Raw feeding?

[moss]

I would be really grateful for peoples opinion on my feeding dilema
Apologies, this may be a bit long
Firstly some background - I changed Sunny onto raw food the week before Christmas 2011, about 3 weeks later his behaviour began to change.  He started to growl at other dogs and at me when I stroked him sometimes.  He was diagnosed with Steroid Responsive Meningitis around 19 March 2012.  With hindsight I wonder if he was building up to this Meningitis, is that possible? 
Migo started on raw food about mid January, 5 weeks after Sunny was diagnosed with Meningitis Migo was diagnosed with Polyarthritis.  I have 2 other dogs that started on raw food at the same time as Migo, they are still fed raw and are fine.
On vets advice when both dogs were put onto steroids I stopped their raw diet and have fed Natures Harvest.  Migo and Sunny are doing well now and are both on reducing doseages of steroids.

My dilema is do I risk changing them back to raw food once they are (hopefully)off the steroids?
I wonder if it was the sudden change in feeding that triggered their immune problems or whether feeding had nothing to do with it and it was complete coincidence. 
I started to feed raw thinking that I was doing my best for my dogs as we all do in our feeding decisions whatever they are.  However I now wonder if I inadvertantly was the cause of their recent problems

Edited to say that Sunny's behaviour is now 100% back to normal with me (ie no growling) and 99% with other dogs

I'd be really grateful to hear anyones views
Thanks

[Jo CIMDA]

Hi

I doubt that it was the raw feeding that triggered your dog's immune problems.  A dog has to have a genetic predisposition to develop an autoimmune disease, but that is not all, as the dog has to meet a 'trigger factor' which causes the immune system to malfunction whereby it no longer recognises part of its own body as 'self'.  So a predisposed dog is like a ticking time bomb just waiting for the trigger to light the 'touch paper'.  the trigger can be anything that challenges the immune system and this can range from drugs, stress, hormones etc.....

When a dog is in remission,  I always recommend the owner not change anything but if your boys were used to raw feeding then you could slowly re introduce it back into their daily routine.  I don't raw feed but Penel does and Ihope she sees this message.
Jo

[moss]

Thank you for your reply.
I don't want to think it was the actual raw food that may have been the trigger but wondered if it could have been just the change in itself that acted as the trigger?
Just the fact that I had 2 dogs diagnosed with immune problems within 5 weeks of each other and within weeks of changing their food makes me wonder if that change could be the key.
I suppose I'll never know but as you said if I change again I think gradually will be the way forward.
Thanks again

[Jo CIMDA]

Hi Moss

It is very rare to definitively identify the trigger for autoimmune disease, unless of course the dog has recently received a drug or vaccine or for example, has developed Addison's disease after whelping a litter.  The trigger factors are known but the dog will encounter many of them on a daily basis and will have done so for many years.  It think it is all about a set of circumstances coming together at the wrong time.  If the dog does not have a genetic predisposition to AI disease then it doesn't matter how many potential triggers it encounters it will not develop AI disease.

It is a worry but all you can do is be aware and try to limit triggers as much as you can.

Jo

[Penel CIMDA moderator]

I started to feed raw when Saffy was very ill with SLE.  her blood results improved dramatically with the change of diet - at the time she had glomerulonephritis and the specialist said she wouldn't get better from that - we only changed her diet (from homecooked, to raw) and she recovered from it.  She did die from SLE but I'm convinced she lived longer than she would have on a commercial diet.

It's a hard decision to make - if the dogs with SRMA are doing ok on the processed food then I'd probably leave them on it for now, at least for several months until you are sure as you can be that they are stable.  Unfortunately SRMA is one of the ones that does tend to recur so you must be prepared for that 

[moss]

Thank you both for your info. 
I've spent months blaming myself for them being ill but maybe it wasn't all my faut then
Jacqui
Devon

[Janspack]

I normally feed my cats on raw and the dogs have a mixture of raw and kibble.  I've had people try to blame the raw feeding for every known problem my cats have ever had. LOL  I believe that it is the most natural way of feeding available to us and I don't honestly think you can blame yourself for Sunny's AI disease.

I've had several dogs over the past 30 years who had AI diseases - some minor and some life threatening and I only started feeding raw food during the past 2 years.

I in fact have wondered if feeding them less natural foods could have been partially to blame.    It's human nature to look for something to explain it when things go wrong isn't it? 

[Penel CIMDA moderator]

Good post Jan.