If you love your dog and want it to have a long and happy life, you MUST read this!!
This is Royal Prince Hershey my loving and kind 7 year old (Feb.2, 2010) chocolate lab. He went in last Wednesday (Jan. 27,2010) for a lump to be removed from his right side rib cage. He almost bled to death on the operating table.
He was thought to have osteosarcoma (bone cancer) When the Veterinarian got inside there were parts of his ribs eaten away and many damaged vessels.
The first three people I told about Hershey's condition said "it's the dog food."
None of them asked what brand he ate and they didn't think it mattered.
I also had a 9 year old golden lab. that died of lung cancer. What do these dogs have in common, dog food.
He was my constant companion. When I was in the truck, he was in the truck. When people would see him sitting in the drivers seat I would say to him "you can't drive in the city. The next time we are in the hills I'll let you drive." Then he would scoot over and let me in. It always brought a laugh.
February 2, 2010
He is doing a little better today but the first thing the Veterinarian did was put him on a prescription diet at $3+ a can and he needs 2 3/4 cans a day. The newest thing I have heard is that many people make their own dog food so they can keep out carbohydrates. Isn't there a agency that checks the food made for our pets? I am starting to think more and more about dog food. The pathology came in this afternoon and he has hemangiosarcoma. It is a cancer that develops in the blood. If he is lucky he might last 6 months. I wish I knew when to let him go or do I just wait? Very sad!
February 3, 2010
I have been doing a lot of reading about dog food and find it SHOCKING! The 10 best dog foods I haven't ever seen. They sure don't show up in the grocery, discount and chain pet stores. I found that I can order fresh made dog food over the net and it isn't much more money than the junk you buy at the store. The best food is the one YOU make for your pet.
Dogs are carnivores and their diet needs to be fresh raw meat with vegetables and berries mixed in. NO GRAIN. You can order this type of dog food over the net so don't give your dog junk and shorten their life. People with small dogs usually use canned dog food which has meat but people with large dogs usually buy dry dog food which is HIGHLY processed and has enough preservatives to keep it from spoiling almost forever. That's BAD FOR DOGS! I always thought I was buying the best food, but a life of only 7 years is not long enough for a great dog like my Hersh.
March 10, 2010
Yesterday my dog died. It has been awful on my wife and I but he slipped away quietly. Now I can say DOG FOOD killed my good and kind friend! He was with me all the time and I don't know what I am going to do with out him.
On dog food packages it will have some kind of meat(lamb, beef,etc.)but the package can sit in a hot building, never go bad and doesn't have a processed date and the expiration date may be more than a year away. I don't know of any human meat product that can do that.
March 15, 2010
Every day I find out more and more about how bad dog food is. You can't believe most people in the pet supply stores. I was told that the dog food I was feeding my dog was the best. Come to find out it was very poor. I was told that you should find 3 to 5 different foods your dog likes and switch every three months so if there is something bad in the food your dog won't be getting it all the time You can also get fresh dog food that has to be refrigerated. If you go to the popular chain stores you will be very disappointed at the quality.
3/4 of the dogs that die before old age die from cancer. Why so many? I'm convinced it is bad dog food.
March 17, 2010
Animals used to make dog food and NOT for human consumption have one or more of the 4D's Dead, dying, disabled or diseased. Eggs are used from hatcheries but for some reason the chick didn't hatch. Then there are the offals (don't know the word google it) Anything that humans will eat goes to the stores and the rest to dog food. Animal by-products can be things that are scraped off plates at restaurants. Anything that is left over after everything is extracted. Skin, hooves, heads, bones, after they have been boiled to extract things humans use.
Dogs in the wild don't need and don't eat grain!
If the first item on the dog food says some kind of meat that doesn't mean that it is mostly meat. Look at it this way, if the label has 3 things on it, meat, rice, cornmeal. That dog food could be 1/3 meat and 2/3 filler. Dogs don't need or want carbohydrates. How many dog foods only have 3 ingredients, they have a dozen or more and half of the stuff you can't pronounce.
March 18, 2010
Lets talk about what's in dog food. I think they should call it COW FOOD. Not because it has any cow meat in it but because it should be fed to cows. Whole grain corn, corn gluten meal, whole grain wheat, soybean meal, brewers rice, dried yeast, rice flower, cracked pearled barley, rice bran and other HIGH CARBOHYDRATES. Dogs have NO REQUIREMENTS FOR CARBOHYDRATES. This is from the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFOC) and the National Research Council's Committee on Animal Nutrition.
MOST dog foods contain 40 to 60% carbohydrates from grain.
I saw this on a dog food but it is hard to believe!
Ingredient #11 beef (The most it could be is 9-10%), #12 sugar (what every dog needs for healthy teeth), #13 propylene glycol. Don't know what that is, the common name is antifreeze. The same stuff you put in your car and the same stuff that will KILL a pet if they drink it.
Have you ever heard of Naval Jelly? There are different brand names but it is Phosphoric Acid. It is put on rust to change it to a hard black surface that will no longer rust. That's right, RUST KILLER. But to be fair, the same stuff is put in the cola's people drink. It MAY be linked to bone loss in humans.
Another ingredient is animal digest. A cooked-down broth from specified or unspecified parts of animals. If the source is unspecified the animal used can be obtained from ANY source, so there are NO CONTROLS over quality or contamination. Any kind of animal can be included, goats, pigs, horses, rats, miscellaneous road kill, animals euthanized at shelters, restaurant and supermarket refuse.
From Chihuahuas to Great Danes, all dogs carry the same DNA and share a single evolutionary origin, the gray wolf. The gray wolf in captivity can live to 20 years old. Just like their wild cousins, dogs are carnivores, equipped with sharp teeth, short digestive track, and a body evolved to metabolize animal proteins and fats. Did you know that almost 70% of a dog's immune system is found in the digestive tract?
March 19, 2010
The bad food may have started even before Hershey was born. His mom, how was she fed? We know that pregnant women should not smoke, drink and should have good food etc. The same goes for mother dogs (not the smoking and drinking). Who checks or even asks about how the mother dog was taken care of? It never crossed my mind.
When I tell some people about my story they say, "I know a dog that lived 15 years on the cheapest dog food you can buy" and I say, "I know someone who lived to be 100 and smoked everyday, but that is the exception not the rule."
If you think good dog food costs too much, try saving your dogs life with operations. You can spend thousands and still not have a good outcome. I understand that sometimes it can't be changed with good dog food, some dogs will die young but there is an epidemic of dogs dying young and more and more cheap bad dog food being pushed on the public.
March 25,2010
The average dog lives to 11 years 1 month with larger breeds living fewer years and smaller breeds living longer. The 3 dogs that live to be the oldest did not eat grain, 2 were on a meat diet and 1 on a vegetable diet.
Sixty-four percent of dogs, who do not die at an old age, die from disease. Neutered males have the shortest life and spayed females have the longest life. A study of dog food in Europe showed that you may be able to double some dogs lives with good dog food.
March 26,2010
Disclaimer:Do I work for a dog food company NO! Do I sell dog food NO! Do I endorse any dog food NO!
Don't take anyones word for what is best, do your own research, there are plenty of places to look and people to ask. You can make your own dog food but if you don't have time to do that you can go to www.orijen.ca You should make your own decision, there are many web sites that talk about different dog foods. Look around and make an informed decision! Now that many companies get their dog food made over seas there could be even worse things in dog food but it's hard to believe it could get much worse.
It is cheaper to feed your dog great food, than trying to correct a problem at the vet's.
Just think carnivore not COW. By the way, cows hate corn also, they are grass eaters. So when choosing the right dog food for your dog give serious consideration to the ingredients. Look around there are stores that specialize in great dog food.
There is a company that tests dog food and rates them from 1 to 6 stars, 6 being the best brands. Take a look and make up your own mind what you want to feed your dog http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com go to reviews. If you buy your dog food at a chain store, start at 1 star, it will probably be there. If you have seen national advertising on your dog food, start at 1, it will probably be there. Science Diet gets a 1. Don't be fooled by fancy names. They looked at 1,657 dog foods and that's just the dry stuff. Only 22 made 6 stars. Even some of the dog foods rated high for content were NOT recommended for your dog because they contained ETHOXYGUIN.
April 16, 2010
That should give you a good idea what I think of dog food.
It's now been over a month since Hershey died and it doesn't seem to get much easier. Looking back on all the time he and I spent together I think we were best friends but it would only be fair to say he loved my wife maybe more than he loved me. I am going to end on a lighter note and give you a joke that shows the immeasurable love of dogs.
Put your spouse and your dog in the trunk of your car, drive around the block, open the trunk and see which one is happy to see you.
May 13, 2010
If you go to page 2 at the top you can read an article that was in the San Francisco Cronicle 1990 about how some dog foods are made. I e-mailed the author and he confirmed his findings.
In Loving Memory
Royal Prince Hershey
If love could have saved you, you would have lived forever!
February 2, 2003 - March 9, 2010
The Hersh
