Burns Pet Health News

Give your dog a chance and remove any dog toys made with vinyl/PVC products from the house.

Owners need to be very cautious about the origin of their pets toys and what it is made from.

Products are all around us in our home - doors, windows,  drainpipes  and dogs toys, dogs feeding bowls and water dishes.

Chlorine is one of the main chemical building blocks but under certain conditions it produces one of the most toxic pollutants humans have yet created - Dioxins.

Dioxins cause cancer, reproductive and developmental problems, immune system damage and probably other that we have not yet found out!

These dioxins are the by-products of the manufacturing process of vinyl or if it is set on fire.

The story does not end there however because vinyl is usually a hard and brittle it requires the addition of other chemicals to make it soft, flexible, able to take colours and even scented.

To do this “phthalates” are added - pronounced with an “f” before “th” sound!

These chemicals do not actually bind to the PVC  and here is the rub - they move freely around it and also out of it!

Over the lifetime of the vinyl product, the phthalates will leach out of the product completely into, skin, mouth, water, air and earth - in fact anything which comes in contact with it. More so when heat or pressure is applied to the products.

Dogs just love chewing plastic, squeaky toys and in doing so, if they are vinyl, are probably ingesting these deadly chemicals as they go.

Not only do the phthalates affect the kidneys and liver, but they can seriously interfere with the reproductive system.

According to researcher Dr. Santillo at the Greenpeace Research facility these phthalates interfere with the chemical communication at the cellular level. He is of course referring to babies in the womb! Pups will no doubt be affected in the same manner.

A Danish report in 2006 looked at the health risks to pets from phthalates and the rate of transfer into and potential effects on dogs and cats. One observation they noted was that when swallowed, soft plastic toys very quickly became hard indication that the phthalates had leached out in a short space of time into the digestive tract.

China and India have become powerful players in manufacturing - hardly a day goes by that I do not get and email from some supplier offering dog toys, or cat feeding bowls, leads, packaging etc.  While EU legislation is place in for children’s toys, the same cannot be said for pet products.

Other additives in vinyl include:

Lead - used as a softener. affects the nervous system, causing behavioural and cognitive problems. Often in coloured products as well originating from the above mentioned countries.

Organotins - stabilisers that may affect the immune system and sexual development of cats or dogs.

Alkyl-phenols - used in the preparation of phthalates are well know for their ability to mimic the hormone estrogen.

Bisphenol-A - used as a stabiliser and helps to stop the vinyl breaking down. An estrogenic endocrine disrupter - linked to some cancers

In Traditional Chinese Medicine and other Eastern medicinal practices, diet is used in the prevention as well as treatment of disease.

The philosophies used are very different than the approaches used by Westerner practitioners who by and large view the symptoms as the problems and suppression of them, the cure.

The Eastern approach sees the symptoms as a result of another underlying problem. A bit like a Tsunami being a symptom but the earthquake the underlying cause.

In  Traditional Chinese Medicine, medicinal herbs are regarded as part of the diet when symptoms become apparent.

Food is not simply a source of calories and chemical compounds like protein, fat, and minerals for dogs and cats. Foods are looked at in how  they influence the pets  body as a whole: blood, fluid, individual organs and a body’s Qi (energy/life force).

One of the basics of  Traditional Chinese Medicine  is balance.

Each food has yin or yang properties to consider, and each food has a yin (cool, damp) and a yang ( hot, dry) constitution.

A diet should be designed to minimize imbalance in your dog or cat, not create further imbalance.

Balance is determined by Yin and Yang although both contain elements of each other. The white area is Yin with a Yang pair (black circle within the white area) The black area is Yang with a Yin pair (white circle within the black area).

It is not necessary to fully understand the principles of Yin and Yang to understand their influence in terms of diet.

Basically foods have a variety of effects on the body dependant on their Yin or Yang nature. Foods which heat the body are Yang, foods which cool are Yin. Thus we need to watch for balance in terms of not only Hot and Cold (Yang and Yin) but Dry and Damp (Yang and Yin).

In normal health the relationship between Yin and Yang is harmonious and dependent on each other.

Foods are broken down into many categories. Those being:

Direction – does the food influence Qi (energy), blood, or fluid upward, downward, inward, or outward. Skin problems for example are usually considered to be outward problems associated with excess body conditions. In simple terms, the body is pushing out the excesses through the skin.

Flavors – sweet (help digestion), sour (astringent/ drying) , pungent (spicy/ stimulate circulation, ie Garlic), salty (soften) and bitter- (aid digestion).

Meridians - how the food affects specific organs: spleen/ pancreas/ stomach (warming foods), lung/ large intestine (moistening foods), kidney/ urinary bladder (sweet), liver/ gall bladder (cooling foods).

Temperature which has to do with the way you feel after you have eaten – cooling as with salads,  warming as with oats, hot as with spices and neutral where there is no appreciative change.

And in addition, Traditional Chinese medicine attempts to achieve balance with the seasons
 - spring/summer (cleansing - why many skin problems only occur in these seasons)
 - and fall/ winter (warming/ nourishing).

Examples of cooling (Yin) foods:

• Cooling Meats/Fish: Duck, Pork, Salmon
• Cooling Grains: Millet, Barley, Wheat
• 
Cooling Vegetables: Celery, Broccoli, Spinach, Cucumbers

Examples of warming  (Yang) foods:

• Warming Meats:  Lamb, Red Meat, Shrimp
Warming Grains: Oats, Quinoa, Safflower
• 
Warming Vegetables: Squash, Peppers, Sweet Potatoes, Green Beans

Thus a proper holistic dog food or holistic cat food will pull together many of the facets above in order to produce a product which avoids excesses and seeks to balance the impact that the combined ingredients have on your pets body.

I was in the United Kingdom during June and attended a number of dog shows with my Scottish based dog food company www.landofholisticpets.co.uk.

At one of the shows in Blackpool (located on the north west coast of England) a lady approach the booth and pointed out that she fed raw food to her dog and did not and would not, feed grains of any kind.

My first thought was why should this lady even bother to approach the stand as it would be clear to all attending the show that brown rice was a major ingredient in all my products.

I asked her outright why? “Because dogs would not eat grains in the wild” she responded. This prompted my next question to establish whether or not this lady knew much about nutrition. I stated. “Like humans, dogs required glucose in their diet - could she explain to me how her dogs acquired glucose
if she did not feed grains.” The lady was quick and said. “From carrots, turnips and peas and other vegetables” which was of course the correct answer.

By now it was clear that this woman knew something about dogs diet and had obviously did a good deal of work in attempting to establish what a good diet was but the reason she was at my booth still eluded me!

I decided it better not to question the reasons but started to explain that I had a pet food business in the United States and that I even had a wife and house there.I also enlightened her to the fact that we regularly have coyote’s in the garden and had  seen them chase the deer on many occasions but that they had as much chance as me of catching them. They did get the odd fawn or injured deer and would regularly catch a rabbit but the biggest danger the coyote’s posed was to the neighbours dogs. The coyote’s hunt in packs and when dogs are let out in the yard at night the coyote will cut off the dogs escape route back to the house while the other will hunt it direct.

It is not the first time owners have had to rescue their pets facing off to the coyote. I also explained that I had visited a coyote rescue centre in Indiana and was shocked to see grass cuttings being thrown into the compound and coyote’s eating it like cows.

By this time, the woman was clearly enjoying listening to the adventures from afar. I was enjoying telling them and thankful for being able to. I explained that the landscape in Indiana was such that for miles all you could see in the summer were soya beans and corn fields. To an English or Scottish person who has never seen this is belies belief that you can drive for hundreds of miles in the USA and all you see is corn and soya beans. The UK countryside is a interesting mixture of wheat, barley, fields of milking cows and wild terrain with sheep all interspersed with dry stake dykes (fences built with rocks and no cement) and plentiful hedgerows.

The corn, which all ripened around August, September and the coyote’s, like ourselves are prone to eating their share of the sweet harvest of fresh ripe corn. A ’seasonal’ variation in their diet! It also put to bed the myth that wild dogs do not eat grains. Wild dogs will eat almost anything to satisfy their need and know an easy meal when they see it. It might not be their first choice but as Paul Newman once said “why eat hamburger when you can have fillet steal at home?”

The lady purchased 6 small packs of my meat free mixer for her dogs made up from Brown Rice, oats, vegetable and herbs. She simply wanted to add to her knowledge. (No corn included in any of my formulations)

The term ‘Human Grade’ ingredients of which Burns Pet Health Products are made is taking on a literal meaning with consequences. Simply because we use the human edible part of the chicken we are facing a world demand from companies who are producing foods for human consumption.

In effect, where before the chicken we used for our pet foods was only used for that , the Asian human food companies are not only eyeing up our raw material in America - they are buying them for inclusion in human consumption goods for their own markets.

At Burns Pet Health, we see this as an ongoing and increasing problematic area in terms of maintaining the quality of our products and keeping costs to a minimum.

Also, this development is putting severe pressure on other protein sources driving up demand and thus price. Coupled with this is a shortage of chicken fat and the domino effects spill over to turkey and other poultry fats.

Combined with the above has been the severe storms and tornado’s almost wiping out the poultry industry in Arizona. Most of the producers there do not own the livestock - they simply rear it on behalf of bigger players. In effect, they are sub-contractors rearing the chicks to a suitable age.

The effect of the storms destroyed the rearing houses and left them with many young birds with nowhere to live. They will probably find that their short life is curtailed even further simple because of the lack of habitat

The other interesting facet of quality protein, and this showed up during the big pet food recalls, is that in order to limit prices increases, pet food manufacturers were turning to cheap protein sources and supplementing the diets with synthetic essential amino acids. In Europe, they have become quite skilled and making a low quality ingredient look impressive.

In many diets you see the term ‘ vegetable protein isolate’ which is a fancy name for vegetable protein rather than the real deal . The giveaway is always further down the list in the form of L-lysine or DL-methionine or even taurine - amino acids - the later which dogs normally make themselves but need other amino acids which normally are in the protein.

We are keeping a close eye on developments but envisage that over time, quality protein will become more and more expensive.

Burns Pet Foods has been nominated as one of the best dog foods in the USA yet again!

More news when we know how we got on.

http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/issues/14_2/

There is a lot of speculation on what causes animal to eat their own poop.

Disgusting as it sounds to us humans, many animal species indulge in this it isn’t always something to be concerned about – at least as far as our animal companions’ health is concerned.

You need to check out other medical conditions such as Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency (EPI, to ensure that copraphagia isn’t the result of something that requires medical intervention.

To our pets, we presume that eating their own poop isn’t too different from any other sort of scavenging that is part of their natural instinct.

Some consider that consumption of dung from cows, horses and sheep may actually be beneficial for dogs, and provides a rich source of good bacteria and other nutrients.

The risks however are high of consuming worm infested dung and /or medications and such like with which these herbivores may have been treated
with.

As humans we find the practice disgusting and certainly those of us with small children certainly don’t want kisses from an animal family member who has consumed dung of any kind.

There are some things that can be done to manage and prevent the problem, from a holistic perspective – which means taking all aspects of the issue into consideration and treating the being ‘as a whole’.

The Nutritional Element

Many experts agree that animals on a poor quality diet may be more susceptible to picking up the poop-eating habit.

In many cases, changing to a fresh, whole-foods diet with lots of vegetables and minimally processed ingredients will help with the problem.

Food allergies and mal-absorption issues can also be a factor.

Supplementation in the form of kelp, spirulina, alfalfa or other high-nutrient foods is recommended. Digestive enzyme supplementation is also a good idea to help improve absorption and assimilation of the nutrients in your dogs food making it less attractive and decreasing the need.

We suggest use of our Herbal Formula - Digestive Tonic for dogs and cats along with high quality dog food or quality cat food.

Management

Training your dog is a vital component of the holistic approach to prevent copraphagia.

Management begins with prompt cleanup of the yard to remove temptation, and use of a leash to prevent access to or contact with faeces that might have gone undetected, out on walks.

Teaching the command ‘Leave it!’ is also immensely helpful.

Start on a leash, and reward with a well-timed click, treats and lots of praise each time you successfully call your pup away.

Don’t reward for coming away after eating poop – the reward should only come for successfully averting the undesired behaviour.

One other approach is to supplement your dogs diet with pineapple chunks for a about a week making sure that you strictly control access to any faeces during this period.

I cannot vouch for it personally but it has been suggested that the pineapple chunks will eventually impart an undesirable taste to the faeces. After a week of feeding the pineapple you allow the dog to take its own faeces in the hope and expectation that it will put the dog off.

Some pet owners report success with the application of hot sauce or chilli powder to stools, to provide a negative experience when they are consumed but in the time it takes to apply these seasonings, it’s more efficient to actually pick up and remove temptation.

The use of punishment for stool eating is not recommended

Behavioral Issues

Some cases of copraphagia result form a learned behaviour – the mother cleaning up after her pups or copying and joining in with other dogs’ at the dog park.

Copraphagia does seem to be more common in dogs who live with cats. They start off unable to resist the high-protein left over’s in the litter tray and move on to other types of faeces later on.

In other instances, stool eating can begin in an animal’s attempt to alleviate boredom, loneliness, anxiety, which results from being left alone for long periods of time, or other stressful situations.

Stuffed Kong’s, raw meaty bones and other ‘interactive’ puzzle toys filled with treats can provide a useful management tool to address the emotional causes.

Whatever the cause, a multi-pronged approach that takes into account all aspects of copraphagia is more likely to yield success than focusing on one factor alone.

Use a high quality digestive tonic or support to strengthen the digestive system.

Undigested food could be contributing to the problem and the long term use of highly processed, poor quality dog foods can result in a weak digestive system.

Hi and welcome to our news section.

This is where we post about new recipes, new products, events and other pet health and company news items, links and articles.

It is our pleasure to have you here as we are sure you must share our passion for animal health and the quality of life that goes along with it.

Please take a moment to email us your thoughts and ideas because we are always looking for new and better ways of understanding our pets and improving our food and diet supplements. And of course improving our website as well.

Our email is; info@burnspethealth.com.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

The Burns Pet Health Team