What on Earth am I talking about? Tessa’s breath!

Okay, okay. If I’m going to be honest, it’s not as if it smells exactly like roses, but here’s the thing: It doesn’t smell like anything.

This is a wonderfully, fabulously, beautifully unexpected “side effect” of Tessa’s new food. And I’m totally digging it. Why? Because Tess wakes me up every morning with a tongue in my face. And I can personally tell you that before the new food, it was not exactly joyful to wake up to the smell of rank dog breath.

(An oldie, but a goodie — Spring/Summer 2007)

For further laughs, imagine me trying to get a whiff of my dog’s breath the last few days. Because believe me, I’ve tried. I didn’t believe that the food could possibly take the smell away, so I kept trying to smell it. Last night, I finally came to the conclusion that the stink is just not there.

I know, I know. You all must think I’m crazy. And this post isn’t even a result of my writer’s block; I swear. Instead, I just really wanted to share another fantastic benefit to higher quality dog food.

We officially started Tessa on the transition to her new food last Monday (December 1). I touched on the food switch in my Thanksgiving post, but didn’t talk about many details. Today, I want to share more specifics to help potentially inform fellow dog owners. Am I an expert? Hell no. But what I’ve learned in the last month or so were things that I never knew before.

I’ll start off by saying that a dog food discussion came up a few months back on one of the message boards I frequent. Someone posted a website that contains unbiased reviews of the different brands and types of dog food. Out of curiosity, I looked up Tessa’s Iams and was kind of surprised to learn that it was only rated with 1 star (out of 6). I was surprised because Iams had been what the vet recommended to us when we first got Tessa as a puppy. And why would they recommend something that is not so good for my dog?

A few posters told me that vets actually get kickbacks from certain food and drug companies–if they recommend Iams, the company will pay them, pay for some of their schooling, etc. I’m not sure how true that all is, but since that kind of thing can happen with human doctors and pharmacists, and drug companies (mostly in the form of meals and treats to “woo” them), I wouldn’t necessarily doubt it.

At the time of this discussion, we had just purchased a new bag of Iams for Tess, and I figured maybe I’d look into switching her to something better once she was done. Well, I didn’t. We ended up buying yet another bag of Iams at the end of October.

And then, as you all know… all hell broke loose with Tessa’s health.

During my many hours of research on the internet about canine lymphoma, I came across several sources that talked about how in some studies, diet has been linked as a cause of lymphoma. Basically, most dog foods contain ingredients that dogs aren’t physically made to digest (such as wheat and other grains). As a result, their bodies develop various immune dysfunctions, including cancer. (Here is just one of the web pages that discusses this: http://www.dogcancer.net/lymph.html.) Sure, it’s not really proven (at least not yet), and whether or not this should be believed is totally up to the individual. However, you can imagine my horror and guilt upon reading this after we had been told Tessa likely had lymphoma.

Also, after our initial diagnosis, my mom went to an acquaintance of hers, who is some kind of “Dog Whisperer” type. After hearing that Tess had lymphoma, she made recommendations for a very strict diet that we should put Tessa on. By the time we had a chance to really think about implementing it, we received our great news of the negative biopsy report. Even so, we knew we wanted to change her diet. Given that she still had so much Iams left, we thought we could wait it out until she was done with it. In the meantime, my mom e-mailed her friend again to ask if her diet recommendations were still the same, even after the negative biopsy. She also asked if it would be OK to continue Tess on the Iams until we ran out.

Her answer (directly copied and pasted from his e-mail): “I would never feed my dog Iams because it is made with chicken by-products (of which there are no rules) and corn meal. Meat by-products are any parts of the chicken that is not consumed by people. This could include beaks, feathers, feet. Corn is not digestible for dogs or even humans. It’s a filler and causes the dog to eat more and poop more. It’s a waste of money. Vets even recommend Science Diet dog food because if they promote the food in vet offices, Science Diet will pay for part of their schooling. Science Diet is another dog food I would suggest my clients to avoid.”

She went on to say: “Your daughter can donate the food to any shelter and begin feeding a more digestible, healthier food such as Premium Edge, Natural Planet Organics, Canidae, Innova, Wellness, Merrick, California Natural. She should read labels: avoid corn, wheat, soy, BHA/BHT, meat by-products. She should also avoid these ingredients in any treats given to the dog. She should mix the Iams and the new food for about a week.”

This is just one expert’s opinion, but we took it to heart. We decided to switch Tessa’s food even though we were nowhere near done with the bag of Iams we had purchased. Upon doing a bit more research (including prices in our area), we ultimately decided to start feeding Tessa the California Natural Lamb Meal & Rice Adult Small Bites. So last week, we started her off with mixing the new food with the Iams. By Saturday, she was eating 100% California Natural.

OK, so wow. This post is a lot longer than I thought it would be. And I’m not even done. But again, I’m just putting this information out there in case any of you care. As I said before, I didn’t know about any of this stuff, and if I had, we likely would have been feeding Tess better food from the time we got her. She was only 10 weeks old.

I just want to encourage you all to do a little more research about what you are feeding your dogs (and other pets, too!). What are you currently feeding? Go ahead and look it up on Dog Food Analysis, and see how it’s rated. In case you’re curious, the California Natural is a 4-star food. So not the absolute best there is, but a good start. We may switch her yet again down the road, but we wanted to at least get her started on something good.

After reading the ingredients list for Iams (we were feeding her the Mini Chunks), and comparing it to the ingredients in California Natural, I feel much better about what we’re giving her.

The cost of the food is obviously a bit more. I think we were paying around $17-18 for a 20-25 lb. bag of Iams (always bought it at BJ’s Wholesale), and now we’re paying $30 for a 20 lb. bag. For us, the benefits outweigh the cost. Also, depending on the food and the dog, most of the time the better foods require that you feed less food, so it evens out a little. I’ve also read better food = less poop, but we haven’t necessarily found that to be true yet.

Tessa is our baby. We don’t want to be feeding her crap. With the new food, we’re hoping for a healthier dog overall.

The good breath is just a bonus. :)