Brit was the catalyst that started me on the journey to raw feeding. He was in the vet's office on a regular basis with a variety of coat and skin problems. He had sores. He had mange. He had a dull, greasy, smelly black coat. He itched. He had awful hot spots.
We scraped his skin looking for something, anything! Nothing appeared to be wrong. In desperation, we tried a variety of shampoos, creams, medications, and dips. We tried different brands of commercial food. Most things worked for a while, but eventually Brit's symptoms would return. I felt so bad for him; it seemed he was destined to have a miserable existance.
Then we moved back East. Once again, we made a change in diet, necessitated by no longer being able to buy the same brand we'd fed while out West. Once again, Brit's symptoms improved for awhile and then returned. Thus began a two-year rollercoaster ride, the ups and downs coinciding with the introduction of a new brand of commercial food.
I began to think about alternative approaches, but didn't really have a clue where to begin, even though I'd long been convinced on the human level that diet was the key to health. I, like so many other dog owners, figured that if I were feeding a high-end premium food I was providing the best nutrition available. Little did I know how wrong I was.
Two events propelled me toward a more natural diet. One was the purchase of a computer and subscribing to Wellpet. The other was a seminar held in a barn on a local sheep farm, featuring Dr. Wil Winter and Juliette de Bairacli Levy. This tiny little old lady regaled us with her experiences using natural approaches to canine nutrition and health; Wil Winter detailed alternative vet care approaches.
I went home and began to read and investigate for myself the validity of a raw meat diet. I began to supplement the dog's kibble with a frozen commercial meat product. I didn't notice any real changes, but I felt better giving the dogs real food for at least part of their diet. Once again, I changed food, this time to a brand new kibble just on the market, one that had a much higher fat content than any other commercial food I'd fed, yet not high in protein.
Shortly after that, we began to hear about this vet in Australia who recommended feeding raw meaty bones. It seemed too extreme a change at first, and way too expensive. As more details emerged, however, feeding raw meaty bones began to make sense. I started to hunt for sources. At first, all I fed were chicken backs, as they were available, cheap, and non-threatening in that there were no large bones with which to be concerned.
To make a long story short, I've been feeding the canine raw diet for over 3 years now (as of May, 2000). I will never even consider feeding commercial food ever again. I've raised one litter and a puppy purchased from another breeder on raw meaty bones. I'm convinced that the raw diet kept my old guy Max's symptoms from becoming worse than they did before his death at age 10 in February, 2000.
Oh, and Brit? His black coat gleams and his skin is healthy; he hasn't had a hot spot in I can't remember how long. Brit hasn't seen a vet in several years...in fact, except for health screenings and a C-section, only one of my dogs has been to the vet for a medical problem, and that for a problem associated with vaccines...but that's another story for another time!
I encourage Akita owners, and all dog owners, for that matter, to investigate the many benefits of feeding their dogs the diet they were designed to eat.
Barbara Cicognani - 2000
Books I highly recommend:
(available from Dogwise)
Give Your Dog A Bone (Billinghurst/1993)
Grow Your Pups with Bones (Billinghurst/1998)
The Ultimate Diet (Schultze/1998)