We picked our new pup up today, and thought I should share this with those of you who feed raw mince from time to time, as we do. Our breeder told us that although we should add mince to our pup's meals, it should not be raw as she would previously have recommended, as there was a scare on about a disease beginning with "N", that had killed some boxers within 3 days. The post mortem had traced it back to raw mince that the dogs had been fed. Apparently whatever the particular bacteria that causes it is in raw mince, though it can be killed by freezing the meat first, or by cooking. Can anyone shed any more light on this?
Thanks
Tracy

I have fed raw mince to mine

Neospora?

This was posted by someone else on another thread the other day. I have fed both my dogs raw mince with no ill effects (though it is usually frozen). There are risks with everything that you feed and you have to weigh up the risks yourself.

NEOSPOROSIS is the name of the disease.

The thread in question can be seen here :Look on page 2

Hello there,
                Read this thread with interest, my dog caught Neospora last year, it left him with muscle scarring but the vet said it could only be fatal if left unchecked for quite a long time. Is this the same as Neosporosis? Interested to know more.
Thanks,
Jeff.

Hi Jeff, how is your big fella doing?
(I think my user name was snoopy1 when we discussed neospora last time)
& yes Neospora/Neasporosis is the same .
Neasporosis is what the condition is often called.
neaspora is the name of the mite

smudgley. x

Hi there,
           He is doing fine, he charges around and can virtually keep up with other TMs of the same age, so I take that as a good benchmark. His leg is almost completely stiff, the more worrying thing is that because his jaw was also affected he can't pant or chew 100% efficiently. Between us we are coping OK :-)

have a look at this if you are worried
http://www.naturalholistic.com/handouts/neospora.htm

Thanks everyone - I feel a bit better now. :) I still intend to feed mince, as Sparky loves it and I'm sure Busby will too, but perhaps I'll just freeze it first to be on the safe side. Having read the article Scratchy posted, it does seem the risk is pretty minimal, though. Feel like a new mum again!