Paw Talk - Pet Forums banner

The vegan dog, anyone?

4K views 15 replies 9 participants last post by  jeff jey 
#1 ·
Yeah we're thinking sometime between point A and a couple years ago, Spyro developed a meat allergy. The raw feeding cleared it up for a bit, but now its back likely because he is also being exposed to a million other allergens. I have decided to take the plunge and make him vegetarian.

Problem is I have found very little vegetarian foods on the market (I learned all about why in school so I don't blame them) and even less help online. I found a recipe for homemade stew stuff but its by PETA...which is likely not made by an RVT specializing in nutrition or a DVM. This has been a struggle. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
#3 ·
#4 ·
I hope this doesn't sound rude but I don't think he has a "meat allergy". That would be very, very, very rare for a carnivore! What protein sources have you tried and how do you know it's the food? Could it be environmental?

Honestly, no vegetarian diet is really great for a dog but a vegan diet would be flat-out dangerous. So don't go vegan, go vegetarian if anything. Again, though, even dogs with tons of food allergies can usually eat certain meats.

Maybe a fish diet would work? Fish shouldn't really "count", you know?

Your best bet would be to look into homecooked diets, there's a good forum for that on Dogster. I wouldn't try any kibbles, those have so many allergens that it would be tough to see if they helped or not.

Again, though, I want to emphasize that a dog is extremely unlikely to be "allergic" to all meat, it's more likely specific types or categories (poultry, for example). Or an allergy that has nothing to do with food, which was my first thought when you mentioned raw clearing it up for a little while...if he was allergic to all meat, he wouldn't have cleared up like that. Michelle on here has a dog with a poultry allergy, it doesn't just randomly go away and results in nearly deadly reactions. That doesn't sound like what's going on with your pup.
 
#5 ·
I figured that too. He isn't dead by any means but yes he itches constantly. Once he started puking and we didn't have ground beef and just fed him rice for a couple of days...he did fine. I really really REALLY am not into the vegan dog thing at all. I mean...now its certain...no argument and in textbook that dogs are carnivores lol.

The only thing I could even think of is for whatever reason he has a sensitivity to the packaging that the meat is touching? Think thats a possibility?
 
#7 ·
I agree with Stephanie. I wouldn't feed a vegetarian or vegan diet to a dog. I would think it would be highly unlikely that your dog is allergic to all types of meat.

My dog, Kitsune, has both environmental allergies and food allergies. He can't eat poultry, like Stephanie mentioned. Even a tiny bit of chicken is enough to make him very sick. He gets hives all over his body, he swells up, throws up, it's pretty drastic. He almost died once after eating a piece of raw chicken, due to his throat swelling and almost completely closing off. Luckily one of our vets is literally a 2 minute walk from our house so I was able to get him treated very quickly when his symptoms started.

Remember that kibble, even vegan kibbles, contain a lot more ingredients that could all serve as potential allergy triggers. My dogs allergies where one of the main reasons why I switched him to raw. It's much easier for me to know exactly what he's eating.

If you think your dog has food allergies, I always tell people that I think the most important thing is to try to find out what they are actually allergic too. Knowing my dog cannot eat poultry makes it easier for me to check everything I feed him, treats included, to make sure I'm not giving him something that he could react too.

Have you looked into trying an elimination diet? You should be able to find a lot of info on how to do it online.

Try to figure out exactly what Spyro is allergic too. If you don't, how will you know what foods to avoid? If he is allergic to one or a few types of meat, your life will be much easier if you can figure that out. It's not always easy, but it's worth it. Just switching him to a vegan diet and not worrying about finding what exactly is bothering him I wouldn't think would be the healthiest course of action. How would you know what types of treats he can and can't have, etc. Just never giving him any meat again IMO isn't really fair to him and probably isn't what's healthiest either.

Look into where you get your meat too. Could be maybe be reacting to something that's being added to all the meat at the particular store you use? Maybe try getting meat from other stores or online or something and see if that changes things any.
 
#10 ·
Fish is meat...?

If someone is trying to put their dog on a vegetarian diet, that means no fish, poultry or anything. I'm not a fan of vegan or vegetarian diets for dogs (Unless it's for medical reasons... I hate it when vegetarian/vegan people feel that they need to make their dogs vegan too!). Sure, they might be able to survive a vegetarian/vegan diet, but that doesn't mean it's good for them!
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top