During my veterinary career I have seen many pets struggling with their diet, and what most vets and pet owners don’t really think about is how the food their pets are eating may affect their overall health.
We all know very well that nutrition is essential for good health, yet we don’t really ask the question about our pet’s health and the relationship with their diets.
We assume the vet knows best and would give us advice on the right food to give.
Yet, most vets sell in their practice the typical dry food claiming how good it is, there are tons of different diets out there totally specialised on different diseases and conditions, food for dry skin, for kidney disease, for heart disease, etc…and although not all about these foods is wrong, I mean, veterinary nutritionists have spent a lot of their time studying the nutritional needs for every condition providing the food with specific and condition focused supplements.
BUT, that said, it is a dry product made to last very long and having a long shelve life, which means, flours made out of wheat are added in order to make this a dry ingredient and many preservatives to keep it edible for a long time which is, of course, detrimental for our pets to to mention the animal protein source that seems to be the main cause of the allergic conditions in the first place.
On top of this, there are many studies that actually blame the cause of many diseases to the food the pet has been eating, say for example, kidney disease in cats, dry food seems to be a driver for this, which to me, and my experience has been totally the case. Cats, in order to compensate the dryness of their food, need to compensate by drinking loads of water, which unfortunately does not happen because cats, unlike dogs, which happily drink loads of water when thirsty, cats, as a different species tend to acquire their water needs thru their diets hence why they are not prone to drinking water from a bowl, leaving the kidneys very dry and becoming ill after many years of trying to survive on dry food, ending up in kidney disease, the same goes for kidney stones, many diets out there are the cause of these as well.
Another example would be dogs and allergic skin conditions, dermatological conditions are increasing by the numbers as many other chronic conditions like diabetes, arthritis, cancer, all of which are from inflammatory origin, this said, we have to start by the gut, where over 70% of our and our pets immune system lies…when our guts are not healthy, it is unable to digest food properly and it will allow for certain foods to go into our bodies more easily (like in leaky gut for example) which the body recognises as being “foreign” and reacts to it….dry foods are not the normal food animals would eat in the wild, they are man made, provide tons of compounds (preservatives) that are unnatural and therefore they react to it leading to all kinds of inflammatory conditions.
Now, that said, dogs and cats, although both are pets, they are different species and therefore very different in their nutritional requirements and diets, cats are obligatory carnivores and dogs are more omnivores (they eat not only meat but also vegetables and other food sources)which allows them to be a bit more flexible with their diets. Yet, both do bad on dry foods, because of the ingredients within them…I am a firm believer that dry foods are one of the biggest reasons why our pets are getting sicker by the minute and I never have liked them.
I have been providing nutritional consultations during my veterinary career to pet owners, and although dry foods are extremely convenient, providing a more home made pet food is for sure the way to go, that way you know exactly what’s in the food without any preservatives and harmful chemicals. That said, you must make sure this home made diet provides all the nutritional needs that your dog requires in order to not succumb to health issues and nutrient deficiencies that sometimes can become severe.
Make sure you get the advice of a veterinarian with expertise in plant based nutrition. I you can ‘t get to one, you can get the commercially available plant-based diets out there which are specifically formulated with the required nutritional needs.
I have had many pet owners wanting to make their dogs plant-based and have asked me for advice, and after creating many vegan formulas for my patients, I have decided it would be best to create a course on this topic for everyone who wants to transition their pet into a plant-based dog. The course is not yet ready as I am still creating it, so please stay tuned in for when it’s ready!
Going further into our pets common diets, there was a study made in 2016 regarding the most prevalent food allergy ingredients in dogs diets, and despite the common belief that starch (grains) would be the first in the list, it turns out that beef, dairy and chicken were the root cause of these allergic reactions (at least 2/3 of dogs allergies were triggered by these ingredients) being wheat the number 4 reason which is commonly found in dry foods.
But first and foremost, we have to treat the root cause of all these inflammatory conditions by tackling the gut inflammation, which is the main reason why animals, same as humans, are having so many health related conditions. You see, at the end, we are not that much different to our pets.
So, regarding if our pets can become vegan, the answer would be, YES for dogs, without any underlaying conditions and a well prepared and studied vegan diet making sure we cover all 10 essential amino acids ( the building blocks of protein), regarding cats, ABSOLUTELY NOT, and sorry for those cat owners out there that are feeding vegan food to their cats, I have lost some clients because of this but I stick to my decision, I have seen cats suffering a lot from a vegan diet, like I mentioned before, they are obligatory carnivores and need animal protein to thrive, they are not capable to digest starches plus they require many proteins than dogs do, like taurine, for example, much needed in cats for cardiac, skeletal, eye health, reproductive health and neurological development. That said, dogs require this amino acid as well, and as such, would benefit from a small supplement for this, yet dogs, unlike cats, are not obligatory carnivores and actually do need to eat a variety of nutrients including plants in their diet as well as some fibre to make sure things “run smoothly” along the intestine.
Today, clients are becoming more savvy and aware of the health and nutrient requirements of their dogs and are trying different things to improve the health of their animals, and going vegan is one of those changes they make, not only for their dogs health but also because they are becoming more conscious of the need to change the overall eating habits, not only for themselves but for their animals, to improve our environmental state from climate change, to species diversity loss from land mass destruction, to intensive farming and animal welfare.
Today, there are many studies done to learn the benefits of a plant-based diet for dogs and they are numerous, but maybe the one reason that stands out the most is how a plant-based diets reduces symptoms of allergic skin conditions, reducing the inflammation (redness & discomfort), the itchiness, the ear infections…even clearing it completely.
Seeing the huge prevalence of allergic skin conditions in our furry friends, I think giving a vegan diet a try isn’t at all a bad idea, right?
If you want to know more about vegan diets for dogs, contact me or stay tuned for my next upcoming course !
I hope this opened up some light for you if you have a dog that is suffering from inflammatory conditions and I hope you give this diet a try!
Love,
Eleonore