It comes to us as no surprise that nutrition plays a very important role in health. Thousands of years ago ancient physicians already knew that “your food should be your medicine.” However, student veterinarians study very hard in Western institutions. With good intentions they go forth in disseminate their knowledge and deal with all manner of pet ailments. This approach works well with a majority of pets but, as with all systems, there are exceptions. The exceptions come to me in the form of animals with certain allergic skin conditions and immune problems who fail to respond favorably to a variety of Western treatments aimed at ending their suffering. What’s a vet to do?
A few weeks after researching possible alternative therapy protocols for these patients, I was at a gathering of very bright veterinarians up at the Chi Institute of Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine in Gainesville. It was at this meeting that I presented some of my toughest non-responsive cases, and my friends advised me to put these cases on raw food trials. “Raw Food Trials,” I gasped. “You quacks always go back to that stuff!” “Al,” they said, “Look outside the box!” I did and here is what I learned.
The pet food movement began as a need to supply busy people with a convenient balanced food that was good for their pets. These new convenient foods were made using cooked meat, plus proteins and carbohydrates that come mainly from grains. I looked at modern dogs, cats, and ferrets and found that although the outside of these animals had changed over the last few thousand years through selective breeding, their digestive systems were for the most part unchanged from that of wolves, wild cats and ferrets. So what did the common ancestors of these animals eat?
Fact 1: Wolves do not make fires and cook food over a stove. They eat raw meat.
Fact 2: Wolves do not wear John Deer hats – nor have I ever seen a cat or ferret driving a combine or tractor. Therefore, except for the occasional forge in a cornfield, most wild animals’ diets are not based on grains.
Fact 3: Many wild animals eat vegetable matter in the form of the stomach contents of the animals they hunt, usually herbivores.
Fact 4: Cooking is a chemical process in which food is heated. This heating process changes the food itself from a primary form to a secondary form. Think about a steak on the barbeque. It changes color, doesn’t it? This color change is due to a chemical process where some chemical bonds are broken, some are added. In the end the very food changes character, turning into something new –something that may not be ideal for my more sensitive patients.
I left Gainesville with a challenge to put my worst cases on a raw food trial of a month and see what happened. Wow! My first bald dog was growing hair after three weeks. I was ecstatic. I tried it again with similar results in more and more patients. After a month, my mouth was filled with raw crow. Humbled by my previous skepticism, I called my holistic friends to apologize for my comment about quacks. It seemed I was now one of them! Then I changed my name to “Ducktor” Al, and began recommending this “new” raw food to all my clients. After all, I had used this “new” therapy to heal the sick ones. Why not use the same diet to keep the healthy ones healthy.
I found many recipes for raw food diets, but many did not pass the wolf acid test of 1) non-cooked proteins and carbohydrates, and 2) no grains. After more research, I used and promoted the book, Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats, The Ultimate Diet by Kymythy R. Schultze CCN, AHI. This book has great recipes, but I found that some owners’ lifestyles did not go well with food preparation for their pets. That’s where “Keith and Kyle’s Raw Natural Diet” came in. Keith supplied us with fresh, quality raw food, following the basic recipe from Dr. Schultze’s book. This was great! Now, not only could I help the animals of people with plenty of time on their hands and a do-it-yourself flare, but I could also help the pets of busy people by providing the best food conveniently. Thank you Keith!
It’s been many years since those awakening days. Since then I have broadened the scope of traditional Western practice to include a vast array of holistic, alternative homeopathic and acupuncture, herbal, energy and sound therapy to help my patients. I believe a balanced approach employing modern Western medicine coupled with modern and ancient Eastern therapies can only help to reach a favorable healing outcome.
East and West, Ying/Yang, Healthy pets Happy people — now that’s a balance!
