CHAPTER 9

 

ORGAN MEATS AS DOG FOOD

Useless Offal or Valuable Food ?

Because it is readily available and cheap, large numbers of Australian dog owners regularly feed their dogs liver, kidney, brains, tongues, ox cheeks ect..  Butchers often put together packs of this material specially for dogs.

The question is, is this a good idea ?  Are such things valuable food for dogs ?  What nutrients do dogs get when they eat organ meats ?  If dogs are supposed to eat this sort of food, how much should they get and how often should they get it?  What are the dangers of feeding too much organ meat to a dog ?  Are there different stages of life when extra will be required?  Which is more nutritious for a dog, cooked or raw organ meat?  Is there any danger to a dog’s health if it eats organ meat raw ?  What about human health?

There are the sorts of questions that people ought to be asking when it comes to feeding offal to dogs.  The answers are important.  By understanding what these products contains, and how they can help or possibly harm a dog, allows dog owners to feed or not feed such products with greater confidence.

• In the wild, dog eat organ meat from the animals they kill on a regular basis.  In fact internal organs are one of the first things a wild dog eats following a kill.  Internal organs form an essential and vital part of a wild dog’s diet.
• Modern dogs have similar requirements.  Modern dogs consuming these products as part of a sensible diet have superior health to dogs that do not eat them.

This was illustrated graphically by a dog which visited us recently because of a skin problem.  This poor dog’s whole body was covered with thickened, inflamed, infected, oozing, crusting skin.  The owners told me that the skin would often cleaar up and stay healthy for months, then suddenly, the problem would reappear.

The basic diet of this dog was dry dog food.  Recently it had been eating one specifically formulated to improve the coats of show dogs.  Clearly the product was not doing what it’s makers claimed it would !

After questioning, it became apparent that the dog’s general health, including it’s skin, improved whenever it was fed a product called ‘’dog’s delight’’.  This was a concoction put together by the local butcher and consisted of a mixture of livers, hearts, kidneys, brains, tongues and off-cuts of various meats including pork and lamb and beef.

• This mixture was rich in high quality protein, B vitamins, vitamin A, some vitamin C, essential fatty acids and zinc.  That particular mixture, if fed often enough, adequately compensated for the deficiencies of the dry dog food.

This is a common situation.  Many folk manage to balance their dog’s diet quite nicely in all sorts of ways, including the use of organ meats, without really understanding what they are doing.  On the other hand, some people feed organ meat as the major part of their dog’s diet.  Such dog’s eventually become ill.

• Obviously organ meats are valuable dog foods.  But not in huge amounts.  Wild dogs do not eat huge amounts.  They are a concentrated source of many essential nutrients.  Ideally, your dog should eat small amounts of them all it’s life.
• Organ meats are particularly valuable during times of growth reproduction and stress, as a source of essential concentrated nutrients.
• The vitamins they contain include members of the B complex, vitamin A and vitamin C.  The minerals they contain include iron, manganese, selenium and zinc.
• Most organ meats have excellent levels of high quality protein and essential fatty acids.  They contain a lot of phosphorus, but they are very low in calcium.

As with most other foods, they are more valuable nutritionally when fed to your dog raw, containing health promoting enzymes and naturally occuring anti-oxidants, including cholesterol which also  has anti-oxidant properties.  It is quite probable they contain nutritional factors, anti-oxidants etc… not yet discovered.

Do feed them on a regular basis, but do not feed too much of them.  Organ meats should only form about 10 or 15% of the food eaten by an adult non-reproducing, not-doing-very-much type dog.  Dogs that are growing or reproducing will require more.

 

THE NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF DIFFERENT ORGAN MEATS

 

Liver as Dog Food

Liver is the most popular organ meat fed to dogs.  This is hardly surprising.  In this one product is a vast range of important nutrients.

Heading the list is vitamin A.  Liver is the most concentrated source of this vitamin known.  For example, approximately 100gm of lamb’s fry contains around 30,000 international units of vitamin A.  For it’s vitamin A content alone, all dogs should be fed liver on a regular basis.  It also contains vitamins E, D and K, in substantial quantities.

Liver is an excellent source of the minerals zinc, manganese, selenium and iron.  Most dogs fed on dry dog food, ar a cereal based canned product can be deficient in all of these.  Anaemic dogs may be fed liver as an excellent source of iron.  Dogs with skin problems and male stud dogs may be fed liver for it’s zinc content.  All dogs require liver for it’s selenium contetn.  Selenium is part of a major body anti-oxidant called glutathione peroxidase.

Liver is an excellent source of all the B vitamins, particularly B2, B3, B5, B6, biotin, folacin, B12, choline (or lecithin) and inositol.  It contains B1 or thiamin in adequate but smaller amounts compared to the other B vitamins.  Liver is a good source of vitamin C.

Liver is a source of good quality protein, and the essential fatty acids, both the omega 3 and the omege 6 type.

• The bottom line on liver is that by feeding it on a regular basis, you are supplying your dog with an excellent balance of a wide range of nutrients which are essential for health, including healthy skin, healthy reproduction, and healthy temperament.  It is a fantastic food for your dog !

Scientists are still not sure if they have discovered all the growth promoting and health conferring factors present in this food.

• This means that it is still a good idea to feed liver even when you are supplying many of the nutrients we know it contains from other sources.  That way, your dog will not miss out on important but undiscovered nutrients.

Liver contains cholesterol.  A little bit less than is found in eggs.  This is not usually a problem for dogs, unless the dog is extremely obese or has a particular problem with cholesterol.

 

Kidneys as Dog Food

Another fantastic food for your dog.  Not unlike liver, they supply good quality protein, a good supply of essential fatty acids and many vitamins, including all the fat soluble vitamins, A, D, E, and K.

Kidneys are a rich source of iron and all the B vitamins including B12.  They also have good levels of zinc.  Their vitamin A content is good, but much less than liver.  Kidneys are an excellent source of essential fatty acids.

Their cholesterol level is slightly less than is found in eggs.

 

Brains as Dog Food

Brains supply protein, fat and water.  They have a cholesterol content of about three times as much as is found in eggs.  This means that dogs with a cholesterol problem should not be fed brains.  They are a good source of most of the B vitamins except folacin and biotin.  Brains have good levels of vitamin C, with virtually no vitamin A and a small amount of vitamin E.

• They are an excellent source of essential fatty acids.  Brains are good brains food and good skin food.

 

Hearts as Dog Food

Like liver and kidneys, hearts as dog food are an excellent source of protein, B vitamins and iron.  They do contain some essential fatty acids, and a little vitamin A.  their cholesterol levels are about half as much as eggs.

 

Tongues as Dog Food

Tongues may be thought of as a source of protein fat and water.  They also suplly some of the B vitamins.  They are probably of not much grater value thant muscle meat.  They do contain reasonable levels of zinc.

 

Tripe as Dog Food

Not to be highly recommended.  Tripe consists of protein and water with a few B vitamins.  Green tripe, straight from the killed beast is of greater nutritional value to the dog because of the presence of large numbers of micro-organisms.

 

YOU HAVE TO BE CAREFUL WHERE YOU GET YOUR ORGAN MEAT !

Apart from the nutritional aspect of too much or too little, organ meats can cause problems of another type.  The internal organs of animals like cattle and sheep can carry dangerous parasites.  Parasites that will not harm your dog, but can damage human health.

• The principal danger is from the Hydatid tapeworm.

That is why, it is important that I give you the important facts on the Hydatid tapeworm and the disease it can cause in human being ….

 

Hydatidosis

• The most important point you will get from the following information is that provided you buy organ meat from a butcher, or use organ meat derived from poultry, there will be no problems.  Please read on to see why.

The offal of many animals that dogs are likely to eat has the potential to contain cysts of the pathogenic (to man) Hydatid tapeworm.  It is this human health aspect of feeding dogs that has been the major reason for dogs being fed cooked meat and meat products.

• The dog is the animal which transfers the disease Hydatidosis from sheep and other animals to humans.

This problem is not insurmountable however, and with a little care and understanding, Hydatidosis will be avoided.  The problem is not usually seen in the city or suburbs.

• It is a disease almost exclusively of country folk, who feed sheep offal to their dogs, usually while killing sheep for home consumption.
• In recent years it has also become a problem for weekend warriors and their families and friends and neighbours.  That is, the folk who take their dogs into the bush to hunt pigs and kangaroos etc….

 

Hydatid Disease in You and Me

The whole problem is due to a tiny tapeworm called Echinococcus granulosus.  This tapeworm is only three to nine millimetres long.  It’s name is not important, but the disease it causes, the disease our dog can PASS ON TO YOU AND ME …HYDATID DISEASE most certainly is.

This disease is found throughout the world.  In Australia, it is commonly found in farmers and their families in sheep raising areas.  It has until recently been VERY UNCOMMON in the suburbs.

• The worst areas in Australia for Hydatid disease are Southern N.S.W., the Canberra area, and Western Victoria.

In Australia over all, Hydatid disease in humans occurs at the rate of about three cases per one hundred thousand people per year.  In some sheep raising areas, the occurrence is ten times as much.

• Human Hydatid disease consists of cysts which form most commonly in such organs as the liver and the lungs.

It can however form in the kidneys or the heart or the spleen, in fact ANY organ in the human body.  They have also been found in the head and in the bones.  I do not have any figures for the Australian situation, but in England, about three people die from this disease each year.  I would expect a similar situation exists here.

Why talk about hydatid disease in humans in a book which is about feeding dogs ?  The answer is simple

• Dog that eat RAW OFFAL from sheep particularly, but also from cattle, pigs, camels, horses, kangaroos, and buffaloes, in fact from practically ANY herbivore or omnivore, can pass HYDATID disease on to human beings.  There are two important exceptions.  Poultry and rabbits.

Rabbits and poultry DO NOT carry hydatid disease.  However, whilst offal such as the liver, from healthy birds may be fed to dogs without posing a threat to human health, rabbits can be a problem.

 

Rabbit Offal as Dog Food

Lots of people over the years have opened up rabbits and found a liver full of tapeworm cysts.  THESE ARE NOT HYDATID CYSTS.  They do however pose a threat to haman health if your dog eats them.

This parasite is called Taenia serialis.  Once again, the name is not important.  What is important is that it will form cysts in humans.  Your dog can pass this parasite to you.  This problem is not common but it does happen.  These cysts form in nervous and other tissue.  The bottom line with rabbits is …. do not feed rabbits containing tapeworm cysts to your dogs.  If your dog hunts and eats rabbits, than do worm your dog as I have described toward the end of this chapter.

• There is one common misconception we should clear up.  Your dog CANNOT pick up Hydatids by eating the manure from any of these animals.

 

Hydatid Disease .. the Details

Take yourself out to the country side.  Picture a mob of sheep being rounded up by that great Aussie dog …  the Kelpie.  There is a lull in proceedings, while the dog stops for a moment to go to the toilet.  To defaecate.  Five seconds and it is done.  Back to work.

That innocent looking dog dropping just happens to contain millions upon millions of eggs from the Hydatid tapeworm.  This dog has not been wormed for at least two months.

Over the next few weeks, that dog dropping will dry out.  It will be trampled into the dust by sheep.  It will become part of the soil and the dust, as will those millions of eggs.  Some of the dust containing these eggs will end up on the grass and be eaten by sheep, or by kangaroos or by cattle or horses.  Some will end up on the sheep’s wool, on on THE COAT OF THE SHEEP DOG.  These eggs are VERY resistant and can hang around for months.  It is the eggs on the coat of the sheep dog which pose the greatest threat to human health.  They are the ones a human being is most likely to pick up.

 

Hydatids in Sheep, Cattle, Kangaroos and Pigs etc

The eggs that are eaten with the grass by sheep or cattle or pigs or kangaroos etc. hatch out in that animal’s small intestine and the Hydatid embryos enter the veins which go to the liver.  Here, most of them stop.

In older sheep or bigger species such as cattle, bacause the blood vessels in the liver and the capillaries in the rest of the body are larger, the Hydatid embryos can continue on past the liver to the lungs and sometimes out into the general circulation where they may lodge in organs such as the kidneys, the heart, the spleen, the lymph nodes in the chest, and more rarely the pancreas, the bones and the muscular tissue.

• Wherever those embryos Hydatids decide to stay, whether it be liver or lungs or kidneys etc., they form a cyst.  A Hydatid cyst.  Most commonly the cysts are found in the liver and the lungs.

The shape of that cyst is controlled by the organ in which it is found.  If there is no pressure on it, it is usually spherical.  In the liver, which is where they are most commonly found, they will often be an irregular shape as they grow around and past the bile ducts.

After about six months, these cysts will have grown to about one and a half to two centimetres is size.  They are very visible if you happen to open that animal up, and look at the infected organ.

 

Hydatid Cyst are Very Visible !

In other words, if they are there, you cannot miss seeing them.  If the cyst is on the surface of the liver, as they commonly are, they will be very prominent whitish cysts.  If the cyst is in the bogy of the liver, under the surface, they will cause a prominent bulge in the normally smooth outline of the organ.

 

Infective Cysts

In sheep and cattle and pigs, at some stage between nine months and two years, those Hydatid cysts start to contain HUNDREDS, THOUSANDS … MILLIONS .. of new tapeworm heads.  Now they are dangerous.

• Now they are infective.  In the case of wallabies, and possibly kangaroos, those Hydatid cysts may be infective as early as eight months of age.

If that animal, that cow or that sheep or that kangaroo or that pig dies or is killed, and it’s liver OR ANY ORGAN with an infective Hydatid cyst is eaten by a dog, the dog becomes infested with all those new tapeworms.

• It takes six to seven weeks in a dog for those baby tapeworm heads to develop into mature adult tapeworms.  This happens is that dog’s intestine.
• After that six to seven weeks developement, the dog is passing tapeworm eggs it it’s feces to start the cycle all over again.
• Special note.. in Tasmania, it takes only five to six weeks from the time a dog is infected to the time it is passing hydatid eggs.  This is because in Tasminia, there is a different strain of Hydatid tapeworm to the one on the mainland.

 

Hydatid Disease in Humans

Remember the dust on the dog ?  The duct that contained the eggs of our little friend the Hydatid tapeworm.  Remember that sheep and cattle and pigs ect. could eat grass with that dust on it and develop cysts in various organs in their bodies ?

Sadly, exactly the same thig can happen with humans.  Our affectionate dog, who has just licked himself, may lick you or me, or a child… on the mouth for example, transferring those eggs to us.  We can pat our dog, or even one of our sheep, not wash our hands and eat something and again pick up Hydatid tapeworm eggs.  In fact, patting our dog and then not washing our hands before eating is probably the most common way we become infected.

• We too will soon have Hydated eggs hatching out in our small intestine, burrowing through our intestinal wall, and from there moving to the liver and beyond.  WE NOW HAVE HYDATID DISEASE.  We have caught this disease from our dog.
• Those embryos inside us do exactly what they do in sheep and other animals.  They slowly grow into cysts.

The symptoms and problems caused by those cysts depend very much on the organ in which they grow, and how big they become.  For example, a cyst in the eye could cause blindness.  One in the brain could cause severe headaches and other symptoms similar to a cancerous tumour of the brain.  It is however rare for Hydatid cysts to develop in the brain.

• The most common organs in which they are found are the liver and the lungs.
• The time it takes before symptoms are seen in humans is variable.  In the case of a child, symptoms may show up within a year.  In adults it often takes longer.  It may take many years for symptoms to develop.

 

Hydatid Disease in Humans Mostly comes from Sheep

The sheep IS THE MOST IMPORTANT carrier of Hydated disease.  In sheep, about ninety percent of the Hydatid cysts are or will become infective.

Less commonly CATTLE will pass Hydatid disease to dogs.  This is less common because dogs do not usually have access to beef offal and also because dogs do not usually have access to beef offal and also because most Hydatid cysts in cattle are NOT infective.  However, any animal that contains Hydatid cysts is potentially able to pass it to humans.

 

The Hydatid Problem in Sheep Raising Areas

In the bad old days, went a farmer killed a lamb for the family, or maybe an older sheep for the dogs, it was quite traditional for the dogs to hand around waiting eagerly for bits of fresh liver and other innards.  Those farmers did not realise that what they were feeding their dogs might ultimately be a health hazard for humans.  Usually for their families.

I would love to be able to say that practise is very rare these days.  I would like to be able to say that most farmers have been educated.  NOT TO FEED RAW OFFAL     to the dogs.  Sadly, they have not.  This sort of thing still goes on, both on old established farms, and also on that modern invention the hobby farm.

• Feeding Old sheep to Dogs in Not a Great Idea.

Whilst the feeding of offal to dogs from young sheep and catlle which have not passed through a meat inspection process is a dangerous practise, even more dangerous is to let them dine on older sheep meat and offal.

The older sheep, is the one more likely to be fed to the dogs.  It is also the one most likely to contain large numbers if infective Hydatid cysts in it’s body.  In very young sheep, the cysts may not yet be infective and it is difficult for the cysts to pass throught the liver to other organs.  However, in older sheep with larger blood vessels, the cysts do get through and spread to the rest of the body .. including in rare cases to muscles and bones.  In older sheep, most of the cysts will be infective.

• Feeding these old ‘’killers’’ to the dogs… RAW… sheep that have not much other value, MAY seem a very logical thing to do.  Unfortunately, it is an excellent way to spread Hydatid disease to humans.

This means that while it MAY be possible to feed RAW meat and bones and even offal from a lamb under nine months of age to your dog, and get away with it, the practice of feeding similar cuts from old sheep is a practice fraught with danger to human health.

Campaigns in New Zealand and Tasmania to eradicate Hydatid disease have been highly successful.  They have involved a total ban on offal feeding of dogs, together with purging ALL DOGS to detect those dogs which are carriers.  Those dogs are then of course treated.

In south estern Australia, dogs are NOT being tested to see if they carry the Hydatid tapeworm.  They ARE being wormed of course, but at the discretion of the farmer.  The farmers are being educated NOT TO FEED OFFAL TO THE DOGS, and in some instances they no longer do …. OR DO THEY ?

As I have said, some farmers still feed raw offal and old sheep to their dogs.  However, even if they do not do this deliberately, many farm dogs, still have access to sheep carcases containing infective Hydatid tapeworm cysts.

• The problem is dead sheep left to rot in the paddock.  Dead sheep not removed as soon as they die.  Combine OLD sheep carcases left to rot in the paddock with dogs allowed to roam at will and therefore having free access to such carcases, and you have a situation where the Hydatid tapeworm is still very free to infect humans.

Farm dogs eat these carcases with great delight, particularly where their regular fare is a poor quality dried dog food.  They them become infected with Hydatid tapeworms, and from there they have the potential to spread the disease to any of the humans with whom they come in contact.  Those dogs also continue to infect the sheep.

Leavind dead sheep lying in the paddocks also allows the dingoes, the foxes and the wild dogs to pick up the disease and spread it far and wide.

 

New Sources of Hydatid Disease for Humans

Until recently, it was the sheep farmers and their families who were at greatest risk from Hydatid disease.  Unfortunately, a new at risk group is now reconised.

The people who go bush to hunt kangaroos and pigs together with their dogs are becoming, the next major source of Hydatid disease in the haman population in Australia.

This is because their dogs have free access to dead kangaroos and wallabies when they are out in the fields.  KANGAROOS and WALLABIES carry Hydatid disease.  This is important.  Most of their cysts are fertile !

Dogs eating uncooked kangaroo offal or meat are at rick of getting Hydatid tapeworms, which means their owners and other people with whom they come in contact are at risk for contracting Hydatid disease.  Pigs also carry Hydatid cysts.  MOST.. but not all of the pig cysts are sterile.  However, the bottom line with pigs is that like cattle, they CANNOT be ruled out as a source of this infection either.

• Of course if is not only hunters and their dogs who are at risk.  ANYONE WHO LETS THEIR DOGS LOOSE IN THE BUSH IS AT RISK.

 

Humans Don’t Have to be Involved!

There are cycles of Hydatid infection which do not involve domestic animals.  This is because dingoes and foxes carry it as well as dogs, resulting in cycles between foxes or dingoes on the one hand and wallabies or kangaroos and pigs on the other.

The most likely sources of infection for foxes and dingoes are kangaroos, wallabies and pig carcases killed by dingoes or hunters.  Wild dogs and dingoes are more important as a source of Hydatids because they carry many more Hydatid worms than foxes.

 

The Fox Problem

The fox population is becoming more numerous.  This is because it is no longer being hunted for it’s coat.  The Animal Liberationists and other similar bodies have seen to that.  As a result, it is invading the suburbs more and more in search of food, thus increasing the likelihood of spreading Hydatids to humans.  This is particularly so in south eastern N.S.W.

• Where dogs are used to hunt pigs and kangaroos, the incidence of Hydatid diseace in the pigs and kangaroos of that area is much increased, posing a severe threat to the local community.  This disease is then being spread to adjacent sheep raising areas VIA DINGOES AND FOXES, and from there to the farming community.

The Cat and Hydatids

The cat DOES NOT carry Hydatid disease.  Humans cannot get Hydatid disease from cats.  However, if you feed Hydatid contaminated meat to your cat, it is always possible for a dog to steal some of it.  So don’t !

 

The Meat Inspection Service

Before meat is passed fit for human consumption at the abattoir, it must be inspected by a mneat inspector.  The meat inspector inspects the carcase and it’s internal organs for any problems that would make it unfit for human consumption.  Having passed that inspection, the meat is then able to be bought by a butcher, cut up and sold to the general public.

That means when you buy meat of offal (liver, kidneys ect.) from a butcher, you can be certain there is no danger of infection from Hydatid disease.

 

Freezing Meat Kills Hydatids

• FREEZING MEAT at minus 20C for ten days will kill any Hydatid cysts in the meat.  This means the meat is safe to feed to your dogs.

However, you must be certain that your freezer is capable of reaching such a low temperature.  You must also be certain that the meat in the centre of the freezer did reach that low temperature.

 

Heat Destroys Hydatids

Thoroughly cooking all meat and offal makes any Hydatid cysts present harmless.

 

Worming Your Dog

On the mainland of Australia, kangaroos and pig hunters, or any body who feeds suspect meat to their dogs should worm their dogs with PRAZIQUANTAL (Droncit or Drontal) AT THE RATE OF 5MG PER KG every six weeks.  In Tasmania, because of the shorter life cycle of the Hydatid tapeworm, this would have to be done every five weeks.

• If you suspect your dog has, at any time been exposed to Hydatid disease… that is, it may have eaten meat or offal that could have had Hydatid crysts.. worm your dog with PRAZIQUANTEL .. now.

 

Recommendations

1)           the only RAW meat of offal you should ever feed to your dog will have come from animals that have passed throught the meat inspection service, (that is.. you bought this material from a butcher) or from poultry.  This includes rabbits.  OTHERWISE, do not feed raw offal or meat from sheep, cattle, pigs, kangaroos, wallabies to your dog(s).

2)           Ras bones and meat from young sheep and cattle for your dog which you purchase from the butcher is fine for you dog.  It poses not trreat to human health.

3)           Poultry does not carry this disease.  Fresh healthy cuts of chicken (or ducks, turkeys etc.), may be fed to your dog raw with no problems.

4)           With rabbits, which are excellent food for dogs, do inspect them to be sure they are free of any tapeworm cysts before feeding them to the dog.

5)           If feeding your dog on food that is at all suspect with regard to Hydatids, worm your dog every 6 weeks (5 in Tasmania) with PRAZIQUANTEL …. 5MG PER KG.

6)           A SPECIAL WORD TO THE OWNERS OF KANGAROO AND PIG DOGS…and other folk with dogs that get out in the forests and bush… these dogs are CONSTANTLY AT RISK from Hydatids… which means that YOU AND YOUR FAMILY ARE ALSO AT RISK… so they MUST be wormed as in paragraph five above.

7)           All suspect meat should either be well cooked of frozen for 10 days at minus 20C, or not fed and disposed of safely. 

8)           Farmers, should make a conscious effort to clean up all dead sheep, catlle and marsupial carcases on their properties, to keep their dogs confined when not working, and worm them regularly as above in paragraph five.

 

THE BOTTOM LINE

The bottom line is that it is quite safe to feed your dog offal bought from a butcher, or use poultry offal, or rabbit offal free of tapeworm cysts.