# Eggs!



## Olliesmom (Sep 29, 2006)

No not Easter!! My groomer mentioned given Ollie an egg - I remember reading something about this - He has never had people food except cream cheese or peanut butter in his kong - gave him 1 scrambled this am - HE LOVED IT! what is the "rule of thumb" for eggs- how often etc?

Olliesmom


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## SHOWDOWN (Dec 17, 2006)

I WOULD LIKE SOME FEEDBACK ON THAT AS WELL. THE PROBLEM I WOULD HAVE IS IF I PUT EGGS IN HIS FOOD ONCE HE WILL EXPECT IT AT EVERY FEEDING THEN GO ON A HUNGER STRIKE UNTIL I PUT IT BACK IN


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## Cheryl (Mar 17, 2007)

Diane Klumb's book mentions giving an egg with your hav's food. I think it said an egg per day was OK, but I do not have the book in front of me. I hard boiled an egg and added one 1/4 of it to Brutus' food. He thought the white was a toy and started playing with it on the floor. I ended up just throwing out the part of his food and starting over.


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## MopTop Havanese (Sep 25, 2006)

They recommend the egg yolks. The whites can give them the runs~
I actually buy yolks by the pound from www.eggstore.com. It comes in a powder form and is so easy to sprinkle on their food. I give it to my dogs a few times a week.


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## marjrc (Jan 13, 2007)

I just asked this question a week or so ago to a Hav. list I'm on. I was also wondering....

There were differing responses. There was a study done and one of the members had her Havs in the study. She wrote, and I quote:

"... the results were never reported and 
in fact a dog who was on eggs from birth and who had straight legs 
developed cataracts so that their basic premise that only dogs with 
bowed legs develop cataracts was erroneous. They still have not 
determined the genetic makeup of cataracts in Havanese but it is not a 
simple recessive gene since two dogs who have cataracts can produce 
dogs without cataracts.

It is now thought that cataracts in Havanese (other breeds may be 
different) are the result of multiple genes in multiple sites(loci) 
and that they are also opportunistic which means somewhat like cancer 
having the genes may or may not activate the cataract. I think diet 
is extremely important but eggs did not pan out as a "cure". "

Another member wrote: 
"Actually - eggs were part of the study on CD (chondroplaysia -- or fiddle fronts) in dogs. They apparently (this was part of the presentation at the first HCA National Specialty or maybe the 2nd one) did a test group of 100 dogs (Dr. Kirk Gelatt who is heading up the study into CD and cataracts) to see if the eggs would be beneficial to dogs with CD. Some improved dramatically, some somewhat and others not at all. The improvements were enough though to bring it to breeders and pet owners suggesting that since dogs use cholestoral in a different manner than humans, perhaps feeding an egg per day would be beneficial to our breed."

One member wrote that her Hav seemed quite allergic to eggs, so she had to stop giving them to him.

The consensus, I think, was that it couldn't hurt if you give it once or twice/week or less often, but that maybe it isnt' really necessary to feed eggs every day after all.

If there are more facts on this out there, a study or something, I'd love to hear about it.


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## Thumper (Feb 18, 2007)

Funny you should mention eggs, I've been giving Gucci a scrambled egg with a little bit of cheddar cheese for dinner on Friday nights and she LOVES it!

I've only been giving one egg a week, but so far she tolerates it fine, her stools have been normal and she LOVES it. She literally licks the bowl sparkling clean!  I just throw the cheese on there for some flavor and calcium.

Kara


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## Tom King (Aug 2, 2006)

Without me having to write a really long post about this if anyone interested in reasoning behind feeding eggs you can find all sorts of information by doing a Google search for:

Ockham syndrome

In the "Havanese 100 Study" 100 dogs were put on the same diet which included an egg a day and Purina Pro Plan. The Pro Plan was just to make sure everyone in the study was feeding exactly the same thing. We had several dogs in that study and it led into other studies co-ordinated by http://www.havanese.net/heart/. To make a long story short, some people who had dogs in the study with problems said that they saw noticeable improvement. A lot of people still feed their Havs an egg a day. If you do start doing that be sure to wean them off slowly if you decide to discontinue them.

Our dogs didn't have any problems to start with and we weaned ours off of eggs. We did have one dog in the study who actually came up with a skin problem while on the egg diet. She was diagnosed with SA (can't spell it) which causes hair to fall out and can lead to other problems. The diagnosis did not include taking skin plugs to see if she actually had sebatious glands. As we weaned the dogs off of eggs her condition got better. We had already stopped using her in our breeding program and spayed her. After being off eggs for a while she is back to normal and you cannot tell that she ever had any skin or hair problems. THIS IS NOT A RECOMMENDATION NOT TO FEED YOUR DOGS EGGS. It's just the way it happened with this dog.

The theory is that the syndrome is a problem with the ability to metabolize cholesterol and shows up with problems with all sorts of things including CD. It might very well be a good idea to feed eggs if your dog has CD or other associated problems that fall in those included in "Ockham Syndrome". Dogs handle cholesterol differently than we do. It is said that they can't get too much like we can.

We already had 3 generations of healthy dogs not dependent on eggs and didn't want to change what we were doing-but that's just our situation.


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## LuvMyHavanese (Apr 13, 2007)

When i got both of our Havs 3 months ago, our breeder asked if we would continue giving a cooked egg yolk a day(she said the egg whites were giving them the runs  ). She said she was part of a study for eyes & they seemed to show some improvment in cataract issues (im not sure of all the details).


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## marjrc (Jan 13, 2007)

It seems like the study was inconclusive as to eggs helping with eye issues. That's what my understanding is from having had a few discussions with breeders across Canada. One had her pups in the study. 

I would say that giving an egg a week isn't going to hurt and it gives the dogs a bit of variety. Mine love when I split a scrambled egg between them, but I won't be giving one more than once/week I don't think.


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