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The top allergy for most pets is corn and chicken yet in so many of the prescription diets to treat pets with allergies have either or both ingredients? Doesn't make sense does it?
First off, MANY MANY dogs have zero problem with corn. You think the premium dog food companies don't sell us hype either to get us to buy their food-I would gather that most veterinarians have at least as much nutritional knowledge as the average person with dogs who reads stuff on the web. I agree grain is not a part of the natural diet for wild canids but dogs have lived with people for eons.
Not that I do not have issues with commercial dog food, which is really the waste repository of the human food processing industry so downers, trash, etc does get into the animal food chain and I do tend to buy human grade foods for my pets.
Second. The protein in z/d is broken down into peices by hydrolysis and supplies the necessary amino acids but the protein chains are not long enough to be recognized as allergens.
I put a dog on z/d until I could do an elimination diet and figure out what I actually COULD feed him (hint, corn was just fine but chicken was not) and the main reason I did switch from z/d is that for a GSD, it would break the bank plus I had concerns about long term use of some of the ingredients but I would take that and the associated percieved health risks over a miserable dog ANY DAY.
The top allergy for most pets is corn and chicken yet in so many of the prescription diets to treat pets with allergies have either or both ingredients? Doesn't make sense does it?
Oh it sure makes sense for them, though!
What are the odds that a pet owner was feeding precise combinations of
As a matter of fact, yes. More than one dog. Hot-spots, along with chronic ear infections. Poo wasn't bloody, but the diarrhea ... couldn't figure it out.
One dog's paws were chewed bloody, along with yeast ear infections, another was around the tail. yet another was all along his back and stomach. He was almost BALD!
Dogs were drugged up, given Steroids, too. NEVER cleared up entirely until we finally wised up about ingredients. But by then we were down to our last dog. If we'd only known the half of it... he was 12 before we could finally throw those eardrops and pills away.
I just don't understand the animosity folks face when they are grabbing at straws and trying to do the best for their pets. I think God I had z/d to bridge a gap for me because I was beside myself. My current dogs could eat rocks and thrive but this one poor dear was a mess.
With a dog allergic to chicken I am sure that the advice from many would be to feed a raw diet of lamb and other exhorbinantly priced foods because it is almost impossible to avoid in dog foods.
So, I know folks will gag to hear that he ate Purina ONE Salmon for years after the diagnosis and was healthy (chicken FAT, not a problem, chicken meal-with the proteins, yes). Garbage food. Yes. But I know other allergic dogs that have thrived on Beneful and I am not going to judge their owners, not one bit.
Now to the OP - why did he prescribe the diet he did. You mentioned tummy upset? How were the dogs serum protein levels since he commented on proteins-Blue Buffalo is quite high. I cut my dog's diet from EVO to Natural Balance LID grain free because he is getting older and his protein was elevated . It is working well for him and I rotate every bag to a different meat source. ANNUAL shots? I would ask about that unless you have reason to give lepto and bordatella, AAHA recommends every 3 years for everything else and evidence is strong most really last upwards of 7 years.
Last edited by grannynancy; 12-22-2010 at 09:56 AM..
I believe that veterinarians took an oath to put the well-being of our pets first and are not abiding by that. If they were, there are certainly healthier foods they'd be recommending, and not mis-leading trusting pet owners to think their dogs need to be consuming corn, soy, cardboard, Ethoxyquin & BHA/BHT, because these companies so generously fund the Veterinary profession.
I believe that is very unfair to trusting pet owners. Unfair to us at the time, unfair to you, unfair to anyone who hasn't yet learned the hard way, and will, eventually. NOT properly diagnosing food-related illness -- not even TAKING what we may have been feeding into consideration for the causes. Then selling us a food?!
I think that is wrong.
Not ONCE were we asked about the food, the ingredients, we were feeding when presented with the ailments.
We were there once. Which is why I'm even posting about this.
Last edited by Pamina333; 12-22-2010 at 10:07 AM..
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HOF4256
Woah, nobody is judging the owners.
We fed Beneful for years.
I believe that veterinarians took an oath to put the well-being of our pets first and are not abiding by that. If they were, there are certainly healthier foods they'd be recommending, and not mis-leading trusting pet owners to think their dogs need to be consuming corn, soy, cardboard, Ethoxyquin & BHA/BHT, because these companies so generously fund the Veterinary profession.
I believe that is very unfair to trusting pet owners. Unfair to us at the time, unfair to you, unfair to anyone who hasn't yet learned the hard way, and will, eventually. NOT properly diagnosing food-related illness -- not even TAKING what we may have been feeding into consideration for the causes. Then selling us a food?!
I think that is wrong.
Not ONCE were we asked about the food, the ingredients, we were feeding when presented with the ailments.
We were there once. Which is why I'm even posting about this.
The problem is that vets learn very little about nutrition in school. I take my dog to the vet for medical care; I take it upon myself to deal with his nutritional care.
When I first got Artie, he was on Science Diet. I switched him to Iams. I had NO idea about these types of foods.
His stools were always soft. I would take him to the vet, ask what was going on, get his anal sacs expressed, ask again... nobody said ANYTHING about his food.
After much conversation on this very forum, someone suggested that perhaps Artie was grain intolerant. I had no idea that there were grains in the food he was eating, nor did I know that there were dog foods that were grain-free. So I researched it and put him on grain-free food.
Poop problem solved!
In the interim, we moved and, therefore, switched vets to one closer.
This one asked what Artie ate. AHA! Someone who cares! I told her that he ate (at the time) a mixture of Wellness Core and Taste of the Wild. (He currently eats Orijen). She wasn't familiar with these foods. I told her that I fed him those foods because they're grain-free. "Ahhh," she said, but not in a way that suggested that it would make a difference. It was more of a "OK, whatever."
ANYway.
At first I was perturbed. Why wasn't my vet interested in Artie's food, since it solved such a large "medical" problem for him?
And then it occurred to me. A vet -- like any doctor -- is a scientist. They don't study the relationship between diet and health the way a nutritionist does.
A few years after I was diagnosed with MS (early 1990s), I came across "The MS Diet." When I spoke to my doctor about it (and he was the top guy in his field in Montreal, where I was living at the time), he said "It's a good cardiovascular diet but it won't help with your MS."
Fast forward a year: "We've never gone a whole year without you having to come in with an attack! What's going on?" To which I replied, "I'm on 'The MS Diet.'" He shrugged and said that it was a coincidence. Meanwhile, I haven't had an attack in 15+ years. So... ?
Did I fault him? No. He can't know everything. He was doing research on MS drugs, etc... His focus wasn't on nutrition (which I could do myself) but on medicine (which I could not).
I'm not saying that vets shouldn't care about our dogs' nutrition -- they SHOULD! -- but I'm saying that I'd rather that they spend their time learning about things that I, myself, can't. That way, we're all pulling our weight.
I'm not sure vets are any better qualified to prescribe dietary plans than doctors are, unless their doctorate is in nutrition.
My Bigun had severe elimination problems when we first got him at four months. Blue Buffalo lamb and rice puppy kibble was the only food that he was able to tolerate. At 18 months, he's on the adult version, and is still as healthy in all aspects, including his appetite.
When the dog food crisis was taking place, I recall that IAMS had nearly every one of their foods listed, but Blue Buffalo was not.
I suggest you research further. I did, and I am satisfied I made the right choice.
First off, MANY MANY dogs have zero problem with corn. You think the premium dog food companies don't sell us hype either to get us to buy their food-I would gather that most veterinarians have at least as much nutritional knowledge as the average person with dogs who reads stuff on the web. I agree grain is not a part of the natural diet for wild canids but dogs have lived with people for eons.
Not that I do not have issues with commercial dog food, which is really the waste repository of the human food processing industry so downers, trash, etc does get into the animal food chain and I do tend to buy human grade foods for my pets.
Second. The protein in z/d is broken down into peices by hydrolysis and supplies the necessary amino acids but the protein chains are not long enough to be recognized as allergens.
I put a dog on z/d until I could do an elimination diet and figure out what I actually COULD feed him (hint, corn was just fine but chicken was not) and the main reason I did switch from z/d is that for a GSD, it would break the bank plus I had concerns about long term use of some of the ingredients but I would take that and the associated percieved health risks over a miserable dog ANY DAY.
It is a bunch of B.S. that the Quality food companies are feeding hype. I don't see Champion touring the country to talk about Orijen and Acana, or Nature's Variety talking about their raw diet and two other diets. The reason that they foods do so well is that more people are better informed about their own diets and then transfer on that information to those of their pets. I thought that Eukanuba was the best thing I could ever feed my pet. I met a rep, they were at Dog Shows, and it was the most expensive food in Petsmart. Why wouldn't it be the best? When I found out that I would have been feeding the same thing if I had fed IAMS (which was a heck of a lot cheaper) that was when I was pissed!
I have had animals with weight problems, diabetes, cancer, Recovering after winning against Parvo, Mange and major allergies and the foods they all have done the best on have been the highest quality ones and all their health issues have become distant memories. Thank goodness! Research is my job and I carry it over to being informed in my personal life with food. Not everyone has access to the greatest foods, but if they did, I am sure that they would be interested in feeding the best thing they could afford.
No one is ever bad for feeding a certain food, but everyone deserves to be informed like I was. There are always better options. You don't have to feed a five star food to be a good pet parent. You just need to be aware of what you are feeding them and not overspending on a brand because you think it is better - i.e. Buying Eukanuba over Purina Dog Chow. Might as well buy the Dog Chow. But, if you do want to feed better, there are options out there and many of us have been in those shoes at one point or another.
But most education I see is folks simply parrotting misinformation from the web, for example "corn is the most common allergen" (Yes, I have a graduate degree in Chemistry and undergrad in biochem)....I took the info about corn to my vet and she said...hold on....the most common allergens are with either one meat component or eggs followed by grains and corn leads among the GRAIN allergies. I checked that out to be true. And it was certainly true in my case.
You know you have to really shop to buy a chicken free dog food! And chicken is a very common allergen. That is because they like to put a variety of different meat sources in most of the "upscale" foods. I had the same issue with my allergic dog with flaxseed and to be honest, I am not fond of it in dog foods either but it is another one hard to avoid.
I am old enough to remember when folks bought lamb for allergic dogs but then everyone started addeing lamb to dog food so now lamb does not usually help.
I agree with the rotation mentality and that is what I do...rotate between single source protein foods. One reason I am not doing raw though if I can get a big freezer I may have enough access to some cheap alternate meats know (such as venison) to make a go of it again.
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Doesn't make sense does it?
