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Never used commercial dog food

Jillian Danson

Jillian Danson

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I took my 9 year old Westie to the vets 2 weeks ago was surprised that the vet checked the screen to double check her age as she thought my Westie, Bungle, was only 2. She said that she had never seen a Westie look so young for her age and with such beautiful fur! I was rather chuffed at this and was equally as proud when I took my 4 year old Westie for some dental treatment (we thought she had broken a bit of tooth off chewing on an antler bone). The same vet said the same thing, that her skin was wonderful and she was so healthy. She asked us what we were feeding them and I told her the truth - we buy the packs of fresh chicken chunks from Tesco. They get half a pack of this each with a tiny scattering of cheese. To add some crunch we make our own croutons. The vet said this is why they look so amazing. What he said next nearly bowled me over. She said she would never feed her own dog with commercial dog food, even the very expensive, supposedly healthy brands as they ALL use grains which dogs cannot digest.

I made the choice not to feed my dogs any off the shelf dog food because of the list of additives listed on each packet. We watched a television program years ago which showed one well know dog food brand even used a chemical that is used in antifreeze!

Anyway, if anybody has a dog with skin problems then think about what you are feeding them. My 9 year old plays like a puppy with no signs of arthritis. The only time she has needed veterinary treatment was for a tumor on her gum. Thankfully this was benign but had to be removed just to make sure.

Hope this helps anybody who's furry family member is having problems.
 
When I think of the number of Westies I've seen with skin problems this is a remarkable story;)- and yes I think raw is best.
 
How wonderful:) Accepted wisdom is that raw-fed dogs should be fed a variety of proteins, plus some offal and bone - but hey, what you're feeding obviously works brilliantly for Bungle!

As much as I am all for a natural, raw diet, bear in mind that just because a particular substance is used in antifreeze doesn't make it bad. After all, they use water in antifreeze too! And there are plenty of grain-free foods out there.
 
JudyN said:
How wonderful:) Accepted wisdom is that raw-fed dogs should be fed a variety of proteins, plus some offal and bone - but hey, what you're feeding obviously works brilliantly for Bungle!

As much as I am all for a natural, raw diet, bear in mind that just because a particular substance is used in antifreeze doesn't make it bad. After all, they use water in antifreeze too! And there are plenty of grain-free foods out there.
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This is exactly what I was thinking. Just because a chemical is IN one substance that is toxic doesn't mean it, itself, is toxic. Everything is a chemical. Additives are not necessarily bad, added vitamins for example. I'm really glad your westie is happy and healthy, and I do believe making food is always going to be a healthy option. For humans too. But just to play devils advocate, my Mum's sheltie is 13.5yrs and has been fed commercial food all her life and looks amazing. Not always the most expensive brands either as my Mum had a drop in income for a long time when recovering from breast cancer. My mum's dog has only in the last year become stiff in one leg, partly because a very obese relative stepped on that leg/foot. She's never had any health problems, had one healthy litter when she was younger :)
 
I am dumbfounded that someone would think that giving chemicals used in antifreeze is okay??? I wouldn't eat it and I doubt many people would but to each their own. I just know my dogs are chemical free and healthy.

Has anybody thought that many years ago it was a shock to be told someone you knew had cancer yet now 1 in 3, soon to be 1 in 2 people are diagnosed with cancer. I myself am on my second bout with the big C. I think the addition of additives and so called safe "chemicals" are to blame. I remember when bread went hard as a rock when it was no good, now you get mold but it never goes hard. What about margarine. It is so bad that you can leave a tub open in the shed for a week and nothing will grow on it because it has no nutritional value, it is only a few molecules away from plastic. What is used to stop the bread hardening. Just simple foods like this have chemicals. We were never designed to eat this stuff.
 
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Jillian Danson said:
I am dumbfounded that someone would think that giving chemicals used in antifreeze is okay???
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Everything is a chemical - water is a chemical, salt is a chemical, alcohol is a chemical. Salt acts as an antifreeze but we happily add (small) quantities to our food. So the point is that just because something is an ingredient in something nasty, that something isn't necessarily nasty in itself. You have to look at the substance in itself, not at the properties of something that contains it.
 
two hydrogen one oxygen...aka H2O- it used to get the students every time! BUT take out the H and add the C (yup that's carbon, the stuff you're made of!) and you get a deadly poison...that's the trouble with chemistry. Be afraid, be very afraid :eek:
 
Jillian Danson said:
I am dumbfounded that someone would think that giving chemicals used in antifreeze is okay??? I wouldn't eat it and I doubt many people would but to each their own. I just know my dogs are chemical free and healthy.

Has anybody thought that many years ago it was a shock to be told someone you knew had cancer yet now 1 in 3, soon to be 1 in 2 people are diagnosed with cancer. I myself am on my second bout with the big C. I think the addition of additives and so called safe "chemicals" are to blame. I remember when bread went hard as a rock when it was no good, now you get mold but it never goes hard. What about margarine. It is so bad that you can leave a tub open in the shed for a week and nothing will grow on it because it has no nutritional value, it is only a few molecules away from plastic. What is used to stop the bread hardening. Just simple foods like this have chemicals. We were never designed to eat this stuff.
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Hope you didn't take my post as criticism. Was just debating the point. There is water in antifreeze, but we consume that. This is a similar point that the nutter "Food Babe" is always making. 'Don't eat this bread because it contains a chemical that is also used in yoga mats '(yes seriously.) Obviously convenience foods aren't healthy, but I believe a lot of foods available now are actually probably "safer" than say what my grandad had to eat. Where mice in your house where the norm and undoubtedly sharing your food. I also have access to a larger amount of nutritional variety and fresher foods than he did for example.

I believe that the number of diagnoses such as cancer have gone up due to an increase in advancement of disease knowledge and diagnostic tools etc. Lifespans are also longer and the population is booming, increasing the incidence of finding things like cancer. Medical science has come a long way. If there was an external fact to an increase in cancer I personally believe it would be down to environmental factors like carbon emissions. Just my 10-pence worth.
 
Jillian Danson said:
I am dumbfounded that someone would think that giving chemicals used in antifreeze is okay??? I wouldn't eat it and I doubt many people would but to each their own. I just know my dogs are chemical free and healthy.

Has anybody thought that many years ago it was a shock to be told someone you knew had cancer yet now 1 in 3, soon to be 1 in 2 people are diagnosed with cancer. I myself am on my second bout with the big C. I think the addition of additives and so called safe "chemicals" are to blame. I remember when bread went hard as a rock when it was no good, now you get mold but it never goes hard. What about margarine. It is so bad that you can leave a tub open in the shed for a week and nothing will grow on it because it has no nutritional value, it is only a few molecules away from plastic. What is used to stop the bread hardening. Just simple foods like this have chemicals. We were never designed to eat this stuff.
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Sorry to hear you are suffering with cancer :-(

I thought exactly the same recently about bread products. We had some wraps and I thought I better check the date as they were most likely ‘out of date’ and it said they were fine until October!
 
Jillian Danson said:
I think the addition of additives and so called safe "chemicals" are to blame. I remember when bread went hard as a rock when it was no good, now you get mold but it never goes hard
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I tend to agree with you and I avoid as much processed food as possible. The new UK sugar tax has led to manufacturers replacing sugar with artificial sweeteners in just about everything despite the latest research showing they make little difference to obesity levels.

It's now just about impossible to get some products without it in - cranberry juice for example. I've had to abandon all Ocean Spray juices as it's now in all of them. The upshot of this is that people will now be consuming huge amounts of these chemicals and we simply don't know what the long term effects will be. My gut feeling is they won't be good.

We are very much lab rats in a giant biochemistry experiment.
 
October! Good grief, cannot imagine what is in them to keep them that long.

Thank you for your kind words. I had breast cancer in 2009 and just got the 5 year all clear but I was feeling terrible. Tests discovered I had a very rare form of blood cancer (1 in 250,000). I am doing well but having to put toxic chemotherapy drugs in my body every day. I take these to live without having a choice but I do have a choice what goes into my body and my dogs body. They are living proof that chemical free is best.
 
Jillian Danson said:
October! Good grief, cannot imagine what is in them to keep them that long.

Thank you for your kind words. I had breast cancer in 2009 and just got the 5 year all clear but I was feeling terrible. Tests discovered I had a very rare form of blood cancer (1 in 250,000). I am doing well but having to put toxic chemotherapy drugs in my body every day. I take these to live without having a choice but I do have a choice what goes into my body and my dogs body. They are living proof that chemical free is best.
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Oh how awful for you. I have witnessed how invasive and strong chemotherapy is so I agree with you totally about staying as healthy as possible in other ways
 
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