Bulldogs World

from Ton Lonsdale's book Work Wonders Feed Your Dog Raw Meaty Bones:

"Bird droppings and fecal material contain enzymes, vitamins and is teeming with bacteria....don't worry about this behavior." 

"Dogs may lick the earth containing bacteria and minerals, and chew on grass and other vegetation. These NATURAL canine activities likely provide benefit, and probably do no harm."

Kofi use to be crazy over kitty poo, but shows little interest in it since I have been feeding her raw.

Do you give Matilda digestive enzymes? I forgot to mention that as part of my raw feeding regimen. I give her FortiFlora about three times a week. You might want to do a search to see what others are using. I don't think this is an answer to the grass eating, but is recommended to give while our guys are adjusting to the raw.

Hope this helps.

They can get tape worms from eating a flea, or scat from a raccoon.  Or from a cat, the wild one's all have them I hear.  I am giving Buddy and Brother, [food grade only] Diatomaceous Earth, for tape worms right now.  Diatomaceous Earth is the dried bodies of fresh water diatoms, refined.  It's a good thing to read up on as it has many uses.  Gross pic, but here they are on Poo.

Steve

Puppies always have something in their mouth.  The grass eating is normal behaviour, I just try not to let mine consume *too* much of it, especially on an empty stomach because then it makes him throw up.  Some say there are beneficial reasons why they eat the grass.

It could be just what she thinks is a fun thing to do on otherwise boring walks.  Give her a little job to do, give her a stick to carry or a toy to carry - does she carry things? 

with Onslow we walk the same route almost daily, a school and a park.  I have taught him what certain landmarks are.  When we get near one like the school bell - I will say where is the Bell!  He runs to it and I ding it when we get there and make a big deal that he "found it", Lets go find the car, lets go find the fountain.  Ofcourse she has to have understanding of what those things are but they are smart and can learn!  Bring treats!  Onslow needs to keep his mind busy or he too will get bored.  Just telling you what I do - even if others may find it a bit silly.  =P

She tends to leave others poo if it is on the ground. In fact, she mostly avoids it as if it is offensive. The only time she goes after cat poop is if its in a litter box.

I'm more talking about the random other stuff outside. I wonder if I should give a bit of flortiflora instead? We've been giving seameal which contains acidophilus and she also gets yogurt which has some of the other ones I won't even attempt to spell.

he sniffs and puts his face in everything. Unfortunately he is allergic to grass, and tries to eat it. :-( I tell him NO and he laughs and continues trying to eat it. I think it is a bulldog thing. Oh yes, and one time he got coyote poop all over his face. i dont think he liked it because he leaves all animal poop alone.

How is Matilda doing with her raw diet? Did she ever have skin allergies? If so, have you noticed any changes with her skin reactions on the raw diet? Rex gets hives and hot spots from his allergies and I am trying to read everything I can about raw/cooked diets for him. We took him to the vet about 3 weeks ago for a hurt leg and beside from that the vet started in again about giving him predisone every day and so we once again (against my better judgement) tried giving him 10 mg every other day instead of the 5 mg every day we had been giving him. Of course, after a few days, the hives came back. i tried increasing his bathing but a week later he got a hot spot on his neck. So after 3 weeks of trying I am back to giving him 5 mg a day. He is miserable otherwise. He is clearing up but I got so angry at the vet, and now i have to find a new vet. I dont want to give him predisone every day, i know all the terrible things, but it has kept him healthy and happy for 8 years, except for the times the vet tried to make us alternate the days. Anyway, this is why i want to try either raw or cooking people food for him. He is allergic to everything and most dog foods have one thing in it that he is allergic to and we just have to settle for it being one of the lessor things on the ingredient list. Right now Rex is eating 2 cups a day of the Natural Balance lamb and rice. a few lamb roll around treats, and whatever meat Dad feels like sharing with him that he is not allergic to. He is 55 lbs. I dont think he is fat .

Well thanks for the raw diet updates. appreciate your time and information :-)  love the picture of Matilda, she is a cutie.

just checking for updates on that little one, hoping for good news. 

Chumlee, my little landscaper/dirt devil, licks the grass but doesn't eat it.  Thats one thing he doesn't do!  But still, licking the grass freaks me out.

<3

I wish I could say the same for her Dad. I just chipped my tooth on a fork eating dinner. Argh.

First off, I don't think you have anything to lose by doing raw food. Judy Wilson on here one day wrote in one of our postings: dump the kibble. And honestly, unlike every other time I've tried to switch Matilda's food this was pretty easy. From a food standpoint, the dog honestly loves it. I can't say anything else but that she very much enjoys eating it...much more so than kibble. She doesn't hack and then drink 40 gallons of water afterward either. I am not sure what it is about Judy, but something she said about her having all rescues that were on raw from the moment they were with her somehow made it okay. Carol, too, is doing this with Kofi and I get this vibe from her, too, that she was willing to try what she could to help her dog out. That's all I'm trying to do - make my Big M more comfortable. 

From a preparation standpoint, you have two choices. You can either start with a premade raw diet, which is what we're doing, or you can get a book on it and start trying to make your own stuff. I am a big chicken when it comes to her health and am very cautious - so I'm trusting the commercial makers of Nature's Variety and I'm feeding her that until I get confident enough to do this myself. That said, I get creative at 'snacktime' with bones and stuff just to see if I could ever manage to do this with just stuff from the supermarket. 

Premade raw food is very expensive. I like that it is easy. But I can see where there are people who wouldn't pay what they are asking. I think someone told me, too, that Nature's Variety was cheaper than Bravo and some of the other ones, but I haven't shopped around too much and I found a place that carries it so we're just trying to get settled with it and then I will experiment. Meaning I will read all of the ingredients on the package and try to feed her that way. :) I might need a food grinder, though.

Matilda is better in some respects but I'd say that it is probably still rather early. Her coat is beautiful and soft, but she is allergic to grass so wintertime will be the real test as to how that will work out. You can see how eating the grass is doubly not good...

She is still shedding. Her hair production must be in overdrive because her hair is thick and feels rich and shiny. However she doesn't have quite the corn-chip smell she used to.

Poops are much better. Firmer, a bit more urgency, more of a 'hey I have to go to the bathroom Dad!' and less of a 'what are we out here to do again?' kinda thing. I like that because it makes me feel better when she goes at the same time every day and she is usually very happy to get her treat after she goes (after running away from it as if it was toxic lol).

The ear is much better but not all the way healed. We got zymox. Seems to be working, the little cuts from where she scratched are healing. She has not touched her ears since.

Her eyes are not tearing as much, but I think I did say that there are other factors going on there such as that she may have a 'little entropion' and she did have two extra hairs inside her upper lashline. That said, no infected wrinkle from teary eyes all day long. It is healed.

Matilda has an inverted tail that can get infected easily. Removal had been recommended if it got badly infected again, but it has been fine since I learned my bulldog lesson about tails and clean every day. There is a very real risk of incontinence if it were done - they examine her and the surgeon says "oh wow"...

However, with regular cleaning and the reduction in yeasty areas from the diet starting to change: tail looks great inside. She doesn't care if I clean it either - only a little bit of indignant behavior (lol) which I don't blame her for. Little cleaning solution (malacetic & panalog) and she's good to go.

Yeast between all of her toes is better. Not great, but better. I am still seeing it in the two back feet but only in the centermost web. This is better than on all four feet and inside her pads. But again, how do you not walk on grass? 

Her behavior is changing slightly. She seems a little more alert. She gets up earlier. I am not sure if this is because she wants her food or what.  

I think once it has been ten weeks or so I'd say I'd have a good idea of whether this is working or not. I also think the biggest problems were grain and the cooked chicken in her Royal Canin. We're rotating varieties of raw patties and haven't had any problems - bison, beef, venison, chicken/turkey (though we're avoiding chicken from now on). The only one I haven't tried is the rabbit and the all-lamb. The lamb I'll try next time, but rabbit is $36 a pop. I dunno if we need that.

Anyway, that's an update. I hope I'm being helpful here...everyone's been so nice to me and willing to share their experiences that I feel like I need to just tell-all. LOL