Verified answer

Oh geesh, make me wip out my microbiology notes, LOL

C.Diff is normal flora in the intestines. Some already told you that. I'm concerned that your vet found "a very dangerous type". There are no different "types" of C.Diff. It is one type of Clostridium. In normal intestines, it makes up about 2-3% of the natural residing bacteria.

In severe cases, C.Diff causes diarrhea, inflamed intestines, and can cause colon problems. There are several ways it can be caught.

*Any type of extended hospitilization, bed rest, etc... can cause an overgrowth of C.Diff. As I said before, it's a normal flora, but only in smaller amounts. If larger colonies form, you get problems.

*The SOIL. Or FECES. Animals AND people poop. Many times these feces contain the natural bacteria in our systems. Not only that, but C.Diff is a spore forming bacteria. Meaning that if it gets into an unfavorable enviroment, it will actually turn into a spore that can lay dormant until it is back into a favorable enviroment, like a dog's gut. So, because of this, C.Diff is commonly found in soil. Your dog could of been chomping on a blade of grass that grew out of this contaminated soil. Your dog could of eaten contaminated poop. C.Diff is also commonly found in some water sources, again because of feces contamination.

*Any antibiotics given to a dog kill of both bad AND good bacteria. This is what causes secondary infections. If your dog was on antibiotics, then the normal flora in the intestines would of been killed, and that could of given the C.Diff bacteria more room to grow.

The raw meat is unlikely, in my mind. When C.Diff does invade the body, it invades the colon and the intestines. Not the thigh muscle. So why would C.Diff be found in raw meat UNLESS it was contaminated by the spore?

Your vet sounds like an idiot. There are NUMEROUS other places he should of looked at first, like water sources, dog park visits, fecal consumption, etc...

I noticed in your google links that all the contaminated meat was meant for dog food. That explains why.

In human meat, it is treated differently, for the most part. They butcher the animal. They clean the animal. ETC.... A bit more sanitary.

In dog food, they throw the animals in a big grinder with a ton of other animals, and grind it all up. That's where the contamination comes from. The fecal matter in the intestines of the animals they are grinding up. Not only that, but many cheaper dog foods contain "Digested leftovers" (I can't think of how they word it in the ingredients list. Something like that). In other words, they actually admit to using the digesting food from the guts of animals. AKA poop.

I do NOT recomend going to cooke. Cooking not only changes the chemical build of the meat, making it extremely hard for the dog to digest, but it also destroys much of the nutrients that the dog would receive if he could digest it.

If you are concerned about safety and meat contamination, they look at going to organic, and it is likely that the meat is cleaner and has a lower chance of contamination during processing.

EDIT: I find it unlikely that your dog caught the C.Diff from the raw meat to begin with. As stated above, there are more likely causes, such as a compromised system to begin with, and there are far more likely places your dog could of gotten it from. The soil, other fecale consumption, drinking water out of a lake/pond/etc... Parks, your front lawn where someone else let their dog defecate. If the problem is treated, I find it even more unlikely that your dog will get it again from raw meat. However, I DO recomend feeding yogurt ANY time that antibiotics are given. Helps build up that natural flora and keeps away bad bacteria.

OK, I am NO expert on this, but here are my thoughts.

Was your dog on antibiotics at the time? C-Diff is a bacteria that is always in your body. I assume this is true for dogs too. Antibiotics kill ALL bacteria, good and bad. But the C-Diff can be resistant to it. So a lot of times when you are on them you get diarrhea and flush out the good bacteria, so you can end up with a very bad C-Diff infection. This is why you should eat things like yogurt that contain probiotics to counter-act this. There are also very expensive supplements you can take that restore the good bacteria to your intestines. (The one I know of is Florastor).

As for the raw meat, many meat products that you buy contain antibiotics. I would not think that it would be enough to make your dog sick though.

ADD: There ARE meats that you can buy that DON'T have any antibiotics added. I would imagine if you fed your dogs only these meats raw, then you would not have a problem. I don't feed raw, so I'm not sure.

Yes C-Diff, like the answers in your other question said, can be found in fecal matter and can certainly be transmitted to meat in the processing of food animals.

According to the CDC though it's not just raw meat that can potentially be affected:

" Although proper cooking of meat is emphasized for reducing the risk for food borne disease, the fact that C. difficile is a spore former complicates this issue because spores can survive in ground beef at recommended cooking temperatures (71°C), even when that temperature is maintained for 120 min (A. Rodriguez-Palacios et al., unpub. data)."

http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/13/3/485.%E2%80%A6

So--cooked meat, processed kibble that is contaminated with C-Diff could potentially also spread this bacteria.

The answer given in your other question by Joseph pretty much covers it- as with the immuno-supressed people (or those on antibiotics) that were affected by the bacteria, dogs who are found to have a C-Diff bacterial infection most likely had an underlying issue that attributed to C-Diff susceptiblity.

I had a dog get very sick from raw meat that had likely thawed and been refrozen (someone gave it to me from a farm). Although I feed my dog raw now, I buy it frozen from a butcher and would never give her any other form of raw meat. I do believe the stance that it is feeding a dog real food, and not necessarily raw meat, that makes the difference, so if you cook your dog`s meat, that should be optimal as well.

I am not certain your vet is correct. This C-Diff could be in the system regardless of diet.

I do feed raw have for a number of years with NO problems. My holistic vet who encouraged me to go this raw diet route, said the only bad outcome I might run across was Toxplasmosis. (This can cause diarhea, but it is easly treated.) The benefits of feeding raw, far outweight feeding kibble (which is hard for pets to digest due to the grain) their digestive systems were never designed to deal with, nor the high amount of sugars it digests into. The high sugar foods are very inflammatory and lead to or incite many inflammatory conditions; joint pain, skin problems, kidney/ bladder stones, UTI, allergies. Many vets feel that cancer is FED by a high sugar diet.

Dogs have a different digestive system than ours. It is very suited to dealing with meat & bones the possible samonella, e.coli etc. (normally handling the meat & bones in 4 hours vs kibble which takes up to 12 hours per meal to digest. Ever wonder WHY the cass of bloat have skyrocketed? (I wonder if the never-ending digestion might be why the dog's digestive system finally flips out - so to speak, no rest with kibble diets, vs eating raw.) If the dog's body only works 8 hours out of 24 hours to digest raw, WHY would you want to make it work instead around the clock, non-stop...just so you can feed an easy (bagged) food.

If you have concerns about raw, then feed a home-made lightly cooked meat, without adding carbs. There are numerous books & websites available to help you. Are you awae that the new thinking is that you should add a serving of green leafy veggies to equal 50 to 75% of the meat portion? My vet is seeing huge improvements on client dogs after making this change. Green leafy veggie (spinach, kale, collards, mustard greens, cabbage) are full of fiber, anti-oxidents, are very anti-inflammatory as a food & have cancer fighting properties. They need to be either: previously frosen, lightly steamed or pureed so the dogs can digest the plant cellulose.

Have you ever used Eating for Energy (120 raw food diet recipes) method? Move on this site : http://stayeatingraw.com/DIY . This could certainly assist person!

Slaughter houses and processing plants are filthy.

Of course the chances of getting meat contaminated with something is high.

This really grossed me out

Health reported deficiencies:

Lack of hot-water

Lack of handwashing facilities

Dirty knife blades

Lack of hot-water knife sanitizer

Low lighting

Pest infestations

Unpainted walls

Rusty hooks

Pets and farm animals found in cutting rooms (PETS IN CUTTING ROOMS being processed)

Broken glass on the floor

Gasoline stored in the corner

Old dried meat on a saw

Read more at Suite101: Slaughterhouse Sanitation: Newfoundland Health Inspectors Find Deficiencies in Slaughterhouses | Suite101.com http://microbiology.suite101.com/article%E2%80%A6

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I typed in Contamination slaughterhouses and got a zillion hits

http://search.aol.com/aol/search?q=conta%E2%80%A6

and then the same for Meat Processing Plants

http://search.aol.com/aol/search?s_it=to%E2%80%A6

I am so happy I am a vegetarian.

In speaking to my friends who are vets AND the one is a breeder who has spent much time researching nutrition for her own dogs- they both suggested cooked meat only for this very reason.

My dogs only get cooked meat and of course science tested dog food.

Who will you believe, the Centers for Disease control, or some stranger (whose credentials you don't know) on the internet? The CDC has REAL doctors and scientists working for them...how many do you think answered your original question?