Darwin's Natural Pet Products - Latest Comments

Re: How Dog Food Affects Dog Seizures (Canine Epilepsy)

applemoon — Sun, 09 Mar 2014 09:29:32 -0000

I have a min schnauzer and border terrier mix and through countless search engines and reading I have realized he may in fact have Spike's disease and not epilepsy. He has been on phenobarbital for awhile and I decided to not only stop this med but switch his food to a higher quality. He has been off the meds for awhile now and he has had no episodes. I also give him doggie massages whether or not that helps I'm not sure but I know he loves them. Phenobarbital took away his personality and caused him severe weight gain and now he is not only back to his normal weight but he has his playful personality back.

Re: 5 Ways to Tell if Your Dog or Cat is Overweight

lola helena — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 16:27:42 -0000

so what, who cares? i like my dog too much lol

Re: Welcome to Darwin’s Blog

liesha — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 16:56:13 -0000

i thank that pets love it!

Re: 5 Ways to Tell if Your Dog or Cat is Overweight

Troy MacGyver SP — Sat, 23 Nov 2013 17:57:41 -0000

PETA,helped me track down 23 Greyhounds that were illegally sold into medical research. Thank god for those,"Guardians." Every 11 seconds a dog or cat is put to death i this country. Some of their ideas perplex me but anybody that cares about the welfare of animals is a friend of mine and my ex-racers/medical research subjects.

Re: How Dog Food Affects Dog Seizures (Canine Epilepsy)

5an20Alpines — Sat, 05 Oct 2013 20:54:36 -0000

What was she eating when her seizures started? Usually food allergies come from dry processed foods and even though they might be allergic to a chicken based dry food, they wouldn't be allergic to raw chicken. I would try raw meaty bones (like chicken wings) and maybe also a ground meat mixed with Honest Kitchen's Preference that has been soaked. My Chihuahua's get raw pasture fed hamburger mixed with the Preference a couple times a week. A chicken wing a couple times a week. And I have my own dairy goats, so they get some rolled oats and Preference soaked with raw goats milk and either raw hamburger or a free range egg added to it. Variety is the key.

Re: How Dog Food Affects Dog Seizures (Canine Epilepsy)

josephines-mom — Sat, 05 Oct 2013 20:42:41 -0000

Hi there, I have a terrier whom not only has or should i say has been diagnosed with food allergies. She has began having seizures the last two months and they are getting to be much more often. I have switched her diet to rayne clinical nutrition kangaroo food. She seems to do well on this food however still seizing every other day, before i go ahead and put her on the anti seizing meds (kepra) I thought of maybe switching her diet although i cant find one with a totally different source for duck, rabbit, and others has not proven well in the past. If anyone out there knows how to go about this please help. She has done good on kangaroo however with my search and vets being no help with an actual wholesome diet, I believe kangaroo in a raw form is pretty impossible. any thoughts?

Re: How Dog Food Affects Dog Seizures (Canine Epilepsy)

Moira — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 05:28:57 -0000

I all, I decided I must share this with pet lovers. After 2 yrs of struggling with a pet with and OCD of compulsive licking I had tried every possible Vet food including the allergy food . Nothing helped. Eventually I put them onto raw mince and cooked chicken with a very small amont of kibble too make sure there teeth are kept clean (I found that the bones I gave them cause them to fight over them every now and again so I used the Kibble.. Well it took one month and I noticed an improvement. I feed my dogs a mixture of raw mince and cooked chicken and a very small amount of Kibble...not the VET products. Everything was going very well. Then I purchase some new PINE floor cleaner and used this for about 2 months when one night my other dog had a seizure. As you know this is a terrible thing to experience. After reading about PINE cleaner I realized this can cause seizures so I immediately stopped using this. My husband who is a food Technologist informed me that they are not allowed to use any for of PINE cleaners in the food factory as this can cause allergies in people. I also reintroduced a little dog Kibble during this period. No problems at all. THEN I decided to introduce ROYAL CANIN. Well my dog with the OCD took 2 weeks on this before I noticed she had started licking herself again and causing a lick granuloma. I immediately went back the natural diet and changed her kibble back the cheaper one I had been using. It took too weeks for her to stop her obsessive licking. The one that had the seizure has not had another one yet its been 2 months, so only time will tell. I do know one thing , there is something in these expensive VET dog foods that cause problems. So I keep them on 80% raw mince and cooked chicken with a small amount of the Kibble I get from a local supplier. I also add FOOD GRADE DIATOMACEOUSE EARTH to their food every day and I will never go back to any of the Vets foods again as this has happened twice where I had changed to Hills previously and the same thing happened with my OCD dog. As for Jessie the one who had the seizure I'm just hoping it was the PINE cleaner because so far so good. I also no longer use any poisons on my dogs like Tick and Flea collars and only use the Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth as a pest control. As for the PINE CLEANER now that I know what my Husband told me I will never use any form of Pine Cleaner again. I hope this helps some of you :-)

Re: How Dog Food Affects Dog Seizures (Canine Epilepsy)

amber — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 00:06:34 -0000

My yellow lab started having seizures at 2 years. I took him to the vet and right away they put him on phenobarbital. For 2 years he was on it, 1pills twice a day. At a check up his liver enzymes were up because of phenobarbital and I questioned my vet if I should chanhe his diet from dog chow to something else. They said no and told me to give samE with pheno. I did that and his enzymes got better but I hated giving him a drug. If he didn't get his pills everyday he would have a seizure. One day I started thinking about organic dog food and see if a better diet possibly would help and I stated him on all organic dog food by Castor & Pollux. He has been on this dog food fot at least 5 months and at the start of the dog food change I slowly weaned his pheno from 2 pills a day, to 1 pill a day, to 1/2 pill a day, finally, down to zero pills a day and for months no seizures. He used to get seizures all the time if we forgot a pill on his old food. So his new diet is helping him possibly be seizure free. I wonder if it was solely the old dog food and/or the heatworm meds given monthly. But so far he is seizure free with this organic dog food change.

Re: How Dog Food Affects Dog Seizures (Canine Epilepsy)

Linda — Tue, 10 Sep 2013 23:04:49 -0000

When our dog first began having seizures we put him on a natural diet made up by a University Vet Program - chicken breast, brown rice, vegetables, a powder supplement, fish oil, 1/8 t of salt and fish oil. He is also on potassium bromide. Funny, he still has seizures but they always happen when we are fixing his food. I have taken him to work with me for 6 years, he never has food there, but at home when he smells that chicken - that is when he will have a seizure. Sometimes I think he'd be better on a dry dog food he didn't like so much :-)

Re: How Dog Food Affects Dog Seizures (Canine Epilepsy)

Joe — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 00:30:31 -0000

Fed my 15 year old Golden/Dalmatian mix a can of Alpo Prime Select with Chicken in Gravy. I figured with her old teeth that, the Purina Bentiful she was having a hard time chewing, the canned Alpo would be good for her. Boy was I wrong! Within 24 hours of eating it, she had her 1st Grand Mal seizure. Then 11 hours later she had another full blown one. Of course both times when she was postictal, she was very confused and would snap at me. Probably since she knew who gave her the crappy food! I talked to a friend who runs a pet store and they said that many dogs are subject to that from the chicken. I should have known better. I don't eat chicken because of all of the antibiotics they have to use in them. If I do, it's free range only!
So watch out for the chicken in the food!

But since I put her back on the Bentiful, no seizures have occurred.

Re: How Dog Food Affects Dog Seizures (Canine Epilepsy)

DAY8293A — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 00:24:08 -0000

I have a Boston Terrier that started having seizures after being exposed to flea powder and Adams dog spray. They both had permethrin in them. He was having terrible seizures, and the vet even had him on phenobarbital, which did not stop the seizures. I had to take all my carpets out of the house, and keep him away from permethrin, and he stopped having seizures. But in the last few months, my wife started him on Blue Buffalo dog food,and he has started having seizures again. I am going to take him off this crap now, and start him on some real meat and his old dog food. I will let you know if it helps. This stuff is even bad for people. If you start having "adult seizures" see if you are getting exposed to some of this stuff, permethrin, and even the termite poison Termidor from Terminix can cause seizures.

Re: How Dog Food Affects Dog Seizures (Canine Epilepsy)

Chelly — Sun, 14 Jul 2013 21:14:25 -0000

My Chihuahua, Hershey, occasionally would have a seizure, maybe 1 every 6 months. Well one Sunday he started early morning and it continues all day and night. we ended up taking him to emergency, very $$$!!! They started him on Phenobarbital and it made him loopy. They said he would be on it the rest of his life. I researched dog food and causes of seizures, 1st cause was food allergy. Looking at the ingredients in the food I was giving him made me ill!! I was actually killing my dog! I think that's what happened to his momma too! I immediately switched his food to Darwin's and Hershey has been seizure free now for 4 years, he is now 13 years old and doing wonderful. I wish I would've known sooner, I really believe his health would be much better today!!! All of my animal get the best, Darwin's!!!

Re: How Dog Food Affects Dog Seizures (Canine Epilepsy)

Karen S — Sun, 14 Jul 2013 12:28:34 -0000

Wow! I couldn't believe your entry on epilepsy in dogs! My 2 year old Shar Pei (back in 1999) began having seizures after what I believed to be over-vaccination (which still may be part of the issue), but at the time she was eating VERY commercial dog food. My vet wanted to give her medication that would eventually destroy her liver, and he couldn't assure me that her grand mal seizures would ever go away completely. I went to another vet....same diagnosis. The third vet virtually said the same. I began reading about the ingredients in the standard commercial dog food and began to be sick to my stomach....I was "killing" my dog! One thing led to another (never did give her the meds that the vet recommended), and I began to feed her raw food. Back then I was buying it from small businesses that sold it locally. Within two years my girl was seizure free. She passed away, after living a very healthy life, at the age of 11 (a pretty long life for a shar pei!). Since then, my dogs, my son's dogs, and my daughter's dog have eaten nothing but raw food too. I am CERTAIN there is a connection between a dog's diet and epilepsy. Just ordered your food for the first time (wanted to switch over from my old brand to try something new) and am excited to see how my dogs enjoy yours! Very interesting article.....I'm feeling even more vindicated now when people look at me a little strangely after I tell them that my dogs eat ONLY a raw diet. Thanks!

Re: Raw Dog Food vs. Cooked – Which Is Better For Dogs?

AJ — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 14:40:06 -0000

Hello everyone. I'm having a difficult time trying to decide whether I should go raw. I have a King Charles spaniel. He has hip problems and he's a picky eater. He was on primal raw diet before and he got nausea from it. So I'm skeptical on goin raw again. Has anyone had good experience with this food? I'd like to try raw again.

Re: How Dog Food Affects Dog Seizures (Canine Epilepsy)

michelle — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 23:10:45 -0000

my dog is a male jack russell terrier. his seizures started 2 weeks after 3 immunizations all in the same day. After 5 grand mal seizures in 2 weeks, i decided i better take him to the vet and a new one at that. He was put on phenobarbital, and 2 weeks later, he had another, but milder but then 3 weeks after that he had 5 grand mal seizures in less than an hour...status epilepticus and foam was spraying out of his mouth. Since he was 5 weeks old i have had him on my own diet of boiled chicken breast and rice or hamburger/rice with the hamburger being boiled. i think the immunizations caused the seizures. I am adding pureed carrots, celery and zucchini and all my dogs love it when added to their meat. however just yesterday, Johnny (my jack russell), had 5 grand mal seizures in less than an hour. i was afraid for his life. he was spraying out foam and his eyes were bloodshot, i was told his blood pressure was up. i finally broke down and elected to put him on potassium bromide (as i turned it down earlier). he was also given valium (diazepam) rectally. The next day (today) he had two more grand mal seizures. I had also been giving him b3, b6, magnesium and manganese and omega 3 fish oil. Now, I am at a loss, maybe it just hasn't been enough time (approx 2 months since his first seizure), but as bad as his seizures are, I don't want to waste any time. I am now seeking acupuncture.It has been said it can reduce the number of seizures. Also to help others, what helps stop the seizures is an ice pack on the mid back (this has been proven effective in a study of all the dogs in the study). I also give some honey after his seizure i rub it on his gums, I also just learned to use acupressure points, by putting pressure (using your finger) on the back of his paw and/or on shen men area..the inner flap of the ear and another area of the ear you can read it about it here: http://www.k9web.com/dog-fa...

If anyone has any suggestions for me, please I am open. You can email me: melenz42@yahoo.com

Re: How Dog Food Affects Dog Seizures (Canine Epilepsy)

Bowie&Falcon — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 12:34:49 -0000

My rescue cattle dog/aussie/border collie mix had her first seizure last summer out of the blue at 4 years old. Later I realized that I had changed her diet around that time and had been testing a freeze dried raw food on top of her Blue Buffalo food. She didn't have another seizure until I switched her over to I believe it was Wolf King Solid Gold, and the product was bison. Both the raw food I fed her and the bison are high in protein. Well I decided to read about human epilepsy and found that it's recommended that people eat a low protein/high fat diet when they're epileptic (or, depending on what you read, a high fat and low carb diet), so I decided to go to my local natural pet food store and find a food that fit this description of low protein and high fat. I have two dogs now, the other is a border collie puppy, so i opted for Canadae's "All Life Stages" formula so i could feed both dogs the same food. My dog was completely seizure free on this food for several months, but then unfortunately because of life circumstances I had to leave my dogs with someone for 6 weeks, and unfortunately it turns out I could not trust this person to properly care for my dogs because when I picked them up after 6 weeks they were being fed PEDIGREE! I would rather my dogs ate shoes than Pedigree. Sadly, the first day I had my dogs back after those 6 weeks my epileptic dog had a seizure and I was certain it was caused by a combination of the food and exercise. My dog's seizures always occur after only about 15-20 minutes of running, even though she's a very fit and healthy dog. But on Canadae she was able to run for hours without even one seizure. So now I have to keep her at a low energy until I'm able to fully transition her back to the Canadae.

I hope my negative experiences with high proteins and positive experiences with high fats are useful to someone else with an epileptic dog. If your dog is epileptic, please do research on how humans are being treated for epilepsy because there are possible correlations.

Re: How Dog Food Affects Dog Seizures (Canine Epilepsy)

little beards 06 — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 22:58:51 -0000

our miniature schnauzer has just recently started having seizures, he has only had 3, two were within a month so blood tests were done and everything has come back clear. the vet is happy to put him on epilepsy medication however we are not yet convinced he needs it. all 3 seizures have happened after he has eaten something out of the ordinary. after his first seizure we changed his food completely due to another problem he had at the time. the vet suggested a natural diet BUT a natural anti allergy diet, he was not to be on chicken, beef, lamb, and not to have any grains for six weeks. he has responded so well that he has been on it ever since and each seizure has been because he has licked/chewed/eaten food out of this program. he is such a sensitive dog that i fear his little body would not cope with constant medication he would need to have if we were to put him on epilepsy medication. as this is a new condition he has developed we have decided to just wait a while longer to see how he goes. if there comes a time he needs medication then so be it but for now we are just being vidgelant about what he has access to eat and playing it day by day.

Re: How Dog Food Affects Dog Seizures (Canine Epilepsy)

Charles — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 21:20:52 -0000

Veterinary drugs, on the whole, are the devil's own delight, as "cruelty is the first attribute of the devil." My dog gets Halo brand dry food.

Re: How Dog Food Affects Dog Seizures (Canine Epilepsy)

Charles — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 21:18:07 -0000

Can the dog get a complete protein only on vegetables? Cats placed on vegetarian diet are at risk of taurine depletion in the retina, ending in blindness.

Re: How Dog Food Affects Dog Seizures (Canine Epilepsy)

Charles — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 21:16:31 -0000

If there's a growth associated with the brain, I read that boswellia strongly counters that problem. I wish my Aunt Opal could have had that instead of doctors taking scoops of flesh and bone all over her head like she was a package of ice cream.

Re: How Dog Food Affects Dog Seizures (Canine Epilepsy)

Charles — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 21:13:57 -0000

I know someone who has a dog on anti-epilepsy drug. No more seizures so far; however, I'm told the dog is "lethargic." Pharmaceutical drugs, it is definite, never help without harming in other ways. Not acceptable. Make it the health food store, NOT the pharmacy.

Re: How Dog Food Affects Dog Seizures (Canine Epilepsy)

Charles — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 21:07:50 -0000

Vets can misdiagnose. 2 vets told me my older dog's walking problem was hips. He had $1200 glucosamine shots, no improvement. When I pushed on his back near the tail area, he cried out. They did NOT do this simple test! I shaved his fur and applied topical DMSO (they told me there's no topical treatment) the results were curative, not therapeutic, with ONE treatment, he walked like a champ. How? DMSO is a solvent---he had spinal gout causing pain in walking--the DMSO dissolved the gout crystals. $12 DMSO worked where the $1200 injections failed. But, they did NOT "fail," they transferred money from me to the vet and the RX manufacturer! DMSO is all over greyhound and horseracing tracks, boxers use it. Not one word from two degreed veterinarians! A vet urged surgery on my dog's spleen as a mass had grown on it. The dog died 96 hours later. Spleen surgery is VERY risky, especially afterwards. Bioflavonoids to strengthen the vessels to protect against rupture, and curcumin to stop new vessels forming was what he should have had. But vets will urge expensive surgery when they know your dog has a high risk of death, to get at your money. They know they can hide behind their State Board afterwards. Still another dog died of kidney failure after too many rounds of Prednisone, another suffered severe ulcer after ONE Rimadyl. A check of the average reported lifespans of dogs in the New York Times index, 1851 through 1900, will consistently show longer lifespans BEFORE veterinary medicine became widespread. Yes, they do SOME good, be very judicious and intuitive however as to veterinary treatments.

Re: How Dog Food Affects Dog Seizures (Canine Epilepsy)

Charles — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 20:57:17 -0000

Reduced L-glutathione removes toxins from the body. My dog goes on this for several days before, and for 1 week after the insidious state mandated rabies shots.

Re: Quibble Over Kibble

Cmdonal — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 13:14:45 -0000

Carnassial teeth, located on the side of the jaws and are used similar to scissors to cut meat off prey, indicate an animal is a carnivore, not canines.

Canines are good for gripping and tearing flesh, but that doesn't mean the animal is going to eat it. A good example of this is the gorilla. Gorillas have canines the size of your thumb but can live for decades eating only plants.

Re: How Dog Food Affects Dog Seizures (Canine Epilepsy)

Alex_e_p — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 15:32:43 -0000

i have a one year old bulldog and he just recently starting having seizures and they tested for toxins, and his blood and have him on phemobarb which isnt helping and no tumors could electricity in the houselike too much of it cause his seizures we recently just got a new soundbar and it is when seizures started happending..please someone help if possible he has a all natural food already and we arent sure why seizures are just happening now..any suggestions?