Nutrition issues are extremely important for every dog ââowner. The development and proper functioning of the animal's organism depends on food. Each owner thinks through the diet of his petâs diet very carefully. Here you need to consider many factors - the breed, possible diseases, conditions of detention and much more. It is worth paying attention to a variety of little things.
Ready foods or organic foods?
Finished feeds usually contain the right minerals and vitamins. They help food to be digested properly, maintain good pet health. Nevertheless, far from always the dog owners use only ready-made options, very often the dog gets âtidbitsâ from the human table.
Some pet owners even use only natural food products, try not to feed their dogs special feeds. And here you need to know well that the dog can be given a meal, and what should be abstained.
There are several prohibitions in the dogâs âkitchenâ. One of them is pork. But why can't dogs be pork?
The very first and most important negative point is an indigestion, It is precisely what pork provokes. The main cause of harm to pork meat for a canine organism, of course, is its increased fat content. Therefore, pork is simply not digested by the gastrointestinal tract, which results in an upset bowel.
Why can dogs not pork, but lamb?
Pork contains more than 60 percent fat, or even more. Scientists estimate that in 100 grams of pork meat, protein will be only 17 percent, but fat - all 20! Such meat will be digested in your petâs stomach for a full 14 hours. Although normal, this process usually takes from 6 to 8 hours. This is one of the reasons why dogs should not be pork.
Compare: in beef, if you take again 100 grams as a basis, it will contain 20 grams of protein and only 2 grams of fat! As for lamb, it can also be oily. However, on average, with a slightly lower protein content than in beef, the fat in lamb will be about 6 grams.
Which meat is the easiest to digest?
The easiest way to digest a dogâs gastrointestinal tract is poultry and rabbit meat. Although here you also need to be careful not to give your animal chicken skins, which are also too greasy.
Of course, if a dog is given just a little pork once, nothing bad will happen. But if you feed her constantly pork, health problems will begin.
You need to know that the dogâs body does not produce enzymes that can break down pig fat. Therefore, all this fat is not processed, but partially accumulates in the body and partially excreted through the intestines, by the way, like potatoes. In other words, pork fat does not have nutritional properties for dogs, which is why dogs should not eat pork and potatoes.
What happens if the dog is often fed oily pork?
When a dog is constantly fed pork, pork fat enters the gastrointestinal tract and causes:
- Bowel disorder. A dog can easily begin diarrhea, and in such a situation even the most distrustful owner begins to understand why dogs should not be pork.
- Damage to the liver - cholecystitis will begin, and followed by pancreatitis, a disease of the pancreas, since these two ailments are often related. One entails the other.
- Diabetes mellitus as a result of severe pancreatitis. The pancreas stops working in normal mode, it is overloaded. In dogs, a little insulin is produced in the body, and when the pancreas is damaged, the situation becomes critical at all. The hormone insulin is known to help metabolize sugar in the body. As a result of improper feeding in a dog, the blood sugar level rises, which threatens very serious consequences, up to a diabetic coma. The answer to the question of why it is impossible to feed a dog with pork becomes obvious.
- Kidney damage is also quite possible if the dog's body is overloaded with fatty foods. This is usually a consequence of other adverse effects and diseases resulting from malnutrition.
- Heart disease is a real serious threat. After all, fat enters the bloodstream, is deposited on the walls of blood vessels, cholesterol plaques occur - everything is just like in humans. Accordingly, the lumen in the vessels becomes thinner, blood pressure rises, and an excessive load on the heart occurs. This is another answer to the question of why dogs cannot be pork.
- A metabolic disorder, of course, is the diabetes mellitus already mentioned and the penetration of fats into the blood, but not only. Other processes in the body will be blocked, the proper absorption of nutrients is impaired. As a result, skin diseases can be triggered, hair loss will begin, allergic reactions are possible.
- Obesity of the internal organs, for example, fatty hepatosis - obesity of the liver. It can lead to very rapid death of the animal. However, the same as obesity of the heart. Here is another serious reason why dogs should not be pork.
- Behavioral change - with obesity, the dog becomes inadequate, it is too passive, does not respond to your call, does not want to get up, itâs just hard to move around. And when itâs hard to move around, then negative changes in the joints may begin. Also, the dog can become moody, and sometimes completely uncontrollable. After all, in fact, she is sick, it is difficult for her to have such an unnatural state for an animal, so the dogâs psyche also changes.
Will physical activity help with obesity?
Physical activity does not help to compensate for the harm that is caused to the dog when it constantly eats fatty pork meat. On the contrary, if the pet has already shown symptoms of obesity, then excessive physical activity can only lead to a worsening of the situation. Only a strict diet under the supervision of a veterinarian can bring the animal back to normal.
However, it is impossible to completely get rid of the negative consequences by any means - neither vitamins, nor medicines. The dog will be at risk all his life. And sometimes even a slight change in diet, slightly more fatty foods than usual, can again cause unpleasant symptoms - diarrhea, vomiting, pain in the liver or pancreas.
Infections and parasites - thatâs why dogs cannot be pork
Another danger is infections and parasites that can infect a dog that eats pork, especially raw.
What infections and parasites can your dog catch from pork:
- salmonellosis;
- trichinosis;
- toxoplasmosis;
- Aujeszky's disease;
- helminthiasis: echinococcosis, nematodes, alveococcosis, pork tapeworm;
The most terrible of all these ailments is Aujeszkyâs disease or, as it is also called, pseudorabies, pork plague. It is caused by a virus, and it affects both domestic and agricultural animals, including even birds and rodents.
A dog can become infected with this disease if it lives near farm animals, eats undercooked or raw meat. The main carriers and distributors of Aujeszky's disease are pigs. Thatâs why you canât eat pork to dogs, especially raw.
This disease develops very quickly, literally in a matter of hours, and ends in death. They have not yet learned how to treat it, it is impossible to make a diagnosis right away, because laboratory tests are needed. However, while the tests will be done, the dog will die already, because in this case the clock goes by.
Symptoms of this disease are excessive salivation, lack of appetite, the animal does not eat anything. It is greatly tormented because it experiences a terrible itching in the ears, nose, and lips are also affected. Therefore, it behaves inappropriately.
Therefore, you need to buy meat only where there is veterinary control - in stores and in markets. You canât buy meat products, especially raw ones, from random people, at the spontaneous âbazaarsâ. Itâs clear why pork is not allowed for dogs.
Hunters need to be extremely careful.
Hunters must be especially careful. Having shot a wild boar, many immediately butcher the carcass, and give the insides to their dogs as a reward for good work. In the wild, animals are also susceptible to various infections and invasions. Therefore, before giving a piece of prey to a dog or to eat game for food itself, it is necessary to give the carcass for examination to a sanitary laboratory. Moreover, the entire carcass is provided, not just its part. Because infections and helminths affect different parts of the animalâs body.
Pork is inappropriate food for a dog. Although sometimes even in premium feed there is pork meat. However, low-fat and well-cooked, in combination with other types of meat products.
It is better not to take risks and exclude pork from the dogâs diet completely - both the meat itself and the entrails. Why canât a dog be given pork that you cook yourself? Because at home, it is not always possible with the help of boiling to destroy all parasites and infections.
Can pork freeze kill worms and infections?
Freezing meat in rare cases gives a positive effect, and some parasites can be destroyed, but not all species. Infections are even so tenacious that the cold does not take them. Remember that viruses, for example, can hibernate for millions of years at low temperatures.
Pork is more susceptible to all kinds of infestations and infections than other types of meat - thatâs why pork is not allowed for dogs.