Maxhealth
Dog in Cape Town

The only animal protein and fat source is ocean fish, Pretoria, Maxhealth can also be used to help sensitive dogs.
Maxhealth™Pet Diet was created by a Vet in 2005 and is currently sold in and around Johannesburg, low fat and high protein diet, thus apart from being an excellent puppy and maintenance, Durban and Southern Cape/Garden Route.

The way Maxhealth was formulated is rather unique, as it does not contain any tallow (cooked fat), intensive farming meat/by-products, fat or digest (digested animal tissue used to enhance palatability). The only animal protein and fat source is ocean fish, thus apart from being an excellent puppy and maintenance, low fat (6 %) and high protein (min. Some of the most common signs which may be noted in sensitive dogs are: red and watery eyes, dull dry and rough coat, dandruff, patchy loss of hair, foul skin odor, constant scratching, dry, moist dorsal and ventral skin inflammation, paw licking, chronic or recurrent inflammation of the ear/s, excessive desire to eat grass, blocked anal glands (resulting in scooting), halitosis (bad breath) which could persist after teeth cleaning and severe summer itch. The Maxhealth Vet believes that by just changing the dog diet to a land animal fat and intensive farming meat free diet many of these common but recurrent and difficult to control cases may get better. No claims are being made on its label in fact this is not a prescription diet. The formulation is also designed to take into consideration the needs of all our dogs from small to large breeds and all life stages. Two sizes of kibbles are available: Small bites and Regular bites. It is important to remember that fish is the most valuable source of long chain polyunsaturated Omega-3 fatty acids which are essential for optimal brain and eyes development and function. For a short period of time dogs can be fed ocean fish and rice only. Results were good as most of the time problems disappeared or where markedly attenuated at least until the previous food was reintroduced. In light of these observations the Maxhealth Vet formulated a complete revolutionary dry food for dogs which contained ocean fish as the sole animal protein and fat source. After palatability tests, we had to find out if the new born Maxhealth food for dogs would help as well as the basic pilchards and rice recipe. Dogs presenting with itchy skin were examined, all possible causes taken into consideration and finally a period of Maxhealth diet was started (2/3 weeks). Results were very good, the itch disappeared and when the old food was re-introduced the condition re-surfaced. At this stage though we were not sure if the cause of the itchy skin was an allergy to the animal protein contained in the old food or if there was more to it. We also noted that sedentary more than active dogs fed home made diets presented more acute symptoms which were related to the amount of meaty meals eaten (skin, bones, animal fat, broth etc.) Dogs which were exclusively fed dog food presented less intense reactions, but these continued over time. Furthermore, dogs that ate table scraps on top of the usual dog food presented with a basic chronic condition with peaks of reactions shortly after the consumption of such table scraps. It is important to remember that every sensitive dog has a specific organ or system which may be more affected (skin, gastrointestinal system, eyes, ears, anal glands or more than one simultaneously). Therefore the elimination of only one of these factors (in this case a diet without intensive farming meat and fats) could increase the sensitization threshold hence making the symptoms disappear. In fact we believe that the metabolites/residues contained in intensive farming meat, meat by-product and fats could be the major contributors to the lowering of the sensitivity threshold. It has been demonstrated that omega-3 from fish are more effectively incorporated into plasma lipids than when administered as supplement (1, 2), therefore a fish based diet may be more effective than adding omega-3 to the diet. This could be attributable to differences in physio chemical structure between lipids in fish and in fish oil. Enhanced incorporation on omega-3 fatty acids from fish compared with fish oils.