The News at Home
April is turning out to be a very challenging month for me and I can only wonder how our neighbors feel about it.

As most of you know, Zoey has colitis so poop patrol is a critical part of life around here. I've gotten so good at it that I can walk through the backyard wearing a pink bathrobe, my husband's black yard boots (April is wet and the yard is muddy) with baggie in hand while sipping morning coffee.

No doubt, my cavalier attitude must make the neighbors think, "There goes that crazy woman again!"

Over the last two weeks, Zoey's stool has been sloppy, back to normal and sloppy again. The interesting part (well, it's only interesting if you're serious about poop) was that there were polka dots in her stool. I can't describe it much better than that. Perfectly round, pinhead-sized black dots.

The next door neighbor poked her head out of the back door just in time to see me delicately dismantling the stool with a stick in an attempt to identify what these dots were. She had the good grace to go back inside without a comment.

I saw Zoey digging in the corner of the yard, but couldn't find anything there that would explain the stool problem - until a couple of days ago. Eager to show off her prize, she came toward the house carrying a decomposing branch in her mouth. The branch had shriveled up berries or buds or some such things attached and yes, they were black and perfectly round. The polka dot mystery is behind us. I'll bet the neighbors are celebrating.

What's New at monicasegal.com
New Booklet: Balance Needs With Nutrition

A new booklet, Balance Needs With Nutrition, is now available at www.monicasegal.com. This addition to our Writings section focuses on the "why and how" of creating a diet that suits an individual dog. Emphasizing a proactive approach to nutrition, this reading material is suited to dog owners already feeding a home-prepared diet. The booklet discusses breed predisposition, temperament, calorie requirements, nutrient dense foods and much more.

Balance Needs With Nutrition, in conjunction with all other material in the Writings section, helps to support our selected charities, Hemopet and Animal Trackers, through a portion of sales.

Myth of the Month: There Is No Nutritional Value In Cooked Foods
Let me preface what I'm about to say be letting you know that I feed both cooked and raw foods to Cassie. My daily workload includes creating raw diet plans for dogs and I have absolutely nothing against raw foods. I do have something against hype, though!

Let's start by considering that if, indeed, cooked foods didn't provide good nutrition, you and I wouldn't have lived past the crawling stage of an infant – perhaps not even that long.

In doing research for my book, K9 Kitchen, Your Dog's Diet, I interviewed (93) people between the ages of 69 to 78 to find out what dogs in days gone by have been fed. As it turned out, the great majority of the diet consisted of cooked leftovers and pieces of bread from family dinners. If there were no nutritional value to these cooked foods, we wouldn't have dogs currently. The dogs from days gone by would not have been able to live – much less reproduce.

Inevitably, when I make these comments during seminars, the discussion turns to concerns about the nutrient content of cooked foods being much less than in raw foods, if not entirely depleted. In order to explore this further, let's compare the nutrient content of 100 grams of some raw and cooked foods:

Examples of Higher Nutrients in Cooked Foods
Calcium found in Venison: 11mg raw / 14mg cooked

Iron found in Venson: 2.92mg raw / 3.35mg cooked

Zinc found in Vension: 4.20mg raw / 5.20mg cooked

Niacin found in Vension: 5.70mg raw / 9.257mg cooked

Folate found in Vension: 4mcg raw / 8mcg cooked

Iron found in Lamb: 1.55mg raw / 1.79mg cooked

Potasssium found in Lamb: 222mg raw / 339mg cooked

Copper found in Lamb: .101mg raw / .128mg cooked

Selenium found in Lamb: 18.8mcg raw / 27.7mcg cooked

B-12 found in Lamb: 2.31mcg raw / 2.61mcg cooked

Iron found in Beef Liver: 4.90mg raw / 6.54mg cooked

Copper found in Beef Liver: 9.75mg raw / 14.283mg cooked

Zinc found in Beef Liver: 4.00mg raw / 5.30mg cooked

B-12 found in Beef Liver: 59.30mcg raw / 70.58 cooked

Vitamin A in Beef Liver: 16,898 IU raw / 31,714 IU cooked
Source: USDA website

There are many more examples but as you can see, cooked foods continue to provide nutritional value and, in many cases, higher amounts of nutrients. Sometimes, though, higher is not better.

For example, cooked beef liver provides almost twice the amount of Vitamin A than raw liver. This is not necessarily a good thing because too much Vitamin A can become toxic.

If you are trying to increase the zinc content of a diet, cooking meats can help.

Need less zinc? Raw meats may be better.

Trying to reduce phosphorus in a diet? Raw meats would be a better choice.

Is more potassium needed? Cooked meats can help in this regard.

Going beyond the ideology of raw vs. cooked, even combining the two types of food preparation can be a good idea when trying to address certain nutritional needs.

Cooked foods are not "lesser than" raw foods, nor are cooked foods "better than" raw foods as far as nutritional content goes. Instead, look at what your dog needs and select a diet that fits best.

Recipe Tip of The Month
If your dog is like my Zoey and finds "interesting" things in the yard, only to have an upset stomach afterwards, fasting your pet can be helpful. Skipping one meal or a 24-hour fast helps to calm down the digestive tract.

However, it's important that the dog continues to drink. Diarrhea and/or vomiting can cause dehydration. To encourage drinking or to entice a sick animal to begin eating again, the following broth has been very helpful:

Chicken Broth
5 cups good quality water
2 chicken wings
1 celery stalk
1 small carrot
few sprigs of parsley
1/2 small potato

Simmer all ingredients until meat is soft. Remove all foods from the broth and let it cool. Place the broth in the refrigerator overnight or until fat solidifies. Skim the layer of fat and discard, then divide into servings and freeze for use until needed.

I freeze this in ice cube trays before popping the cubes into a zip lock bag. Adding a cube to some water entices both of my dogs to drink well.

Until Later…

As I write this, the rain is making soft noises against the window, Cassie is wagging her tail in her sleep and Zoey is curled into a blanket with her beloved ball beside her. Time to take them outside for their last duties of the night and curl up for the evening. Here's hoping that wherever you are, your dogs are already curled into you and giving you the comfort that only dogs can give.

Monica

"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."
– Will Rogers