Author: TheRawKey

Zeva heals from food allergies and skin issues following the natural dog diet

“Food allergy” symptom scratching began for Zeva at 6 months of age so I took her off kibble and fed raw proteins. Symptoms subsided for a few months, then reappeared so I eliminated proteins one by one to no avail. Symptoms got worse and no matter how much I fed her, she began to lose weight. I rotated supplements such as probiotics, apple cider vinegar, coconut oil (both oral and topical), raw goat’s milk, phytoplankton, spirulina, leaky gut protocol, TCM supplements, fish oils, etc. I bathed her in special shampoos, used topical sprays, essential oils, skin salves, antiseptic sprays, DERMagic lotions, creams & soaps and sponged her with providone iodine regularly. We lived by the Glacier Peaks Pet Wellness Life Stress Scan food trigger chart for months. Her skin was raw, dry, flaking and bleeding from scratching and biting, fur had fallen out all over her body, some of her skin turned black and was thick like elephant skin. She smelled of yeast and became withdrawn and insecure.

I found a raw food diet on FB after clicking on a link someone provided and after reading all the information, knew this was the solution I’d been searching for. We had 2 female GSDs at the time so I immediately put them both on fresh fruits, cooked sweet potatoes and quinoa for a couple weeks and then added meat days. Neither girl gave me any problems with the diet..they ate every fruit I offered from day one. Detox was a long tough road and is not for the faint of heart. It got worse before it got better but the scratching eventually stopped, flaky skin was replaced with soft, pink hydrated skin and the fur began to grow. Then one day I noticed some flaky skin around one of Zeva’s eyes. It seemed to flare and get worse at times and then would start to heal. I was careful not to put any salves or creams on her and only used warm water to clean the area but it never really healed. Then I found Lauren’s The Raw Key diet and suspected the cooked sweet potato might be the culprit (I eliminated cooked quinoa long ago) so I removed it from her diet and replaced it with more fruit. Her eye healed and the dryness has never returned.

Zeva will be celebrating her 6th year on fruits and raw meat this month and is thriving. She is healthy, a perfect weight, her eyes and ears are clear, teeth are strong, her coat is shiny, full and lush and she is full of energy. This diet saved Zeva’s life from one of misery and pain and in turn, she saved mine. After watching her body detox and heal without medical intervention, I found the human version of this diet and have been living a raw food lifestyle for 5 years as a result. My husband who was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer, elected no medical treatment and instead adopted an “almost” all raw lifestyle and has been cancer free for 2.5 years and counting. Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart!

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Buffy overcomes kidney failure to live a long happy life

This is my precious sweet girl that passed on August 31 and I’m heartbroken. She and her brother were left in a shoebox at the pound. I adopted her at eight weeks to become a service dog for my wheelchair bound mom. Mom passed after having her for five months so she became mine.

After eating kibble and people food for those few months, I had researched and found Nora (RMF) and put her on the sweet potato quinoa diet. For a while, she was fine and then she started dribbling urine when she was sleeping. I did not want to take her to a vet, but after years it was getting worse. The vet did bloodwork and said she had a UTI and her bloodwork showed one point away from kidney failure. He said within 3 months she would need to be put on medicine for the rest of her life. I thought I had done everything right and I felt defeated and did as the vet said. He said to put her on Purina kibble food (the best according to him) and he gave her a steroid shot, an antibiotic shot and antibiotic pills. The next morning her abdomen was bloody and raw. I called the vet and all he could say was that she was a sick dog.

I went back to the Internet to research and found that Lauren had left that group and had started her own group. After fasting her a couple  of days, I began five days of fruit and one meat day, then a fasting day. Buffy took to this diet immediately. We never looked back. She became full of life and never went to a vet or took medicine again. She lived many years after the kidney failure diagnosis and was with me for 15 years and 3 months. Her passing was traumatic to me but she passed when it was her time and she never suffered. It was just hard to watch knowing the end was near. I will always be grateful to Lauren and this group.

Just an interesting fact: I found out the state I live in and many others do not allow you to put an animal in the ground that has been euthanized because the drugs are so poisonous and will contaminate and destroy the wildlife, the insects, the grass and trees, and also it seeps into the ground water. 

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Healing Mya’s Infection

I adopted Mya at the end of 2020 when she was three years old. From the beginning, she was on what was considered a high-quality commercial raw food, recommended by a certified dog nutritionist. We were working with the nutritionist because Mya had digestive issues when she came to us. We tried different probiotics and proteins and followed every recommendation, but her symptoms never really resolved—until we transitioned her to the Natural Diet, which took some time but made a big difference.

In December 2023, when Mya was six years old, she tore one of her toenails during a hike. It split lengthwise, right up to the quick. We kept it dry and wrapped for walks, hoping it would heal up with time.

On January 1st, 2024, we officially started her on the Natural Diet. A couple of months later, by March, the nail still wasn’t right. It had become inflamed, was starting to rot, and had a terrible smell—necrosis was setting in.

We took her to the vet and were told she needed two weeks of heavy antibiotics. They warned us that the “infection” could reach the bone, which might lead to surgery and even bone removal. They firmly stated that the nail would not heal on its own without antibiotics.

By that point, we had been deep into learning about species-specific nutrition and natural healing, and with Mya already on the Natural Diet, we decided to take a different path—we chose to support her with a water fast.

It was our first time fasting her, so we were a bit nervous. But Mya did incredibly well. She lost a little bit of weight—nothing drastic—and stayed her happy, bubbly self. We kept walks short and easy, and she drank plenty of water. The fast was harder on us than it was on her.

By day six, the swelling, smell, and inflammation were completely gone. The nail healed up beautifully, with no medication, no surgery, no medical interventions at all. And she hasn’t had a single issue with it since.

Now, a year and a half later, Mya is thriving on the Natural Diet. That experience really opened our eyes to just how powerful the body can be when given the right conditions to heal, and left to do what it was designed to do. 

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Healing Peter from Stage 2 Kidney Failure

Peter a senior girl(8-10 years old) was rescued by CB Rescue in the Dominican Republic late 2021. She was attached to a short chain being deliberately starved to death. She was a bag of bones. Once in Canada she started to show signs of a bladder infection and was taken to the vet where she was diagnosed as being Stage 2 Kidney Failure. Belinda Morrison (Founder of CB Rescue) declined all medical intervention and brought Peter home and immediately started her on the natural diet. After sharing this news with us my husband and I still decided to move forward with adopting her and jumped right into the Natural Diet(we also had two other seniors that had health concerns which this diet also healed). We fed strictly fruit and vegetables to all of our dogs for 1 year. According to the vet Peter likely only had a year or so left so we really had nothing to lose. That was over 3 years ago. We discovered that according to our vet she has two healthy fully functioning kidneys from a blood panel they did due to something else we were looking into. Once that blood panel came back we knew that this diet had healed her along with healing the other health issues with all of our other dogs. My husband and I adopt and foster senior and hospice dogs and this diet has given them all more time and life with us. I have a hard time referring to our one hospice foster as hospice because she was apparently so sick they didn’t think she would make it to the end of the year. That was over two years ago. There was a lot of learning and a mindset shift on our end and some tough times with detox but, we never need to go to the vet and all 7 of our dogs are thriving. 

Peter Before

Before

Peter After

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Healing Angel’s tumour and arthritis

Angel, our staffie, was 9 years old when we transitioned her onto the natural dog diet. She was overweight from being fed kibble and dog treats all her life, and the weight gain got worse after being spayed. She suffered from arthritis, excessive paw licking/chewing, and she also had a tumour.

Once we transitioned her onto the natural diet, the weight started to drop off her, and she looked like a different dog. She went from being unable to get upstairs without help because of the arthritis, to running up them and jumping onto the bed at 5 am to wake me up for food. She went from looking old, sick, and overweight to looking like a very fit, healthy, and active puppy again. The arthritis healed in no time, and the tumour took around 2 years to heal.

It was a mind-blowing experience to watch how her body took care of the tumour and then disposed of it. It was 13 inches around by the time it broke open, so it was very large.

Angel went through some very intense healing events the year leading up to the tumour healing. She had sores break out on her body and sores in between her paws from the acid waste being expelled in these areas. She would also detox from her mouth, which at times left it difficult for her to eat anything but watery fruits. When her body was breaking down the tumour, she slept a lot, and she was very weak and unsteady on her feet. During this tim,e she would only eat melons. She did lose a lot of weight, but she soon put it back on again once that healing event was over.


The night before the tumour broke open and healed, she had a very high fever, heavy breathing, and was delirious, but once the tumour broke open, she was fine, and the open wound healed up very quickly.
Never ever will I doubt the power of the body to heal itself after watching this take place.
Angel also had a painful UTI around this time, which lasted around 2 days.

When it was Angel’s time to pass over to the other side, she was able to pass away naturally and peacefully at home with her family by her side, and although it was a very sad time, it was also very dignified and peaceful. We got to experience the natural dying process and see how the body starts to break down the muscle as it prepares to return itself back to dust. It was a very peaceful and calm process, unlike when they are pts at the vets, which, from our past experience, was extremely traumatising and frightening for them and ourselves.


Lauren was a great help to us throughout it all.


Lizzie & Cara

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Tegan T. Testimonial – Healing SIBO on the Natural Human Diet

My Journey with “SIBO” and the Natural Hygiene Diet

For years, I dealt with what doctors diagnosed ‘Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth’ (SIBO), but I eventually realized it wasn’t really about bacteria, it was fermentation happening in my gut. Even though I’d been eating a whole food plant-based diet and living a pretty holistic lifestyle since the early 2010s, I still had persistent digestive issues. The bloating, sulfuric gas, and discomfort felt like they’d never go away, and I started to wonder if this was just how things were going to be.

I tried everything: supplements, teas, digestive enzymes, probiotics.. A lot of my friends who were also diagnosed with ‘SIBO’ ended up taking antibiotics even after seeing naturopathic doctors. I was never ready to go that route, so I kept looking for more natural options. I even tried intermittent fasting, hoping it might help, but nothing gave me lasting relief.

Then in October 2024, I started incorporating more elements of the natural hygiene diet into my routine. I wasn’t super strict, but I added a lot more fruit and fresh salads throughout the day. Within just two weeks, my symptoms were completely gone.

The biggest shift for me was realizing that the bacteria weren’t the problem. They were just doing their job, breaking things waste. It was the fermentation itself that was causing all the discomfort. Once my digestion sped up and I started having more regular bowel movements, the fermentation process didn’t have a chance to build up, and all the bloating and gas disappeared.

I also realized I just had a sluggish digestive system. It wasn’t about bacteria overgrowing, it was more about waste moving too slowly. I wasn’t constipated exactly, but I’d sometimes go a day or two without a bowel movement. Now, with this new way of eating, everything’s more regular and balanced.

My digestion feels clear and consistent, and I haven’t dealt with the old symptoms since. It’s not something I think about much anymore which, after everything, is probably the biggest relief of all.

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