Miss Claudia Neto

First of all, I really appreciate you having a free contact and advice service - I have exhausted myself with research online and am relieved to find an experienced professional willing to give direct input!

I run a small animal shelter (the only animal welfare organization in the country!) in Mozambique (Southern Africa). We currently have a Chow Chow in our care and I would like to know what to feed him!

He's having some problems: he has some mange on his legs that is being treated with Amitraz dips weekly; he has hot spots on his hips which he is now on antiobiotics for; and he seems to struggle with bowel movements (he'll have a healthy bowel movement, immediately followed by softer, yellowish small movements, and then immediately after spends a few minutes trying hard to push out more but often fails). I've also noticed that he urinates for a very long time.

The bowel movement and urination issues could be because he tries not to go to the toilet while in his kennel which is most of the day - so could holding it be a contributing factor?

Mostly, I'm concerned that he should be on a more breed-specific diet. After years of being on poor quality dry kibble food, he has the last two days had a meal consisting of cooked brown rice, a soft boiled egg, some cooked fish, a teaspoon of flax oil and probiotic powder as well as a condition tablet (mostly containing Vit Bs). He certainly enjoys it and I haven't seen evidence of a negative effect so far. But it has only been two days so it is hard to tell.

William D. Cusick states that the Chow should eat a diet consistent with where the breed originated from - Tibet, China, whereby it was bred on a diet of grains, and fish. Would you agree? I know the current trend is to stay away from grains, however given the Chow Chow's obvious difference in jaw and teeth build than other dogs I wonder if there is some truth to William D. Cusick claims?

I am willing to cook for the dog, and just want to see a happier, healthier Chow Chow at my shelter so we can find him a home soon! Please advise what you believe a Chow Chow should be eating and if at all possible please send me a recommended recipe.

Many thanks,
Claudia
http://mapsmoz.weebly.com/
My Comment:

Hi Claudia

I am so glad you appreciate my service.

My site is getting more and more visits and therefore more questions. Sometimes its a little hard for me to keep up asnering within a reasonable time, but so far I can handle it.

So, back to your question.

I would really like to be the one knowing the truth about dog food and what to give them. But I can't claim that.

Normally I always become a little sceptical, when others claim to know the truth.

I my humble opinion there is a lot of opinions out there – and that’s quite natural – but it is still only opinions.

I'll think that’s it really up to a trial.

You have first to get his stomach better. Maybe the antibiotics will do him some good and make his stomach back to normal.

In the beginning you have to feed him some easy food to digest – rice and some meat is fine for a relative short period.

This is the first step.

If you don't see any improvement within 1-2 weeks you might consider him to have some kind of a disease, but this of cause impossible for me to say.

I'll think you can cook for him and you can try some recipes from my “Allergy section”.

A home made hypoallergenic food is often easy to digest and can be a good starting point.

Weather grain is OK for him or not you have to judge later.

In my opinion you have to careful judging out from the origin of the breed what would be the best food.

There has been so many generations of Chow-Chows since the origin, and the genome is probably no longer identical with the original one.

Human involvement as well choosing the best looking individuals is also a factor which can complicate matters and change the genome a lot.

You can't change the outside without changing the inside (the pysiology) as well.

Dogs are individuals and it can differ what the best food for therm are from one dog to another.

Some of my patients tries Orijen dog food, which is a premium quality dog food containing no grains. But they seen not to be thriving on it – for some unknown reason - even if Orijen in theory should be the best food for them!

Going back to the “old grain food” seems to be the best for them.

So, try what seem to be the best food for him after the stomach has gone back to normal

All the best

Per Schonbeck