From:
"Shirley Hewett"
Date: 2007-06-22 08:42:22 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Periodontal Disease and other food comments
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
--- In ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com, "Deborah (Danee) DeVore"
<Ferrets4all@...> wrote:
> While I agree that ferrets do get dental or periodontal diseases, I
> wonder how one can be sure that kidney, liver or other organ failure
is due to dental problems.
The relationship between periodontitis and organ failure in humans is
a (relatively) new finding, so it's not surprising that some vets and
other people have not yet made the connection.
Periodontitis causing organ disease in people:
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=239
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=13201
"Part of the reason was that research at UNC and elsewhere showed
that the inflammation in the mouth that periodontal infections cause
promoted inflammation in other parts of the body, which contributed
in significant ways to coronary artery disease, stroke, kidney
disease and obstetric complications,"
In a previous post, I gave just a couple of links to periodontitis
causing organ failure in carnivores There are many more available.
Some people are happy to accept the claims made by pet food
manufacturers before anything else. For those people, here's one:
http://www.petloveshack.com/petdental2.html
"Dental issues are the top disorders seen in private veterinary
practices, according to a University of Minnesota study. The American
Veterinary Dental Society reports that approximately 85 percent of
dogs and 75
percent of cats have dental issues, including plaque and tartar build-
up, which can lead to serious health concerns, such as periodontal
disease, infection, and organ failure."
I don't know how one would be able to tell what caused an organ to
fail. That would be one for the pathologists. While there have not
been studies into the effects of periodontal disease in ferrets (to
my knowledge), the effect on other carnivores is well documented.
Apart from the effects on the organs, I would thing the pain of
having infection of the gums and underlying bone structures would be
enough to want to protect ferrets' teeth.
> Over the last 20 years, I have had well over 100 ferrets. For the
> most part when they have passed, we have had necropsies done, and
had
> tissue samples sent out for pathology. Never once has a report come
> back suggesting that dental disease may have been involved in any
> organ failure that was seen, even in ferrets that had dental
problems
> because of long term feeding of soft foods. And, in many cases,
> samples have been looked at by several pathologists at several
> different labs. This is especially true of my ferrets that had ADV.
> In every report where organ failure was the cause of death (or
severe
> decline), a reason or reasons for the failure were reported, and
dental disease was never mentioned as a possibility.
Apart from ADV, where plasmacytosis is evident, and neoplasia (and,
perhaps, old age leading to a natural decline in organ function?),
what other reasons have been given for liver failure? Do you know
how these conclusions were reached?
I too have had many ferrets over the years and have also had physical
access to 100s more. The difference is that I have been involved,
through boarding, rescue, club meets, home visits etc, with ferrets
that have been fed and kept in different ways. I can pick up a
ferret and immediately tell if it is fed a diet of kibble or a more
natural diet. A naturally fed ferret much better musculature and
coat. The raw fed ferrets do not suffer from insulinoma, adrenal
disease, bedding chewing, stomach ulcers or IBD as their kibble fed
counterparts do.
> I think it is well established that a diet of soft foods over a long
> period can lead to dental problems. I have seen it in my own
ferrets
who had ADV and required special supplements to keep up their weight.
I think that is one of the saddest things. By attempting to keep
them healthy, you often need to feed a soft diet that leads to
periodontal disease which, in turn, causes pain and impinges on
health.
> And, I know that some experts speculate and theorize that crunching
> kibble can damage tooth enamel. However, other experts say that
crunching bones can cause the same type of damage to teeth. It is a
subject that is still only addressed by theories.
Dogs that have been fed bones that are too large (usually the weight-
bearing bones given as "recreational" treats) can suffer tooth
damage. I imagine the same could happen to a ferret if given nothing
but bones that were too hard. That's why it's important to give raw
meaty bones from suitably sized prey. Think Cornish hen or quail,
rather than lamb chops.
> I can't speak for what happens in Oz, but here in the US research
> gets funded by a lot more then just big corporations, especially at
> the colleges and universities. Also, many colleges and
universities,
> while they may accept money from the big businesses, do not allow
> those donors to direct the scope of any research that gets done.
> This is done to allow pure research, as opposed to research directed
> at reaching a particular conclusion.
Currently, theories and logic are the most important resource that we
have to guide us to better ferret diets and dental health. There
have never been any studies into the dietary requirements of
ferrets. There have never been studies on the bioavailability of
nutrients in cooked or otherwise processed food. There have never
been any studies into the impact of periodontitis on ferrets'
health. Such studies will be a long time coming, I suspect, and in
the meantime many ferrets are needlessly suffering.
> I actually have to wonder about the qualifications of the person who
> owns this site, since he claims, among other things, that raw meat
is
> easier to digest then cooked meat. Despite his theories about meat
> enzymes that are destroyed in cooking making raw easier to digest, I
> have found no peer reviewed articles that support his claim. In
> fact, I have found peer reviewed articles that say the exact
> opposite - that cooked meat is easier to digest. Enzymes that are
in
> raw meats are destroyed by the stomach acids, so they provide little
> help in the digestion process. Cooking meat, on the other hand,
does
> start the breakdown process, making it easier to digest.
>
> When someone makes claims that go against accepted science, it makes
>me wonder about their other claims.
Where the claims are made my a person educated in the field and are
the result of years of study, observation and experience, I think
they are valid.
Again, there is a lack of published scientific studies into the role
of enzymes in digestion. There are widely held beliefs, however,
that enzymes are very important to digestion and absorption.
http://www.detox4antiaging.com.au/Raw-food-and-Enzymes.113.0.html
http://www.middlepath.com.au/qol/enzymes.php
"Also, the enzymes naturally present in raw, alive foods, facilitate
complete chemical breakdown of food. Cooked food that lacks enzymes,
and a stressed pancreas that does not produce enough enzymes due to
over-consumption of these cooked foods, can generate unnatural food
fragments that wreak havoc inside your body. Many allergies, for
example, are linked to poor breakdown of food molecules, with the
resultant unnatural peptides triggering an antigen-antibody reaction
resulting in the classic allergy symptoms."
If everybody took heed only of published, peer reviewed findings,
there would never be any more research! I think that if you are
going to rely only on formal studies as a source of knowledge, you
also need to look the GAPS in that knowledge.
Although I don't believe the food advertised in the following link is
suitable for carnivores (the form that it's in does not support
dental health), I found the amount of knowledge about manufactured
pet food to be very interesting.
http://www.morigins.com/mORIGINS4.html
> One of my very close friends has a Ph.D. in nutritional research.
> She is the head of a branch of the USDA that looks at the
nutritional
> values of various foods. And, while her work is all dealing with
> human nutrition, I asked her about the raw vs cooked question. She
> could not immediately cite an article for me, but did comment that
it
> is sort of a Nutrition 101 given that cooked meat is easier to
> digest.
>
> She added that cooking, especially improper cooking, can degrade
some
> of the nutrional value of the food, but even that is somewhat
> negligable if the cooking it done correctly. She said that proper
> cooking will destroy less then 10% of the nutrients in foods. and it
> is primarily the B vitiamins and amino acids that are affected.
This
> is what she does for a living - studying the affects of cooking and
> storage on the nutritional values of foods, as well as the
>nutritional values of various foods.
But does she know how it affects the bioavailability of the food?
Food is not just nutrients, but is a whole lot more complex than
that. For instance, it is coming to light that bets-carotene taken as
a supplement, does not have the same benefits as eating a carrot.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/patient-
betacarotene.html
"While diets high in fruits and vegetables rich in beta-carotene have
been shown to potentially reduce the incidence of certain cancers,
results from randomized controlled trials with oral supplements do
not support this claim.There is some concern that beta-carotene
metabolites with pharmacological activity can accumulate and
potentially have cancer causing (carcinogenic) effects. A higher,
statistically significant incidence of lung cancer in male smokers
who took beta-carotene supplements has been discovered. Beta-
carotene/vitamin A supplements may have an adverse effect on the
incidence of lung cancer and on the risk of death in smokers and
asbestos exposed people or in those who ingest significant amounts of
alcohol. In addition, high-dose antioxidants theoretically may
interfere with the activity of some chemotherapy drugs or radiation
therapy. Therefore, individuals undergoing cancer treatment should
speak with their oncologist if they are taking or considering the use
of high dose antioxidants.Beta-carotene in the amounts normally found
in food does not appear to have this adverse effect."
Another point that is well worth pondering is the effect on a
particular gene that the diet of a grandmother has on her progeny.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10518
This one is a very old, but fascinating, study on diets.
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/price/pricetoc.html
It is not hard to extrapolate that the health of ferrets that are
being fed an inappropriate diet will gradually decline with each new
generation.
Shirley.
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