Someone that I know had a dog that wasn't too well last week.  Vet asked what they fed and as soon as the person said raw chicken, she said that the problem was salmonella.  No tests, nothing and said why do you think that dog food is provided would you eat raw meat???  Now is this vet right are we wrong in feeding raw food or is she as I thought someone who will just say this to sell their food etc???????

My colleague's dog was diagnosed with salmonella recently too. Diagnosis based on the fact that the dog had eaten a manky dead crab down by the docks a few days earlier. No tests done either.

I've been feeding raw for about 8 or 9 months now and neither dog has had so much as a dicky tummy.

Mine are on raw and haven't had a dicky tummy for 7 years :D :D

Daisy

In humans salmonella can only be diagnosed through fæcal samples - anything else is simply guesswork; there are innumerable causes of being 'not too well'.

Why do people eat steak tartare - after all, that's raw meat too.

When I think of the number of raw eggs I've eaten in the form of cookie dough and cake batter I should volunteer to be bled for creating some sort of salmonella vaccine. :-D

Sol had campylobactor when he was about 6/7 months old, confirmed by tests, the second sample to be sent off came back with salmonella although no more campylobactor and some nasty protozoan thingies. I had a good chat to the vet about it and after explaining some of his less appealing habits (fox poo!) she said that that was the most likely source of the infection. When I changed mine to raw about 4 months ago I again had a good chat to her as she did have some concerns and she continues to talk to me about it, asking what and how much I am feeding etc but bacteria in the food causing my dogs to be ill is one thing that doesn't worry her. She is more concerned about people feeding raw without doing their homework. Dogs can pick up all kinds of nasties without ever having anything raw to eat, mine did and if that was my vet they would be told to take a running jump. When Sol had the first bout of dire rear I mentioned giardia and he was treated for that as a matter of course, although the tests came back negative we both felt that it wouldn't do him any harm and I know that they see a lot of it in the local dogs trust. Personally if the vet is not inclined to send off samples for testing I would find another vet. I would rather my dog received the appropriate treatment for whatever was wrong with it than have a vet that clearly has no clue point the finger accusingly because they don't approve of raw feeding.

She is more concerned about people feeding raw without doing their homework

I read this as: "She is more concerned about people eating raw without doing their homework"

:-P :-P :-P yes I think that would be a problem too.............;-)