The Yorkshire Vet: Pets’ menus with the human touch - Julian Norton
Last week, I referred to the use of pork pies as a diagnostic tool in testing for liver disease. It got me thinking about the topic of using human foods for our animals. Of course, nobody would recommend feeding pork pies as a general diet for dogs, but it has become a trend over recent times to feed homemade and home-cooked food.
It got me thinking about the topic of using human foods for our animals. Of course, nobody would recommend feeding pork pies as a general diet for dogs, but it has become a trend over recent times to feed homemade and home-cooked food.
A neighbour asked me recently about the concept of feeding her dog, Bert, the same food that she eats, on the basis that she was making her own meals anyway, so it was no extra trouble and seemed much more appetising than what came out of the tin. Her own diet was sufficiently simple as to not be too challenging to the canine digestive system, but I pointed out that items on the menu such as curry would not be a good idea (which was obvious) and that some foodstuffs such as raisins, onions, garlic and chocolate were toxic to dogs (which maybe wasn’t so obvious). Whilst it would be hard to recommend a diet not properly balanced in terms of its nutrients, I couldn’t really say it was a terrible idea if done properly. In any case, I liked the idea of Bert arriving in the kitchen at the allotted time to tuck into his shepherd’s pie and peas.
I recall one dog whose owners had a diet that consisted of broccoli with every meal, and their lithe border collie had the same. Another dog, who I only knew of from the stories at a previous practice, was a huge yellow Labrador who lived exclusively on fish and chips. A kind vet offered to hospitalise the obese hound whilst the owners went on a fortnight’s holiday, thereby offering an enforced fat camp. After two weeks of an appropriate diet, he went home a fraction of his former, deep-fried self.
An old patient of mine called Butch Taylor was also round. He was a staffie with diabetes which was proving very difficult to stabilise. The requirements for insulin went up and up and I couldn’t work out why. Finally, when Butch came in with both Mr and Mrs Taylor, I asked again, “…and he definitely doesn’t get any extra titbits or treats?” There was the usual vigorous headshaking from Mr Taylor, until his wife piped up, “Apart from all those sausage rolls that you give him every afternoon.” The mystery was solved and, with proper dietary control, Butch’s glucose levels returned to normal.
Sometimes, human food for dogs is useful. It’s common advice to prescribe chicken and rice for dogs suffering from a bout of gastroenteritis, although it doesn’t always work if there is an intolerance to chicken. Another anecdotal diet from antiquity was the idea of feeding a strict diet of boiled potatoes and gravy to any dog suffering from allergic skin disease. I’m led to believe it was sometimes helpful, probably because the dog was deprived of any proper protein source at all! In the days before commercial prescription diets became available to treat specific organ disease, we were taught to recommend cottage cheese and sweet potato for dogs suffering from liver disease. It provided a simple and easy protein source and a slowly digestible carbohydrate supply, all with minimal fat. Nowadays, there is a multitude of specialised hepatic diets, renal diets and even tins of food to help fight off cancer, each one balanced with all the right things and none of the wrong things and designed to meet very specific medical needs. These are all well and good, so long as you dog wants to eat them. A low protein, low phosphate formula might be perfect to help failing kidneys, but it won’t help your dog if it doesn’t like the taste!