Raw Food? I’m All Ears.
What’s the difference between an Indian and an African elephant? The answer, of course, is about 3,000 miles; an old gag but a good one. And it was the only joke that I could think of involving ears.
Dogs’ ears are very interesting because they can tell you an awful lot about their health. (I see a lot of dogs with mucky ears, especially those eating kibble and tinned food.) The clinical name for this condition is otitis externa, meaning inflammation of the external ear canal.
If your dog has one ear persistently waxy and dirty and maybe even sore, then the common possible problems could an a) infection, b) a foreign body (like a grass seed or a barley awn, for example) or c) ear mites. A quick trip to your vets will usually sort out which one it is, and they will be able to offer the appropriate treatment.
If on the other hand if your dog has two mucky ears, then the possibilities are more numerous. All of the above could be true, of course, but foreign bodies in both ears is less common. Long-term infection in both ears is widespread, especially in dogs who swim. Mites, too, are usually found in both ears.
What we often don’t think of when we see long-term ear problems are allergies and hypersensitivities. That is to say, dogs who have sensitivities to either house dust and other indoor allergens, trees and grass pollens or food can manifest problems as year-round single or two ear irritation and waxy discharge.
If your dog is one of these never-ending ear problem types and you’ve been putting drops of various types into the ears only to find the problem returning within a few weeks or a few months, then it might be worth considering allergy causes.
If the ears are a problem, but never in winter, then your dog may have pollen sensitivities, of course. In humans, we call this hay fever. Dogs have precisely the same disease process; it’s just that they manifest itch on the skin and ears. If your dog has ear or skin issues all year round, then indoor allergens and food are more possible.
If it turns out it’s house dust, house dust mites or storage mites (all only found indoors) they’re allergic to, for example, have a chat with your vet about the various treatments available. Raw fed the dogs have a significant advantage over kibble fed dogs because storage mites can’t survive in frozen raw dog food. On the other hand, they love the inevitable dust at the bottom of a kibble food bag or storage bin.
If they are not allergic to indoor allergens but have all year round ear/skin issues, then food suddenly becomes a definite possibility. The beauty of food is that, unlike pollen or house dust, you can control their intake of it very easily.
The way to start unravelling the mysteries of food intolerances is simple. It’s called a food trial. In its simplest form, this just means choosing a single protein (meat/fish) to feed for four weeks. Make sure that any treats you’re feeding during that month are the same protein as you’re feeding at meal times.
For example, if you choose to feed a beef or beef tripe diet for your first food trial, find some good quality dehydrated or freeze-dried beef or tripe treats so that you have uniformity in all the proteins eaten during the trial. The advantage of raw food in our food trial is that many complete raw food diets contain only one meat, unlike many commercial tin or kibble foods which contain un-specified proteins like the dreaded ‘meat and animal derivates’, so popular with the big dog food corporations.
That’s it! All you need to do is make sure no one else is sneaking bits of toast or pizza crusts or digestive biscuits into your dog for a few weeks, and you will have a good idea as to whether some proteins are you causing the skin and/or ear problems.
If your dog happens to have a beef sensitivity and you do a four-week trial using beef, you obviously won’t see any change until you do a trial with another protein; turkey, rabbit or venison, for example.
I love introducing dogs to raw food, But I especially like doing food trials because so many of them are liberated from years and years of ear and skin irritation with just one simple, healthy change. Once you’ve established what causes the itch problem, you just avoid it and feed a variety of food that doesn’t contain the offending protein.
When you see these changes in your dog, I think you’ll like raw food feeding even more than you do already. Happy feeding!
Nick