Hello-
This is a long read, part confessional, so pardon in advance please.
Chloe is a 12, almost 13yo black DSH. She has been raw fed since she was brought home as a kitten. I was brought into the raw feeding world by my ex-wife who was the true disciple of it. I got to do much of the knife work, cutting five or six proteins was fine by me as the animals were thriving. When we split, she took three of the four pets leaving me to take over for Chloe. I was not going to try to change her diet with the upheaval in her life(loss of all her animal friends), so I got to be Lead Raw Feeder now. I knew I had to buy chicken, pork, beef, fish, and turkey, cut it up, throw in a liver and thigh bone every now and then.
It has been years since then, and things were going quite fine until recently. Thick coat, normal stools, clean teeth, clear eyes, good energy, etc etc. Chloe ate without complaint, never needed the vet, possibly even a bit chubby but never fat. I was probably a bit soft on her compared to the previous regime. She didn’t like something; I dropped the subject. OK, fish is no good anymore, how is more beef? Her diet gradually became more limited, but she always ate.
I started to experiment with commercial raw food hoping for more variety. It was always the same - accepted at first sometimes with real relish, then to eh I will eat some, and finally transitioning to yeah nah I am not eating this. Me being the softy said fine back to beef and pork and chicken. Thigh bones started to get cleaned but not eaten, liver ignored. She started dropping weight, her previously thick jet black coat started turning brown and balding spots started appearing.
And we finally hit crisis. After she had a bout of severe food aversion, she managed to make herself quite sick - yellowed eyes and everything. She spent three days at the vet with an IV in her arm, being force fed soft food with a plastic syringe in a place she had never been. I could not visit because of the lockdown. She came back with no diagnosis and absolutely wired on steroids.
She hates canned food, which I think she associates with her time in lockup. She won't touch kibble as I don’t even know if she sees it as food. Beef is off the menu, pork tenderloin and chicken are fine. She gets 50 grams in the morning and 50 at night. She will still eat a thigh bone. Forget liver. She has been vomiting 3-4 times a week very smelly, very yellow with chunks of what looks like white fat in it. Stools look normal, urine normal but darker yellow, water intake maybe up a bit.
After poking around on the site it is plain to me she is in severe vitamin/macro deficiency, and we are now pretty clearly heading down the same path. The hair on her arm is not growing back, she is turning more brown, and lethargy is kicking in. I really need some advice here.
I see there are several powders available I can mix into the food she is actually eating. Does anyone have any experience on which would be most palatable/least obvious taste wise? I am willing to cook anything, mix anything, buy anything, try anything. I have failed her, and I really need to fix her.
Alnutrin: Alnutrin® supplement
Know Better Pet Food: Better in the Raw®
TCFeline: TCFeline® Premix.
Wysong: Call of the Wild® powder.
Thank you in advance,
Erik
This is a long read, part confessional, so pardon in advance please.
Chloe is a 12, almost 13yo black DSH. She has been raw fed since she was brought home as a kitten. I was brought into the raw feeding world by my ex-wife who was the true disciple of it. I got to do much of the knife work, cutting five or six proteins was fine by me as the animals were thriving. When we split, she took three of the four pets leaving me to take over for Chloe. I was not going to try to change her diet with the upheaval in her life(loss of all her animal friends), so I got to be Lead Raw Feeder now. I knew I had to buy chicken, pork, beef, fish, and turkey, cut it up, throw in a liver and thigh bone every now and then.
It has been years since then, and things were going quite fine until recently. Thick coat, normal stools, clean teeth, clear eyes, good energy, etc etc. Chloe ate without complaint, never needed the vet, possibly even a bit chubby but never fat. I was probably a bit soft on her compared to the previous regime. She didn’t like something; I dropped the subject. OK, fish is no good anymore, how is more beef? Her diet gradually became more limited, but she always ate.
I started to experiment with commercial raw food hoping for more variety. It was always the same - accepted at first sometimes with real relish, then to eh I will eat some, and finally transitioning to yeah nah I am not eating this. Me being the softy said fine back to beef and pork and chicken. Thigh bones started to get cleaned but not eaten, liver ignored. She started dropping weight, her previously thick jet black coat started turning brown and balding spots started appearing.
And we finally hit crisis. After she had a bout of severe food aversion, she managed to make herself quite sick - yellowed eyes and everything. She spent three days at the vet with an IV in her arm, being force fed soft food with a plastic syringe in a place she had never been. I could not visit because of the lockdown. She came back with no diagnosis and absolutely wired on steroids.
She hates canned food, which I think she associates with her time in lockup. She won't touch kibble as I don’t even know if she sees it as food. Beef is off the menu, pork tenderloin and chicken are fine. She gets 50 grams in the morning and 50 at night. She will still eat a thigh bone. Forget liver. She has been vomiting 3-4 times a week very smelly, very yellow with chunks of what looks like white fat in it. Stools look normal, urine normal but darker yellow, water intake maybe up a bit.
After poking around on the site it is plain to me she is in severe vitamin/macro deficiency, and we are now pretty clearly heading down the same path. The hair on her arm is not growing back, she is turning more brown, and lethargy is kicking in. I really need some advice here.
I see there are several powders available I can mix into the food she is actually eating. Does anyone have any experience on which would be most palatable/least obvious taste wise? I am willing to cook anything, mix anything, buy anything, try anything. I have failed her, and I really need to fix her.
Alnutrin: Alnutrin® supplement
Know Better Pet Food: Better in the Raw®
TCFeline: TCFeline® Premix.
Wysong: Call of the Wild® powder.
Thank you in advance,
Erik
