In the spring issue of the James Wellbeloved magazine, there's a very sad story about a lady who gave her boxer a taste of the fresh lean minced beef she was about to make into home-made burgers for the humans. The dog started to act strangely 3 days later, and deteriorated quickly over the following two days. The vet suspected the above parasite,and antibiotic therapy was begun, but sadly too late- the dog became almost comatose, and the difficult decision was made to have her euthanised. The tests done by the vet came back positive. It seems that previously there have been no reported cases in dogs, only in cattle. The good news is that freezing and cooking the meat will kill the spores. Also it is treatable if specific antibiotic therapy is started early enough. Let's hope it was an isolated incident but nevertheless we need to be aware that the condition exists. The scary thought that occurred to me was that the very first taste of meat my puppies had was raw scraped beef.....

Yes well dogs also die from lots of other things, as do humans.  Not stopped me feeding raw meat.................

off to eat some steak tartare ;)

There are always stories around like this, I'm not discounting it but as Tohme said, dogs also die from lots of other things, if we took to heart every single thing that we read and heard we would never do anything ;)

But yes it does make you stop and think :) It won't stop me feeding raw mince to my dogs though as I feel that the benefit far outweighs the risk.

as you say, the good news is that freezing meat will kill off the spores. As most people on here who feed raw, seem to freeze anyway, it shouldn't pose to much of a threat. Nasty nevertheless for the poor dog and owner :(
Anne

Hi,
    I haven't read the article but my one of my dogs caught this parasite as a puppy. He survived but only just and he has some problems because of it. As you say no-one has to stop feeding raw as freezing kills the parasite. It can be passed on from the dam or caught from infected horse manure (probably how Harvey caught it, although as you say it is rare in this country. I had to be referred to a specialist as my vet was unsure what it was. I think I am correct in saying Guide Dogs for the Blind test their brood bitches for this but if I am wrong I stand to be corrected.

It certainly is tragic and I tell everyone that they should never feed their mince without freezing it first.

Yes Jeff - you are correct. ;)

Yes it was sad and i know the lady concerned.She also has Chinese Cresteds. But as long as the meat is frozen for 24 hours before as she said in the article she wrote for the Dog Papers, it kills off the spores and is safe .Also they can if the spore is present get it from Stagnant water so you see it is not just the raw meat. I feed all my lot raw even the Cresteds and have to say they just love the Diet and my baby boy has been totally raw fed from the day i got him.He had his first Chicken Wing to chew on at about 12 weeks and now you should see him go at them .