Dear Dr. John,
I’ve heard that some vegan and vegetarian individuals at the moment are feeding their canines the identical diets. Is this protected for the canines? I additionally heard that canines that aren’t spayed or neutered bark extra. This info got here from an individual who owned a boarding kennel. I need to respect their expertise, but it surely doesn’t appear to make sense to me. J.F.
Dear J.F.,
Social media and the web present quite a lot of info however misinformation as effectively. One must be even handed in believing what they analysis or learn. I can not start to emphasize what number of veterinarians are annoyed by Dr. Google. The loopy factor about info from revered sources is that there are specialists that may come down on either side of any difficulty.
The vegan and vegetarian difficulty relating to feeding canines has been round for a while now. Most veterinarians that I’m conversant in will not be advocates however there are some veterinarians that assist such dietary way of life. Dogs are omnivorous however technically are carnivores. This is why they’ve massive canine enamel. Dogs want extra protein than people and within the wild primarily survive on looking and consuming their prey. There are many protected greens for canines to eat similar to carrots, broccoli, spinach, and kale. From my perspective although, one ought to keep away from giving their canine an all plant-based weight loss plan as it might probably result in dietary deficiencies in protein or nutritional vitamins. I counsel towards vegan and vegetarian diets for canines. However, there are articles that counsel that such diets can be utilized with correct supplementation offering for taurine and L carnitine.
As on your second query, it’s true that spayed and neutered canines have much less aggression so some may assume it might result in some decreased barking however I do know of many canines that bark lots even when spayed or neutered. This is particularly true with small canines like my very own. In my opinion, spayed and neutered canines don’t bark lower than canines which can be intact. I’ve even learn the place altered canines truly bark extra. As you’ll be able to see, there may be info on either side of those two points.
Dr. John de Jong owns and operates the Boston Mobile Veterinary Clinic. He could be reached at 781-899-9994.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”
