I wanted to share this great article that Dr Ian Billingshurst, a vet out of Australia wrote about his personal experiences with his own breeding dogs. He is credited for bringing the raw diet to the public in an age of highly processed, highly marketed dried dog food.
I thought it would be a nice bit of insight for those curious about raw feeding from an experienced vet's perspective. I will do it in two parts as it's quite large
Dr. Ian Billinghurst
By defining something – or somebody- you are also limiting it. That is why I try not to be defined. However, if I am to be defined (and therefore limited) then I have to admit that by profession I am a Veterinary Surgeon. I am also a writer and a lecturer with my favorite topic being the nutrition of pet dogs and cats. My most important piece of writing is the book “Give Your Dog a Bone.” This book has changed the thinking of tens of thousands of people worldwide. More importantly, it has improved the health of these peoples dogs. Many of these people now look to me as the authority on feeding pets their evolutionary diet. Some say that “Give Your Dog a Bone” has become their “Bible.”
The fact that an evolutionary diet promotes health comes as no surprise. That a grain based product such as commercial pet food is destructive to a dogs health should also be no surprise. However, clever marketing (combined with very poor science) has resulted in these atrocious products being the major source of food fed to most pets in developed countries. And yet, feeding our pets according to the dictates of evolution (which is sound science in every sense of the word) is currently regarded by some as a fad, which they assume, will be short lived. I don't think so!
How did I arrive at the point where “Give Your Dog A Bone” could be written? My high school years were spent at an agricultural high school (Hurlstone) on the western outskirts of Sydney. Here my love of plants, animals and all things natural was fostered through working with cattle, pigs, poultry, sheep, the market garden the orchard, and more formal studies in agriculture and biology. There was never any question. My career would be both biological and medical.
I did not start out as a vet. In 1966 I graduated from Sydney University with a degree in Agricultural Science. I spent that year as a research Scientist at Orange Agricultural Research Station about 200 miles west of Sydney. The next four years were spent as a high school teacher during which time I obtained my Diploma in Education. However, despite having a young family, the desire to become a vet burned strongly. Its a long story which I shall not go into here, but in 1976 I realized my dream and graduated with an Honors degree in Veterinary Science from Sydney University.
At that time I believed the years studying Agricultural Science and teaching had been an enormous waste. In hindsight, the knowledge gained in that first degree, the teaching experience and the studies in education have combined to shape my unique approach to things veterinary, particularly as regards nutrition and disease. That early education allowed an understanding of the fundamental role that sound nutrition (translated today as evolutionary nutrition) plays in health. This concept dominates my writing, lecturing and research as well as my day-to-day veterinary practice.
Since 1976 I have worked full time as a veterinary surgeon. Although city born, my reason for becoming a vet was to work with cattle and horses. However, Fate, God or the Universe had other plans. Shortly after graduating I abandoned my dream of being a large animal practitioner. Family responsibilities pushed me to the Southern suburbs of Sydney where I established a small animal practice. Since that time events have kept me treating mostly cats and dogs and I must admit, a surprising number of horses. Right now I am in general veterinary practice in Bathurst New South Wales Australia. And still treating mostly cats and dogs, some horses and the very occasional bovine and budgie.
After being in practice for about six years I decided to heed the advice of my veterinary training and feed my own pets (as I was advising my clients at the time), a scientifically formulated complete and balanced commercial product. I wanted to make sure my dogs (particularly) stayed in the best of health. This was mainly because as a family, we had begun to breed and show dogs. I knew that they had to have the very best. I was determined that from now on I would do things properly.
My veterinary training had taught me that a diet based on raw meaty bones and household scraps, was a very poor way to feed pet cats and dogs. We had been taught that commercial pet food was the ultimate in pet nutrition. I selected the very best brands of commercial pet food, and I looked forward to outstanding fantastic results. How wrong you can be!
Over the next four to six months my own animals – who were supremely healthy - began for the first time ever to develop the same range of problems that my clients pets were suffering. However, the sad truth is, I failed to notice. It was only in retrospect that I could put this picture together. It took two years of watching my pets’ health deteriorate before I realized something was wrong. And that realization did not hit me until AFTER I removed the commercial pet food from their life, and witnessed the incredible transformation that occurred.
At that time (1984) I had begun to study acupuncture and was being introduced to a broad range of complementary healing modalities including whole food nutrition. This led me to read a book on pet nutrition by Juliette de Bairacli Levy. Her book was an inspiration. I did not agree with everything she had to say, but her words made me realize that my old method of feeding, using bones and food scraps was probably much closer to an ideal diet for pets than the approved veterinary method which relied on commercial pet food. A glut of lamb at that time made it easy for me to make the switch. For the next few years my pets were fed mainly lamb – together with general household food scraps. However, we did not have to wait years to see results. The change in our pets was immediate and dramatic. We were amazed. Like most people experiencing this incredible improvement in health, we had not realized the extent to which our pets health had deteriorated on commercial pet food. I should also add, there was another pleasant surprise. Apart from being simple and easy, we discovered this method of feeding was also very inexpensive.
By now it had become clear to me that processed pet foods, not only did not promote good health, they produced positively bad health. This dismal failure of commercial pet foods to keep my pets healthy forced me to read what ever I could find that dealt with nutrition. I needed to understand nutrition both at a fundamental level and also at a very practical level. I was also looking for answers to the question – “Why does commercially processed pet food cause health problems?” I eagerly devoured books by Pat Lazarus, Drs. Pitcairn and Belfield together with numerous others on human nutrition. Eventually I realized a very simple truth. Raw meaty bones and vegetable scraps were very close to the evolutionary diet of cats and dogs. No cooking or processing to remove the “unwanted” or “unnecessary” bits. No adulteration with chemicals. No massive amounts of cooked grains. The evolutionary approach to nutrition was obvious and common sense. It was also good science.
Clearly, small animal nutrition was one area where my veterinary training had let me down. I had to rethink the way I answered the question “What should we feed our cat/dog?” This being the most common question we vets are asked.
Having witnessed first hand the health destroying attributes of commercial pet food together with the health promoting benefits of an evolutionary diet, I had no option but to share this information with my clients. I began to hand out simple diet sheets to any client who was interested, mostly the owners of young pups and people whose pets had severe or long term health problems.
The results were consistent and seemingly amazing as over the next few years we had the wonderful experience of clients extolling the virtues of this way of feeding. We watched as puppies that followed this regime grew beautifully and trouble free. We were astounded as unhealthy pets experienced the same dramatic improvements in health that ours had, with many animals becoming totally drug free.
Most noticeable among the problems that cleared up were skin and arthritic problems. However, we saw improvements across the broad spectrum of health issues that we encountered on a day-to-day basis. Over a period of several years this included incredible improvements in reproductive health, and also in orthopedic problems in young dogs of the giant breeds. Problems such as Hip and Elbow Dysplasia.
By now I realized that most of the disease problems I was seeing in cats and dogs were due to nothing other than poor nutrition. That most of those diseases did not have to be. They could be eliminated with correct nutrition. To me this was both a revolutionary thought and an incredible revelation. I wanted to tell everybody! The only problem as I saw it back then was that this philosophy of feeding may not be accepted by my fellow vets who rely heavily on ill health in their patients for their daily bread.