by Dr Greg on August 14, 2009
As Lonna and I wrap up a marvelous vacation in the Azores and enjoy the days
we’ve spent together with good friends, it’s time again to focus on the business of dogs and their diets.
Actually, the subject is never completely out of my mind. More than a week ago I went into a pet shop in Lisbon and saw that Royal Canin dry dog food was on display. One rabbit hunter here (that is the only thing to hunt) feeds his 13 dogs Purina dry dog food that he buys from the US military base here.
Here in Angra, a small town, on the island of Terceira there are French Briards, German Shepherds, Boxers and various crosses standing on every wall guarding their territory. They are the alarm [click to continue…]
by Dr Greg on August 9, 2009
When I first came up with the idea for my book, I thought I’d call it Dog Dish Blues because that’s exactly what so many of my patients (and my own dogs) have had from eating the wrong food. Dog Dish Blues is the perfect name for this syndrome, if you will: dry, itchy skin; red, goopy ears; upset stomach; all manner of bowel disorders; and much, much more. Any one of these ailments is most definitely cause for the blues…both for dog and owner.
By my own count, at least six of the Veterinary Pet Insurance Top 10 ailments as listed have a nutritional common denominator and may be caused by diet. Furthermore, I can tell you that in our own practice at Gilroy Veterinary Hospital fully one third of visits involve a Top 10 condition that can become chronic (meaning that the same symptoms come back several times after treatment).
I didn’t end up calling the book Dog Dish Blues because I wanted to focus on the benefits of nutritional treatment instead. And so, the book I wrote is called Dr. Greg’s Dog Dish Diet: Sensible Nutrition for Your Dog’s Health. Our success treating 100s of dogs is most encouraging. Our countdown to publication continues. Bone Appetit.
by Dr Greg on August 8, 2009
Cousin Strider's gone to pot! Yeah, what do you suppose he's eating these days?
One of my great concerns is that the foods we are feeding our dogs today are so far removed from the diet of both wolves and the early ancestors of our dogs. It’s not just the fact that animals in the wild survive on a natural diet of game, berries and whatever they can forage, it’s the ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates that’s way off. In Dr. Greg’s Dog Dish Diet: Sensible Nutrition for Your Dog’s Health, I explain the difference between the typical commercial diet and the natural wolf diet…and what this should tell us about feeding our dogs. I use what I know as a vet (30 years in practice), a lifelong dog owner and as a student of wolves’ natural diet to suggest simple but important changes you can make in your own dog’s diet. I feel certain that NOT feeding our dogs’ inner wolf is the source of a lot of problems, ranging from dry, itchy skin and red, gooey ears to upset stomach and bowel disorders…and much more that I go into in the Dog Dish Diet. (By the way, these illustrations are by Caleb Laughlin and appear in the book.) Bone Appetit!
by Dr Greg on August 7, 2009
I worked on my manuscript for Dr. Greg’s Dog Dish Diet: Sensible Nutrition for Your Dog’s Health for more than a year. After the first edit, I did some rewriting. Then, for
Tucker leaning in for a kiss.
good measure, I put the manuscript through a second round of editing.
This is the phase that I call the slogging-through time. It’s the heavy lifting, and you feel as though you are so far from the finish line that you’ll just never see your book published. And believe me, once you finish writing even the first draft of your book, all you can really think about is the finish line and holding that hot-off-the-press first copy in your hand…My Book.
Make up! Quiet on the set!
I think the first time I thought I’d actually see the finish line and have a printed copy in my hands was when we shot the cover art. It had been a warm week here in Gilroy, California. We were all worried that a long shoot would be hard on the models.
The models, now that’s another [click to continue…]
by Dr Greg on August 6, 2009
Sadie went everywhere with me...to the point that Lonna often referred to her as "the other woman."
Wow, this is getting fun. I once heard a writer say that he didn’t like his writing while he was doing it…but when it was done? Well, that was a different matter. I’m beginning to understand exactly what he meant. Writing and publishing a book is a big deal. There are many steps, registrations and bar codes that need to be in place, services to coordinate, and the list goes on. Fortunately I can leave most of the administrative effort to my publisher Riparian Press, a division of Knowledge Access Books.
My friends know that I’ve been working on Dr. Greg’s Dog Dish Diet: Sensible Nutrition for Your Dog’s Health for quite some time. Actually if you consider all the years I’ve been discovering and unraveling the all-important link between nutrition and a dog’s health, I’ve been working on this book for almost 30 years.
But now after writing the book, rewriting it, and enduring a couple rounds of edits, I’m beginning to see the book come together. And I’d like to share just one aspect of the book with you now…the illustrations. Dog Dish Diet is heavily illustrated. I think there must be close to 40 illustrations throughout the book, and as I look at them I see my pets and my life coming alive on the pages. It’s a very special experience.
I feel lucky that Dog Dish Diet features the original sketches, caricatures and drawings by Caleb Laughlin. Caleb is a talented artist; if you need an illustrator, let me give you a link to Caleb’s email. He has effectively captured my story, my dogs and my message. Bone Appetit!
by Dr Greg on August 2, 2009
If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you may know that I’ve started talking about the coming publication of my book Dr. Greg’s Dog Dish Diet: Sensible Nutrition for Your Dog’s Health. I’m very excited about the publication, in part because it’s my first book but more so because I believe it’s going to bring relief to a lot of dogs. And I think it’s going to save pet owners both aggravation and money on vet bills.
You’re probably wondering how a dog diet book can save you money. Well, I’ll tell you. After 30 years as a veterinarian and a lifetime spent loving dogs, I’ve seen a very dramatic correlation between the food our pets (dog as well as cats) eat and their tendency to suffer from dry, itchy skin; red, inflamed ears; stomach [click to continue…]
by Dr Greg on June 18, 2009
Not all human foods are good for our dogs. This is the subject of my recent article for our local magazine, Gilroy Today. My editor has graciously allowed me to reprint the article here. Bone Appetit!
I’m not sure why — if it’s because Gilroy is famous for garlic or that the smell of it being processed is so much a part of our daily lives here in Gilroy — but I am often asked about ridding pets of pesky fleas by feeding them garlic. The truth be known, I eat a clove of Christopher Ranch garlic daily for its heart and other healthful effects. However, even in small amounts, garlic and onions are not as healthful for our pets. Unfortunately, both onions and garlic do bad things to our pets’ red blood cells. And, fewer red blood cells means less oxygen for their bodies, which can be dangerous. Fortunately, there are easier ways to deal with fleas. I often recommend Advantage (topical drops) applied monthly.
Garlic is not the only healthy human food that is not good for our cats and dogs. Here’s a short list of some foods and food ingredients that have been known to cause medical problems: chocolate, bread dough, macadamia nuts, grapes and raisins, and xylitol sugarless gum sweetener. Avocados are also on many lists, but I have yet to see or hear about a dog with guacamole toxicity. I know other dogs besides my lab take any opportunity to enjoy some guacamole! Curious about this, I looked into the background for this toxicity claim. It seems two dogs suffered medical problems after eating a straight avocado diet for a year or two, in Kenya, Africa. I guess the lesson is to use common sense and not feed your pets a single food ingredient for a year.
I support giving dogs and cats healthy food and treats right out of our human diet. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this as well as testing my theories on my own pets and my patients, as many of you who are clients know. The last few years I have come to realize that all commercial foods are not universally healthy for all individual dogs and cats. I don’t have space to go into everything here, but consider how a piece of shrimp is tasty to one person, an itchy nuisance to another and downright deadly to someone who goes into anaphylactic shock. Some ingredients and preservatives in dog and cat food may cause itching, red ears, puking, diarrhea, and frenzied grass-eating nausea. [click to continue…]
