Feed Raw Pork? Be Careful! - Page 2

Yes, Clostridium difficile was often cultured at the VMTH at UC-Davis. It was a ubiquitious "hospital bug" in an environment where sanitation may have been carried to extremes.

The human case mentioned above involves an already immuno-compromised patient who had been treated for bladder cancer.

While, I'm not exactly 80 years old, I'm certainly no spring chicken. Because I am in an "at-risk" age population, I have been vaccinated for enfluenza, shingles (herpes zoster), and pneumonia.

Other than a cold once a year, I'm as healthy as a horse--perhaps like my grandmother who live until she was 103!

Bravo Louise. I'm glad to hear I am not alone letting my dogs "work things out". After puppy shots, they get rabies vac, that's it.

I'm a nurse, Louise, so of course I have to disagree. One of the main ways infections are spread from patient to patient in hospitals is due to doctors and nurses not washing their hands.

I saw this in action last week. One of my homecare patients is a 90 year old who's diabetic and on dialysis 3x a week.

His son brought a very bad intestinal flu bug into the home. This family does not wash their dishes properly: they squirt a bit of soap on them, give them a scrub under running water, then rinse.  They don't even have any soap in the kitchen except for liquid dish soap. A communal towel is used for drying both dishes and hands.

Is it any surprise that the bug went through the WHOLE family like a hot knife through butter? The grandson and daughter- in-law looked like death warmed over for a couple of days, but recovered fairly quickly. Grandpa was so sick he had to make a trip to the hospital to get re-hydrated. I came very close to sending him a second time, as he was so weak he could hardly walk.

I had to beg the family to get liquid pump soap (which is much more sanitary than bar soap) and paper towels for his apartment, as well as disposable gloves for his caregivers, who were having to handle soiled clothing and bedding as well as poopy diapers. It took them 3 days to finally do this. It was too late for me. Despite careful handwashing, I came down sick with the bug 4 days after first being exposed to it. Wouldn't wish the damn thing on my worst enemy!  My system's still not quite back to normal.

Studies have shown that MRSA can be transferred from humans to dogs, and from dogs to humans, though it's more common for the dog to get it from the human. We need to be careful about this, especially if we have sick or elderly animals.

If you'd rather expose your dogs and family to these bugs, and just let 'survival of the fittest' be the rule of the day, well, that's your choice. I'm not paranoid about germs...you certainly would NOT want to eat off my kitchen floor...but I don't believe in taking unnecessary risks, either.

While not a human nurse, I have certainly "nursed" animals of many species during the course of my former employment. Yes, I washed my hands between handling patients or wore exam gloves. When handling patients in an isolation ward, I wore booties, gown, cap, and gloves.

I believe that my dogs have unusually strong immune systems because of what they do eat--rather than what they avoid eating. After multiple generations of eating raw diets, my dogs appear to have stronger immune systems than they did during the first generation. They are not treated for internal or external parasites (fleas, worms, heartworm, etc.).I don't apply flea products topically to the dogs, to my house, or to the yard.

I would never deliberately expose my dogs (they are my only "family") to undue risks--simply because I know that I could never afford extensive treatments, hospitalization, ICU, etc. Having been employed at a teaching hospital and at emergency clinics, I am acutely aware of veterinary costs.

It's a personal lifestyle choice--not a matter of "survival of the fittest" or "Russian roulette"--that works for me.

I don't like using chemicals on my dogs, either, and use flea medication (Advantage) ONLY when I know they've picked up some fleas. Unless theyve been to the dogpark, the only place they can get fleas is from the squirrels, and since Star moved in with me, she's got them all 'running scared'!

And no, I certainly wouldn't say what you are doing is 'Russian roulette', but if a serious illness does get into a kennel, 'survival of the fittest' definitely applies, with the very young and very old, or those with health problems being the ones most likely to die.

Fortunately, I don't have a kennel and no longer have a desire to breed litters, There is this one "human shepherd",  my old spayed bitch, and two titled males (9 and almost 7). We all take care of one another. For myself, I have the best health care in the world and access to quality vet care if needed.

bump

Could somebody please clarify, If I feed RAW pork to my dogs, can they handle this? Is it just a problem if it gets Human Food contaminated with Human food?

Becuase i feed the dogs in a completely seperate area from where my parents cook, if I make sure I wash my hands and clean the dogs bowls etc will it be ok to feed pork?

Thanks

ive been feeding boss raw pork neckbones everyday...so this is bad?...what is good?

No I don't think it's bad, it's one of my dogs normal bones too.