Dogs And Raw Chicken

[snowchickie79]

My parents have a 4.5 yo rhodesian x kelpie who has had lymphoma for just on 12 months now.

A family friend had both their dogs (both dogs were raised separately and only lived together for last 12-24 months) die from lymphoma at ages 12+ both within 8 months of each other.

The family friend commented last weekend that they blame the raw chicken the dogs were fed.

I have a 1.5 yo lab x staffy who was having 3 or 4 chicken necks for her breakfast. I've since stopped feeding her this and she is on kibble and PAl for b'fast and is not at all fussed. In fact, does cart wheels now at breakfast time.

I'm wondering what people's thought's are on the raw chicken/cancer debate.

With the amount of antibiotics and steroids found in chicken products i'm wondering if this could be the cause of some cancers in dogs?

Would love to hear everyone's opinion on this. Especially those who have older dogs whom have been bought up on these products with no health issues. My dog used to eat the chicken necks and my parents dog eats chicken wings..

I'll be seeing my vet tomorrow and ask their opinion but was interested to hear what others thought.

P.S. I'd love to hear that people haven't seen a pattern of this happening as I'd hate to think my dog could be in trouble in the future. She is my little baby.

Thanks.

[bommy]

steroids are NOT allowed to be used in chickens in Australia

Last I looked Lymphona was not related to chicken... has your friend got scientific reports to back it up??

Would be interested to see it.

[snowchickie79]

That was what I thought regarding the steroids. I also wondered if the fact that most of the time the chicken is frozen and is microwaved to defrost may affect how the dog's body reacts to things.

Um i'm not sure if they have any proof of the statement and I didn't want to get into a heated debate so didn't push the topic but it got me thinking.

I will ask our vet tomorrow and post the response here but still interested to hear people's thoughts.

Our little girl swallowed a bottle cap earlier in the year which required camera down her throat to retrieve it and that scared me enough. I would hate to think she could/would get sick, especially at the young age our family dog has.

Our family dog was only 4 when she was diagnosed, very young.. She is 5 now, sorry said 4.5 earlier. She is in remission but it's month by month now.

[Dog_Horse_Girl]

If we can trust the poultry meat industry, no chickens in this country are dosed with either antibiotics or steriods...nor hormones for that matter. As for defrosting in the microwave oven, why not take the product out of the freezer the night before and thaw it in the fridge?

Seriously, I've had all my dogs on raw diets for a number of years. I've had ONE issue in all that time with ONE dog b/c of a piece of chicken that was contaminated by bile. This caused a typical food poisoning response, nothing more sinister than that. I reckon there are worse things to feed a dog, such as processed (cheaper) dog foods for starters. If you want to go for processed, IMO aim for a super premium such as Eagle Pack, Nutro, Dick van Patten's Natural Balance, Royal Canin or Nutrience. A little bit of the cheap stuff won't hurt now and again, but why feed something that's full of empty calories when you could be reducing the quantity and increasing the quality?

If you're looking for carcinogenic causatives, could I suggest perhaps reading up on over-vaccination as a starting point? It may not provide you with the answers you seek, but it may help to understand one POV on the so-called over-medication of our dogs. My opinion is yet to be swayed BTW - but I also won't be vaccinating my dogs this year b/c the C3 is useful for three years in the dog's body - according to my new vet. Additions to the C3 are a different story. ;)

[Cavandra]

Are all these dogs annually vaccinated? If so there is your answer.

[laffi]

Are all these dogs annually vaccinated? If so there is your answer.

Those who think that vaccinations are related to cancer, how often do you vaccinate your dogs?

[Cavandra]

Are all these dogs annually vaccinated? If so there is your answer.

Those who think that vaccinations are related to cancer, how often do you vaccinate your dogs?

A dogs immune system is at its peak after 6 months of age, so after they have had a vaccination after that time (usually 15 months) I dont do them again as they last a lifetime.

[Bokezu]

Very interesting. I have a young dog 11 months that eats very little else but chicken wings! He is a very picky eater and really loves chicken wings, we have tried everything, so at the moment to keep some weight on that is his staple. He does have a variety of other stuff, but very small amounts. I would be horrified to think I am killing him! I do agree about with over vaccination, and I also know some people over worm their dogs as well.

Edited July 13, 2007 by Portia

[snowchickie79]

Are all these dogs annually vaccinated? If so there is your answer.

Yes both my dog and my parents dogs are vaccinated. I can't say if the family friend's were or not. As a person who watched a very much loved pet slowly die from Heart Worm I would never go without heart worm prevention. As for the yearly vacination that is all she gets plus a quarterly worming tablet. As we take our dog camping and she eats god knows what in the bush I think the worming is essential especially as she is also in the house with us every other day.

I will enquire with our vet about the vaccination situation and see if it is necessary. I am confused to work out why vet's and animal experts advise to vaccinate your dog yearly if it doesn't need to be done. Is there somewhere i can read more about this?

Very interesting. I have a young dog 11 months that eats very little else but chicken wings! He is a very picky eater and really loves chicken wings, we have tried everything, so at the moment to keep some weight on that is his staple. He does have a variety of other stuff, but very small amounts. I would be horrified to think I am killing him! I do agree about with over vaccination, and I also know some people over worm their dogs as well.

Yes my thoughts exactly. I couldn't live with myself if i was hurting her without knowing it.

Our dog is fed Supercoat kibble and PAL pedigree. She has raw bones a few times a week and the occasional treat. I think her diet is quite good. We don't buy the cheap no name stuff but we also cannot afford $40 or $50 bags of kibble each week. Her coat is always sparkling and she is very toned muscle wise. Our vet has numerous times commented on her good health and appearance.

[Cavandra]

I will enquire with our vet about the vaccination situation and see if it is necessary. I am confused to work out why vet's and animal experts advise to vaccinate your dog yearly if it doesn't need to be done. Is there somewhere i can read more about this?

I think you will find that your Vet will not say anything against vaccinations no matter what their personal view is, as they must follow the protocol set out by the Drug company & the AVA........You must remember that they are all making bezillion $$$$ out of vaccinations, they are not going to give it up easily, and is the reason they have invented the idea of a 3 yearly one, which is the same thing you have always had but annually, for 3 times the price..........There is so much on the internet about vaccinosis, here is one article that has done the rounds, there are other experts at the end of the email that you can research, Dodds, Shultz etc.........The other thing of course is that without the diseases caused by vaccinations Vets will lose even more money as they wont be sick!

I think this article hits home when she discusses how Vets started to inject cats in the tail & legs instead of the body, as they could easily amputate the extremities rather than euthanase the Cats that get sarcomas at the site of injection

"The Science of Vaccine Damage"

by Catherine O'Driscoll

(posted with permission)

http://www.dogsadversereactions.com/scienc...cineDamage.html

A team at Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine conducted several studies (1,2) to determine if vaccines can cause changes in the immune system of dogs that might lead to life-threatening immune-mediated diseases. They obviously conducted this research because concern already existed. It was sponsored by the Haywood Foundation which itself was looking for evidence that such changes in the human immune system might also be vaccine induced. It found the evidence.

The vaccinated, but not the non-vaccinated, dogs in the Purdue studies developed autoantibodies to many of their own biochemicals, including fibronectin, laminin, DNA, albumin, cytochrome C, cardiolipin and collagen.

This means that t he vaccinated dogs -- "but not the non-vaccinated dogs"-- were attacking their own fibronectin, which is involved in tissue repair, cell multiplication and growth, and differentiation between tissues and organs in a living organism.

The vaccinated Purdue dogs also developed autoantibodies to laminin, which is involved in many cellular activities including the adhesion, spreading, differentiation, proliferation and movement of cells. Vaccines thus appear to be capable of removing the natural intelligence of cells.

Autoantibodies to cardiolipin are frequently found in patients with the serious disease systemic lupus erythematosus and also in individuals with other autoimmune diseases. The presence of elevated anti-cardiolipin antibodies is significantly associated with clots within the heart or blood vessels, in poor blood clotting, haemorrhage, bleeding into the skin, foetal loss and neurological conditions.

The Purdue studies also found that vaccinate d dogs were developing autoantibodies to their own collagen. About one quarter of all the protein in the body is collagen. Collagen provides structure to our bodies, protecting and supporting the softer tissues and connecting them with the skeleton. It is no wonder that Canine Health Concern's 1997 study of 4,000 dogs showed a high number of dogs developing mobility problems shortly after they were vaccinated (noted in my 1997 book, What Vets Don't Tell You About Vaccines).

Perhaps most worryingly, the Purdue studies found that the vaccinated dogs had developed autoantibodies to their own DNA. Did the alarm bells sound? Did the scientific community call a halt to the vaccination program? No. Instead, they stuck their fingers in the air, saying more research is needed to ascertain whether vaccines can cause genetic damage. Meanwhile, the study dogs were found good homes, but no long-term follow-up has been conducted. At around the same time, the American Veterinary Me dical Association (AVMA) Vaccine-Associated Feline Sarcoma Task Force initiated several studies to find out why 160,000 cats each year in the USA develop terminal cancer at their vaccine injection sites.(3) The fact that cats can get vaccine-induced cancer has been acknowledged by veterinary bodies around the world, and even the British Government acknowledged it through its Working Group charged with the task of looking into canine and feline vaccines(4) following pressure from Cani ne Health Concern. What do you imagine was the advice of the AVMA Task Force, veterinary bodies and governments? "Carry on vaccinating until

we find out why vaccines are killing cats, and which cats are most likely to die."

In America, in an attempt to mitigate the problem, they're vaccinating cats in the tail or leg so they can amputate when cancer appears. Great advice if it's not your cat amongst the hundreds of thousands on the "oops" list.

But other species are okay - rig ht? Wrong. In August 2003, the Journal of Veterinary Medicine carried an Italian study which showed that dogs also develop vaccine-induced cancers at their injection sites.(5) We already know that vaccine-site cancer is a possible sequel to human vaccines, too, since the Salk polio vaccine was said to carry a monkey retrovirus (from cultivating the vaccine on monkey organs) that produces inheritable cancer. The monkey retrovirus SV40 keeps turning up in human cancer sites.

It is also widely acknowledged that vaccines can cause a fast-acting, usually fatal, disease called autoimmune haemolytic anaemia (AIHA). Without treatment, and frequently with treatment, individuals can die in agony within a matter of days. Merck, itself a multinational vaccine manufacturer, states in The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy that autoimmune haemolytic anaemia may be caused by modified live-virus vaccines, as do Tizard's Veterinary Immunology (4th edition) and the Journal of Veter inary Internal Medicine.(6) The British Government's Working Group, despite being staffed by vaccine-industry consultants who say they are independent, also acknowledged this fact. However, no one warns the pet owners before their animals are subjected to an unnecessary booster, and very few owners are told why after their pets die of AIHA.

A Wide Range of Vaccine-induced Diseases

We also found some worrying correlations between vaccine events and the onset of arthritis in our 1997 survey. Our concerns were compounded by research in the human field.

The New England Journal of Medicine, for example, reported that it is possible to isolate the rubella virus from affected joints in children vaccinated against rubella. It also told of the isolation of viruses from the peripheral blood of women with prolonged arthritis following vaccination.(7)

Then, in 2000, CHC's findings were confirmed by research which showed that polyarthritis and other di seases like amyloidosis, which affects organs in dogs, were linked to the combined vaccine given to dogs.(8) There is a huge body of research, despite the paucity of funding from the vaccine industry, to confirm that vaccines can cause a wide range of brain and central nervous system damage. Merck itself states in its Manual that vaccines (i.e., its own products) can cause encephalitis: brain inflammation/damage. In some cases, encephalitis involves lesions in the brain and throughout the central nervous system. Merck states that "examples are the encephalitides following measles, chickenpox, rubella, smallpox vaccination, vaccinia, and many other less well defined viral infections".

When the dog owners who took part in the CHC survey reported that their dogs developed short attention spans, 73.1% of the dogs did so within three months of a vaccine event. The same percentage of dogs was diagnosed with epilepsy within three months of a shot (but usually within da ys). We also found that 72.5% of dogs that were considered by their owners to be nervous and of a worrying disposition, first exhibited these traits within the three-month post-vaccination period.

I would like to add for the sake of Oliver, my friend who suffered from paralysed rear legs and death shortly after a vaccine shot, that "paresis" is listed in Merck's Manual as a symptom of encephalitis. This is defined as muscular weakness of a neural (brain) origin which involves partial or incomplete paralysis, resulting from lesions at any level of the descending pathway from the brain. Hind limb paralysis is one of the potential consequences. Encephalitis, incidentally, is a disease that can manifest across the scale from mild to severe and can also cause sudden death.

Organ failure must also be suspected when it occurs shortly after a vaccine event. Dr Larry Glickman, who spearheaded the Purdue research into post-vaccination biochemical changes in dogs, wrote in a letter to Cavalier Spaniel breeder Bet Hargreaves:

"Our ongoing studies of dogs show that following routine vaccination, there is a significant rise in the level of antibodies dogs produce against their own tissues. Some of these antibodies have been shown to target the thyroid gland, connective tissue such as that found in the valves of the heart, red blood cells, DNA, etc. I do believe that the heart conditions in Cavalier King Charles Spaniels could be the end result of repeated immunisations by vaccines containing tissue culture contaminants that cause a progressive immune response directed at connective tissue in the heart valves. The clinical manifestations would be more pronounced in dogs that have a genetic predisposition [although] the findings should be generally applicable to all dogs regardless of their breed."

I must mention here that Dr Glickman believes that vaccines are a necessary evil, but that safer vaccines need to be developed.

Meanwhile, please join the queue to place your dog, cat, horse and child on the Russian roulette wheel because a scientist says you should.

Vaccines Stimulate an Inflammatory Response

The word "allergy" is synonymous with "sensitivity" and "inflammation". It should, by rights, also be synonymous with the word "vaccination". This is what vaccines do: they sensitise (render allergic)an individual in the process of forcing them to develop antibodies to fight a disease threat. In other words, as is acknowledged and accepted, as part of the vaccine process the body will respond with inflammation. This may be apparently temporary or it may be longstanding.

Holistic doctors and veterinarians have known this for at least 100 years.

They talk about a wide range of inflammatory or "-itis" diseases which arise shortly after a vaccine event. Vaccines, in fact, plunge many individuals into an allergic state. Again, this is a disorder that ranges f rom mild all the way through to the suddenly fatal. Anaphylactic shock is the culmination: it's where an individual has a massive allergic reaction to a vaccine and will die within minutes if adrenaline or its equivalent is not administered.

There are some individuals who are genetically not well placed to withstand the vaccine challenge. These are the people (and animals are "people", too) who have inherited faulty B and T cell function. B and T cells are components within the immune system which identify foreign invaders and destroy them, and hold the invader in memory so that they cannot cause future harm. However, where inflammatory responses are concerned, the immune system overreacts and causes unwanted effects such as allergies and other

inflammatory conditions.

Merck warns in its Manual that patients with, or from families with, B and/or T cell immunodeficiencies should not receive live-virus vaccines due to the risk of severe or fatal infection. E lsewhere, it lists features of B and T cell immunodeficiencies as food allergies, inhalant allergies, eczema, dermatitis, neurological deterioration and heart disease. To translate, people with these conditions can die if they receive live-virus vaccines. Their immune systems are simply not competent enough to guarantee a healthy reaction to the viral assault from modified live-virus vaccines.

Modified live-virus (MLV) vaccines replicate in the patient until an immune response is provoked. If a defence isn't stimulated, then the vaccine continues to replicate until it gives the patient the very disease it was intending to prevent.

Alternatively, a deranged immune response will lead to inflammatory conditions such as arthritis, pancreatitis, colitis, encephalitis and any number of autoimmune diseases such as cancer and leukaemia, where the body attacks its own cells.

A new theory, stumbled upon by Open University student Gary Smith, explains what holis tic practitioners have been saying for a very long time. Here is what a few of the holistic vets have said in relation to their patients:

Dr Jean Dodds: "Many veterinarians trace the present problems with allergic and immunologic diseases to the introduction of MLV vaccines..." (9)

Christina Chambreau, DVM: "Routine vaccinations are probably the worst thing that we do for our animals. They cause all types of illnesses, but not directly to where we would relate them definitely to be caused by the vaccine." (10)

Martin Goldstein, DVM: "I think that vaccines...are leading killers of dogs and cats in America today."

Dr Charles E. Loops, DVM: "Homoeopathic veterinarians and other holistic practitioners have maintained for some time that vaccinations do more harm than they provide benefits." (12)

Mike Kohn, DVM: "In response to this [vaccine] violation, there have been increased autoimmune diseases (allergies being one component), epilepsy, ne oplasia [tumours], as well as behavioural problems in small animals." (13)

A Theory on Inflammation

Gary Smith explains what observant healthcare practitioners have been saying for a very long time, but perhaps they've not understood why their observations led them to say it. His theory, incidentally, is causing a huge stir within the inner scientific sanctum. Some believe that his theory could lead to a cure for many diseases including cancer. For me, it explains why the vaccine process is inherently questionable.

Gary was learning about inflammation as part of his studies when he struck upon a theory so extraordinary that it could have implications for the treatment of almost every inflammatory disease -- including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, rheumatoid arthritis and even HIV and AIDS.

Gary's theory questions the received wisdom that when a person gets ill, the inflammation that occurs around the infected area helps it to heal. He claims that, in reality, inflammation prevents the body from recognising a foreign substance and therefore serves as a hiding place for invaders. The inflammation occurs when at-risk cells produce receptors called All (known as angiotensin II type I receptors). He says that while At1 has a balancing receptor, At2, which is supposed to switch off the inflammation, in most diseases this does not happen.

"Cancer has been described as the wound that never heals," he says. "All successful cancers are surrounded by inflammation. Commonly this is thought to be the body's reaction to try to fight the cancer, but this is not the case.

"The inflammation is not the body trying to fight the infection. It is actually the virus or bacteria deliberately causing inflammation in order to hide from the immune system [author's emphasis]." (14)

If Gary is right, then the inflammatory process so commonly stimulated by vaccines is not, as hitherto assumed, a necessarily acceptable sign . Instead, it could be a sign that the viral or bacterial component, or the adjuvant (which, containing foreign protein, is seen as an invader by the immune system), in the vaccine is winning by stealth.

If Gary is correct in believing that the inflammatory response is not protective but a sign that invasion is taking place under cover of darkness, vaccines are certainly not the friends we thought they were. They are undercover assassins working on behalf of the enemy, and vets and medical doctors are unwittingly acting as collaborators. Worse, we animal guardians and parents are actually paying doctors and vets to unwittingly betray our loved ones.

Potentially, vaccines are the stealth bomb of the medical world. They are used to catapult invaders inside the castle walls where they can wreak havoc, with none of us any the wiser. So rather than experiencing frank viral diseases such as the 'flu, measles, mumps and rubella (and, in the case of dogs, parvovirus and distemper), we are allowing the viruses to win anyway - but with cancer, leukaemia and other inflammatory or autoimmune (self-attacking) diseases taking their place.

The Final Insult

All 27 veterinary schools in North America have changed their protocols for vaccinating dogs and cats along the following lines; (15) however, vets in practice are reluctant to listen to these changed protocols and official veterinary bodies in the UK and other countries are ignoring the following facts.

Dogs' and cats' immune systems mature fully at six months. If modified live-virus vaccine is giver after six months of age, it produces immunity, which is good for the life of the pet. If another MLV vaccine is given a year later, the antibodies from the first vaccine neutralise the antigens of the second vaccine and there is little or no effect. The litre is no "boosted", nor are more memory cells induced.

Not only are annual boosters unnecessary, but they sub ject the pet to potential risks such as allergic reactions and immune-mediated haemolytic anaemia.

In plain language, veterinary schools in America, plus the American Veterinary Medical Association, have looked at studies to show how long vaccines last and they have concluded and announced that annual vaccination is unnecessary.(16-19)

Further, they have acknowledged that vaccines are not without harm. Dr Ron Schultz, head of pathobiology at Wisconsin University and a leading light in this field, has been saying this politely to his veterinary colleagues since the 1980s. I've been saying it for the past 12 years. But change is so long in coming and, in the meantime, hundreds of thousands of animals are dying every year - unnecessarily.

The good news is that thousands of animal lovers (but not enough) have heard what we've been saying. Canine Health Concern members around the world use real food as Nature's supreme disease preventative, eschewing processed pet food, and minimise the vaccine risk. Some of us, myself included, have chosen not to vaccinate our pets at all. Our reward is healthy and long-lived dogs.

It has taken but one paragraph to tell you the good and simple news. The gratitude I feel each day, when I embrace my healthy dogs, stretches from the centre of the Earth to the Universe and beyond.

About the Author:

Catherine O'Driscoll runs Canine Health Concern which campaigns and also delivers an educational program, the Foundation in Canine Healthcare. She is author of Shock to the System (2005; see review this issue), the best-selling book What Vets Don't Tell You About Vaccines (1997, 1998), and Who Killed the Darling Buds of May? (1997; reviewed in NEXUS 4/04).

She lives in Scotland with her partner, Rob Ellis, and three Golden Retrievers, named Edward, Daniel and Gwinnie, and she lectures on canine health around the world.

For more information, contact Catherine O'D riscoll at Canine Health Concern, PO Box 7533, Perth PH2 1AD, Scotland, UK, email [email protected] , website http://www.canine-health-concern.org.uk.

Shock to the System is available in the UK from CHC, and worldwide from Dogwise at http://www.dogwise.com.

Endnotes

1. "Effects of Vaccination on the Endocrine and Immune Systems of Dogs, Phase II", Purdue University, November 1,1999, at http://www.homestead.com/vonhapsburg/haywa...onvaccines.html.

2. See www.vet.purdue.edu/epi/gdhstudy.htm.

3. See http://www.avma.org/vafstf/default.asp.

4. Veterinary Products Committee (VPC) Working Group on Feli ne and Canine Vaccination, DEFRA, May 2001.

5. JVM Series A 50(6):286-291, August 2003.

6. Duval, D. and Giger,U. (1996). "Vaccine-Associated Immune-Mediated Hemolytic Anemia in the Dog", Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine 10:290-295.

7. New England Journal of Medicine, vol.313,1985.

See also Clin Exp Rheumatol 20(6):767-71, Nov-Dec 2002.

8. Am Coll Vet Intern Med 14:381,2000.

9. Dodds, Jean W.,DVM, "Immune System and Disease Resistance", at http://www.critterchat.net/immune.htm.

10. Wolf Clan magazine, April/May 1995.

11. Goldstein, Martin, The Nature of Animal Healing, Borzoi/Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1999.

12. Wolf Clan magazine, op. cit.

13. ibid.

14. Journal of Inflammation 1:3,2004, at http://www.journal-inflammation.com content/1/1/3.

15. Klingborg, D.J., Hus tead, D.R. and Curry-Galvin, E. et al., "AVMA Council on Biologic and Therapeutic Agents' report on cat and dog vaccines", Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 221(10):1401-1407, November 15,2002,

http://www.avma.org/policies/vaccination.htm.

16. ibid.

17. Schultz, R.D., "Current and future canine and feline vaccination programs", Vet Med 93:233-254,1998.

18. Schultz, R.D., Ford, R.B., Olsen, J. and Scott, P., "Titer testing and vaccination: a new look at traditional practices", Vet Med 97:1-13, 2002 (insert).

19. Twark, L. and Dodds, W.J., "Clinical application of serum parvovirus and distemper virus antibody liters for determining revaccination strategies in healthy dogs", J Am Vet Med Assoc 217:1021-1024,2000.

[poodlefan]

Raw chicken is the basis of my dogs' diet. If you are worried about additives in food, I suggest you have a very good read of the list of ingredients on the side of what they are eating now.

Cancer has a bunch of causes, some are genetic. As Joe Jackson once put it "everything gives you cancer". More importantly, it may not be just ONE thing.

We all try to feed a healthy diet but views differ as to what that is.

[Dog_Horse_Girl]

Raw chicken is the basis of my dogs' diet. If you are worried about additives in food, I suggest you have a very good read of the list of ingredients on the side of what they are eating now.

Exactly. Supercrap is not a good food, and as for Pedigree...hmmm. These manufacturers often use the leftovers rather than human grade muscle meat. It's less expensive that way and while it may not harm your dog, it equally won't give them the best nutrition available today. But diet is a very personal choice, and I understand that. I'd definitely suggest doing some independent research on what the dog food labels actually mean and how to interpret the ingredients more accurately. A food is only as good as the quality of what goes into it after all.

My dogs eat human grade, whole foods served raw. I know exactly what they eat b/c I prepare it all after shopping for it at my grocery store, the local market (for fruit and veg) and the butcher and poultry store. I know that not everybody is able or willing to prepare a raw diet for their dog/s every day, but I believe it is the best for my dogs, and they haven't looked back since we stopped feeding dry foods on a regular basis. It *could be* coincidence...but I doubt it.

[espinay2]

Yes, it is illegal to use steriods in chicken in Australia and has been since about the 1950's. Many companies do still use antibiotics though. BUT that chicken being fed to the dogs is raised for human consumption. If the chicken fed to the dog causes cancer, why hasn't chicken been found to also cause cancer in humans (after all I am betting other parts of the bird are being fed to humans).

Feeding chicken may be a common denominator between the dogs, but it is not necessarily THE common denominator. Remember they all drank water too - that is another common denominator. Cancers however, as poodlefan has stated can have lots of causes including genetic ones. Sometimes it is just not possible to pinpoint and exact cause and just because they all had cancer doe not necessarily mean they had the same cancer.

FWIW I have fed a totally raw diet for around 12 years and a diet which contained raw chicken for a lot longer than that. My current oldest dog is 12 1/2 and fighting fit. I have at this point in time not lost a dog to cancer.

[pembroke lover]

If they were defrosting the chickenin the microwave, that would be more likely the cause than the chicken itself.

[Staffyluv]

My boy has cancer and I do not think for one minute that it was anything I fed him... He has always had a diet of human grade food (cooked because he is fussy)...

As for supermarket dog foods, well, perhaps they should carry a warning label about what is actually in them... Certainly not fit for my dog - in my opinion... I heard that to counter act a case of constipation in dogs, PAL puppy food is actually recommended - that is just scary...

I learned a long time ago that the sort of products purchased from supermarkets in the dog food aisle are not the best quality and do not do the best for a lot of dogs... The difference in my sisters stafford from when she first got her (eating PAL) to when she changed to Hills Science/Eukanuba and raw foods was amazing... The poor old girl used to itch until she bled until her diet was changed, now she has no issues with skin problems at all...

I only feed my lad, what I would eat myself - but that is a personal thing...

For what it is worth, cancer is one of those things that a pooch (or person for that matter) already has a predisposition too.. If they are going to get it, they are going to get it... JMHO...

Jodie