Your Biology Lesson For Today...

After attending Myra Harris' seminar not once, but twice (and wishing like hell I could have gone to see her this weekend in Calgary!), I have changed my bitch's pregnancy diet slightly.

In Myra's seminar she talks extensively about the parathyroid gland (read more about the parathyroid gland here) and its role in maintaining the body's calcium levels. When the calcium level in the blood stream drops below a certain level, the parathyroid gland releases, obviously enough, some parathyroid hormone which triggers the release of calcium from storage areas in the body, namely the skeletal system.

While most people think of calcium as "being important for bones and teeth", its biggest function in the body is maintaining muscle contraction (read more about the science here). If there is no calcium circulating through the bloodstream, there is no muscle contraction.

So...how does this apply to pregnant bitches?

What is labour??

Yes, you're right! Muscle contraction...lots and lots and LOTS of muscle contraction!

I feed my dogs a raw diet and a portion of that diet is raw meaty bones. The problem with feeding raw meaty bones during pregnancy, according to Myra, is that when you feed excess calcium (which bones have a plethora of!), there is always calcium circulating through the bloodstream as the body digests the bone. When there is always calcium circulating through the bloodstream, the parathyroid gland gets to take a break from doing its job. It gets lazy and sluggish. It goes on vacation...

So...you've fed a bunch of bone (or extra calcium for those of you who supplement during pregnancy) throughout the bitch's pregnancy. The parathyroid hormone hasn't worked in how many days/weeks/months...then the bitch goes into labour. WOW! That's a lot of muscle contraction...need more calcium...need to contract uterus to deliver puppies...

BUT!!! The parathyroid gland is still on vacation...it misses the 6am wake up call Monday morning its first day back at work. After the calcium that has been circulating in the bloodstream is used up there is none left because the parathyroid gland has been allowed to grow sluggish or inactive.

No calcium = no muscle contraction.
No muscle contraction = uterine inertia.
Uterine inertia = c-section.

So...the grand experiment! While my dogs are still on a raw diet, I have taken Porsche and Lily right off of raw meaty bones. They are eating organ meat, ground muscle meat, eggs, veggies and tripe, with tripe making up the majority of their diet.

I will be honest and say that a large part of me shudders to think that perhaps my bitches aren't getting enough calcium to make healthy babies...but then I give my head a shake and remember that tripe and liver and veggies all contain calcium. Not as much as raw meaty bones, of course, but that's the point, isn't it?

The hope is that by reducing the circulating calcium in their diet, I will be able to keep the parathyroid gland working hard throughout the pregnancy so that when the girls go into labour they will have more than enough access to calcium in their bones to deliver all of their babies naturally!

That's your biology lesson for today...I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I think I should have been a biology teacher! :)