I do give Pereg certain vitamins and supplements to make sure she has all she needs, as being on medication for her epilepsy I have to make sure that her liver and kidneys are supported, but the results of the blood tests she had last Sunday [she has them every six months] came back spot-on perfect, as did the Thyroid panel which had to go to an outside laboratory to be tested. I got those results this morning but am still waiting for the Pb level but that should be at my Vet on Sunday or Monday.

When I first started Pereg on raw my Vet was highly sceptical as to whether she would have sufficient vitamins and minerals, as he, like most vets, knew very little about raw feeding. He was also extremely against bones - they will splinter and pierce her gastro-intestinal tract / they will build up and cause a blockage etc, but he has now seen how well she is doing, and how I managed to get the all the weight she gained after her epilepsy and medication started [from 17kg in April 2011 to 20.8 in the September] back down again once she was fully on raw and I was weighing everything.

I still weigh all her protein for her first meal and keep it down to ~50g but due to a fair amount of seizure activity recently and the post-ictal "gimmee food", she has gone up to 18.2. Not really important but I want to get her back down to 17kg by her next due check-up.

It is much easier with raw as I can bulk out her protein with as many vegetables as she wants. Feeding just kibble or tinned it would have been almost impossible.

And I know exactly what goes into her!

This is exactly why I like raw, I know what goes in there. My dogs eat better meaty bones than the majority of people in the UK buying meat from the supermarkets, they probably eat better than me!

I'm glad to hear your vet is a *convert*, there have been a few who've changed their dogs onto raw that have managed to persuade their vets, mainly those with dogs that have allergy problems.

If you ever start a blog let me know, might be useful to point folks in the direction of a specific raw diet for epileptic dogs.

I do not think that there can ever be a specific raw diet [or any specific diet for that matter] for epileptic dogs, because no two epis are the same. And there are as many "no nos" amongst epi owners as there are in non-epi owners. Take the herb rosemary for example. The herb itself - and even brushing against it - can trigger seizures in some epis. So people feeding kibble say that you must avoid kibbles which state rosemary in the ingredient list.

But the rosemary in kibble has been de-something or other so the "bad" part has been removed. However, just the sight of the word and it is Oh no, my dog must not have that as it will trigger seizures.

It is the same with grains. I will not feed Pereg any processed grains but then I do not eat processed anything myself, however I do buy various whole grains and over-cook them for her - a heaped teaspoonful adds to the bulk of her first meal without containing many calories, thus helping me to keep her weight down as much as possible, and is an extremely good source of fibre.

Processed grains can cause allergies in some dogs. Whole grains rarely do.

With me raw feeding has been a learning curve and I have learned through trial and error what suits Pereg and what does not, but she has never had a seizure that is food-related. Actually since her first Grand Mal seizure on 1 April 2011 there has been absolutely no connection between her food, her activities, or anything in fact that I can point to as being a trigger. This is one of the reasons I keep a food diary, with a two-weekly adjustable plan, as well as a seizure/behaviour/outside activity details.

Is Ram [my Vet] a convert to raw feeding? He now accepts that Pereg is raw fed, bones and all but I doubt he would recommend it to anyone. Incidentally he does not sell dog food although he does carry some Hills prescription diet tins and I ended up with some when Pereg had a bad attack of pancreatitis a few months ago. He only has a very small surgery with nobody there overnight so even though he really wanted her hospitalised and on an IV for four or five days it was impossibly, the nearest veterinary hospital being maybe 50km away and I do not have a car.

I would also never leave an epileptic dog in a strange place with strangers, hospital or not, so I brought her home with antibiotics and eight tins of Hills i/d Gastrointestinal diet food. I still have six tins left as when I checked the ingredients I realised I could just tweak her raw food to be suitable, and when she went back for another blood test a week later her pancreatic enzyme levels were normal.

I just wish I had known about raw feeding years ago, especially when I was breeding Griffons.

I wouldn't ever say raw feeding is a cure all sort of diet, but it is a diet that dogs can do well on, and that can be tailored to their needs. So, if you ever do start that blog, ......

I don't feed my dogs the way I started out feeding, but I think they get a good range of nutritious raw foods, and that's what matters.

3 days ago I started my dog on a barf diet fasted him 24 hrs b4 starting with a chicken wing cut in 2, fed first piece at 4 pm 2nd at 8pm, that morning had diarrhea with bone fragments, fed the same amont on 2nd day, that morning had yellowish stool with a drop of blood at the end, day 3 I feed 3 chicken wings that morning had small drops of very dark diarrhea seemed to be straining but just small amount of diarrhea.. Please help I dont onow what to do anymore
Thanks

You needn't fast a dog before changing to Barf. If you are only feeding chicken wings it is not enough. Mince chicken is the best thing to feed

I never just switch a dog over, I try them with chicken first, either wings or backs, replacing two or three meals per week over the course of a month or so, and if they're ok with that, then I switch them over to green tripe and chicken. From there, you can slowly add new proteins, leaving a gap to monitor how they get on, whether there's any adverse reactions at the other end

I must be a Very Bad Mum i must take care more