Bruno's Blog – a complete animal at work

We talk a lot about raw food feeding and encourage the owners of the pets that come to see us to think about adding at least some raw food to their pet’s diets.

In fact we get pretty excited about the sight of our dogs munching away on raw chicken wings. I used to buy a tray of them from the supermarket and put them in the freezer, and then defrost them one at a time for Bruno to eat for breakfast. It was always one of the high points of his day.

Yes I know, the public health people are probably already freaking out about salmonella and E coli as we speak, but our experience is that it really doesn’t seem to be a problem in practice. The pets love it, the bones in a chicken wing are great for their teeth and the meat protein is pretty much in the form that nature intended. This is important when we see so many cases of food intolerance or allergy in dogs.

You know, the ones that ‘can’t eat lamb’ or ‘chicken goes straight through him’

I was at a major veterinary conference earlier this year and heard one of the American speakers saying that it was now well established that the process of cooking meat made it more allergenic, that is to say, more likely to provoke an allergic reaction. I questioned him about it afterwards to make sure tht I’d heard it right. The academic establishment stating that raw food was actually better for you – it is less allergenic, less likely to cause digestive problems.

But the next step, actually recommending raw food feeding, was too much for him to take…

 All of which is a lengthy preamble to the bit about our man in Kazakstan. I had a phone message at the clinic saying that the owners of Lettuce the Rhodesian Ridgeback, curretly resident in Astana, were having problems finding suitable food for her now that they could no longer rely on the supply chain of prescription food in Kazakstan.

Now I may well be well travelled, but my knowledge of downtown Astana is not great, certainly not to the point where I’d know the local pet shops and food suppliers. The answer?

Go raw!

I think it just got to be Lettuce’s lucky day…

Now there’s a curious event for you.

It’s not every Sunday that you see the vicar mounted on horseback in all his lime green silken livery, with the ex-Lady Mayor alongside in her purple finery and the local councillor – who curiously appears to be French – in a lurid blue frock coat sort of affair, complete with a frilly neck thing, conducting a church service to a congregation of….horses.

Oh and 2 Jack Russells, a Cavalier (very appropriate), 2 Retrievers, a Boxer recovering from Cushing’s Disease, a smattering of other terriers, a black Labrador, 6 policemen and all but the partridge in the proverbial London plain tree.

This was the 41st annual blessing of the horses at St John’s Church, Hyde Park, and we were there again with our stand, collecting money for the International League for the Protection of Horses.

The regular congregation had a service at 10, followed by coffee, sherry or champagne (this is Hyde Park, darling) as the crowds gathered for the spectacle. Horses, ponies, shetlands, carriages, children and adults gathered in the neighbouring streets before parading through and gathering in front of the padre.

We sang hymns, we listened to readings and prayers as we honoured and blessed our animal friends and companions. It all seemed very appropriate as our clinic has been there since 1872, which must make it one of the oldest in the country. It’s very lifeblood must have been the horses of London for a good part of it’s history.

The service over, the horses paraded round the streets again before passing in front of the podium to collect their rosettes. And the sun beamed down on us throughout. It’s enough to make you love London all over again…