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Many people feed their dog nothing BUT raw meat so I have a hard time believing that it's TOXIC... it's akin to feeding fresh veggies to birds. Raw is very healthy for dogs. In fact dogs are BUILT to eat meat.
I lost my bulldog at 3 years old to kidney failure, I suspect he was fed grapes by my young neice. Its my fault for not being there. Please heed these warnings! Dogs have absolutely zero sense when it comes to what they ingest. Once a dog's kidneys have been damaged, there is no way to reverse the progress, and pretty much impossible to determine what caused it in the first place.
Many people feed their dog nothing BUT raw meat so I have a hard time believing that it's TOXIC... it's akin to feeding fresh veggies to birds. Raw is very healthy for dogs. In fact dogs are BUILT to eat meat.
The problem with raw meat diets for cats and dogs is that they have few (if any) scientifically proven benefits, but they have a lot of documented risks. Unless the diet is AAFCO approved (ideally undergoing AAFCO-supervised feeding trials) to be a complete diet, there are a lot of risks of nutritional deficiencies. This is pretty common problem with homemade diets that aren't properly formulated with additional supplements, and is why homemade diets for cats and dogs (and most other animals, really) need to be done under direct supervision of a veterinary nutritionist. It's not uncommon to find raw diets that aren't nutritionally complete and are for "supplemental or occasional feeding only."
Any benefits are anecdotal and don't have any scientific proof to substantiate them. Think of it as people saying, "I started giving my cockatoo hand-picked, hand-juiced fruits served to him by hand with a silver spoon and he no longer plucks/screams/has allergies!" Sure, it could be that the dietary change is the reason for improvement, but such results probably aren't typical and wouldn't be seen by other birds across the board.
There is also the risk of spreading salmonella and other pathogens. There are reports that over 20% of commercial raw diets are infected with salmonella, and over half of the detected strains are resistant to antimicrobial agents. People think that because cats and dogs have shorter digestive they won't be infected, but there's no science to prove this is the case. Even if this were true, the animals can still pass on the pathogens to other members of the household (animal and human alike). Why else would you see manufacturers forced to recall products that have been infected? Salmonella isn't the only worry, either. Raw diets have been the cause of an increased rate of toxoplasmosis infection in cats, and can also spread e.coli.
Raw diets that contain bone are often implicated as the cause of GI injuries, and raw bones are a veterinary no-no because of painful tooth fractures.
Unfortunately, so many people have become distrusting of vets over the years that they'd rather take the advice of holistic bloggers over the internet before they trust their own vet. It's a shame, since vets are far better equipped to give individually-catered care and advice to their clients - something people online (vet or not) simply can't provide.