Is Raw Feeding Supposed to Protect Against Disease?

Please forgive my ignorance on this subject, I understand a lot of people swear by it but I don't personally feed my dogs on it so am totally in the dark.

My reason for asking the question is that a lady in the village swears by raw feeding and is quite outspoken about it. She led me to believe that by feeding her dogs in this way that they were protected from a lot of things that my dogs could be at risk from.

Sadly she has lost a 7 year old this morning from parvovirus and now another one that lives at the same place but has not mixed with it is showing the same symptoms and, when I last heard at 6 this evening was on her way to the vets.

Obviously a very sad day for this lady and very scary for those of us in the area that have dogs. I just wondered if it is a fact that the raw diet does give a dog some protection or if its just considered the healthy option rather than fill your dog with preservatives etc.

I think you've answered your own question

Raw feeding doesn't protect from anything I'm afraid. It does good for dogs digestive systems etc, but will not protect against anything, better than anything else, except a vaccine

Hi Scorpio, I have to agree With T here, they only thing which would have protected her would have been the vaccine, but in saying that i have heard of peoples dogs lost to Parvo even though they are vaccinated.xx

Thanks ladies, I couldn't see why it would give protection but she is so adamant that I thought that maybe I was missing something xx

How odd that someone who just lost a dog to Parvo, thinks that having them on BARF protects them against everything

Did she specifically mention that she thought raw feeding gave protection against parvo?

Maybe a distrust of vaccinations was separate from her beliefs in raw feeding.

To answer your question, no, IMO raw feeding does not give protection against parvo but it is a little harsh to say:

because we don't even know that she thought that before and we especially don't know that she thinks that now.

Well I was only going on the information given by the OP, who was led to believe the lady's dogs were protected being fed BARF, so my statement wasn't harsh, given the information I had

Hi Sheree,
I switched to raw earlier this year, but my reason for doing so was weight/portion control. I agree with Malady - it's no protection against Parvo.

When I switched Tessa to raw, I noticed her coat getting shinier and she didn't shed as much hair as usual... Also her teeth looked a lot better.

Cheers
Lene

How sad for that lady.
I feed Ollie barf and it is hopefully to prolong his life Having lost a dog previously to cancer who was fed commercial food. whether or not that was the reason I will never know but for me personally I am hopefully giving Ollie a better chance as his breed is prone to several types of cancers. His breeder also feeds barf and it seemed sensible to carry it on. All his food comes from suppliers that are DEFRA checked.
This is in no way makes me feel 100% that Ollie is not going to get ill at some point in his life he will obviously when he gets old but still may when he is young I know that too well. But in my mind it is giving him a better chance. In no way would I expect barf to stop him getting kennel cough or parvo etc., so he has his annual vaccinations to help with that side of disease.
Maybe the Lady meant cancers etc., it is a shame if she thought it would protect against parvo etc.,
Like Lene says about her dog, Ollies teeth are very good and nice and white which we often get comments about and his coat is nice and soft and shiny.