Has your Dog gotten sick from the BARF (raw food) diet ?

Question

I have a 6 month old German shepherd as a new mommy i read alot on the internet looking for the best kibble and found everyone swearing by this new diet on thousands of sites.
I decided i wanted the best for my Suzy and put her on it when she was 14 weeks old until last month when she started hating to eat her beef ribs at all. I switched back to making her home made food Rice , chicken, youghurt, eggs, and a good vitamin but it was a little to late. She stopped eating alll together and had diahreah and vomitting. The vet said one more week and she would have not made it. The virus was caused by raw meat I almost lost my baby as well as traumatizing her with a daily I.V. session for for 5 days that I can hardly afford.
Please tell me did you have any negative expieriences with this diet ?

The barf diet I fed her was

Beef ribs (HIgh quality from major supermarkets) 1-1.5 lbs per day
2 raw eggs a week
carrots,
Chicken necks 8 per week
yoghurt 1 cup a week
cottage chees

I am still not sure what exact bacteria yet I shouls get the lab results in 3 days. I have to wait for her first hard stoll i think tomorrow shell make it since she is feeling much better and the vet will use the results to see how much more medicine she will need to eradicate the virus .
I will post it here as soon as i find out. thanks everyone : )

to answer your question about any problem with the meat where i live well dont jump but I live in Romania.. I moved here 5 years ago from California.
So yes even though I buy the best quallity from the fanciest cleanest supermarkets there is a very good posibility the meat was contaminated. For this reason even though the barf diet may be best in THE U.S. and western Europe maybe there should be some kind of warning for people attempting this with there dogs in countries that have less strict sanitation standards.
I will not attempt this with her again for this reason . Nomatter where I buy the meat It will not be safe unluss cooked .
Farewell to the Barf for us it seemed like a very well intended diet that works well for most people.
I will ask the larger websites to post a warning for dog owners in 3rd world countries.

Answer 1

I'm so sorry to hear about this!

I assume you mean the illness was caused by a bacteria in the raw meat -- do you know the name of the bacteria?

Which BARF diet were you using? Developed by whom, I mean? There are a few out there, now.

Although I feed my guys a mixture of kibble and raw foods, I have never had issues with meat contamination -- using beef ribs from supermarkets, as well as raw beef bones from the butcher. We've also fed turkey necks, and chicken thighs/legs/breasts without any issues. I've always boiled the eggs, but I know others feed them raw.

I have a kennel of 30 dogs who get this stuff regularly, and the only negative effects I've seen were in one dog who just can't seem to handle raw poultry in any form -- in his case, he just gets an upset tummy and gacks up the meat.

I've always thought BARF was good to supplement, but that a dog should also eat regular kibble, since it's so easy to rob them of nutrients if you don't take the time to make sure you've included everything. But that's just what makes sense for me, and probably wouldn't have helped in this case.

Again, so terribly sorry to hear about this -- I know you were only trying to do what was best for your puppy!

Wish I could be more help!

Answer 2

I have seen dogs get severe illnesses and even die from being fed the BARF diet. The dogs can get e-coli, salmonella, and many other food borne illnesses from the uncooked meat and eggs. Also, it takes more variety to meet vitamin/mineral needs of a growing large breed puppy.

I would switch her to a super premium dog food (organic or not, it is your choice) like Natural Balance (which I would recommend), Merrick, Wysong, or Wellness. I would try to get a large breed puppy formula, if there is one available (but Natural Balance Ultra Premium is an all breeds/life stages food). Dog food companies spend millions of dollars each year to research into the quality of the dog food, and I am sorry but I think that it is way more healthy than barf diets.

If you really want to feed a raw diet, I would go with Natures Variety. They have raw food patties that contain everything that your do needs in raw form. Plus, they come frozen, which helps kill the bacteria and viruses in the food that can cause illness.

I hope that your puppy gets better, and that this helps.

Answer 3

I suggest feeding your dog a high quality dry dog food. It is balanced, keeps well, cleans the dogs teeth, and has all of the nutrients an animal needs for growth.

A high quality dog food has been intensively tested to assure that it meets all of the dog's nutritional needs. By feeding your dog homemade foods exclusively you are using your dog as a lab rat. You have no way of knowing whether this will meet your dog's needs or not--do you really want to find out by having a sick or malnourished dog? Lots of people do it, but I worked with show and performance dogs for years and know plenty of people who also did and none of us would touch homemade diets with a ten foot pole. I've seen some of the dogs people "cooked" for, and they are not in nearly as good a condition as dogs fed an appropriate dog food. You can supplement a commercial food if you like, but you need that as a base to be sure that your dog is getting everything it needs to develop.

It's nearly impossible to meet a dog's needs with a list of five or six ingredients. In the wild a canine eats a huge variety of foods, primarily animal but also many vegetables/fruits/grasses/insects. And when a canine eats an animal he eats the whole animal, the intestinal contents included.

Give the dog a good commercially prepared diet. She might not like it at first but she will switch and be healthier for it.

Answer 4

I too, as well as many of my friends have been feeding raw for years. None of us have ever had an issue with food related diseases. I use raw as a primary diet and Solid Gold as the 'lighter meal' of the day. In fact, my dogs have suffered less woes (skin, dental, coat, stomach etc) since I started feeding raw.

A normal healthy dog's immune system is able to fight off most bacteria in raw feed. Unlike people, dogs usually do not suffer from e-coli like things.

Did your vet tell you what type of virus your dog had??? I ask this because my vet advised me to take my one dog off of raw when he had valley fever ( an airborne desert mold disease, mainly found in Maricopa County, Arizona). I did take him off of raw due do his compromised immune system as well as the vet's own personal story with valley fever.

All of us who feed raw are concerned when we hear things like this.. The food borne illnesses have been making the headlines lately, makes you wonder just how questionable the food supply really is.

Does your area have health code violations on line??? Have you checked to see if the grocery stores that you shop in have been coded in the time period before your dog fell ill????

What did the vet advise you to feed?

I hope your baby is on her way to wellness now.



Please keep us posted! If the baterica is food related, check with the health dept and let them know about this. I am not sure if they will take a complaint on a canine illness, but give it a shot.


I wouldn't consider where you live a third world country, but I have never been there. America does have some of the toughest food processing standards in the world and things still do happen. Did anyone in your house get sick from eating meat from this place??? Does the news report food borne illness like they do here????? You are doing the right thing by contacting the bigger websites. Is there some sort of agency that oversees these types of issues, you have to get it to the locals also. Have you bleached everything that the meat came into contact with?????

Answer 5

Google Barf diets or raw feeding for canines - there's a lot of good info on line re ratios of bone, muscle meat, organs, etc. A rule of thumb is 2% to 3% of the adult's body weight, with a nursing female and pups that rule doesn't apply. Also, go to the B-Naturals website and scroll down to raw diets, it gives a good overview of muscle meat (protein source), organs, etc. and recipes for beginners. Good luck.

Answer 6

There's nothing wrong with the diets. Just you need to cook them.

Raw meets contain germs. That's probably the cause of vomitting and sickness.

If you want to make home made dog food , I suggest you cook the food first before give them to your dog.

Answer 7

Ultimate Raw Food Diet : http://RawFoodHappys.com/Guidance

Answer 8

Wow,that sounds awful and scary!
I've had my shi-poo on Natures variety which is raw food with all the needed vitamin,minerals and vegetables.It comes frozen so I just thaw it out.I know alot of people using it and no one has had any problems.I hope to god my pooch doesn't get a bacterial infection.Can you give more info as to what she actually was sick with.Salmonella?

Answer 9

Did you already tried using Eating for Energy (120 raw food diet recipes) mechanism? Try on this website : http://www.StayEatingRaw.com/Support . This is able to extremely manage one and all!

Answer 10

I haven't heard of this diet but, I know that if any animal such as a domestic dog is not use to raw meat like a wild animal would be. They can get sick just as we would from it. I know that there are some good foods out there such as nutro that do not use animal byproducts in their pet products. Good luck!