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by pawlitico (aka winecountrydog Jack)
Many humans know the old rhyme "knick-knack, paddy whack, give a dog a bone."
Dear dog and cat furriends, what too few humans know is that it should be a RAW bone.
We got to thinking about whether humans know not to feed cooked bones the day that dog-ma read a NYT article about a restaurant chef who wanted to donate leftover bones to animal shelters. Cooked bones! Howl.
Pawleeze doo not infurr that we're paw-cultists or mindless devotees of a pawticular food philosophy. We doo not follow any one school of thought, but we've studied the "original Raw Meaty Bones Diet" and the "BARF Diet," etc.
We doo of course subscribe to the logic of the "whole prey diet."
My furriends, consider our digestive systems. You know that we were built to eat raw, whole prey, and that a whole prey diet necessarily includes certain proportions of bones to certain proportions of muscle meat and organ meat.
The compawsition of any raw whole prey diet includes the raw bones of the prey animal. Historically, then, we derived irrepawlacable nutrients — not only calcium, but also other minerals and doglicious nutrients in bone marrow — from frequent consumption of bones.
Therefur, our eating of raw bones is not just fur dental health, which is the most-often cited reason.
Too bad more veterinarians are not actively recommending raw bones. Howl odd, since veterinarians have been warning pet guardians against cooked bones for years. According to one of our vets, who does insist upon raw bones, vets still see many dogs injured or ill from eating cooked bones.
The cooking process makes bones hard and brittle, not to mention indigestible. Eating cooked bones can give us splinters, broken teeth, indigestion, constipation, and even lethal lacerations and impactions of the gastrointestinal tract.
Pawleeze help paw out the word: Cooked bones from any source are a terrible thing for us dogs, and for cats!
The exception to the raw rule is bones that have been boiled long enough to turn soft. Howlever, if the bones are boiled to softness, most of the calcium has been leached out of them and some nutrients destroyed. This defeats most of the reason for eating bones in the first pawlace.
If you're unable to chew a whole raw bone, ask your human to buy ground whole prey, compawlete with bones (not bone meal!). In our area, we have a product called "raw chicken grind." Many meat companies will doo this custom grinding of whole raw chicken or other prey for you. Caveat: To avoid choking on pieces of bone left unground, ask human to consult experienced humans on safe grind specifications. Still, if unsure of the grind, have human run ground meat through sieve to check for unground bone pieces.
Raw bones should always be fresh, even if frozen, and juicy and chewable. Meaty raw bones are lovely. Some of the best are turkey or chicken neck or back bones (without the ribs) that have been skinned. Humans can freeze bones into u-shapes to make us chew them, i.e., to make it hard fur us to swallow them whole.
Paw-notes to humans:
- Doo not let worries about getting sick stop you from feeding raw bones. Freezing first will kill off the bacteria.
- Choose right size and cut of raw bones. Ideally, talk this over with your progressive veterinarian.
- Generally avoid raw pork and sheep bones because of the pawsibility of parasites.
- Beware of big raw beef bones that are sometimes hard enough to crack canine teeth.
- Beware of long bones like legs or ribs, which are more prone to splintering and/or getting stuck.
- Doo not leave us dogs or cats alone to eat raw bones that you've never fed us before.
We're always supervised when eating something new. Only when humans see that we're ok with a big raw marrow bone or turkey neck will they let us be. Even then, humans might keep an eye on us till we're done gnawing.
Bone appétit!
by winecountrydog
Doesn't this look like a macabre Howloween pawty starring yours truly? Howl! It wasn't. . . .
I was receiving Class IV laser therapy, also known as "photobiomodulation," at my veterinarian's office. It was painless, and it made my back feel better. I could move around much better afterward.
This is special therapy. Class IV laser uses infrared laser light to penetrate into tissues that need increased circulation and metabolic activity. It seems true that laser therapy can reduce healing time, swelling, and pain, and even give someone increased range of motion.
We're seeing arfully more interest in and appawreciation of laser therapy these days. A good article appawears in Veterinary Practice News.
If you'd like to let us know what your experience has been with this therapy, we'd be happy to hear from you.
by winecountrydog
It was arfully nice hanging out with folks attending Wine Bloggers Conference North America. You know howl much I like taking paw-notes while humans talk 'bout wine and winemaking.
Here I am in the garden of C. Donatiello Winery on 26 July 2009 with @dirtysouthwine and @DrncPno. What an arfully beautiful estate this is, situated in the Middle Reach of the Russian River Valley AVA. Not that far from my doghaus. A fine pawlace to produce great Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
We were escorted into the C. Donatiello Guild Room fur a private wine tasting. I'm fortunate enuff to fit under the table, and that's a good pawlace fur me to paw my notes while humans drink.
You know I don't drink wine. As a new media innovator workin' in the world of blogging and social media, I have an impawtant role at wine tastings: I'm a designated note-taker and canine schmoozer.
It's hard to believe howl the wine blogging and tweeting humans doo wine tastings. They have micro-bloggin' devices and cameras and video cams. They concentrate arfully hard. Tastin' is a serious activity. It's not unusual fur them to have a device in one hand and a wine glass in the other. That is why my paws come in handy. I take notes that humans miss.
Doo you recognize @winebratsf? It is pawsible that she blogs and tweets more observations 'bout wine and life than most wine bloggers. Rumor has it that it's 'cuz she's a Gemini... but I can't woof whether it's true. I don't know 'bout astrology.
Doo you recognize other wine bloggers in these photos? Howl 'bout @norcalwine and @sharayray and @thebeerwench and @winequester?
You can't see dog-ma in these photos, but she was there. And she was whisperin' many pawsitive wine comments to me. Appawently she was very taken with the '07 Maddie's Vineyard Pinot Noir and the '07 Floodgate Block 15 Pinot Noir.
There are other wine bloggers in the group we were walkin' to the cellar with. But my being so short, I had a hard time seeing 'em all. And I got distracted by the enticing smells of herbs on the paths along the way. I was in Middle Reach heaven....
We all followed @cdonatiello into the wine cellar....
Then @dirtysouthwine jumped into a big tank. Furhaps he was dooin' a demonstration of wine blogger hazing rituals.
I sat and watched @cdonatiello pour Bradford Mountain wines of Dry Creek Valley fur arfully serious tasters @sonadora and @winebratsf and some others, including dog-ma. She whispered to me that she adored both of the '05 Zinfandels.
It was so nice and cool in the cellar that, in combo with all the herbs I'd inhaled, I could've dozed off blissfully fur the rest of the day. Howlever, I had my duty to doo — not as a true wine blogger, but as the ever-vigilant paw-note taker and wine tastin' companion!
I wonder if I'll get my pawsonal chauffeur to take me and my little Corgi bro to the 2010 Wine Bloggers Conference in Walla Walla, Washington.
by pawlitico
The thought "howl strange and dangerous are fireworks!" keeps swimmin' round my doghead.
Never met a dog or any other four-footed who likes fireworks. Never asked other furriends, but I 'spoze birds and bees and bugs and others dislike noisy explosions too.
Yet all the nation's a stage fur fireworks on a July 4th evening. Howl, what are fireworks: the humans' tribute to freedom, or a cathartic release of pent-up human anger? Imagine if other species lit colored fires and made explosions. Humans would think we're out of touch with Nature, to woof the least.
Consider the iconic pic below.
The little Yorkshire Terrier is being made to ride in a wee wagon, towed behind a huge human on a terrifyingly large tractor. Howl small and vulnerable this dog is! Not just physically small — also small in terms of what's impawtant to many American humans on July 4th....
Just think 'bout howl this Yorkie dog must feel! Could humans make sure all dogs — and cats! — are somewhere safe on the big noisy holiday?
Pawleeze, American humans everywhere, look out fur animals' needs come the next 4th of July. It'd be wonderful if the emergency veterinary clinics and animal shelters didn't fill up every year after the fireworks explosions.
My furriends, consider our digestive systems. You know that we were built to eat raw, whole prey, and that a whole prey diet necessarily includes certain proportions of bones to certain proportions of muscle meat and organ meat.
