Diet is the cornerstone of good health. Hippocrates, the founder of modern medicine, said: “Physician, let food be thy medicine”. In fact, modern drugs are all about the management of disease, they are not about disease prevention. Diet is about disease prevention.
Nutrients are known to help the body fight infection. Without adequate nutrients, the immune system has a hard time dealing with viruses and bacterins. Even fully vaccinated dogs, if deficient in key nutrients, may be unable to mount a defense against viral disease – which is one of the reasons for vaccine failure.
This is why Canine Health Concern promotes natural feeding for dogs and warns dog owners of the inadequacies of processed (junk) pet food. Most pet food brands contain industrial waste (the inferior left-overs from the human food and agricultural industries), and these ingredients are cooked at high temperature to kill-off bacteria and fungus. Cooking destroys nutrients. Many nutrients are also flushed down the drain when water is extracted to form dry kibble.
Dogs are predominantly carnivores. If left to their own devices, they would catch small to medium-sized prey such as rabbits, pheasants, rats, mice, lamb, chickens and so on, and eat them raw. They might also eat fish. In addition, they would scavenge – eating wild berries, wind-blown fruit, eggs, insects, and even faeces.
Dogs also moved in with humans tens of thousands of years ago and shared our food. Since there was no processed factory-made food in those days, like humans, dogs have evolved to eat good quality (i.e., not factory-made) human table scraps.
A good balance of raw meaty bones, plus a variety of the foods mentioned above, will keep your dog in good health, with a greater ability to withstand viral and bacterial disease. There are many very good books available to help you understand and implement raw feeding for your dogs.