raw foods: The bacteria. Are dogs succeptable to the bacteria in raw food? That is pretty much why I stopped feeding the dogs raw chicken. Don't get me wrong, I am not attacking anyone who feeds their dogs a raw diet. I just want some more info about it. Does anyone know if the bacteria in raw meat can harm a dog?|||In general yes, dogs' systems are set up to handle more "nasty" foods then cats. Some dogs,like people, are more susceptible to bacteria, older and young mostly. I have used raw chicken and the raw medallions with 3 older dogs, 1 who was 12 and 2 who are 13 yrs old. But I use a small amount to start to let the dogs digestive systems get used to the new food. But there are some bacterias that can kill dogs as they do people. The hambuger chain that had several people die from contaminated meat, got their meat from a distibutor who sold to many dog people and several litters of pups died. The pups didn't have the immunity to the bacteria.|||The raw diet is good for dogs and cats. With dogs it needs to have plenty of vegetables and grains too, because they are not carnivores.As long as they are getting all the nutrition they need they should be susceptible because they ate wild food in the wild. There is also a vitamin supplement you can give them too that helps.|||you really only have to worry if its been frozen and thawed or heated and refridgerated (not that you'd want to do that on the raw diet, but ya know). i did it for a little while with my former dog, she had mylopethy and i found a recipe to try. she loved it thats for sure. dont really know how good it was since it had no effect on the progress of the disease, but she never got sick from it.|||Dogs have a shorter digestive tract than we do. One would assume this is a leftover from when wild canids ate carrion. In my experience a healthy dog can readily process the bacteria that is in raw foods *IF* they are used to it (the intestinal flora that deal with such things needs to be present and dogs who have not been raw-fed often have a period of adjustment when switching over). Raw feeding is not for people who do not understand keeping their kitchen and the dogs eating facilities clean. I would be less likely to raw feed if I had a toddler as my kids when they were young often attempted to share with the dogs (or more to the point the dogs shared with the kids).|||http://www.drpitcairn.com/nutrition/nutr鈥?/a> The above link will help you out. We have the book and it's excellent, we've home fed for 4 months now and just within the first two weeks the results were noticable, your on the right track. We feed a variety of foods, not just meat and everything is cooked from the diets we chose from the book. Don't know about the bacteria, I do know wetting dry dog food causes the bacteria that may be on that to multiply rapidly. Get the book, it's worth its weight in gold and has so much more in it than just diets to feed.|||I was told that you shouldn't give a dog raw chicken as it can give a dog food poisoning just like a human, but lamb is fine raw, the vegetables should be partly cook as well otherwise they are too fiberous for they digestive system, in the wild they would get their veg digested from an animals stomach.|||Yes it is very bad for dog and people especially e-coli or what ever you call it!|||According to my vet absolutely not, as I asked about this last week, because one of my dogs is a dreadful scavenger in the fields of carrion and remains and all sorts of nasty stuff that I can't stop her getting at. I was very worried about the germs, etc, but my vet virtually laughed it off, as seemingly dog's tums can take the germs without problem, unless of course you have a dog with a sensitive tummy, as some dogs can only eat certain food or they get gut upsets. I'd just try a little if I were you to see how it goes with your dog. My dogs won't actually eat raw chicken at all. So I cook it in the microwave from frozen each morning, which also makes the bones edible, and they love that, plus their health is VERY much better as oldies with previous skin and joint troubles.