Can you feed your pet your own food?

PARK JONG-MOO
The author is a veterinarian.

Many pets suffer from ear infections or skin diseases. Steroids and antibiotics are commonly used by vets to treat pet skin problems. When administered, the itching and redness immediately subside. Pet owners believe that the skin disease has been cured because the symptoms are gone.

But actually, these drugs do not cure pets’ skin diseases, but only relieve symptoms. Since only symptoms are suppressed, skin diseases recur when the drugs’ effect wears off. And over time, skin and ear diseases only become aggravated.

Because of this problem, I try to solve the problem in a fundamental way rather than simply prescribing drugs that mitigate symptoms. Here, what matters the most is a healthy diet.

When a father and his daughter brought in their pet for a checkup, I asked whether human food was given to the pet. The daughter said she only gave it pet food, but the father said he gave it human food. The father embarrassingly made the excuse that he didn’t give too much human food. Most pet owners think that pets should not be given human food.

Pet food was imported into Korea in the early 1990s. What did dogs eat when there was no pet food? In the past, dogs were given human food. Did the dogs who were fed human food suffer from serious health problems? No, they didn’t. Even in the days when dogs ate human food, dogs were healthy, as they have long eaten what people ate.

If a pet’s skin has problems for a long time, I have often seen the condition improve when the pet is given food made with healthy ingredients rather than pet food. Therefore, if a pet’s skin has chronic problems, the owner should be open to considering more flexible food options.