Home Cooked Meals

Question
I adopted a 5-yr old Golden Retriever last year. She is very active - very solid muscle tone in rear legs - 70 lb. (spayed) girl.  After 2 months, she had a bad skin condition - itching, flaking, etc. so I took her to vet, who gave her Prednisone 2-mg & Cephalexin.  Skin cleared up - then the skin condition came back in December.  I changed Vet (closer to home) who gave her Hydrozyzine 50 mg. and started her on Comfortis 60 chew tabs on Jan 1.  By the end of Jan., her skin was really bad, so took her back to vet.  The other Dr. gave her Dex/Sod/Phos Inj and Amoxi Tabs 400 mg.  All the while, I was switching food to see if that helped - (4 times - Nutro Weight Reduction, to Prairie, to Blue Diamond, then to Royal Canin.)  FINALLY, I started to cook her food myself.  Her skin problems cleared in 3 days.   However, now my problem.....she is getting 2 lbs of protein, veg/carbs, vit. supp. (75%, 25%, 2 tea.)per day.  She has NOT lost weight - still looks good at 70#.  She has lost considerable muscle tone from her back legs since the Dex inj. and or Comfortis tab (she threw up the Feb 1 pill, so I used Frontline again)  She seems "lathargic" now and just seems missing "zest".   I walk her  (briskly) 2x + per day - a mile each time.   HELP!  I feel like something is wrong!!  I don't know if the Dex or Comfortis could have this effect or what....she seems to be VERY sensitive to commercial dog food....Thanks for any input !!

Answer
Hi Charmaine,

Congratulations on making an important start toward better health for your girl. Home made food is always the best approach for the sorts of problems you've described. Once you get onto home made - raw or cooked - there is usually an immediate improvement as you've described. However, when you're using pounds of food as your measurement - and this diet sounds extremely high in protein and fat, if it's 75% protein by weight - this is an unbalanced diet, and your next step would  be to start working with food in terms of calories and nutrients, not weight. It seems you have some symptom relief so keep using the foods you've chosen, but start with her requirements (per kilogram of bodyweight) and work with a spreadsheet to get her nutrient requirements down more precisely. I'd be worried about nutrient imbalance now, so let's see if we can get her to a better place.


At 70 pounds, she will require between 1300 (minimum) to 1740(more likely, given her age and exercise) and all other nutrients - protein, fat and fatty acids, vitamins and minerals - should be calibrated to this amount. As well, there are many supplements you can add to bolster health and immunity, and minimize inflammation, that can also be very beneficial.
Let me know if I can help more,
Catherine