Do you ever watch the Ion Television Network? I’m addicted to Criminal Minds, and I love Boston Legal, so I often find myself there in the evenings. They are running a contest on their web site whereby you can win a $1000 gift card for yourself and a $500 donation to a shelter.
The contest is cute – it’s a variation of the old Concentration game, where you have to match two cards from a group of cards turned face down. In this contest, you click on a snowglobe. The globe shakes and when the snow clears, you see the picture you have to match. And you can keep playing until you make a match – it’s not just two clicks, and if you lose too bad, so sad. Simply click on a 3rd snowglobe, and the first 2 will go back the way they were so you can try to match the 3rd one.
Once you have found a match, the system asks for your name, e-mail address, and phone number. That’s all there is to it!
Have fun and good luck!
Until next time,
Good day, and good dog!
It appears that the problem with salmon is that they may carry a parasite which may carry a bug that is harmful to dogs. So, the salmon must eat a snail infected with the parasite, and that parasite must be infected with the ricketsial bug that causes the problem. In the wild, this is a problem because the dog is eating raw salmon. However, for most of us, we won’t be catching salmon from the river, but buying it from the grocery store, where it has been processed & cooked, which kills the harmful organisms. Some references are below:
From VetInfo.com:
Salmon (Raw) Poisoning Disease
This is primarily a problem in the Pacific Northwest and California. But if you feed a raw meat diet it can be a problem anywhere.
It is caused from the infection by a rickettsial organism, Neorickettsia helminthoeca. SPD has been known since the early 19th century in North America. It had been observed that dogs that ate raw salmon frequently died however the connection between the fluke and the rickettsia was not established at this time.(1) It is unusual in that the rickettsial organism does not directly infect the dog but is instead carried by a parasite, a trematode (flatworm or fluke) called Nanophyteus salmincola through two intermediate hosts first: freshwater snails and salmonid fish (salmon, trout and steelhead). Nanophyteus salmincola are found to infect freshwater snails particularly Oxytrema plicifer. The infected snail forms part of the salmonid species food web and is ingested. Neither the fluke nor the rickettsial organism act as pathogens in the fish. The dog is exposed only when it ingests the secondary host – an infected fish. After the dog ingests the fish, the encysted fluke larvae burst and embed in the dog’s intestinal tract and the rickettsia are introduced. The cycle continues when ova are excreted in dog feces to infect snails. It is necessary for your dog to eat raw salmon to get salmon poisoning disease.
A sudden onset of symptoms occur 5-7 days after ingestion of fish. Initial symptoms include lethargy and anorexia. Peaking of temperature between 104-107 in the first two days and then slowly returns to normal. Persistent vomiting by the fourth day. There is bloody diarrhea within a few days of vomiting onset. The diarrhea is often bright yellow color. There are enlarged lymph nodes. In the acute stages, gastrointestinal symptoms are quite similar to canine parvovirus. Nasal and ocular symptoms can resemble canine distemper. If left untreated, SPD has a mortality rate of up to 90%. Treatment is supportive to maintain hydration as well as antibiotic therapy to kill the disease producing organism. Dogs that survive are immune. It is preventable by cooking all fish before feeding your dog. If you are outdoors hiking or camping or live near streams and rivers were salmon spawn, keep a close eye on your dog on don’t let your pet run free to insure that no fish carcasses are ingested. Please see your vet immediately if you suspect your dog has ingested raw salmon.
From Chicken of the Sea Salmon Processing:
Fish Receiving Fish are delivered to canneries frozen, with heads, eggs and viscera already removed. Quality evaluations are performed during unloading, which include monitoring the temperature and condition of the fish and conducting sensory evaluations. Fish found unacceptable are rejected.
Cold Storage Fish are maintained at temperatures near 0F until needed for processing.
Thawing Thawing is conducted under controlled conditions to preserve fish quality. Additional sensory evaluations are performed at this time.
Pre-cooking Acceptable fish are placed on racks and transferred to large ovens where they are cooked sufficiently to facilitate cleaning of the fish.
Cleaning After pre-cooking, each fish is cleaned by hand and inspected for quality attributes. The cleaning operation consists of removing the tails, fins, skin, bones and dark flesh portions.
Can Filling Cleaned salmon are fed into filling machines where prescribed amounts of fish are placed into cans. Via a separate system, empty cans are conveyed to filling machines after having been inverted and flushed with air jets and/or water sprays.
Ingredient Addition Cans are conveyed past points where prescribed amounts of water and salt (as needed) are added.
Can Sealing Filled cans are conveyed to sealing machines where lids are put in place and the cans hermetically sealed. Each can or lid is affixed with a permanent production code that identifies plant, product, date packed and other pertinent information. The integrity of the hermetic seal is evaluated at frequent intervals during processing to ensure product safety.
Thermal Processing Sealed cans are retorted (cooked) under pressure utilizing process time and temperature schedules designed by processing experts to render the product commercially sterile. All aspects of thermal processing are strictly monitored and controlled.
Finished Product Evaluation Samples of each finished production code receive qualitative (e.g., color, odor, flavor, texture, and cleaning) and quantitative evaluations prior o being released for labeling.
Labeling & Casing Product lots meeting finished product evaluation criteria are delivered to labeling lines where they are labeled and cased. Cased products are appropriately marked with information necessary to facilitate product tracing.
Warehousing & Shipping Cased products are shipped or staged in warehouses for later shipment.
Thanks for asking, Sylvia!
I saw your article on Ten good human foods for your dogs recently. One of the “good” foods listed was fish, salmon specifically. A week or two later I saw an article on human foods that are toxic to dogs, and salmon was one of those on the “toxic” list.
Could you clarify? Thanks
Thanks & good luck to all!
Wow…you can have fun AND win $!