Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
Tripawds is your home to learn how to care for a three legged dog or cat, with answers about dog leg amputation, and cat amputation recovery from many years of member experiences.
Join The Tripawds Community
Learn how to help three legged dogs and cats in the forums below. Browse and search as a guest or register for free and get full member benefits:
Instant post approval.
Private messages to members.
Subscribe to favorite topics.
Live Chat and much more!
Register
Log In
Members
Add Topic
Offline
This might be a good time to start making the switch if you've been thinking about the benefits of a plant-based diet for dogs. I sure have, especially after this study was published), and lucky Nellie will get her diet completely reworked slowly this year. By December she will be 100% plant-based.
I say this is a good time, because of this article I just read in Pet Food Industry magazine:
Pet food growth may outstrip animal protein supply
As pet food production grows in the United States, demand from dog, cat and other pet food industries for animal proteins may surpass supply from the United States’ agricultural system. Researchers from Kansas State University will present a paper on this, "Animal Protein-Based Ingredients in Pet Food: Analysis of Supply Chain and Market Drivers," at the 2022 Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California from July 31 to August 2.
Animal protein production bottlenecks were only one of the supply chain issues facing the pet food industry now and in the near future, according to the researchers in their examination of the interplay among human and pet food ingredient demands.
“A comparison of the growth rates of U.S. pet food production and U.S. animal slaughter for human consumption can be used to determine if animal protein is growing fast enough to keep up with the growth in pet food,” the researchers, who included Petfood Industry Ingredient Issues columnist Greg Aldrich, PhD, professor and pet food program coordinator at Kansas State University, wrote. “…The units of pet food produced in the U.S. have been growing at a faster rate than animals slaughtered for human consumption... This is significant because if these growth rates continue there will be a point where there are no longer enough animal protein-based ingredients to meet the needs of pet food production.”
When we brought Nellie into the pack, we were stunned to see empty shelves and food shortages at Petco and Petsmart. In the year and a half since we said goodbye to Wyatt Ray , things have sure changed. During his last couple of years, Wyatt ate Wild Earth, a plant-based food, and did really well on it.
I'm anxious to help Nellie make the switch, but we're going to give it lots of time since she's spent 8 years eating lord knows what. We have her on Diamond Naturals lamb & rice, what they fed her at the kennel where we picked her up. So far so good, but as a plant-based human for the last 35 years, I will feel so much better when she's off it. Not just for her health, but the planet.
How about you? Does any of this resonate with how you are feeding your Tripawd? Just curious.
It is true that there have been lots of shortages due to supply chain and staffing issues (worker shortages affecting production). I have fed soy-based diets in the past without a problem so I think it is safe as long as everything is balanced by a nutritionist.
Pam
That is so good to know Dr. Pam. Reading your thoughts about it gives me more confidence that Nellie will do well on a plant-based food. I'm saving my $$ for a nutritionist consult ($500!), but until the piggy bank is full, will gradually switch her to a plant-based kibble.
While I've been veg forever it seems, I wouldn't impose a plant-based diet on my dog, without good vetted research behind it. Before recent studies I felt less certain but fed Wyatt Wild Earth because it was formulated in part by a vet (Dr. Ernie Ward). Now that more vets are getting on-board with this type of food, and research is appearing, I hope more folks will feel good about making the switch too.
I recently read Plant Powered Dog by Diana Laverdure-Dunetz, MS and W. Jean Dodds, DVM. It is a wealth of scientific insights with hundreds of citations, easy to understand in-depth background on nutritional science, the basics of building a nutritionally complete canine recipe, numerous basic recipes, and specific chapters for nutrition for various canine health issues including cancer.
I've had our 3 dogs on a mostly plant-based diet for 3 years, but we'd gotten away from fresh home-cooked/prepared meals over the previous year due to travelling, and we had even been mixing meat-based kibble with the plant-based kibble due to convenience. When Galaxy became lame I knew I had to get back to fresh home prepared meals but needed the science as well as science-backed recipes. The book completely delivers in spades. Based on the different canine cancer resources I've been reading over the past 3 months I'd begun to waffle on whether plant-based was best for a dog battling cancer, but after reading The Plant Powered Dog, I'm convinced eating as low on the food chain ladder as possible is not only her best diet to battle cancer but also best for all of our dogs' overall health.
Also, Diana provides private consults and prescribes personalized diets for dogs. If you're interested, you can find her contact information at https://plantpo.....ddog.com
I hope this is helpful to someone.
I'm interested in others' experience with plant-based diets for dogs, especially dealing with cancer.
Thanks for sharing this info Lori. I hadn't heard of the book, so I appreciate the info. I'm totally in favor of a plant-based diet in most situations.
My only concern is that the author is not a veterinarian, but calls herself a vet nutritionist. I think the board-certified vet nutritionists out there would take issue with her qualifications, as well as Dr. Dodd's, who is known in the more traditional vet world for some controversial practices. If I were to go 100% plant based for Nellie, with things I make myself, I would want the guidance of a board-certified vet nutritionist to make sure I'm doing it right. They're out there, but harder to find than a conventional vet nutritionist.
Nellie ate Wild Earth for a while, and she did great on it. When we relocated to Alaska last August, we had to switch her back to conventional food because the company doesn't ship up here, which is a bummer. When we are back down in the lower 48 we will probably go back to it.
For me, it's really important to feed her a diet that does less harm to the environment, so I'm all about plant-based diets for dogs when it's possible. Interestingly, here in Alaska, getting to know the dog mushing community. They are having a lot of trouble finding enough salmon or meat supplies for their dogs (who eat fresh meat almost exclusively during winter). These sport dogs are the fittest and healthiest on the planet, and conventional thinking is that they need the meat proteins to thrive as sled dogs. However I think it's only a matter of time before plant-based proteins will need to be introduced into all dog's diets, due to meat shortages and the state of the environment.
I went way off topic there! But I too would like to know about anyone who is feeding their dog with cancer a plant-based diet, so chime in folks!
1 Guest(s)
