Health Essentials
Balanced diet, regular exercise, and proactive wellness care keep your Spinone thriving
DRIED DOG FOOD OR "KIBBLE"
Kibble is a convenient and inexpensive way to feed your Spinone. However, the high temperature used to process it creates micro toxins and destroys much of the nutritional value. Starches are needed to form the individual pieces of kibble. They come from rice, oats, corn, barley peas etc. These are all canine inappropriate foods.
They are not good for your dog! Plus, they can contribute to obesity. A better option is to feed raw, dehydrated or lightly cooked foods. These are available at most pet stores. If you watch for local sales, you can often buy meat and fish for less than kibble. You can feed these raw or lightly cook them.
There is tremendous health benefits for your dog if you can even feed them part kibble and part raw/dehydrated. Even just topping your dogs bowl with fresh/raw/lightly cooked foods like carrots, bananas, broccoli sardines a slice off your dinner roast etc. is very beneficial.
There has been a trend towards dogs dying at younger ages from different cancers and diseases. One theory is that this is a result poor diet. Specifically too many starches and a lack of fresh canine appropriate foods.
Prioritize Preventative Care for Lifelong Vitality
Regular veterinary check-ups.
Veterinarians provide tailored advice on vaccinations, parasite control, and dental care. Parasites, especially roundworms and hookworms, have been found to become resistant to some treatments. So it is best to not let your parasite preventative lapse.
Pet health insurance. Veterinarian costs have skyrocketed. We have heard of emergency surgeries costing over $15000. Pet health insurance can help with that. There is a wide range of insurance policies available. From policies that pretty much pay for everything to policies that are catastrophic coverage only. The cost of these varies accordingly. We recommend that you at least consider these.
Regular ear cleaning. The Spinone's long ears create a cover over the ear canal. This makes a great environment for yeast. regular cleaning helps to prevent yeast build up.
As with humans, longevity in dogs is affected by diet, exercise and genetics. You would not expect to live a long life if you only ate processed junk food and never got any exercise. Exercise is equally important for your dog. The Spinone is a hunting breed. Even though they are at times content to be a couch potato, they are happiest when they get daily exercise. They really need to be able to run. Many people take their dogs for long leash walks. This is great exercise for the people and although it is better than no exercise at all, dogs really need to run. Geneticists say that longevity is 20% genetics. This is one reason why we do Embark DNA panels on our breeders. It helps us keep inbreeding coefficients low. There is a link between a high COI(Coefficient of Inbreeding) and lower life span.