As advocates for our dogs health, we need to be proactive in searching out the best health advice and natural solutions to help our best friends to be as healthy as they possibly can without nasty side effects from harmful chemicals. I will be adding things I've found success in using on our own dogs and clients dogs so feel free to try any that you like the sound of and I'd love to know what you thought.
Bone broth is so easy to make and so good for sick/injured/older dogs, arthritic pets, or those with skin and gut issues.
First fill the pot with bones. To make sure there’s lots of healthy, joint protecting gelatin in the bone broth, try to add bones with a lot of joints in them like chicken, turkey or duck feet. You can also add discarded bones from your own cooking. I also add some garlic for health and flavor but you can leave it out if you prefer.
Fill the pot with water so the bones are completely covered, plus an extra couple of cm’s. The important part is to add a good quality apple cider vinegar to the pot, this is what makes sure your broth has all of that healthy gelatine (collagen) in it as it helps to draw all the nutritious minerals out of the bones. I add about 1/4 cup of vinegar to a large pot.
Bring it to the boil and then turn it down to low and leave it cooking for 24 hours. Use a slow cooker if you don’t want to leave a pot on the stove unattended or do as I do and turn the heat off at bedtime and put the heat back on in the morning and start the count from where you left off.
When the broth is finished, cool down and strain the bones and meat out. Cooked bones should never be fed to dogs, so they go in the bin. All the goodness has already come out of them and seeped into the broth.
Once the broth is cooled put it in the fridge and in just a few hours it turns into a nutritious jelly. When your broth comes out of the fridge, it will have a solid layer of fat on top which you can chip off and toss in the rubbish. Underneath the layer of fat the bone broth should look like a golden jelly. There is lots of gelatine (collagen) and other goodies in the jelly and that’s what helps with dog’s joints and leaky gut that can cause allergies and digestive upset.
I give my 10 kg dogs about two heaped spoonfuls over their brekky or they get a cube as a treat straight from my hand. It’s a food so it doesn't matter exactly how much you give them, and they will love you for it!
The cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) is a ligament in the knee (stifle) joint that connects the femur (thigh bone) to the tibia (shin bone) to stabilize the joint and is the canine equivalent to the humans ACL.
CCL tears are one of the most common injuries in dogs and 40-60‰ of dogs that already have a cruciate rupture in one knee will unfortunately also experience a cruciate injury in their other knee!
CCL surgery is very expensive and has a long recovery time so is there anything we can do to avoid a CCL injury from occurring in the first place?
Or if there’s already a CCL injury what can you feed to your dog to give him the best chance at recovery?
First we need to make sure we feed them the essential nutrients that their bodies need for tissue repair and recovery.
For those whose dogs love to chase and fetch balls.
Dogs are built differently to us (lacking a clavicle for the shoulder muscles to attach to) for one thing so there’s a need to limit the amount of repetitive ball chasing and catching that they do.
We need to be mindful that most dogs get so excited that they ignore their pain thresholds and continue on chasing and catching the ball until injuries occur with long term consequences such as arthritis and muscle damage.
The sudden lunging, twisting and braking actions used in ball play can injure and cause trauma to the dogs muscles especially when most dogs are not given a proper warm up before or cool down after.
I’ve seen some very painful consequences in some dogs due to their love of balls that can take a long time to recover from.
The ball chasing activity also raises adrenaline and cortisol levels which can take weeks to subside thereby having the potential to cause behavioural issues as well as musculoskeletal injuries.
The takeaway from this is to please get your dog to warm up before engaging in ball play and limit the amount of ball chasing and fetching that they do if any.
Don't allow injured or older dogs to spend time chasing, catching and fetching balls.
Dogs live in the moment, having fun but don't think about the consequences of their actions so we need to step up, take control and look out for them!
Please be mindful of the type of floor cleaners you use as some contain harsh chemicals that are harmful to your dog’s feet.
There is a risk of them absorbing the chemicals through the skin on their feet and also of ingesting the chemicals while licking their wet feet to dry them off.
Better still keep dogs away until the floors are completely dry and use natural based cleaners instead of harsh chemicals.
Foot health can often be overlooked but is very important in your dogs life!
Things to look out for:
Dogs that have back pain usually change their behavioural patterns.
Tonight's dinner for the dogs - chicken wing, sardine, human grade beef mince mixed with golden paste and whole raw egg.
My dogs love their sardines and they are so good for them, especially for growing puppies and golden oldies. It's so worth overlooking the smell of this oily little fish for all the added health benefits they supply for our fur-kids:
Go on, give it a try!
#sardines #oilyfish #rawfeedingcommunity #rawfeeding #healthydog #healthydogfood
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Golden Paste With Cinnamon Recipe!!
