Big Paws Only Dog Forums
BPO General Forum => General Board for Big Dogs with Big Paws => : TJApple January 22, 2009, 10:02:53 AM
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Hello all! I am new here and just wanted some advice. I have 2 Golden Retrievers aged 2 and 4. They were both on a raw diet until the 4 year old developed an unknown bacterial infection and almost died. We switched to a holistic kibble, but they are both developing weight problems and ear problems. We are thinking of switching to Orijen and I am wondering if I switch them cold turkey like with regular raw food, or if you mix it with their kibble slowly over a 2 week period. Any advice would be great! Thanks so much!
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Thanks for the advice! I was thinking the same thing, but was talking to someone that said to treat it like a raw food transition and go strictly on the raw right away.
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We switched Tucker to Orijens slowly, taking about a week and a half to do it. It is a great food, Tucker loves it! We only feed him Orijens in the morning though, he gets raw food for dinner...may I ask what the bacterial infection was that your poor pup almost died of? I can see the benefits of Tucker eating raw 50% of the time, but its hearing stories like this that make me wonder/question if we are making the right choice...
Thanks!
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Thanks for the advice! Sadie was throwing up, not drinking water and wouldn't eat anything for 2 days. The morning of the 3rd day I took her to the vet. They looked her over and said she was suffering from severe dehydration and that she would have to be on fluids for 24 hours. They ran a bunch of tests and they came back with a bacterial infection. We asked what would cause it and they couldn't really say. When we mentioned she was on a raw diet, they figured that could be what caused it. She had been on a raw diet for over 2 years without any problems. The vet said that she doesn't promote raw diets because she has seen this type of infection before. We didn't know what to do and weren't 100% sure it was the food but we switched her anyways. It was funny though because they put her on an easily digestable food for 2 weeks until her system got working again. The brand was Medi-Cal and when I read the ingredients, the first item was corn, which I thought they couldn't digest. We are switching to Orijen because both of them are getting ear and eye infections again and Sadie has been vomitting about once a week. We felt that with Orijen they get the benefits of raw but maybe it won't be as "risky" as feeding the frozen pucks. We will see!