Feed Raw Pork? Be Careful! - Page 1

MRSA, (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) one of the most common cause of antibiotic-resistant infections in hospitals has recently been found in both raw pork and chicken in a number of different countries.

Those of you who feed raw, please read the article, and WASH YOUR HANDS and anything else the raw meat has come in contact with after handling it!  As a health care professional, I cannot emphasis enough just how dangerous this particular bug can be.  It is potentially lethal, especially to those with weak or underdeveloped immune systems (the very old and very young, and those suffering frome cancer or AIDS.) It can cause pneumonia, post-operative wound infections which are VERY hard to heal, and a host of other problems. Anyone visiting an patient infected with MRSA must glove, gown and mask to keep it from spreading.  I've had lots of personal experience with this nasty critter, and believe me, this is nothing to just shrug your shoulders about!

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/mrsa_in_meat

Scientists have been warning about this for decades. Livestock is crowded together in factory farms, and due to the crowded conditions, the high concentration of feces and urine, and the stress of overcrowding, the animals get sick very easily. The farmer's solution is to put antibiotics in the feed...and VOILA!! You've got superbugs that are resistant to antibiotics!

 This is old news. MSRA has also been found in domestic pets and can infect humans from pets and vice versa. Pork should NEVER be fed raw to anyone or any animal for a variety of reasons, the least of which is this and parasitic infection.

ITA, Hodie, but some people just close their ears to anything we say....

Did I tell you one of my friend's Cardigans had a bowel obstruction due to a piece of bone last week? She force-fed him vaseline every hour on the hour, and he eventually passed it. This is the same pup that's had surgery to remove rocks he's eaten twice already. He has to be watched very, very cqrefully when outside, even though his run is as rock-proof as it's possible to make it.

Stoopid pup... I think he's trying to win a Darwin award!

pork wether raw or cooked should never be fed to dogs.

What's wrong with the cooked meat, Pagan?

 Sunsilver,

No, I did not notice it was your friends Cardigan. I too have one dog that will try to eat rocks. Fortunately, they are pea gravel size, but I have to watch her. Your friend is lucky the dog passed it. Surgery for that is not cheap.........

As for people with closed ears, I know, yes, you are correct, but I cannot fix that. So I rarely try anymore! LOL Just too much worthwhile to do and I cannot change things that need to be fixed.

regards!

I've fed raw meat to all my dogs for years and the only difference is...............they never get sick so the vet never sees us.  My best litters have been the raw fed babies who have strong bones, good hips and are healthier than any litters I've ever raised on kibble.  And yes, they get raw pork too. 

IF you want to risk your family's health that's your business, Judy. Don't say you weren't warned. Dogs usually cope with these bugs better than humans, though they are not completely immune. Just because you've done it for years does NOT mean it's safe.

contraction of MRSA lead to a fatal family tragedy, writes Felix Lowe

The last 18 months of Irene Brailsford's life were an unrelenting nightmare after she contracted both MRSA and Clostridium difficile during routine treatment at Kings Mill hospital in Nottinghamshire.

"It's a real family tragedy," said her daughter, Sheila Johnson, of Mansfield. "The whole tale is horrific from start to finish."

A bladder cancer survivor, Mrs Brailsford was left incontinent for 15 weeks after picking up a strong infection, suspected to be MRSA, after a cystoscopy, an examination of the inside of the bladder.

A later operation to remove an abscess from her toe, which should have taken three days, led to six weeks in hospital when tests showed that MRSA was still in her bloodstream.

Despite the infection being confirmed, the staff at Kings Mill did not undergo the requisite steps to combat the infection. "Their procedures for MRSA were nil, nothing," recalled Mrs Johnson. "In the six weeks she was in hospital she did not have a hair shampoo once. She wasn't given any nasal cream and all she got was a little tube of body wash and medications she could not swallow."

Once discharged, Mrs Brailsford suffered severe diarrhoea, one symptom of C difficile. "We knew that C difficile was rife in the hospital," she said.

A positive test was confirmed, although the hospital claimed the infection was contracted at home and stressed the MRSA medication taken by Mrs Brailsford had left her open to contracting C difficile.

Last November, Mrs Brailsford had a check-up on her toe during which the nurse insisted on removing the scab. Another MRSA infection followed. Mrs Brailsford had her toe amputated and saw her foot turn black. She spent the last two months of her life "in hot sweats and trembling".

Her family said she was doped up so high, she became a morphine addict. In the end, she just wanted it to all finish."

Days after her 80th birthday, she died of pneumonia. The death certificate drawn up by the hospital bore no mention of MRSA and it was refused by Mrs Johnson until Kings Mill admitted responsibility.

A Kings Mill spokesman said: "We are pulling out all the stops to combat MRSA and C difficile. We encourage good hygiene all the time."

While I usually respect the opinions of Sunsilver and hodie, this is one area where prefer to differ--based on my personal husbandry practices. As portion of their primarily raw diet, my dogs rat raw pork necks (god forbid--purchased at the local Walmart Super Center!), have done so for years, and and will continue to eat it.

IMO, one of the main ways we create "super-bugs" is by attempting to raise animals in pathogen-free environments where they have no opportunities to establish primary immunity. Do I fastidiously wash my hands immediately after handling raw pork (or poultry--potentially carrying Salmonella)?? Hell, no. My guys probably have the highest Salmonella titers on the planet. They are extraordinarily healthy and disease resistant.

When my nearly 12-year-old female had the misfortune to come home from the animal shelter with either kennel cough or pneumonia in January, I made no attempt to isolate her from my adult males (who haven't been vaccinated for for Bordetella or anything other than rabies for years). I didn't rush out and buy intra-nasal vaccines for the boys--nor did I put old Eike on antibiotics.

Eike was miserable when she came home but recovered from her largely self-limiting moist coughing in relatively short order--with a little TLC. The boys drank out of the same bucket with her and remained disease free.

Remember when infants in hospitals used to develop "hospital bugs"  because of  the overly diligent  usage of Phisohex? You old-timers recall the fate of Phisohex--it was taken off the market as a routine cleaning product for hands/bodies!

I agree Louise.  I see more and more mainstream veterinarians feeding RAW to their own dogs too.  If people are concerned about obstructions they can feed ground RAW which in my opinion is much healthier than grain based cereal/kibble.  I think the next healthiest thing would be grain/corn free kibble (with no addititves from China).