In the hopes that your older dog can enjoy a golden age that you never thought possible, it is wise to look into the evolvement of a nutritionally wholesome, additive-free, all-natural dog food. The rewards would be a constant improvement in the overall health of animals fed on such a natural diet. Such rewards include the improvement of almost every disease and condition affected by nutritional deficiencies.

Food is a highly significant factor in your older dog’s health. The broadest food classifications are proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. The three classifications help us in assessing the major components of a food. Foods are generally considered to be of the category that predominates in their composition. But this does not mean that a carbohydrate such as wheat contains no protein because it does. Or that a protein such as liver contains no carbohydrates because it certainly does. Similar to people, pets need a proper ratio of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates in their diet in order to maintain proper health.

Proteins are vital to the growth and development of all body tissues. Protein helps in the formation of hormones; it regulates the acid-alkaline and water balances; and it helps the body to form enzymes and antibodies. Protein also aids in the formation of milk during lactation, and in the process of blood clotting. Protein can be used as an energy source when fats and carbohydrates are insufficient in the diet.

Fats (lipids) are the most concentrated energy source in the diet. When oxidized, fats yield more than twice the calories of proteins or carbohydrates. Fats act as carriers for the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. By helping vitamin D to be absorbed, fats make calcium more
available to body tissues. Fats also aid in the conversion of carotene to vitamin A. Fats insulate major organs such as the heart, liver, and kidneys, and help to maintain body heat.

Carbohydrates are the major source of energy for all bodily functions. They are a splendid source of quick energy. They assist in the digestion of other foods, and they are essential in regulating protein and fat metabolism. Carbohydrates are considered the fuel in which the fat burns. Carbohydrates consist of sugars, starches, and cellulose. Simple sugars, as in honey and fruits, are easily digested.

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Baldness: A chronic slow loss of hair, due to ill health, is sometimes found in older dogs. Feed a diet of raw foods: meats, vegetables, and fruits. Give brewers’ yeast, kelp, and desiccated liver. Add raw corn, olive, peanut, or safflower oil to the food for unsaturated fatty acids. Chopped dandelion leaves (high in copper) may be added to the food. Balding areas can be bathed daily with an infusion of rosemary leaves, marigold flowers, or daffodil leaves. Castor and eucalyptus oil can also be massaged into the balding areas.

Breast Tumors: Often occur in unspayed female dogs. Tumors are very often caused by hormonal imbalances and changes, together with a general state of toxemia and ill health. The breast tumor can be linked with an estrogen factor. Tumors on any part of the body are the body’s attempt to localize and isolate some disease condition. “Tumor” means swelling, and tumors are benign or malignant by classification. In reality, a tumor is often benign in certain of its areas and malignant in others. Biopsies can aggravate the malignant portion of tumors, sometimes causing their rapid spreading.

By cutting out the tumor or tumors, one is only removing the local indications of the disease. Nothing is being done about the cause. In many cases the cause has not even been sought for or recognized. Therapies that will decrease or dry up a tumor can also serve to prevent them. Nonorthodox treatments have been used to stop the spread, even though they did not significantly reduce the size of the tumor. It is the spread of a malignancy that kills, more often than the size of the tumor itself. Removing the toxic or poisonous quality is all-important in treating a tumor, malignant or otherwise. A diet rich in live, raw foods, will serve to supply vital enzymes to the body. Enzyme therapy may be indicated along with raw foods.

A theory on cancer that seems most valid among nutritional circles is that cancer is partly caused by faulty protein metabolization. By changing to a raw, live-food diet, you will give the blood a chance to clarify itself. A clean blood stream means a healthy body. A diseased, choked-up blood stream can breed nothing but disease. Herbal therapies include blue violet leaves, red clover, goldenseal, garlic, and turnip used both internally and as a poultice; goose grass as a poultice; burdock, dandelion root, slippery elm, comfrey, blue flag, and poke root as a poultice and as tea.

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Arthritis: Arthritis has become a common ailment in dogs, especially the older dog. Several factors contribute to this condition, including an all-cooked-food diet, lack of exercise, poor absorption of minerals, and lack of hydrochloric acid in the stomach. It occurs as an inflammation in bones and joints. The onset is gradual and the owner notices the dog having increased difficulty in walking, getting up, lying down, running, and moving in general.

Putting an arthritic dog on distilled water exclusively will help to leach out some of the mineral deposits that have settled in the joints. Your dog also needs a live-food diet. You may use a good-quality dry kibble as a base, but along with it give your dog plenty of sprouts, grated raw vegetables, garlic, and raw fruits, all of which are alkalizing to the body. Meats and grains are acid-forming for the most part, and an arthritic dog already has too much acid in his diet. Any meat should be raw to slightly braised. Give chopped comfrey and parsley leaves in with the food.

Keep the dog in a warm, dry place, and try to give him some moderate exercise in sunlight. You can feed rosemary leaves daily as an infusion (steep them in water).The inflamed areas can be massaged with four tablespoonful of raw, unrefined  olive oil, one tablespoonful of linseed oil, and ½ teaspoon of eucalyptus oil. Nutrients that may be beneficial in treating arthritis are vitamins A, B complex, C, D, E, and F; calcium, iodine, lecithin, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, and protein.

Bad Breath: Bad breath is often caused by a constipated digestive system, locking in putrefying toxic wastes. This comes from having too much dead, refined food and not enough raw, live food or fiber (roughage) in the diet. A sluggish system will give back the stench of indigestion, all the way back up to the mouth again.

A dog can be constipated even if he has a daily bowel movement. In fact, only a few dogs are not constipated throughout their lifetime, although this is rarely evident to their owners. Infusions of rosemary leaves and flowers, lemon juice and water, apple juice, raw honey, and a short fast (several days) will all serve to sweeten up the intestines. Regular fasting, one day a week, on distilled water and raw honey, will help to rest the digestive organs on a regular basis, giving them a chance to catch up on their contents. Use lots of raw fruits and vegetables in the diet, give yogurt to reinstate the friendly bacterial flora, and feed only raw or slightly braised meat.

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Abrasions: Abrasions are often caused by scratching and biting skin surfaces that itch. Herbal treatments include an infusion of blackberry leaves, rosemary leaves, or elder flowers and leaves to which a little witch hazel has been added. Apply topically to abrasions. It is recommended that no greasy preparations be used because they will retain moisture on the skin surfaces and retard healing.

Abscesses: Abscesses are the body’s attempt to throw off through the skin toxins from impure blood. Blood that is excessively toxic is choked and is unable to carry away the waste matter of cell metabolism through its normal channels. Thus white blood cells surround disease-producing bacteria and toxic waste and carry them out of the body through the skin in the form of pus. If your dog is bothered by many abscesses at one time, or by frequent growths, he should be fasted for several days on distilled water and raw honey (to keep up his energy): two to four teaspoonful a day, depending on the size of the dog.

As the dog begins to eliminate more toxins, give him several garlic cloves daily with his food. Garlic will help him to detoxify even more. Hot fomentations (packs) of blackberry leaves or elderberry, may be put on the abscesses. You can also use chopped-up garlic or onion or both, heated in several ounces of castor oil. Heat it in a pan of water till it is comfortably hot, and then apply as hot packs. Nutrients that may be helpful in treating abscesses are vitamins A, C, and E, and B complex, red clover, cayenne pepper, goldenseal, and grated carrots or potatoes.

Anemia: Anemia is basically a lack of hemoglobin and oxygen in the blood. It is often caused by faulty diet, lack of exposure to sunlight, and a constipation of the entire system, including the lower bowel. The dog may become weak and faint, losing energy and stamina. His eyes may show excessive brightness in the white portion. Internal parasites may weaken a dog, causing severe anemia. Anemia can be caused by too little blood or too few red cells. If you check your dog’s gums, they will be whiter than normal, upon pressure, and slow to return to a pink color.

Your dog may lack sufficient iron in his diet; toxins produced by many diseases can cause an anemic condition. To boost the iron in his diet, you can give him desiccated liver and brewers’ yeast, in with his food. You can also give berries or fruits of the black variety including blackberry, bilberry, elderberry, or grapes. Honey is also good, as well as eggs, kelp, and parsley. Other nutrients that may be helpful in cases of anemia are vitamins C, E, and the B complex, protein, and copper and iron. Chemical iron aggravates anemia and cause constipation.

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Aging dogs are less adaptable to, and more adversely affected by, stress and change.  Yet so many dog owners do not take this into consideration when making plans involving their older dog. For example, for years you and your dog enjoyed those races through the woods or around the playground. You may still enjoy it now, but your older dog possibly finds it difficult to keep up with you.

What used to be lots of fun may now make him a bit grouchy and force him to breathe abnormally hard. You have just redecorated the house, and what used to be your dog’s favorite spot to relax in, is now occupied by a piece of furniture. Your dog becomes restless, temperamental, may even urinate or defecate in the house or right on that piece of furniture, and you cannot understand why.

It is not necessary to baby or spoil a dog just because he is aging. In fact, this should be carefully avoided, as it is a trap into which many dog owners readily fall. You should encourage your older dog to take part in family life as always, but you must be alert to avoid undue stresses or unnecessary changes. That piece of new furniture does not have to stand on the exact spot where he has snoozed for more than ten years. In his mind that spot is his personal territory. Even in his youth such a loss would have been upsetting, but he would soon find another acceptable location. The older dog finds it more difficult to adjust and can develop undesirable behavior as a result.

A dog is both a dependent and an independent animal in his relationship with you. In youth he will follow your every footstep even to the point of getting underfoot. His greatest joy is to be with you everywhere, and there are few times he wants to be by himself. As he gets older, however, this will often change, and he may seek solitude much more of the time. He loves you still but, depending on his physical state, he just prefers to be by himself. He will play with you and be your companion, but do not expect necessarily the same kind of response you got from him when he was a lot younger.

Take care not to “kill him with kindness” by offering what you consider tasty morsels of human food such as cake, ice cream, bacon, or liver pate. Such sudden changes in diet can produce serious stomach and intestinal upset, resulting in profuse vomiting or diarrhea. It may also encourage your dog to refuse his normal food and hold out for the “goodies” which in time  can cause severe nutritional imbalance.

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