A Review of Purina’s Cat Allergen Reducing Diet

liveclear allergen reduction

If you have an allergy to cats, or know someone who does, then you know how debilitating it can be. Cat allergens are everywhere, and up to now there’s been precious little you could do except avoid cats altogether. Which for many people has not been possible.

So it was with great hope that here in Australia we awaited the arrival of Purina’s new food designed to reduce human allergies to cats and kittens. Imagine the possible benefits if it works:

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Is A Raw Diet Good For Puppies?

dog raw diet

Australian raw feeders are still coming to terms with the horse meat scandal that killed and maimed so many Victorian dogs. Given the potential risk of buying pet meats, it begs the question: is it worth it?

In my vet practice we support raw feeding, but that doesn’t mean we don’t also have a watchful eye. I’ll cover the risks first. By knowing them and their solutions, you can do it more safely.

Afterwards, I’ll feature some of the first evidence to show a benefit for raw puppy foods.

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The Dog Deaths From Raw Meat: What Went Wrong

indigofera distribution picture

Update 3 August: What a difference a week makes!

The Maffra District Knackery has now admitted that they processed horses from the Northern Territory.

Now read on to see why it was always the most likely explanation…

An outbreak of liver failure in Victorian dogs has been linked to raw meat from a local supplier. At least 14 dogs died and a further 30 were hospitalised.

I’ve been following the story carefully. The more we know the stranger it gets.

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Help! My Dog Ate An Almond

almonds in bowl

Try searching “can dogs eat almonds” and you’ll see dire warnings, like “7 Dangers of Almonds for Dogs” or “Why Almonds Are Bad for Dogs“.

This is absolute rubbish and internet myth-making at its worst. Why is everyone so afraid of almonds? Because they only read each others’ blogs instead of trusting evidence or experience.

It’s always safer to say ‘no’ than ‘yes’, isn’t it! Here I’ll go through each of those ‘seven ways’ and demonstrate their lack of accuracy.

And what do you know, they actually missed a real problem too.

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Vet Sees People Manipulated By Clickbait, You Won’t Believe What Happens Next!

cat dog beach fishing

OK, jokey title aside, this is serious.

Are you struggling under the weight of too many choices? Everyone telling you how you must use a certain food, or a special remedy? You’re in good company.

Linus Pauling was one of the greatest scientists of all time, but even that didn’t save him. Despite groundbreaking discoveries and a Nobel Prize, he is perhaps most famous for the wrong reason.

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3 Ways Humans Are Better Than Dogs

dog catching frisbee

It must seem strange for a vet to compare humans and dogs and find humans better. Well let me tell you, this is an exception to a general rule. Just read Why Dogs Are Better Than Humans and you will agree.

However, our inferiority tends to mask the fact that there are a few special areas in which we do better. And because we don’t recognise them, we tend to make bad assumptions and harm our dogs. So here they are…

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Is It OK To Give A Cat Only Dry Food?

cat eating

Listen to this rubbish.

If your cat only eats dry food, she is likely to be getting less nutrition than a cat eating wet food. Many low-quality dry foods contain a lot of fillers.

Throwaway lines like these are typical of the overly simplistic advice you find online about feline nutrition. The truth takes a deeper look. To know whether wet, dry or both are best for your cat, we need to talk about:

  • nutritional adequacy & completeness
  • fillers in wet & dry cat food
  • the risk of obesity
  • diseases associated with wet & dry foods
  • other alternative cat diets

Let’s dive in!

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Chronic Diarrhoea In Dogs

So your dog has had diarrhoea for more than two weeks, and you have ruled out all the more common causes of diarrhoea found here.
A basal cortisol level has even been done to rule out the 4% of these dogs that have Addisons disease.

What do you do now?

The answer is to consider the possibility that your dog has chronic enteropathy, or CE. This is a poorly understood group of related disorders that often respond to dietary, antibiotic or immunosuppressive treatment. Sometimes the solution is more than one of these approaches.

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Do Dogs Need Senior or Mature Foods?

commercial dog diet

A few years ago, a sales rep for one of the major dog food companies came to me. The serious expression told me that there was something wrong.

“Andrew, you’re not making enough senior dog food sales.”

This wasn’t a surprise to me. Instead I said what I always say: “bring me the evidence that senior diets improve the health of dogs and I’ll use them.”

See also: Do Cats Need Senior Foods?

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Getting Cats To Eat Raw Chicken Necks

cat raw chicken

Let me tell you a story that shows what we’re up against.

I met a very perplexed feral cat researcher recently. In his study area the cats generally hunt and eat one common mammal. However, suddenly the population of that species crashed.

There were lots of other tasty critters still hopping around, some of which look nearly the same. Despite this, the cats began to starve.

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Help! My Puppy Won’t Eat Dry Food

unbalanced puppy food

I’m deeply concerned by a fast-growing trend in puppy diets. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that puppy owners are being badly let down. It makes me angry and it should make them angry too.

New puppies at our Adelaide clinic are being set up to fail in numbers that I haven’t seen since the 1990’s. The consequences can be the permanent leg deformities you see in the picture.

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The Senate Pet Food Safety Inquiry & You

pet food safety

Update 2021: still no news on whether the findings of the Inquiry will ever make it into law.

Background

Australia lacks any form of oversight regarding pet food safety or basic standards of hygiene or quality.

Australia also lacks any way to report faults in pet foods. Mistakes happen even with good brands, but attempts in the past by individual vets to highlight them have invariably led to threats of ruinous legal action against the vet involved.

I provided evidence at the public hearings into the safety of pet food on Tuesday the 28th of August, 2018 in Sydney. Here you can read my oral and written submissions.

You might also like:

I went there to put forward the demands of ordinary pet owners. You can be sure that industry was well-represented but what about you? We needed the opinions of ordinary consumers and average Australian pet owners.

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5 Myths About Food Allergy In Dogs

dog wheat field

If you have an itchy dog, it doesn’t take long before someone tells you it’s due to the food. Usually that someone also offers an alternative.

It’s not a case of people trying to pull a fast one; they just believe in what they use. Who doesn’t? If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

The trouble is, though, most owners of dogs with skin problems aren’t getting the advice they need. Or they’re getting it far too late.

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Pet Food Allergy Testing | Elimination Diets

food allergy dog

Elsewhere on this site we’ve published the evidence for which foods dogs and cats are allergic to. Now we’ll show you how to figure it out for your own pet. This even works for a mouse!

Diagnosis of Food Allergies

The bad news is that there is no simple test. Popular blood test kits are not reliable enough.

The good news is that you can do it at home. It’s called an elimination diet. You have two choices:

  1. Buy one off-the-shelf
  2. Make it yourself (this is preferred if possible, see below)
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Vegan Dog & Cat Diets In 2020: Are They Safe?

apple fennel with eyes

Three years ago when I first investigated vegan diets for dogs and cats, my response was a bit simplistic. I said that as long as you use a complete and balanced diet, your pet can be vegan.

Since then, we’ve learned more and I have too. I still think you can have a vegan dog, but there are important warnings. And vegan cats? Probably not, but I can show you how to feed them without any guilt.

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How You CAN Get Overweight Cats To Lose Weight

Imagine the outrage if a character called Fat Dog (or fat anything for that matter) was created today. Yet, there we were in Adelaide in the 1980s watching Fat Cat tell us to go to bed at 7:30 every night.

The fact is that an overweight cat is taken less seriously than an overweight dog. We see fat cats as fun and loveable, and somehow beyond our control. Like Garfield and his lasagne.

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How You CAN Get Your Dog To Lose Weight

Overweight dog stuck
prevalence overweight dogs
The rising rate of overweight dogs

Have a look at this chart: are you as surprised as I was when I put this together?

It shows the results of the last five studies where vets have taken percentages of overweight dogs in the US, UK, and Australia.

How can you make sure your best mate doesn’t end up as another statistic in the dog obesity epidemic?

Answer: read on. It’s positive, 100% judgement-free and based on 25 years of successfully helping dog owners like yourself.

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Skin Allergies In Dogs | Atopy

collie in grass

Every Springtime my little Loki starts to show the signs of his allergies. From then until after Christmas I have to work hard to keep him comfortable.

He’s not alone; every day we see dogs like Loki. We call this condition atopic dermatitis or atopy.

Allergies look so different in dogs that most of the time their owners aren’t aware what the problem is.

Signs Of Atopic Dermatitis

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