Fibre with raw diet?

[Patp]

Jinley had an emergency op today due to an abscess on one of her anal glands.

She is 4 and had never suffered previously in fact I have never asked the vet to express them.

She is raw fed and her poos are always firm due to 1 chicken wing per day.  The vet (admitted she was not an advocate of raw feeding) said to change her over to Natures Menu as it has fruit and veg included for fibre which dogs need???

I have no problem with this (so long as she eats it as she doesnt like "mushy" food) and have been and bought a variety of flavours to try.

The vet also recommended adding bran to her diet to add more fibre, but not sure if anybody else does this?  If the natures menu includes bone, will adding more fibre just cause constipation?

[ollie nathan's mum]

 I can't think why you would need to add fibre to firm pooh!! I agree you will probably cause constipation. I wouldn't normally say ignore your vet but in this case I am saying just that. Hope for a swift recovery 

[elaine.e]

What else do you feed in addition to the daily chicken wing Pat? The usual recommendation for raw feeding is around 80% muscle meat, 10% bone and 10% offal. Louis does well on that but William becomes constipated if he has 10% bone so I make sure he has some bone free meals. I don't know the % of bone in a chicken wing, but it must be quite high.

Sometimes mine have some fruit and veg. added, sometimes not, and it doesn't seem to make much difference to their output, but the amount of bone does! I know plenty of raw feeders who never feed fruit or veggies and some who feed it every day.

If you decide to try Jinley on Nature's Menu please have a good read of the labels. Some of the nuggets and blocks contain rice , no idea why, and some are only around 60% meat + 40% veg. and fruit. I don't feed the ones with rice and don't often use the 40% veg. ones because I think my dogs need a higher % of meat than that.

If you wanted to cut back on the bone a bit you could try either feeding a totally bone free meal, such as green tripe, every couple of days, or a chicken wing every other day instead of every day?

I hope Jinley is back to normal very soon

[JeffD]

My last cocker Dime suffered anal gland problems bran sorted her out, vet told me it would bulk her poo and naturally work the anal glands

[julie1]

My last cocker Dime suffered anal gland problems bran sorted her out, vet told me it would bulk her poo and naturally work the anal glands

Earlier this year Kez had infected anal glands, (I feed raw with chicken wings)  I told the vet she had small, firm poo & was told that may be the problem,  the vet said to add bran, raw porridge oats or weetabix to bulk-up her poo, they weren't large enough to do the job of emptying the glands.
So far no more problems.

[Toofast]

I would not want to feed bran/wheat to my raw fed dogs to soften their poos.!
I would want my girls poos to remain nice and firm. (I am a raw feeder). 4 years with no problems is quiet normal with raw feeding as the firmness of the poos helps to express the anal glands.

Natures Menu is an ok frozen raw product if you have no other options but they do have quiet a few products with Maize and Rice in (take care).

The abcess was just one of those things that would have happened whatever you were feeding.
You can always add grated raw products to your girls raw meat yourself for roughage and ours absolutely love fresh/ripe fruits of most types and nuts.

I would tend to ignor the vet too!

[Patp]

She does have very small poos, perhaps as Julie1 says, they arent big enough to do the job!  Do you give it dry?

Elaine.e her dinner consists of either meat / offal or fish (occasionally tripe  ) - she has the odd raw or cooked carrot or peas usually at a weekend when we have cooked a dinner.  When she is back to normal, I might cut down to chicken wing every other day and give her more tripe.

Interesting about the rice bit - will take a look at the packs.

Thanks, she is very restless this evening and is red raw where she has been over zealously licking herself over the past couple of days.

[Pearly]

Pat I'm so sorry Jinley has had a procedure today - i hope they used a different anaesthetic this time?

I do feed raw veg and some fruits with meat and bones for both dogs.  Having said that I'm probably not the best to advise given Pearl has had both glands removed....Mark raw feeds and never gives vegetables or fruit - he's tried his on both and none will eat it    he does give a treat on a Saturday for dinner: tinned fish in oils, brown bread, coconut oil, turmeric and mixed herbs.  They love it and mine do too 

Did they take the infected gland out at the same time or just the abcess (have you spoken to Rob?) hope Jinley recovers quickly and you have a good supply of wine in

Jayne, Pearl and Coral
Xxx

[Patp]

Pat I'm so sorry Jinley has had a procedure today - i hope they used a different anaesthetic this time?

I do feed raw veg and some fruits with meat and bones for both dogs.  Having said that I'm probably not the best to advise given Pearl has had both glands removed....Mark raw feeds and never gives vegetables or fruit - he's tried his on both and none will eat it    he does give a treat on a Saturday for dinner: tinned fish in oils, brown bread, coconut oil, turmeric and mixed herbs.  They love it and mine do too 

Did they take the infected gland out at the same time or just the abcess (have you spoken to Rob?) hope Jinley recovers quickly and you have a good supply of wine in
Jayne, Pearl and Coral
Xxx

Hi Jayne


They havent removed it because it ruptured before they could operate, so they have just flushed the abscess out and taken a swab to be cultured.  They were going to put her out totally and take a biopsy, but as it had ruptured, they just heavily sedated her. 

The brown bread sounds interesting, anything herby and I would have to mix it with tripe so that Miss J's delicate nose wouldnt suss it out!

Will definitely speak to Rob when we know what we are dealing with - strangely I noticed her gait had changed a few days about when I was walking behind her so that must have been the start of it.

[Archie bean]

Poor Jinley. Cockers do seem prone to anal gland issues regardless of what they are fed. Massive hugs to you and I hope she is feeling better very very soon.
 

[Redked]

Pat, what a worry for you. I hope Jinley is ok now, bless her. We feed Bonnie weetabix one day and raw chicken wing the following  (for breakfast). This always seemed to work for her but just recently she has started to have her anal glands emptied more regularly so cannot comment on whether it would help....sorry.

Send our love to Jinley and to you too. Kerry, Des and Bonnie 

[JennyBee]

Pat I'm so sorry Jinley has had a procedure today - i hope they used a different anaesthetic this time?

I do feed raw veg and some fruits with meat and bones for both dogs.  Having said that I'm probably not the best to advise given Pearl has had both glands removed....Mark raw feeds and never gives vegetables or fruit - he's tried his on both and none will eat it    he does give a treat on a Saturday for dinner: tinned fish in oils, brown bread, coconut oil, turmeric and mixed herbs.  They love it and mine do too 

Did they take the infected gland out at the same time or just the abcess (have you spoken to Rob?) hope Jinley recovers quickly and you have a good supply of wine in
Jayne, Pearl and Coral
Xxx

Hi Jayne


They havent removed it because it ruptured before they could operate, so they have just flushed the abscess out and taken a swab to be cultured.  They were going to put her out totally and take a biopsy, but as it had ruptured, they just heavily sedated her. 

The brown bread sounds interesting, anything herby and I would have to mix it with tripe so that Miss J's delicate nose wouldnt suss it out!

Will definitely speak to Rob when we know what we are dealing with - strangely I noticed her gait had changed a few days about when I was walking behind her so that must have been the start of it.

That's really interesting about her gait - I noticed Brodie's gait had changed before her cancer was discovered. Once she got her polyarthritis diagnosis I put it down to that, but maybe it was the discomfort coming from her anal gland?

Hope she has recovered well from the infection and op, and that a little change in diet means there are no more problems in the future .

[lescef]

My two have been on a raw diet for four months. I buy Nutriment, which has fruit and veg added to it,  and the shops own product, which has nothing but meat and bone etc. I have found that Maddie really struggles if she has too much of the shop's own product and the poos are very small but hard. We have mainly Nutriment now.
 Maybe adding some fresh veg would bulk her stools out.