Nutrients in Ingredients -- Featuring Beef Spleen!

When Meatball first came to me as a foster, bloodwork from the vet showed he was pretty anemic. The test results helped me determine the amount of iron he needed to be added to his diet. Enter: beef spleen.

An iron-rich, nutrient-dense lean organ meat and one of my favorite foods to work with when formulating diets as well. As little as 10g of raw beef spleen provides 4.46mg of iron and when cooked it provides 3.94mg of iron. Whether cooked or raw it’s also packed with…

-potassium

-selenium

-phosphorus

-magnesium

+ a boost of calcium, Vitamin C, and Vitamin B12

Spleen has 5x more heme-iron than liver!! Heme-iron (iron from meat) is best absorbed in the body by dogs vs. iron from plants which is poorly absorbed by dogs.

Heme iron is critical to many metabolic functions including oxygen transportation and maintaining normal production of cells and hormones among many other functions. Iron is an *essential nutrient* for dogs meaning they must consume it in order to gain and use it within their body. It’s vital for their health and life.

Once I began adding heme iron from spleen into Meatball’s diet, he thrived. He went from unable to put on weight to forming major muscles and having more energy.

When I can source beef spleen and cook it I will feed it to him that way. Otherwise I use the beef spleen supplement from Code Age or Ancestral Supplements - both fantastic products.

Anemia in dogs can occur from a wide variety of reasons from poor genetics to complications from intestinal parasites such as giardia or coccidia. I believe Meatball’s anemia was from having giardia when he was first rescued and undergoing all the trauma he went through with his legs as well. Now, his blood work is perfect and no signs of anemia are present!

If you have questions about beef spleen or Meatball’s journey with anemia, let me know in the comments.