BARF Diet - Share Your Experiences Please!

[LittleSpiffy]

I am seriously considering changing my dog to a BARF diet.(bones and raw food - also called biologically appropriate raw food)

She has been seriously itchy for a long while now (I post on a dog forum and have tried lots of stuff).  Today she scratched herself raw over a three hour period while I was out of the house and gave herself a hot spot. 

I plan on taking her to the vet to figure out what is causing the problem.

I'm researching BARF and even if the itchiness isn't a result of commercial food, I think I may switch her over anyway.

Does anyone else feed their pets BARF?

[Aadra310]

I put my dogs on a raw food (ground beef and rice with supplements and fatty acids) for awhile.  It helped with my one dogs dermatitis and seemed to improve his mood and made him more active.  I talked to my vet and they weren't very supportive of the raw food as they said it was lacking even if you add supplements.  Plus, my dog started to gain too much weight on it even when I lessened the amount.

I switched vets (the old one retired) and the new lady immediately checked him for low thyroid and she thinks that's probably where his bad skin problems came from.  So, he's medicated now and I kept up with the supplements but went back to my usual high quality pet food.  My vet says lots of vets don't think to check for thyroid especially in younger dogs.  Don't know if that applies to you but might be worth asking!

Good luck!

[Tilas]

My old dog Rom had been chewing all his life, and it got worse as he got older. He would chew his whole back end and tail raw, to the point the fur on his tail won't grow back, and his back was bloody form him ripping off his own flesh. We've tried a dozen vets and human doctors over the years, tried pills, creams, diet changes, injections, lifestyle changes, baths, everything they suggested to solve the problem. Finally last summer a new vet figured it out.

He was allergic to meat. Of all things! So the vet prescribed him a 100% VEGETARIAN diet. Specially made veggie kibble and canned food with no meat by products but everything he needs for a healthy diet. Within 2 weeks of starting his new diet, he slowed down chewing. in 2 months, the wounds were healing. 4 months, his once raw and bare backside was healed with new fur growing back. 

So now 10 months later, his fir on his back is all new (the tail will never regrow its fur so he has a permanent poodle poof, which is *hilarious* for a Shepherd/Rotti) and the only time he chews is when he sneaks any sort of meat product (and he is a sneaky one so we have to be super careful!) Especially chicken, that's the worst. Our new vet was the first to think outside the box like that and now he's on his special diet and so much happier. For treats he gets dried sweet potatoes, or I make him peanut butter and apple cookies. He loves them all the same as his old meat diet.

I know it sounds crazy, having a vegetarian dog, but honestly it solved all of Rom's problems.  It might be something to ask your vet about, maybe to try a purely non meat diet for a few weeks and just see. Our vet said it's more common than people think, especially with these "by product" foods.  Can't hurt to ask!

[kellyponyfeathers]

I have some advice to share, but let me get back to this when I have more time.

[MiRaja]

There's a lot of risks with the BARF diet.  I trust my vets wholly and completely, and they highly suggest against a BARF diet, especially in high heat areas.  I live in Florida.  Instead they suggested if I go the route of wholly prepared that it'd be a cooked diet.  My one cat's breeder was a strong proponent for the raw diet, saying how healthy it makes the cats.  It's totally an anecdote, but when Momo came home to me, she was far underweight even for an oriental shorthair.  She was sick, and continued to be sick for -months- and had a horrid, horrid coat for several weeks. 

Your results may vary, but as someone well and experienced with several different styles of pet food diets, either for cats and dogs, I would say a huge NO to the diet. 

One: It's time heavy and requires lots of research.  It's not just chopping up chicken breasts or other raw food.  Whether you have a cat or a dog, you have to take in account all the different vitamins and supplements they need besides the raw meat.  With the cats, you need to account for the WHOLE animal, including bone, which requires bone meal supplements, some liver and organ meat, extra taurine, fish oil ( and in the capsules, otherwise it'll go bad too quickly and will make your animal sick. ), etc, etc.  Mixing all this together, I found my cats did not much care for this concoction of stuffs and in less than a week, raw was a no go.  Tried the same mix of supplements with cooked meats and again, they did much care for the taste.  They would eat the homecooked food if it was FRESHLY made, as in, right out of the stock pot, but once cooled and taken out of the fridge, they stuck their noses up at it! 

Two: The fact is super market meat is rarely as clean as you would hope it to be.  Chicken is especially bad.  You don't know if the delivery truck broke down on the way to the grocery store and the meats inside reached 'the danger zone' and remained at those temperatures TOO long.  You don't know if that pack of meat was returned to the fridge after someone dumped it in the bread aisle for two hours because someone was too lazy to return it to the fridge.  You don't know if the animal prior to butchering was sick, or had parasites.  Generally, these things are stuff we don't have to worry of TOO much, because we're going to cook the food, and any bacteria or parasites are killed off in the heat.  When you serve that meat raw, you're not killing those things.  While generally the gut bacteria of a dog or cat is much stronger than our own, that doesn't mean they can stomach salmonella.  Salmonella and contaminated foods are the whole reason why we're so upset with pet food companies.   I work in the food industry, and we get these sorts of things drilled into our heads( I mean having to take classes every year to keep my license! ) about how long raw meat can sit out, or how easy and quickly it is for meat to become contaminated.   

We like to say that our animals should eat what they're supposed to, and I guess this raw approach seems like what would be 'natural,' but really, we're talking about *domesticated* animals that have been domesticated for thousands and thousands of years.  There's nothing really natural about domesticated animals, and at least in the very recent history, our domesticated animals have been eating cooked or prepared foods.  Their guts and intestinal tracts are really not any more better than our own when it comes to processing raw and possibly contaminated food, as pet food recalls and pet food related deaths more than demonstrate. 

I am totally pro-homecooked for those who have the time to prepare and properly research what their feeding to make sure their animal is getting a wholesome and complete food. 

Just not raw.   

Personally, I feed a high-quality grain-free diet.  All of them are quite picky, so that is somewhat dictated by their tastes.  They like Taste of the Wild, and that's just that.  It's an upper tier food, not perfect, but there's no sense trying to feed them food they don't like.  They always get compliments at the vet for how good their coats are, and their bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.  They get some wet food every other day, all grain free, all high quality.  For cats, a good, very healthy treat food is, believe it or not, those Fancy Feast Appetizers.  They're basically just meat in light water.  It's NOT a meal, but it's a good food topper or just a treat, or something to get a sick cat eating again.  I also boil chicken once a week ( I get chicken stock for my curries and other cooking, and they get the meat ) for them to have treats from that, or mixed into kibble for a fancy kitty dinner.   

[Katika]

I have my degree in Animal Science, with three college semesters' worth of animal nutrition courses, and I always find myself jumping up and down and screaming no when most people suggest this.  Balancing diets is *hard*.  You can do all of the research you want on how to do it "right" at home, but what it comes down to is that the cup of peas you use in this diet this week will have a different nutrition profile than the cup of peas you use next week.  Big food companies are able to keep their requirements in their guaranteed ranges because they test each batch of food after it's been mixed - and they test it chemically and mechanically in labs specifically for this purpose.  I am not, necessarily, promoting big companies, but I'm also saying that attempting to do this on your own may lead to even more problems down the road. 

What sort of foods have you already gone through to try to remedy your dog's situation?  As Tilas pointed out, it can take weeks or months to fully see a difference because the body has to detox out whatever it was that was causing issues.  I'm another one with a really weird dog (we've spent a LOT of money trying to figure out what's going on with her immune system/upper respiratory system) that between nine different vets (including three referral-level specialists), all we could come up with is that she's "allergic to life."  Two years ago, we almost lost her to bloat, and the only food that we found that agrees with her is Blue Buffalo Wilderness in Salmon.  Honestly, now that I think about it, we've taken ALL red meat from her diet besides beef liver, as her treats are either turkey, chicken, or salmon.  You may want to consider a meat allergy, as well, now that we're talking about that sort of thing.

Either way, if you have a good, trusting relationship with your vet, I cannot stress enough to talk this over with them before you make such a drastic change.  Not only are fast changes rough on an animal's systems, but the last thing you want to do is to jump into something trendy (which, with this whole Beneful fiasco going on seems to be what a LOT of panicking pet parents are doing right now... not saying you're one of them, as you seem to be putting a good amount of consideration into this, but trendy diets tend to have their facts hidden beneath wild praise) without knowing all of the good, bad and ugly that can come from it.  You may also want to talk to your vet about referring you to an animal nutritionist, as well.

I suppose my advice is get an actual medical professional's opinion on what your dog needs and try to tackle what is ailing her in the first place.  If you do go the BARF route, be prepared to do a heavy amount of pretty tedious learning and make sure you're good with math and formulas.  Homemade diets can be very good, but if done incorrectly, can cause problems that may have otherwise never started.

[joce]

I know many who do it very well but lots of planning goes into it! I just could never have the time! I'd suggest jointing a raw feeding group on Facebook. Remember a lot of vets don't get a lot if food training. Mine admits he just learned several years ago that corn is bad for allergies because when he went to vet school science diet taught the two hour nutrition portion. 

 What do you feed now?

 I am very happy with wellness core. I know sometimes just switching the meat source makes a difference. Many are allergic to a certain meat source, chicken lamb etc. My last Dobe could not handle chicken at all. I got off anything diamond made recently as they were having diarrhea and they did not do a recall and that scared me. Got the wellness and it cleared instantly. My cattle dog has a stomach of steel. Dobe not so much!

[Katika]

I know many who do it very well but lots of planning goes into it! I just could never have the time! I'd suggest jointing a raw feeding group on Facebook. Remember a lot of vets don't get a lot if food training. Mine admits he just learned several years ago that corn is bad for allergies because when he went to vet school science diet taught the two hour nutrition portion. 

I guess I was sort of vague on that aspect of mentioning talking to your vet; sorry!  I agree, that most vets don't necessarily have a strong background in nutrition (which is why I also mentioned an animal nutritionist).  I was suggesting to talk to your vet to make sure blood work and the like clears your girl from underlying medical conditions that may need medical intervention as well.  My vet did actually advise me against Science Diet because of the corn content, but like I said, my old dog is extremely delicate on what her GI tract will/can and will not/cannot accept. 

Your dog is very lucky to have you, with as much thought and care as you are putting into her health

[kaoskat]

It never sounded safe to me so I've never even considered it more than finding out what it is, but it looks like you've gotten some good advice.

[LadyMoondancer]

I used to hang out on a dog forum and a lot of people had dogs that had problems with raw bones, like dogs choking and such.  Raw bones less dangerous than cooked bones, but I still wouldn't be comfortable giving them to a dog.

Also Consumer Reports found that a lot of chicken, including organic chicken, has salmonella.  Fine if you cook it, potentially bad if you don't.  Dogs can get salmonella.

I guess all I can say is I wouldn't do it and I'm dubious if it's much of an improvement compared to a high quality (grain free) dog food. 

[Radiance]

I looked into a raw diet for my dogs, but it sounded really complex & time intensive, hard to get a balanced diet, and a couple of  raw websites advocated feeding roadkill to save on costs. Ewww! I feed my dogs & cats grain free food and they are healthy, shiny, and very active. As an occasional treat I'll get some beef meat scraps (including organ meat) to feed my carnivores. They love it, but as I said I only feed it once in a great while. My vet is constantly saying my older dog & cat look great for their age and it's true- they don't look nearly their age. Raw sounds good, but dogs evolved from wolves alongside humans, eating whatever scraps of human food they could get and hunting. I really don't think their system is suited to an all raw diet. 

[Tilas]

I'm another one with a really weird dog (we've spent a LOT of money trying to figure out what's going on with her immune system/upper respiratory system) that between nine different vets (including three referral-level specialists), all we could come up with is that she's "allergic to life."

It's difficult, isn't it? Rom has been to 7 vets, 2 human nurses, 2 human doctors, and 1 human surgeon over the course of his life! With no vet in town it's been even harder, hence the human medical people!  He's almost 11, and it was only last summer when the newest vet finally figured it out, and it was after she read this 5 page email I sent to her chronicling his entire medical history, and she decided it was time for a totally out of the box approach.  Animals, like people, can truly be allergic to anything.

[joce]

My grandparents had shar peis for years( both rescue and breeders, last one just passed at sixteen which is old for one!) and they are a mess with allergies and genetic issues. That's where me feeding issues started. We eliminated everything with their first rescue years ago to discover it was grass. Their first vet didn't know about shar pei fever. It was a mess. For a couple raw was the best choice. For others high quality kibble was more than enough.

I cringe watching dogs chew on raw hides and greenies yet people don't want to give raw bones. I've actually not heard of anyone I know having issue a with raw- but they also researched it. These are DOG people, not just people who have dogs.

Be careful. Road kill is crazy! My friend that shows her dobes has a beautiful raw meal for all her cats and dogs every night and always something different. It's not just slapped together. And don't read or listen to all or nothing people. Maybe I can get a link.

Edit to her blog with pics from a couple years ago

http://www.prairiedobecompanion.com/2013/07/a-week-of-raw.html?m=1

If you search it there are more posts. It just shocks me that her dogs meals are better than what I eat and that's the only way I would do it. My grandparents did a pre made thing their holistic vet at the time had. May have even been the pre made stuff they sell but want to say she had it made there?? Been a couple years.

[melodys_angel]

when we had comet, who had an inherited skin disease, yes.  raw meat helped the itch greatly

[Leave a Whisper]

First of all whoever named this diet had to be inspired by a little kid, second these are all very interesting stories and facts.