Just had a weird message sent to me via my website, asking me to only feed my dogs Venison and Lamb, possibly duck (as they are water dogs) but not chicken unless it has been corn fed!!!! The person claims that many dogs are gluten intolerant, that's fine,if they read my site properly they would know  I feed raw!!!!
They then go on to tell me to let my pup owners know!!!
So, do you think I should now source ONLY lamb and venison? ;-)

no... lol... dogs can build up an intolerance to almost anything if they're going to - venison and lamb work because less is fed!  Dogs don't really have any need for carbohydrates so it may well be those in the diet rather than what the poor chickens ate!  I had a dog who was rice intolerant which was tough at the time (10 years ago) but easier now to find food without rice. 

>Just had a weird message sent to me via my website, asking me to only feed my dogs Venison and Lamb, possibly duck (as they are water >dogs) but not chicken unless it has been corn fed!!!! The person claims that many dogs are gluten intolerant, that's fine,if they read my site >properly they would know  I feed raw!!!!
>They then go on to tell me to let my pup owners know!!!
>So, do you think I should now source ONLY lamb and venison?This is utter TOSH!

I am gluten and wheat intolerant and can assure you that chickens eating wheat will NOT affect a gluten intolerant person or dog, it can't be passed through the meat as it is broken down completely by the digestive process and turned into something else - chicken.

If it were true then you'd also have to avoid lamb, venison and duck as there is a good chance that the lambs, deer and ducks have eaten wheat grasses/rye/barley grasses and seeds in the normal course of feeding as they also grow wild ;)

If a dog shows no adverse reaction to wheat/gluten (gluten is found in rye and barley too and oats also contain a similar protein to which many coeliacs react) why worry about something that hasn't happened?

> If a dog shows no adverse reaction to wheat/gluten (gluten is found in rye and barley too and oats also contain a similar protein to which many coeliacs react) why worry about something that hasn't happened?

Sometimes the signs of intolerance can be very subtle. I'd have said a year ago that one of mine wasn't intolerant - however, when fed kibble (even 50/50 raw/kibble) he never had 'ideal' poos, they were always a little soft, and often would scratch himself at night. If he ever nicked the cat food, he would definitely scratch all night!

After a whole year now of a grain-free diet - just a little leftover rice occasionally, once a month or so - he doesn't scratch any more and has perfect output. Sadly I lost my cat on the road last year, so he doesn't get the chance to nick her food any more :(  But a few weeks ago he half a pack of salted pretzels left in a stupid place and guess what, he was scratching for England for almost 24 hours afterwards! Not much in pretzels except wheat and salt, so I would say he has signs of a mild intolerance to wheat.

Actually,  I would say that he had classic signs of intolerance,  nothing subtle about soft poos and scratching!  - especially when it disappears with a change of diet ;) 

Sadly, many people I know seem to think that soft poos, smelly wind, gurgling tums, iffy appetite, itching and/or scurfy skin are completely normal   These are signs to me that the diet isn't ideal and could be worth changing.   However there are many things that can cause intolerance and it's important to find out what.   I had a dog who was very allergic, with all the classic signs of constant severe itching, but he wasn't allergic to grains - it was meat proteins!   He did well on a vegetarian diet which used peanuts as the protein source, but in those days it was near impossible to get and the vets were VERY scathing of home made diets.  No computers/internet and little info apart from the library which had only a copy of Blacks Veterinary Dictionary!

The problem is how to explain and implement an eliminating diet to the average pet owner when they aren't that worried about it in the first place :(

Thanks Dill for the reply about chicken. I have had to laugh at some of the things this woman has been emailing to me, 10 rather long emails over 2 days. She was in my opinion just doing a bit of scare-mongering, but started back peddling once I told her to get in touch with her breeder and take the issues of gluten intolerance up with her!
Myself being a raw feeder, it never crossed her mind that I would be in fact quite knowledgeable about diet.
She then tried to draw me onto agreeing with her, that we shouldn't x-ray for hips!
The line that stuck out most ,after  'feeding duck should be OK as they are water dogs' was
'D***y eats the same food as the Queens corgi's, at least I think so as it has a royal warranty!!!
Bit quackers.

You're welcome :-D

I'm constantly amazed at how people can seem to understand it but at the same time exhibit complete ignorance.  Takes real talent that ;)

Best example is of the person who I've just explained I can't eat wheat - bread, cakes, biscuits etc. who then offers me a slice of toast instead! 

My way of dealing with things like this is to research reliable sources and not take scaremongers' word for anything LOL

Here's a couple of links for starters   http://www.coeliac.org.uk/coeliac-disease/coeliac-disease-faqs

http://www.allergyuk.org/allergy_whatis.aspx