doing. Our vets directed us to the most wonderful vet in the world, Dr. Karen Becker of Natural Pet Animal Hospital. You'll be hearing more about her later, because she is my hero. I'll have a whole post dedicated to Dr. Becker.

Dr. Becker was amazing, really easing our minds about the heart mass. She was sure it wasn't cancer. She set us up with all kinds of immune supplements and helped set up a diet transition to raw food (more about that too--I'm a HUGE fan of raw diets.) I left the visit with her, having hope for the first time in a long time.

After chemo was finished, life was able to start to return back to normal. At least our new normal. No more vet visits every three weeks--no visit for three months! We did have one scary episode, where Indiana started to waver and shake. We thought for sure the mass was a clot and had dislodged. She bounced back quickly from it though, so we're not sure what caused the episode.

Gradually, life slowed down again. The vet visits got farther and farther apart, and Indiana continued to thrive. To this day, the heart mass remains unchanged. We still don't know what it is. Indiana has developed a heart arrhythmia, possibly as a long-term side effect of the doxorubicin or just because she's 11 years old. Our oncology visits went from every three months to every six. The echocardiogram is now being done once a year. Indiana still takes a lot of pills, and we still see a lot of vets, but we're thrilled that she's still alive!

This experience has certainly changed our lives, and much of my time is dedicated to Indiana and our other pets. Feeding rituals are much more complicated now, we visit the physical therapist once a week, and I practically live at the local natural pet food store and Dr. Becker's office. I wouldn't trade an ounce of it though, because Indiana is still alive and well. I even forget about the cancer sometimes.

There is so much that I've learned, and so much that I am still learning. Indiana has taught me so much, and I am eternally grateful to her. Good things needed to come from her experience. Jim and I formed The Great Good Heart Animal Cancer Foundation, to help educate others about animal cancer. We learned the hard way, but others don't have to. I'm excited to share with you all that I've learned and to bring to you new and exciting ideas for you and your pets.