Raw Feeders Do You (stupid 20 Characters!)?
This is a question mainly for raw feeders, kibble feeders can answer but I’m not sure if it will apply to them.
Do you use flea and heartworm preventative? I’ve read some recent articles that say that neither one is really necessary, especially for raw feeders. The article said that heartworms have existed for a long time, but you never hear of mass amounts of wolves being killed from it, and that a dog that is fed raw has a good enough immune system to kill the heartworms without risk to the dog.
As for fleas, this did not come from a study but from some one who feeds raw. They said that flea medicine is practically poison and dangerous to the dog and not to use it. They used a special soap that is natural and keeps the fleas off without poison.
This all came from one of the naturally raised/raw feeding/no vaccination Yahoo groups that I’m on.
So, raw feeders do you use heartworm preventative or flea/tick medicine?
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I think you asked a very legit question, I don’t know why everyone is bashing you. I have heard this theory before and it really does make sense. A healthy animal could potentially rid itself of anything harmful and fleas are usually drawn to unhealthy animals. I don’t know whether or not it is absolutely true and to what extent but I have heard that before. Where I live I need to use both. I live in Florida, not too far from a river (mosquitoes GALORE) and I have a feral cat colony that lives in my complex (fleas). SO, I simply cannot stop giving them either…. well I guess I could but I don’t want any kind of infestation. I feed raw and I know my animals are healthy but I can’t risk it. I would love not to use any chemicals on them but sometimes its for their own good…. and mine.
I raw feed, and I do use heartworm preventative. I just don’t want to take the chance of my dogs contracting potentially fatal heartworms, mosquitos are on the rise around here, and we often walk near ponds and creeks in the evenign when they are out and about. I do not use flea preventative because I have never had a flea issue- not a single flea ever. Were they to become a problem, I’d treat them with an appropriate product from my vet, but there has not been a need thus far.
I use Frontline Plus, and I use Heartguard and I feed raw and feel they’re both necessary (especially the heartguard). Eating a good diet doesn’t make you flea, heartworm, or parasite in general proof…But if you prefer to use gimmicks for fleas, if they work, and you don’t mind over bathing your dog until it has dry skin, be my guest. But don’t play with the heartguard. USE IT.
I don’t use use flea and tick products, I also vaccinate and worm minimally. I do use Heartguard though, regular Heartguard not Heartguard Plus. I start giving the Heartguard when the snow starts to melt and continue until after the first hard freeze.
Oh yes, my dogs are raw fed.
Didn’t read the bath comment, but they aren’t bathed that often either. Daily brushing, maybe a wipe down here and there and that’s it.
When I lived in an area without many fleas I did not use flea preventative. I was smug in my opinion that those who did were poisoning their dogs. When I moved halfway across the country and landed in flea HEAVEN I quickly changed my tune and will continue to use flea preventative since I do not LIKE having my dogs itchy miserable nor do I LIKE having my ankles chewed to bits.
I don’t feed raw but even if I did I would NOT stop giving my dogs heartworm prevenative! What a risk! I give flea treatment when necessary.
Good grief. Somebody tell me people are not actually believing this?!
It’s a myth.
Oh boy! The people with the idyllic wolf lifestyle fantasy are just as bad as the people in cults, aren’t they?
Anyone can write anything and publish an “article” on the Internet. Do you have something published on a peer-reviewed scientific journal or something? I’d love to see that!
So you’re saying that animals that live in the wild do not have parasites? After all, they eat a biologically appropriate diet, don’t they? And you’re saying that all the wild animals are miraculously free from illness and disease and they never die from anything but old age or wounds? PLEASE!
Anyway, educate yourself a little by reading scientific information instead of just the standard issue cult literature. Your dog is a domestic animal, who may get a deadly parasite just because you’re ignorant about basic facts. If you don’t care about having fleas in your house, don’t give your dog “poison” as most animals can live quite comfortably with external parasites for their entire lives. The flea meds are for the humans, not the dogs (except for the dogs with flea bite allergy).
Grow up, take some biology classes at your local junior college, and then re-think your “beliefs.”
I do feed RAW and I NEVER use the chemical flea treatments and I titer test so I do not vaccinate with booster shots. I titer test to make sure without question my dogs have enough antigens in their blood stream that they do not need booster shots. I have never ever had one come back saying the level were too low. As far as flea treatments go, Frontline, Advantage, etc are all toxins and I refuse to use them on my dogs. My dogs have never had fleas nor ticks. I do use natural treatments. the one I like the most is made by Arc Naturals. It is a spray and a shampoo, it has safe and natural ingredients that are actually good for the skin and coat and keeps the fleas and ticks, flies mosquitoes away. However I do live in the North where we have colder temps, and shorter summers. I do have heartworms tests preformed on my dogs and only use the meds if we are having a bad season. I can not say I have heard of what you are talking about but I wlll look into. But I can state that I would never use the flea meds, and that I never do the booster shots but my dogs are tested every year. And I love the RAW diet my dogs do exceptional on it.
I guess you can watch your dog suffer a very slow death if you want to. I think I will still continue on with the heart worm preventatives. Thanks just the same.
Of course flea medicine is a poison, so is Heartguard, their JOB is to KILL things. Why do you think there is a specific location for flea drops, why do you think flea collars come with instructions on how to place it on the dog, why do you think that the quantity of Ivomectine is so carefully regulated in heartworm meds?
We don’t use flea preventatives here simply because there aren’t any fleas here.
My Chinese Crested gets raw. I do not use any flea meds on him, and have never seen a flea on him. His breeder feeds all her dogs raw, does not use heart worm or flea preventative and has no problems with either. She also does not vaccinate. I usually give my dogs the puppy shots and the first year shots, but after that, only a rabies when necessary.
I currently do not have the Crested on heart worm medicine either, not sure how wise that is, but…..
I have yet to see a problem. But, I am trying to follow her example with him. I do use flea preventative on the Rotts, as well as heart worm meds. But they are mainly fed kibble.
Well, wolves do die from heartworms. But, they typically die from other things as well and don’t always live long enough for heartworms to strike the fatal blow. Also, heatworms are carried by mosquitoes which don’t tend to be as much of a problem in the areas where most wolves live which are subject to snow and hard freezes yearly. There’s a difference between correlation and cause/effect relationships.
But, hey… If you read it on an internet article, it’s probably true, right?
You’re right, wolves eat raw meat and don’t get vaccines or heartworm medication. Oh yeah, and wolves tend to have much shorter lifespans, too. What about raw meat makes you think it would give your dog some super immune system that would somehow help it fight off heartworm microfilaria? That makes neither clinical nor scientific sense. And while yes, wolves technically eat raw food, they don’t eat factory processed chicken. They eat a whole animal which is recently dead and is not subject to the same bacterial load as the week-dead meat you buy at the store. Plus, when a wild dog eats an herbivore, it also consumes stomach contents and blood which contain vitamins the dog can’t get from meat alone.
Dogs don’t have some magic power which makes them immune to bacteria from raw meat any more than people do. It’s illogical. Primitive man didn’t have agriculture so they didn’t have consistent access to things like whole grains. Are you going to start giving your children a hunter-gatherer diet of meat and berries? Doesn’t make much sense either, huh… Living without medicine and vaccines doesn’t make any more sense for dogs than it did for midieval man. If people practiced this hogwash with their children like they did with their dogs, we’d have a lot more kids walking around with polio.
Prescription flea medication (not the crap you buy at Wal-Mart) is tested and proven. Is it “poison?” Yes. It’s poison to fleas. It does no harm to your dog unless your dog is one of the 0.01% that has an allergy to one of the ingredients. Even then, it’s not fatal if used correctly. If your dog gets an infection, are you not going to give him antibiotics because it’s “poison?” It’s medicine. And the “poison” you call heartworm medication is far less harmful than the raging case of heartworms you’ll be exposing your dog to without it…
I can’t tell you how many near-fatal cases of heartworms I’ve treated because people didn’t want to give their dog a safe, effective pill. Furthermore, the “alternative” flea and heartworm treatments you can get at pet stores are not regulated by any agency, not tested, and not even required to prove they do what they claim to do, unlike veterinarian-provided products like advantage and frontline which must abide by rigorous standards.
I suggest you stop listening to people on internet groups and get some sound advice from an objective person with some real scientific and medical experience. Please, for your dog’s sake…
Addition – OP, your information about heartworm disease is incorrect. While a dog with a healthy immune system may be able to fend off a full-blown heartworm infection due to one infection event, it can still have microfilaremia (immature heartworm offspring in the blood) and if consistently exposed, it’s only a matter of time before the dog’s immune system alone is not enough to fight infection. And it doesn’t take 3-4 for adult worms to begin causing problems. If the average dog could simply fight off heartworms as a function of its immune system, these preventative treatments would not be recommended by every single veterinarian as well as the American Heartworm Society. http://www.heartwormsociety.org/index.ht…
first off, sorry they are coming down hard on you – it’s a legit question.
personally, i do use flea/tick meds and heartworm on my dogs. (why can’t there be a tick medicine for humans?) the ticks around my place are horrible. if i was living up north, i probably wouldn’t use the flea/tick stuff, never needed it when I did live there many, many years ago.
as a raw feeder i only tend to stay away from feeding supplements – that’s something i don’t believe is necessary if you are feeding a proper raw diet. i also stay away from any shampoos – my dogs don’t stink so why not use plain ole’ water from the hose on them.
I feed raw, I vaccinate on a three-year schedule, I use Advantage for fleas and Interceptor for heartworm and intestinal worms.
Yep, I too have read the “info” on the raw sites, but I have yet to see any actual proof.
There are some who thing raw is a miracle cure for what ails you. I agree it’s the best thing you can feed your dog, but it’s not a miracle cure.
Want to know what I think about vaccinations (and other chemicals like flea/tick & heartworm) not being necessary? Go look through an old human cemetery.
Look for the small tombstones.
That’s what life is like without vaccines, for humans and for animals.
As for what happens with wolves in the wild – go research fatality rates and lifespans.
Add: have to add this – you know how incredibly stupid the idea that “raw” fed animals are somehow superanimals is?? EVERY WILD ANIMAL IS RAW FED. And yet, they support an amazing fauna of fleas, ticks, parasites….
Add: I was a biology major – 15 years ago. Then I graduated and got a job in research, and planned, carried out, analysed and wrote up thousands of experiments since then, to the tune of 30+ articles and a US patent. The thing you have to understand about articles – was it published in a peer-reviewed journal, and did were the conclusions actually supported by the results and the methodology. It’s surprising the number of times they aren’t. Learn to think critically…
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