Raw Food Safety Tips?

[dollysmama]

Hey Bully Lovers!

Long time lurker, first time posting to the forum.

I have a few questions for you about raw food safety. I’ll ask them first and then give a little background info about us after for those who are curious.

1. How do you clean up your dog after a raw meal?

2. Any tips or tricks on keeping the utensils and bowls clean and preventing cross contamination in your kitchen?

3. My dog licks EVERYTHING. Me, The Couch, you name it. Should I be worried about that after she’s eaten a raw meal?

4. What about kisses? I’ll admit it, I like to kiss her face. Does feeding her raw mean I have to stop?

5. Does feeding her food frozen help minimize the food safety risks for me? Are there negative effects of her eating frozen food all the time?

A little more info about us...

My English Bulldog Dolly is 1.5 years old, 45 pounds, spayed, healthy albeit some issues with allergies and yeast. It seems like no matter what we do to manage her symptoms, we cannot fully eradicate this rust red waxy yeast stuff in between her paw pads. That’s not normal right? And of course there’s the corn chip smell.

She has always eaten Orijen Puppy Kibble. She has always had issues with her skin. I experimented early on with trying a different food, she ended up in the emergency room with one of her eyes swollen shut. No one knows for sure if it was the new kibble or not, because she had just gotten her last round of shots that week AND got into the landscaping the same day ( sago palms!! why do people plant these everywhere?! ). I’ve been a little nervous ever since about changing her food. I do believe what Hippocrates said though. Let thy food be thy medicine! So my mind always goes to raw. I know her mom ate raw and had no skin issues. Now that she is at the age that she needs to come off the puppy food, I figured it would be a good time to try this.

I know she has environmental allergies. Grass for sure, Maybe Pollen. I try to minimize her exposure to those as much as I can. This summer her allergies were so bad, she had to get two rounds of Apoquel. That helped calm the symptoms. She was red from head to toe and itchy all over, poor thing! An aside, at that time we were living in a historical house that had mold problems. Thank goodness we have since moved out of that place. I know that couldn’t have been helping her.

To manage her symptoms, we do peroxide or betadine foot baths, a biohex shampoo, duoxo wipes, the occasional benadryl if she gets into grass or is extra itchy. She has tear stains that I use Squish Face Wrinkle paste on. This all has been working ok, but there’s still room for improvement, especially with her feet.

I ordered the transition pack from RawFedK9 last week. So now we have 30 pounds of chicken sitting in the freezer that I am so nervous to start her on! I know how silly that sounds. But it’s a big lifestyle change for us both.

Thanks for reading! Any tips or experience you have to help keep us safe would be much appreciated!

[Cbrugs]

I just wash their bowls with hot water and soap when they’re done eating. And I have a separate sponge I use for their dishes, including a fork that I use to put the food into the bowls. I just wipe the counters as I normally would after preparing a meal for myself. I always wipe faces after they eat but that’s more so to keep their faces clean and dry and avoid acne and redness. I kiss my dogs too and they lock me and I’ve never had any issues.

I feed Rawfed K9 as well but now only use it for my French bulldog. Louie doesn’t do well with the prey model and needs veggies in his food so he gets a commercial raw.

Good luck!


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[dollysmama]

Thank you for these tips. I especially like the idea of a separate sponge for her bowls.

One more question for you, How did you know Louie needed veggies added?

[Cbrugs]

Thank you for these tips. I especially like the idea of a separate sponge for her bowls.

One more question for you, How did you know Louie needed veggies added?

You can tell by their poop. His was getting dry and powdery and would crumble when they hit the grounds. That usually indicates too much bone. He does fine with the commercial raw that has veggies. My Frenchie does just fine with the Rawfed K9 so every dog is different.


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[anatess]

Kibbles are also bacteria-prone. That's why you don't eat the kibble or use your dinner plates to feed kibble. So, if you haven't gotten sick yet from getting licked by your kibble-fed dog, you'll be fine with him raw-fed.

But generally, I don't kiss my dog on the mouth because that mouth licks his balls. Hah hah.

Anyway, raw food prep for me is the same as food prep for humans. Prep on the kitchen counter over cutting board. Wipe up counters with distilled white vinegar. Wash cutting board, etc in the dish washer. Pack one meal, one or two tupperware (I got a ton of chicken liver tubs from 10 years of raw feeding) and put in freezer (I have a freezer just for all my pet's food - we have pet snakes, it's shocking to visitors to open the kitchen freezer and see a package of frozen rats staring at them). Take out the night before to defrost. Feed in the morning. Wipe down dog's face with baby wipes. Done.

My dog is trained to eat over his metal food bowl over a rubber mat. He doesn't take his food off that mat and he doesn't use his paws to eat - normally. I wash bowl and chicken-liver-tubs in the dish washer and mat gets wiped with vinegar. Periodically, I would give him whole carcass. He eats the thing outside in the grass jungle-style which sometimes takes him an hour or so and I give him a bath afterwards. I pick up "crumbs" he leaves behind and throw it in the worm bin. I turn on the sprinklers to "wash" the grass because if I don't, flies would flock on the area - part of the joys of Florida living.

[2BullyMama]

I also use separate sponge, use hot water and soap after each feeding. I wipe their face after each meal, and switch water, clean bowl.

I also run their bowls through dishwasher every third day.. just because I’m nuts


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[anatess]

One more question for you, How did you know Louie needed veggies added?

You can tell by their poop. His was getting dry and powdery and would crumble when they hit the grounds. That usually indicates too much bone. He does fine with the commercial raw that has veggies. My Frenchie does just fine with the Rawfed K9 so every dog is different.

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Dollysmama, one thing you'll soon become an expert on being in the Raw-Feeding-Moms-Club is Poopology.

The way I've done it is - when my dog's poop gets chalky for a length of time, I increase innards. When it gets soft, I add meaty bones. I periodically give them vampire water (bloody drippings) but if the poop gets too dark, I don't give vampire water for a while. Etc. etc. It sounds such a hassle to always be tinkering with your dog's food (so much easier to just dump a cup of kibble on the bowl and be done with it) but then we got English Bulldogs, the king of hassle.

[helsonwheels]

Preparing raw for pets isn’t the same as humans. For pets it’s packed immediately as it has organs n blood in the mix. If it has tripe like I use, that’s definitely packed froze ASAP n why a lot of Slaughter houses won’t toy around with. But it’s the best probiotic you can give to any dog so you can find it ate toy pet store in the freezer section. It’s green n smelly. In raw it’s loaded with natural probiotics cause of the organs.

Apoquel will kill an immune system why it’s very important to make sure your dog gets probiotics. You can find it in fermented sauerkraut or fermented veggies.

You mentioned Sago Palm, not to alarm you but those palms are extremely toxic for any dog. Can kill any dog or cat.

Toxicity to pets

Sago palms are naturally found in tropical/subtropical environments; they are also used as ornamental Bonsai houseplants. These palms are members of the Order Cycadacae; genera Cycads, Macrozamia, and Zamias. Examples of the cycad family include Cycad (Cycas cirinalis), Japanese cycad (Cycad revolute), Coontie plant (Zamia pumila), and Cardbord palm (Zamia furfuracea). All parts of sago palm are considered poisonous, with the seeds (nuts) being the most toxic part of the plant. Sago palm contains cycasin, which is the primary active toxic agent resulting in severe liver failure in dogs. Ingestion results in acute gastrointestinal signs (e.g., drooling, inappetance, vomiting, diarrhea) within 15 minutes to several hours after ingestion. Central nervous system signs (e.g., weakness, ataxia, seizures, tremors, etc.) and severe liver failure can be seen within 2-3 days post-ingestion. Clinical signs include vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, inappetance, abnormal fluid accumulation in the abdomen, abdominal pain, jaundice, and black-tarry stool. Aggressive decontamination and treatment should be initiated. Even with aggressive treatment, the survival is about 50%.

[dollysmama]

Thanks again for your input. So far, Dolly is responding like Louie with crumbly poo, so we’re going to experiment some. Do you mind recommending the brand you feed your Louie?

[dollysmama]

Haha! Thank you, this is good advice. We have been using the vinegar to clean up.

[dollysmama]

Dollysmama, one thing you'll soon become an expert on being in the Raw-Feeding-Moms-Club is Poopology.

The way I've done it is - when my dog's poop gets chalky for a length of time, I increase innards. When it gets soft, I add meaty bones. I periodically give them vampire water (bloody drippings) but if the poop gets too dark, I don't give vampire water for a while. Etc. etc. It sounds such a hassle to always be tinkering with your dog's food (so much easier to just dump a cup of kibble on the bowl and be done with it) but then we got English Bulldogs, the king of hassle.

Ok, thank you! We definitely have some tinkering to do, and I will keep your advice in mind!

[dollysmama]

Preparing raw for pets isn’t the same as humans. For pets it’s packed immediately as it has organs n blood in the mix. If it has tripe like I use, that’s definitely packed froze ASAP n why a lot of Slaughter houses won’t toy around with. But it’s the best probiotic you can give to any dog so you can find it ate toy pet store in the freezer section. It’s green n smelly. In raw it’s loaded with natural probiotics cause of the organs.

Apoquel will kill an immune system why it’s very important to make sure your dog gets probiotics. You can find it in fermented sauerkraut or fermented veggies.

You mentioned Sago Palm, not to alarm you but those palms are extremely toxic for any dog. Can kill any dog or cat.

Toxicity to pets

Sago palms are naturally found in tropical/subtropical environments; they are also used as ornamental Bonsai houseplants. These palms are members of the Order Cycadacae; genera Cycads, Macrozamia, and Zamias. Examples of the cycad family include Cycad (Cycas cirinalis), Japanese cycad (Cycad revolute), Coontie plant (Zamia pumila), and Cardbord palm (Zamia furfuracea). All parts of sago palm are considered poisonous, with the seeds (nuts) being the most toxic part of the plant. Sago palm contains cycasin, which is the primary active toxic agent resulting in severe liver failure in dogs. Ingestion results in acute gastrointestinal signs (e.g., drooling, inappetance, vomiting, diarrhea) within 15 minutes to several hours after ingestion. Central nervous system signs (e.g., weakness, ataxia, seizures, tremors, etc.) and severe liver failure can be seen within 2-3 days post-ingestion. Clinical signs include vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, inappetance, abnormal fluid accumulation in the abdomen, abdominal pain, jaundice, and black-tarry stool. Aggressive decontamination and treatment should be initiated. Even with aggressive treatment, the survival is about 50%.

Ok, I will definitely need to add in some probiotics for her! Thanks for this great tip. Scary stuff about the Sago Palm. None in the yard at the new place thankfully.