I was wondering does anyone know of any natural wormer and flea treatment?
Also i'd really like to know how your vet reacted when you told him/her that you were feeding raw, i suppose i'll have to mention it to mine when i start i'm just not sure what he'll say. Also how have other people reacted when you've told them you feed your dogs raw, are the reactions mainly negative or will i be pleasantly surprised So far i've only told one friend that i'm going to be feeding raw and she wasn't very impressed (am i bovvered )
Having said that there's nothing i can think of right now that would stop me wanting to feed raw and i just wish i'd done it sooner, its just so natural

Generally, I don't tell people unless there is a reason as most people don't understand it anyway. I had mixed reactions:

Vet... the prvious vet was not bothered, she accepted it and didn't want to talk me out of it at all, moved town since and present vet reacted with utter silence, no comment at all, so I suppose she didn't approve, but leaves me to it.

Kennel...concern about Fipps' hyper behaviour, not balanced, recommended Pedigree champ to make her as calm as a cucumber (again, have moved town since, so won't see her anymore)

Husband...first against, now being proud that she is fed a proper diet

Doggie friends...anything between 'disgusting' andbeing interested to total acceptance.

Breeder...RAW??? why do you do that


I find it important for me to know the answers to possible negative reactions a vet might have for example, that's why I try to keep informed and BritBarf is great for that.

Starting with wormer and flea treatment.

I do use commercial wormer, don't use flea products at all and as yet I have not had a problem.

As for feeding BARF, my vet is supportive - he knows I understand the needs of my boys and as he has seen how much better Freddy has been he is happy. A more junior vet who saw Brice the first time he bloated was horrified with the amount of bone in his stomach (despite it being the previous day that he had a bone meal), she was told off by the senior vet when I mentioned her reaction. Mind you - in hot weather I do now lower the amount of bone Brice eats cos he bloats in heat and if he went to full torsion the bone would make surgery harder he gets bonemeal instead - well mixed into his meat.

Friends are usually fairly ok, either interest or nothing said apart from things like that must be hard - errrrr nope .

My boarding kennel would be willing to feed raw but tbh with the amounts my 4 dogs would need it isn't practical for his freezer as he doesn't have a supplier so I would have to take it all. I take either Nature Diet or Forthglade for them to eat although I also like Land of Holistic Pets reconstitutable food and will be getting more of that for them for next time.

My vet was totally horrified and went on about the dangers of food poisoning.

I was gobsmacked with his ignorance - until I realised he was talking about the risks of human food poisoning from not washing hands after handling raw meat

Well none of my human family have been hospitalised yet and the dogs are thriving

Sir Freddy - more advice on too much bone and heat would be welcome to a novice like me as I am moving to sunny NZ.

Natural wormers and flea treatments can be found at

http://www.holisticpetsupplies.co.uk/

as well as many other natural remedy/treatments for pets you can find online.
Garlic powder/granules can be added to the feed to help deter fleas, you can get this, after a good tip from Robert at most horse feed suppliers, I bought a 2 kilo bag of powder for about £3 and it will last ages, it can be used in cooking too and is 100% garlic powder.

As for reactions from people/vets when I say I raw feed my dogs, well they only have to look at my dogs to see for themselves that it must be the best thing to do. My vet is more than happy for me to feed this way, in fact I had to explain what raw feeding was all about to him some years ago when BARF seemed to have hit the headlines and although I don't BARF feed it at least it gave him an idea what it was about. Funny thing is I get more interest from men than women over feeding a proper raw diet to dogs, not sure if it's because it just sounds a manly thing to do, giving your dog a bit of raw meat seems to sound much more appealing than opening a tin or bag, but blokes seem much more keen to switch over than women although this wasn't the case of Christines hubby, now there's a woman who gets her own way
Most of the time people just say 'well yeah, I suppose when you talk about it like that it does make sense' ........but it's the way I talk about it that gets this reaction

Can't comment on the Raw but

For fleas, well not for fleas cos we don't, err they don't get them. I use the garlic grinder (no salt) from most Supermarkets. Two or three times a week in Summer, on Kibble with a little warm water.

Wormer ?

Off to that link Sandys just posted

Err wheres the wormer ?

http://www.holisticpetsupplies.co.uk/produ...?products_id=87
This is a good worming product, smells like vinegar though and the dogs ain't that keen on it so I suggest not putting it on top of their food as they might not want to eat it! It goes straight down the chops with my lot If you're worried about not being able to squeeze it in fast enough before they try and clamp down on it I would transfer it into a plastic syringe because the pipette is made of glass and I think that's wrong, a dog could bite down and shatter it making a nasty mess

errrr now why did I think you might have trouble finding that Fudds, so I went and found the linky just for you

Thanking you

I use that powder chalky stuff that Mary gave me, Sandy suggested it, mine mind eating it and so I bung it on their food when I remember - I dont raw feed but dont like adding chemicals so dont worm or flea.
Apple cider vinegar in the drinking water is supposed to deter fleas?

That'll be the DE then, it's really hard to get hold of now, especially at the price and quantities it used to be sold at, seems someone's cottoned on to the fact that it works, knew I should have got hold of loads more when I first started using it, I could be rich now

Sorry to hijack post but where do you get the DE?......supposed to be good at deterring fleas isn't it?

Steve

Loads of places Steve, prices vary, ALWAYS use food grade DE
Can't believe the price of the stuff, a 20kg sack cost £40 inc delivery when I first bought it, look at the price of the stuff now

http://www.holisticpetsupplies.co.uk/produ...products_id=476


http://www.omlet.co.uk/shop/shop.php?product_id=230

http://www.greengardener.co.uk/repel.htm

http://www.bitlessbridle.co.uk/shop/index....78dgqimt1l5hut6

Also came across this product, not used it before but could be worth a try, a litre will go a long way for a dog or cat

http://www.bitlessbridle.co.uk/shop/index....products_id=334