Vitamin/Nutrient Deficiency

[moondog]

Originally Posted by LeaPet

I had a male Chow years ago that had a thyroid problem and we fed him a "vegan" diet before vegan was cool!

There's nothing "cool" about a vegan diet for a dog. If anything, the need for it indicates a severe health problem....and before you argue the point please realize I've needed to use a mostly vegan diet for a dog - it was the ticket for her, but not recommended unless there are no other options for a sick dog.

Originally Posted by LeaPet

We never did pin-point the nutrional defiancy that caused the males skin problem but he made rapid inprovement on the "vegan diet".

I highly doubt it was a nutritional deficiency at all that caused the skin problems, if anything the vegan diet you fed, as described, was severely imbalanced and lacking in necessary nutrients for a dog.

His skin problem was likely thyroid or allergy related, not nutrient related.

[bliss7373]

Not only are vegan diets inappropriate for dogs, the diet described is NOT even vegan. Vegan diets have zero animal products - the chicken takes you firmly out of that category. Still doesn't make it balanced, though!

[LeaPet]

I guess I mis-spoke. You are right a true vegan diet is zero animal products. We only started feeding him the mostly vegetarian diet after the skin problems started and after consulting doggie books from the library. I wish the internet had been around 20 years ago! I can't go into all the ingrediants that went into his food mixture because I simply can't remember but here's a few (whole grains, veggies, fish oil, meat scrapes) and he did get better. His dry skin went away and his hair grew back long and full, so it must have had some type of balance that worked for him. And you are also right in that it was most likely an allergy issue, not thyroid. A one vet town doesn't always mean he's a good one. I had just hoped to point out that dogs can eat a "non-dog food" diet and do fine.

[Robenk]

WOW! Can I just say THANKS for the great info & links??!!...I don't have anything to add except that MAN you guys are SMART and very well informed! I LOVE this site!!!! I learn new things all the time...

[Weily4Life]

Originally Posted by moondog

I used the National Research Council's "Nutrient Requirements for Dogs" (1985) - I printed the entire book when they used to have it online as a free electronic book prior to the release of the 2006 edition. Now you can only access the overview of the 2006 edition (damn). However, if you go here:

http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=10668#toc

Click on the Title and it will take you to another page.....scroll down and look under "notes" on the right side and there's a pdf download with the basics of nutrient requirements that should serve as a decent guideline.

Moondog,
I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I could not find the article that you mentioned following that link (maybe I haven't had enough coffee yet this morning, LOL). This is one that I have bookmarked and reference http://dels.nas.edu/dels/rpt_briefs/...tion_final.pdf. It sounds like the same...is it?

[s1960]

Along with the the other suggestions you can keep an eye on the urine ph and do an occasional urinalysis. All that meat protein in a prey model diet can create an acidic urine and for some dogs crystals and,or stones. Dogs, like us, could have specific problems with any diet its not always deficiences. Sometimes it can be too much, the old if one is good, two is better can be a different set of problems.