My Senior Dog (Pt 1)

This series of posts is going to be really hard to write.
The whole reason I started I Own a Carnivore! is to document my journey feeding raw and also to help myself learn more and keep up with learning more. I learn best through teaching others.

isn't he just the most beautiful old grey dog you've ever seen?

This part of the journey is hard to write about, and hard to set foot on. This one is harder than others because this one is about my Coaly Moley. I don't write about him that much because Coal is my old guy, he's been through it all with me. He's my Heart Dog. For the most part, Coal is just a really awesome dog. Everyone loves him who meets him. He's got so much character and such a zest for life. He's not the reason I switched to raw, Unit's allergies are. However, I decided to take the risk of switching him to raw at 10 years old because I wanted to help him age gracefully. I fed raw before Coal, and when I got him as a 9 week old puppy I made the decision to feed him kibble. If I had to do it all over again, I would have tried harder to feed him raw, but switched back to kibble because of the convenience. I didn't have a lot of money or time to feed raw. I told myself that as long as he was a healthy dog I had no reason to switch.

What I didn't think about was even if I didn't see it, kibble was killing my dog from the beginning. Did you know the average life expectancy of the average dog (Coal falling into that category) is actually 25 - 30 years? These days the average life expectancy is 10 - 15 years. A dog use to be classified as senior at the age of 10, now it's 8. Coal is 10 going on 11 next February.

Since the cold has started I've noticed him slowing dog a lot more. He's riddled with little lumps all over. He was diagnosed with a benign form of skin cancer just over a year ago. These little lumps are always going to come back, my vet told me, but are likely to only spread within the skin, not to other organs (which is a good thing). That being said, I also didn't spend the money to have a full blood-work and biopsy analysis done, just from what my vet could tell looking at a slide in her office. You have to do what you can for your pets, and if you can't afford the fancy treatments I don't think there's shame in that. I would love to be able to afford all that extensive testing, of course! But I refuse to feel guilty for not being able to afford it.


So now that I can't ignore it anymore, I know 100% Coal is a senior citizen, it's time to see how I can help ease his aging as gracefully as I can using as natural methods as possible. Because Coal was switched to raw at the age of 10 it doesn't mean that the raw diet will eradicate any ailments caused from a live time of processed kibble. It just means it can help slow the process and maybe even help ease his pain and suffering in a way that doesn't also come with a bunch of nasty side effects and other ailments.

One of my first steps will be a vet check. I'm very fortunate to have a wonderful vet who supports natural remedies like raw feeding. She's the one who helped me a LOT in starting out to uncover Unit's allergies. Dr. Cori Stephen at Nechako Valley Animal Health Services. A lot of veterinarians will recommend pain meds and all sorts of treatment to help your senior dog, but these treatments often come hand in hand with awful side effects.

Switching to raw was probably one of the best things I could have done for my senior canine friend. A diet consisting of raw, whole foods is much easier to digest than processed kibbles. Senior dogs require fewer calories for their daily activities because their daily activities aren't quite as active as they use to be. I can't help but notice I find Coal sleeping in his bed in my closet a lot more often than I find him about the house or in the yard doing his usual activities (usually involve "chasing shadows", did I mention Coal has had OCD his whole life?). So the average senior dog requires less  protein, fats, vitamins and minerals and require more digestible foods to continue to support their system against the natural process of aging. Since raw foods are natural and easier to digest they spend less time and energy converting the nutrients from them. This contributes to a reduction in need for digestive tract and organ performance and allows those vital nutrient conversions to last and preform longer.

So while I didn't fully understand it at the time, I knew that switching to raw was the best thing I could do to help my aging companion.

Once he's been checked by my vet we'll be able to decide from there what extra nutrition he may require.



Resources:
Senior Dogs Blog - Nutrition for Our Older Dogs
Senior Dogs Blog - Older Dogs and Raw Food
Senior Dogs Blog - Dog Supplements

Liver

 Liver, my most hated organ and the dogs favorite. It's slimy, it's smelly, it's bloody. The dogs slurp it up like candy! Liver is also one of the most nutritious of organs and should be fed as at least half of the organs fed. A variety of liver sources (beef, pork, chicken, etc.) over time is of course, best (a variety of all foods over time is what you want to aim for!). Kidney is the next most nutritious organ, with lung and pancreas to follow. Heart and gizzard are not organs, but are in fact muscles. They should be fed as well, but remember that they're not organs but muscles!

Organ meats are high in vitamin D, a hormone precursor that regulates numerous functions in the body. Vitmain D deficiency is related to muscle weakness, fractures, common cancers, autoimmune diseases and infectious diseases. A lack of vitamin D is also known to cause depression, which is why depression is in higher rates in northern places (the sun being an optimal source of vitamin D). I'm not sure if dogs can suffer from depression, but I wouldn't be surprised. Humans share a lot of conditions and diseases with our canine friends. Supplementing a little extra vitamin D during the winter can help your dog avoid vitamin D deficiency due to the lack of sunshine during winter months.

Liver is known as the premium part of the animal because it's so full of vitamins and minerals. In New Zealand the livers of animals older than 2 years aren't allowed to be sold for human consumption. This is because the phosphate fertilizer historically applied to New Zealand soils had a higher cadmium content than that used in other parts of the world. The cadmium accumulates in the liver, and can exceed maximum recommended levels as the animal gets older. Calves liver is a "milder" taste. Liver from young, pasteurized cows is the best choice for not only your canine family but human too!

Liver from Silver Spring Country

I noticed the difference recently, between the liver I got from a local farmer and the liver I've bought at the super market. The liver from the farm was dark, rich and not nearly as slimy or smelly.  It was by far a lot easier to handle than the liver I'd gotten at the super market. The liver's job is to neutralize toxins in the body, so it only makes sense to avoid liver from animals that received a lot of antibiotics and hormones. Organic, grass fed animals is the best source for any meat, but especially liver.

Liver is an excellent source of high-quality protein. It is nature's most concentrated source of Vitamin A and contains all the B vitamins in abundance, especially vitamin B12. It's often known as the "cure for anemia" because of this (pernicious anemia is a debilitating disease caused by B12 deficiency). Vitamin A works to aid digestion, keep reproductive organs healthy, and is a powerful antioxidant.

Other amazing attributes of liver are:

• One of our best sources of folic acid
• A highly usable form of iron
• Trace elements such as copper, zinc and chromium; liver is our best source of copper
• An unidentified anti-fatigue factor
• CoQ10, a nutrient that is especially important for cardio-vascular function
• A good source of purines, nitrogen-containing compounds that serve as precursors for DNA and RNA 

How to Serve Liver to your Dog:
Like most of the bones meat and organs you should be feeding your dog, liver should be fed raw. It's a nutrient dense organ and is very effected by heat. Cooking will lose the digestive enzymes and nutrients. Since the whole purpose of feeding organs to your dog is for their dense nutrient value, cooking them will remove the benefits you're feeding for in the first place!

Some dogs don't like the texture of organs, specifically liver (can you blame them?). If your dog refuses to eat liver whole, you can blend it in a food processor and add that to his regular food.



What Source of Liver is Best?
Weston A. Price Foundation has a liver comparison chart on their website (also available here). This is a great place to start when looking for what animal sources liver is best.

Resources:
Raw Feeding 101
The Natural Food Guide - Liver
The Weston A. Price Foundation - The Liver Files 
Dogs Naturally Magazine - Why Organ Meat is Important for the Raw Fed Dog