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Raw Chicken Sensitivity?


Guest anniesweet

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Guest anniesweet

Hi everyone,

Last year I was reading about how RMBs were a good addition to a dog's diet because of the teeth cleaning and the poop firming up properties, and I heard that chicken was a good, safe one to start with. His kibble is chicken based, so I figured it would be ok. So I started feeding Dash a frozen raw chicken part once a day as a snack. Sometimes it was a wing (he's a very thorough chewer and I always supervised to make sure he didn't try to swallow too big of a piece), other times a drumstick or a thigh. I made sure the chicken wasn't "enhanced" and had no additives. He loved it! For a couple weeks everything was fine. Then one day, a few hours after eating his chicken snack, he got horrendous diarrhea and was sick for a day and a half. I didn't think it had anything to do with the raw chicken since he'd been doing so well with it so far. I'd given him a different new treat that day as well so I figured it was the other thing that made him sick. The diarrhea resolved on its own pretty quickly but I was scared to give him anything other than his kibble and usual cookies for about a month, during which everything went back to normal. Then I decided to give him a raw chicken thigh one day, and like clockwork several hours later he had liquid poo again. I didn't think this could be a coincidence. This time he was sick for 3 days with no end in sight so I did the bland diet of boiled chicken and white rice for a couple days, which worked amazingly well. I haven't tried giving him anything raw ever since.

My question is, is there a such thing as a dog not being able to deal with raw chicken, but can eat cooked chicken? I would love to give him raw turkey necks one day, but I don't want a repeat. And I don't know if I'm brave enough to experiment with other types of meat either, considering chicken is supposed to be the safest one and it's what his kibble is made of. It makes me think that just the fact that it was raw is what made him sick. Has anyone ever dealt with this before?

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Actually, chicken is not the safest as it can be contaminated with bacteria much more easily because of the way the chicken is handled (also, the use of antibiotics is pretty arbitrary with chicken). A beef roast is probably the safest meat because the inside has not been touched and you can sear the outside to kill any bacteria. I usually give cooked hamburger to my dogs (except my IBD dog - she gets fish) and they do fine on it.

 

Your dog could have a chicken allergy (one of my dogs has this) and if so, he won't be able to eat chicken or chicken fat. Dogs may/may not be susceptible to the bacteria that you find on chicken - hard to tell whether it will affect them before hand and you don't know what bacteria will be present.

 

So .. you might be dealing with an allergy or with bacteria or maybe your dog can't handle raw protein well.

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Chicken based-kibble usually has the fat either removed or significantly reduced, so if he's getting too much fat with the raw stuff that might explain it. It's probably too son to use one particular theory of an allergy or tummy issue. You might try giving a bully stick to get him to chew, or a marrow bone with close supervision and see how his output is on that. You can then start to figure out if the problem is chicken or just a sensitive tummy.

 

I tried to give Rocket raw turkey necks and found that he wouldn't chew the last piece properly before swallowing it. About 12 hours later like clock work the small piece of un-chewed neck bone would come back up. I had to stop giving him turkey necks for that reason, but have had no issue giving him a 3 inch beef marrow bone or 5-6 inch bully stick 2-3 times per week.

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Guest anniesweet

Thanks for the replies! I forgot to mention, I always trimmed off the skin and every speck of fat I could see, because I had heard that the fat wasn't good for them. I've given him bully sticks before with no ill effects, as well as a variety of other snacks and treats such as beef tracheas, sweet potato chews, biscuits, marrow bones, greenies, granulated rawhide sticks, etc. all with nothing unusual happening. I wonder if somehow he built up an intolerance to the raw treats over time, seeing as he tolerated them just fine for a couple weeks. Is it possible that had I just given him the raw chicken once in a while, this wouldn't have happened? I wonder if the bacteria load on the chicken just got to be too much over time.

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I have fed raw everything for years- rabbit, goat,sheep, even ostrich - BUT I didn't feed raw chicken. Even human grade chicken form the grocery is largely contaminated with all manner of pathogens. I know a lot of folks do feed it but I don't like dealing with dogs with the runs so I don't. If you switch him to a raw beef product you will probably be pleasantly surprised by nothing happening except him enjoying a good healthy meal. Also if you do try some beef or something else I personally would not feed grocery store ground; best to feed something in appropriately sized chunks-again due to possible contaimination issues. JMO.

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My angel Sadi could not eat raw chicken, it had the same effect on her too. I would have fed raw to my first two greys but they were so greedy that it would have been too risky. My current boy Johnny is the first dog I have had who is able (and willing) to eat raw.

<p>"One day I hope to be the person my dog thinks I am"Sadi's Pet Pages Sadi's Greyhound Data PageMulder1/9/95-21/3/04 Scully1/9/95-16/2/05Sadi 7/4/99 - 23/6/13 CroftviewRGT

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Guest Johberry

Our hound's recent situation was both similar and different. He had no issues with raw chicken quarters but had a bad reaction to raw turkey necks! We currently have him on a bland cooked ground beef, boiled mashed potato with a bit of slippery elm bark paste diet till his tummy calms down. We're hoping he'll transition back to raw okay but will have to back off the raw turkey necks for now. It's interesting the variety of sensitivities our hounds can have.

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another possibility, a lot (most, in fact) grocery store chicken is "enhanced" with some liquid, a saline solution or something else, that some dogs have a reaction to when it is fed raw. Some dogs do just fine, but many have exactly the reaction you described.

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