Dogs take their job as man’s best friend very seriously, so it’s only fair that we treat the responsibility of their care with gravitas. While your dog may love to chomp on a raw chicken neck as a treat, you may be doing them more harm than good by feeding them uncooked meat.
In 2018, The University of Melbourne’s U-Vet Werribee Animal Hospital have found that raw chicken is a major risk factor of acute polyradiculoneuritis (APN), a very serious and possibly fatal disease in dogs that leaves vets baffled.
Comparable to Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) in humans – a rare disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks the nerves – raw chicken increases the risk of developing the paralysing disease by more than 70 times.
To find out more about how APN affects our dogs (and if we should actually avoid feeding them raw poultry), we approached Dr Matthias Le Chevoir, a neurologist with Veterinary Emergency & Specialty Hospital Singapore, and Dr Chang Siow Foong, group director of Professional & Scientific Services at Animal & Veterinary Service, for advice.
Dr Chang Siow Foong: Acute polyradiculoneuritis is an immune-mediated neurological disease, where the immune system attacks the nervous system in an unregulated manner. The disease manifests as sudden onset of muscle weakness or impaired movement, often affecting the hind limbs first, before progressing to the fore limbs, head and neck. In some cases, the cranial nerves may be affected, leading to facial weakness or vocal changes.
Dr Matthias Le Chevoir: Dogs which are not too severely affected can still walk, albeit with a pronounced and stilted gait. This weakness very rarely affects the face (for example, losing the ability to blink or swallow properly) and/or the chest.
It is possible that dogs can die from respiratory failure due to chest paralysis but it is extremely rare in my experience. The severity ranges from mild weakness to respiratory failure and most dogs would be moderately affected (weak, not able to walk but able to breathe, eat and urinate).
Most dogs reach their worst clinical status around five days after the onset. That means that if you dog suffers from APN and has been weak for six or seven days, it’s very unlikely that its condition will get worse and it’s almost certain that your dog would not die from chest weakness.
Most of them would then improve, although the pace of improvement is extremely variable: It takes from two weeks to six months for most dogs to be able to walk again. There is no other treatment besides physiotherapy as it is a self-sustaining disease.
Dr Le Chevoir: First of all, APN is not triggered only by raw bird meat. It is primarily an auto-immune reaction on the peripheral nerves. It is actually the canine’s counterpart of the Guillain-Barré disease. A lot of the potential triggers are unknown. The two different triggers that have been described so far are: [Dogs coming into contact with] raccoon saliva in some states of America, and the feeding of raw bird meat in Australia. And they certainly are the most common causes.
In my experience, the incidence is much higher in Australia than in Europe mostly because Australians give raw chicken necks to their dogs as a treat. From my three years of experience as a vet in Singapore, I do not think that dog owners here often give raw poultry to their dogs. I believe this is the reason why I’ve seen only one case in Singapore so far.
Dr Chang: Those who feed their pets raw or undercooked meat should be aware of the risks and understand the proper ways of storing and preparing raw meat.
Raw and undercooked meats which are not stored properly may contain harmful micro-organisms. A pet that has just eaten contaminated meat may potentially become ill and transfer the bacteria by touching or licking a human or another animal after a meal. As such, feeding pets raw or undercooked meat poses a higher risk to the animals and members of a household.
Dr Le Chevoir: I do not think we can properly quantify the risk but serious scientific publications have demonstrated some risks: Raw meat carries a greater risk of carrying bacteria such as Salmonella or E. Coli, which can be responsible for digestive issues such as vomiting, diarrhoea or Listera, and which can later cause a major neurological syndrome.
Another concern is that dogs that eat raw meat are more at risk of transmitting these microbes to their owners as they lick them. The real risk of contracting APN in general is unknown if considering the overall dog population but we know from our work on APN that, in Australia, the risk of developing APN is more than 70 times higher than what it is in a population of dogs that does not consume raw chicken flesh.
Besides the risks listed above, there is often a misconception that feeding raw meat is enough to feed a dog. Whether the meat is cooked or not, a 100 per cent meat diet is certainly far from being balanced, and can this be associated with serious deficiencies.
Dr Chang: The following are some things to note when preparing a homemade meal for one’s dog.
- Practise good personal hygiene and food safety practices, such as handwashing with soap and water before and after feeding, and using clean feeding utensils.
- Store raw meats in the fridge or freezer and only remove them when needed.
- Use separate utensils (e.g. cutting board) where possible to prevent cross-contamination of pathogens from raw meat to other cooked food.
- Raw or undercooked meats should not be left out in the open for too long as bacteria may grow overtime. If there is unfinished raw or undercooked meat left after a pet has finished eating, the remaining portions should be removed and disposed immediately.
Dr Le Chevoir: I would think that the meat prepared should be fit for human consumption. For example, we cook our meats to rid the food of parasites.
The best thing to do when one is willing to cook for their dog is to consult with a professional veterinary nutritionist. One should be careful when choosing a veterinary nutritionist – it is actually a proper chapter within the veterinary specialists’ boards, but unfortunately a lot of people are now calling themselves pet nutritionists without even being veterinarians.
Several reputable veterinary universities or proper veterinary nutritionists over the world offer online nutrition services. It would not cost more to the client compared to consulting with a self-proclaimed pet nutritionist (likely between SGD $100 to $200).
The pet owner can list the ingredients they have at home and any specific conditions the dog may have. The nutritionist will then come up with a homemade diet that the client can prepare at home with the exact amount of every ingredient they should put in. The formula can be used for as long as you like. Your dog’s diet would certainly be a balanced one, and chances are, the nutritionist will likely recommend cooking the meat.
Text: Holly Royce/Now To Love
Additional reporting: Chelsia Tan