Organ dog treats

[Stocker]

I put a deposit down on a pointing lab gonna get her in April, my son is about the right age for a hunting companion. I really wouldn’t want to do anything to harm it once we get it so here’s the question.


Over the years I always keep the liver and lungs from deer or any other animal I take, dehydrate them and make dog treats. This question isn’t coming from me because I personally don’t think it’s a problem, but someone told my wife to watch out for parasites doing that. Any validity to that? I guess I could boil it, but to me that seems unnecessary.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Yes, valid. Many parasites of wild game animals have a two-stage lifecycle, completing part of the lifecycle in an ungulate host, and part of it in a predator (commonly coyotes, wolves, or dogs). Potentially this includes several species of tapeworms, flukes, Trichinella, hydatid disease, etc.

Cooking would be best. Freezing for a couple of weeks will also kill most, but not all parasites. And certainly if an organ seems abnormal, I would not feed it to my dog.

I don’t think most people live in areas with widespread hydatid disease, but I would not mess around with feeding my dog organs from any animal I suspected of being infected. That one people can contract from their dog. I also wouldn’t feed them parts from other meso-predators or large predators…too much disease overlap.

 

[thomas89]

I have dehydrated elk liver before for the dogs. They love it. @Hunting Wife just gave me another thing to think about in the middle of the night.

 

[Stocker]

I have dehydrated elk liver before for the dogs. They love it. @Hunting Wife just gave me another thing to think about in the middle of the night.

Yeah. I’ve done it, mostly with farm dogs. I just don’t wanna kill off a family pet. My dad/husband of the year chance would go down drastically.

 

[Hunting Wife]

I have dehydrated elk liver before for the dogs. They love it. @Hunting Wife just gave me another thing to think about in the middle of the night.

I’m really not trying to freak anybody out Just know the risks, know how you might be able to minimize them, and if the dog shows any weird symptoms, mention this diet to the vet. Most pet vets aren’t going to necessarily consider wildlife diseases for your run of the mill Purina-fed pup, unless they know there may have been exposure.

If you want to continue feeding this to your dog, just kind of pay attention to the condition of the animal, condition of the organ, and if something seems off maybe don’t feed him that one.

 

[R.K.]

Could you bake dehydrated pieces after they’re dried?

 

[Hunting Wife]

I think they would turn to meteorites.

You could cook then vacuum seal and freeze. You could freeze then dehydrate.

You could dehydrate then freeze? Not sure if that would reduce effectiveness of freezing, since the ice crystal formation inside the little parasite cells is what kills them.