Certified Veterinary Homeopathy by Dr. Glen Dupree

So, you have decided that conventional medicine is not right for your pet? You want to pursue a more wholistic method of pet care but where do you start? Looking for an acupuncturist? A Homeopath? An herbalist? A chiropractor? A ??????

The place to start is at home before you ever choose a medical modality or practitioner. A truly wholistic medical plan starts with the patient's world, their environment, their community, their family, and their personal care and housing.

The first step is normalizing the patient's world for their species (within the confines of domestication and living with human caregivers). Special care should be taken in providing species appropriate housing and schedules (yes, cats are supposed to be nocturnal and will want to play when you are trying to sleep!). Private and personal areas should be provided - den areas for dogs, perches and lofts for cats, secluded litter areas, quiet and protected sleeping areas, and areas for play and socialization with others of their own species and other animals (including the human animals) in the household. Pets should be provided with toys for play and jobs so they have a purpose. Proper and adequate food and water should be provided on a correct schedule. A harmonious environment should be maintained.

Of all these, the area of greatest impact at this level is nutrition. Few things will go so far to foster health and wellness in your pet as will species appropriate nutrition. Yet, few areas cause as much concern and doubt in the care giver as feeding fresh and raw foods in a proportion and combination which approximates the evolutionary diet of these pets.

The major pet food companies have done a good job at convincing the public that, while they may be smart enough to feed their babies without a dietician on premise, they are not smart enough to feed their pets without relying of what comes from the companies' cans and bags. Makes you wonder how dogs and cats survived all those millennia before the advent of pet food companies. But I digress…….

Why is species appropriate nutrition and a diet of fresh and raw foods so important for our pets? For the same reasons that appropriate diet is important to us. The digestive tract of our pet species evolved over countless years to utilize the foodstuff presented in their natural environment. Their digestive system is structured to derive proper nutrition from these foodstuffs to supply their body with the necessary energy and the proper "building blocks" to build and maintain properly functioning systems. Food not in this form provides incomplete and/or improper nutrition.

Modern processed foods are not in this natural form. These processed foods also contain impurities in the form of artificial colorings, preservatives, flavor enhancers, and fillers which not only do not provide useable nutrition but rob the body of energy as they are detoxified and eliminated. This is energy which would otherwise be available for health and maintenance.

If we want to look at what constitutes a species appropriate diet, we must first select the species. Most homes with pets have either a dog or a cat so we will confine the rest of this discussion to these two species.

First, let's look at a species appropriate diet for a dog. Dogs evolved as pack animals and as scavengers and hunters. Although their dentition identifies dogs (and others of the canine species) as carnivores, they are in practice omnivores. Dogs will selectively graze certain plants (medicinal and tonic herbs in the spring, fruits and berries later in the year). This is normal species behaviour but constitutes only a small portion of the normal canine diet.

Most of the plant material and grain in a dog's diet comes from the gut of their prey. In this form the vegetable matter has been chewed and partially digested by the prey.

If we look at the composition of the common prey of wild dogs, we can begin to formulate proportions for a species appropriate dog diet. Most of the prey for dogs are small to medium sized herbivores with fairly large gut capacities. Their diet would have consisted of leafy plant material, fruits, and seed heads. This gut material would then comprise part of the dog's diet, along with the muscles and organs of the prey.

As pack animals, dogs evolved an eating style to maximize their food intake while being challenged by the other pack members for the food. In short they bolt their food, taking little time to chew. They swallow large pieces of food (some of which may be later regurgitated and eaten at a more leisurely pace away from the pack) as quickly as they can. Dogs who had more dainty nibbling habits were left hungry because the more aggressive members of the pack would have cleaned the carcass.

After the lone meal of the day, the pack would den and digest until it was time to resume the hunt. Also on those days when no prey or carrion was found, the pack would fast. During these fasts, the body would have time to replenish digestive enzymes and to repair the digestive tract.

To mimic this pattern, dogs should be fed once per day 5-6 days a week (unless they are still puppies or unless they have a medical condition which necessitates more frequent feeding). There are a variety of published diets for feeding fresh and raw foods (Pitcairn, McKay, Volhardt, and Billinghurst to name a few) each involving varying degrees of detail and labor. In this practice we avocate a "user-friendly" feeding scheme based on variety and moderation of components fixed within certain ratios of meats, vegetables and grains.

The bottom line for dogs is that they should be fed a diet consisting of 40-50 % raw meat (including organs and meaty bones. The bones must be boiled or, preferably, fed raw to be safe. Dry cooked bones are brittle, will shatter into sharp shards, and are indigestible.), 40-45% raw and pureed vegetables (pureeing is necessary to break down the particle size and fractionate the cell walls to aid the dog's digestion, as would the chewing and partial digestion by their prey. Any vegetable can be used with the exception of onions which can cause severe blood disorders in dogs.), and 5-20% overcooked whole grains (overcooked so they are more easily broken down and digested by the dog. Whole grains are preferred over processed or fractionated grains.). Variety and moderation will help ensure the diet is balanced over the long term.

The caveat to feeding this way is that the dogs must have a reasonably healthy digestive system and immune system before being introduced to fresh and raw foods. Otherwise the foods must be lightly cooked until the health and function of the dog is improved.

Cats on the other hand are obligate carnivores. They are solo hunters of small prey. Their normal prey has a relatively small gut capacity.

This means that cats function better with 2-3 small meals of mostly meat during the day. A good cat diet will consist of 75-85% raw meat, 10-15% raw veggies, and the remainder over cooked grains. Most of the time cats have to be supplemented with calcium since it is hard for them to eat enough bones to satisfy the calcium levels needed to balance the high phosphorous levels of muscle meat (and it's hard to buy mouse sized bones at the grocery store).

It is interesting to note that when cats are fed this way, they very seldom need to drink water. They will satisfy their fluid requirements from their meat intake. The other benefit is that the litter box doesn't need to be cleaned as often.

As with dogs, cats must also have a healthy, properly functioning immune and digestive tract before being fed a raw meat based diet.

For both species, supplements can be added on an individual basis but are far less necessary than for pets fed commercial, processed rations.

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