California Woman Starts Feeding Her Dog A Raw Food Diet. She Had No Idea The Consequences Would Be So Devastating: ‘I Never Knew’

A woman is issuing a warning about raw dog food after claiming the diet may have led to the death of her pet.

In a video with over 4.9 million views, TikTok user Kelsey (@bestlashesvlc), who is from California but currently lives in Spain, documents herself saying goodbye to her dog.

“Getting my dog ready to cross the rainbow bridge thanks to raw dog food,” she writes in the text overlaying the video.

But how did the diet potentially contribute to her dog’s illness?

What Happened To This Woman’s Dog?

In the caption and other videos on her page, Kelsey details what she says happened to her dog, Natsu.

According to Kelsey, she had purchased “Menú BARF de Pollo con verduras frescas para perros.” This is a raw dog food from a company called Wild Balance. For context, “BARF” is an acronym for Biologically Appropriate Raw Food. It’s a diet that mixes raw meat with bones, vegetables, and other raw ingredients.

Soon, she noticed her dog suddenly change.

“After a few weeks on that diet, Natsu suddenly became paralyzed,” she says in a video.

Concerned, she took her dog to the veterinarian. Following some tests, it was determined that the dog had Polyradiculoneuritis, or PRN. This is a condition in which a dog’s immune system begins to attack its nervous system.

“The vets told us they couldn’t say for certain the cause, but the timing, the food change—it was all pointing to a bacteria commonly found in raw poultry, Campylobacter, which has been linked to cases of paralysis,” Kelsey says.

It Gets Worse

After this, Natsu began a long recovery process. While the dog eventually regained the ability to walk, another problem soon emerged: immune-mediated hemolytic anemia, or IMHA.

“This can happen when the immune system becomes strongly activated. It can sometimes become misdirected and attack multiple parts of the body…in this case, his red blood cells,” Kelsey shares.

“To treat that, he was given a strong immunosuppressant medication called cyclosporine,” she continues. “While it helped control the anemia, over time, it severely damaged his kidneys. And, for the last 2 years, Natsu has been fighting two fates at the same time: IMHA and kidney failure.”

While “Natsu fought so hard for the last 2.5 years,” the ailments eventually became “too much to take anymore.”

“This is just my experience. I know others will debate me on it, but others don’t have a dog with an autoimmune condition,” she writes in the caption of a video. “Autoimmune conditions are triggered by something. Usually bacteria, viruses, vaccines, etc and in our case we’re sure it was a bacteria commonly found in raw poultry which he happened to switch over too shortly before becoming paralyzed.”

Can A Raw Food Diet Really Cause This?

What can be said definitively is that raw poultry can carry Campylobacter. Additionally, raw chicken has been linked to APN in dogs, and APN can cause sudden weakness or paralysis.

One study found that 96% of tested dogs with APN had eaten raw chicken; of the non-APN dogs, only 26% had eaten raw chicken. Additionally, when stool samples from the APN dogs were taken within a week of visible symptoms, they were about 9 times more likely to test positive for Campylobacter than the non-APN dogs.

Whether Kelsey’s specific raw dog food actually carried Campylobacter is uncertain. It is also uncertain if the dog obtained the bacteria from the food, as it can also occasionally be found in contaminated water and meat from other animals.

Still, the sheer possibility may make some dog owners reconsider a raw food diet. Furthermore, it should be noted that the World Small Animal Veterinary Association states that “there is no evidence that raw meat-based diets provide health benefits over commercial or balanced homemade cooked diets.” These diets also have a “high risk of bacterial contamination,” per the WSAVA.

BroBible reached out to Kelsey via email and Facebook direct message, and Wild Balance via email.