What my vet thinks about dog food

I took Kingston to the vet today to see why he was having runny stools. Turns out he had a bacterial build-up from something he ate that he wasn't supposed to. No surprise there!

Anyway, I began talking with my vet about changing Kingston's dog food. I've been using Eukanuba Puppy and after lots of research decided on switching to Canidae Chicken & Rice. I picked up a bunch of sample bags of the Canidae, but haven't started Kingston on it yet because he began having the upset stomach.

Needless to say, my vet was NOT IMPRESSED. She said she had never heard of Canidae and would not recommend feeding something that isn't a "national brand product" such as Eukanuba, Hills, Royal Canin, etc. She emphasized "national brand product" several times during the conversation. She then mentioned the "Diamond" brand of dog food and told me about how it was once highly recommended by breeders and all the dog journals. However, something went terribly wrong with one of the ingredients and several dogs died from eating Diamond brand dog food. My vet says these types of foods that aren't a "national brand" have not been through enough testing to be considered safe.

So...I am stuck with the decision of what to do about Kingston's food. I was thinking about Royal Canin anyway, so maybe I'll just feed that. I know vets aren't the know-all say-all, but I do respect this woman and think she's genuine. However, just because she hasn't heard of Canidae does not mean it isn't a great food.

I'm really interested to hear what others think!

Yikes! It freaks me out that so many vets are clueless about food. If I were you I would go with your gut instinct and stick to the Canidae. If your vet is receptive to input I would print out or email this excellent Dog Food Report (http://www.lucythewonderdog.com/dogfoodreport.htm) and give it to your vet to read. I would also consider giving them a copy of the Whole Dog Journal's "Why We Like Whole Food" article which also lists their top dry dog food picks. You can download a copy of it from my website here: http://www.dilettante.info/downloads/WDJ_BestDogFood2005.pdf

Picking a healthy, wholesome food for your dog is not rocket science. It's a matter of picking food that has wholesome ingredients in the correct proportions and not too many fillers and preservatives. Many of the "Brand Name" foods have too many fillers and don't even have meat as their first ingredient and that troubles me.

Good luck!

Where are you located? I can't imagine a vet never having heard of Canidae! As far as a "national brand"....what does she mean? CA Natural can't be bought in the grocery store but it's a well recognized brand. I think I'd look into this a little further. Definitely check to WDJ list.

The dog food beginning with 'D' had a terrible problem last winter. It was due to the humidity level not being checked in the corn gluten meal that was delivered to the factory. A mold or fungus grew in the corn gluten meal which was processed into the dog food. The particular mold or fungus releases toxins, which did kill several dogs last winter. A vet saw a pattern and notified authorities, so the food was recalled fairly quickly. There were articles in all the dog magazines this year!! They basically got a slap on the wrist for that error.

After reading about this, I decided to not feed my dogs any food that contains corn gluten meal. The only exception would be if the dog had a very serious illness, since I know Hills prescription foods have corn gluten meal. If your dog has urine crystals, etc. it may be better to feed Hills than risk having surgery.

Also, some organic lawn care companies use corn gluten meal as a weed preventative. Just a warning - don't use corn gluten meal on the lawn if your dogs are on it!

I have never tried Canidae, since it is not available near me. I would not hesitate to recommend Innova, Innova Evo, California Natural, or Wellness. My vet says to check on the dog food container for AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials) Dog Nutrient Profiles for All Life Stages.

Royal Canin is also a very good food. Geordie has a sensitivity to some of the ingredients, so I don't buy it, but it is a very good food. Their breeder feeds it to her dogs, and recommended it to us.

Cathy Moon said:

The dog food beginning with 'D' had a terrible problem last winter. It was due to the humidity level not being checked in the corn gluten meal that was delivered to the factory. A mold or fungus grew in the corn gluten meal which was processed into the dog food. The particular mold or fungus releases toxins, which did kill several dogs last winter. A vet saw a pattern and notified authorities, so the food was recalled fairly quickly. There were articles in all the dog magazines this year!! They basically got a slap on the wrist for that error.

After reading about this, I decided to not feed my dogs any food that contains corn gluten meal. The only exception would be if the dog had a very serious illness, since I know Hills prescription foods have corn gluten meal. If your dog has urine crystals, etc. it may be better to feed Hills than risk having surgery.

Also, some organic lawn care companies use corn gluten meal as a weed preventative. Just a warning - don't use corn gluten meal on the lawn if your dogs are on it!

I have never tried Canidae, since it is not available near me. I would not hesitate to recommend Innova, Innova Evo, California Natural, or Wellness. My vet says to check on the dog food container for AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials) Dog Nutrient Profiles for All Life Stages.

Royal Canin is also a very good food. Geordie has a sensitivity to some of the ingredients, so I don't buy it, but it is a very good food. Their breeder feeds it to her dogs, and recommended it to us.

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Actually two of mine have a sensitivity to Royal Canin Holistic. I don't know what in particular-- but both will get diarrhea shortly after starting it. I would LOVE to know what she meant by national brand product. Many national brands are owned by BIG human food producers--- I wonder what happens when the ingredients don't pass for human consumption?

you know what's funny - I took Kosmo to the vets tonight because we were out of ear cleaner. He hasn't seen the vet in 4 months now and she came out to see how he was doing. She asked what I was feeding him and I told her "Innova:EVO" and she basically did the same thing that your vet did !! First she said "i have heard of innova, but what's evo?" then was defending eukanuba, science diet, etc. .

I just think it's ironic that this happened to both of us in the same day! lol

That being said I am completely in love with kosmo's food now - i have no struggles getting him to eat anymore which is a HUGE burden off of my back.

I would do some more research if I were you@! It took me a long time to decide for Kos, but I am very glad I made the decision that I did !

Where are you located? I can't imagine a vet never having heard of Canidae!

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Cathy, I'm from the big state of Texas! I live in a huge city but there are only 3 stores that sell Canidae. I guess it's just not that well-known around here. ???

It's strange that my vet would tell me about the "D" dog food having bad corn, but then not recommend me using a dog food with no corn ingredients (like Canidae).

That reminds me....She had not heard of Canidae, but she knew of the other top names I mentioned (Wellness, Solid Gold, etc.). She then said Solid Gold had some controversial issues as well! She didn't go into detail on that.

Here is a website that kinda explains the national brand dog foods.

http://www.thedogbowl.com/PPF/category_ID/37/dogbowl.asp


Ewww

I use Wellness, it causes looser stools ( Looser than say a barf diet) but their coats and energy have improved since the switch~

However.... I have been warned that the Wellness catfood can cause problems with allergys so I stay clear of the cat food from Wellness for right now. Blueberrys are one of the ingrediants, and it can cause rashes with cats.....

Ewwww indeed on that bad dog food.!!!

My vet put Lucky on Eukabuba Low Residue (prescription diet) b/c of his tummy troubles ... I didn't want to do it, but Wellness and Innova were just not working to get rid of his diarrhea ... the Eukanuba is.

Now I'm very torn ... I knew it had by-products which I wasn't loving anyway, but it is really working on keeping his stool firm ...

The one thing I will say about tummy problems is that we have had wonderful success with CA Natural chicken and rice. Jake doesn't do well on straight chicken (I tried that when he had diahhrea) but does great on this food. We were using Purina vet formula EN for gastrointestinal disorders for a while. It was fine but I really wanted to get him on something I could buy without going to my vet's office and wanted something could eat as well. The CA Natural was great.

The one thing I like bout my vet is that he's really down to earth. He will only put a dog/cat on a presciption diet if all other regular foods aren't working... He asked me in the past what food I was feeding King, I told him Innova: Evo. He said he's heard of it, but hasen't heard to much. He said, "If King likes it, you like it, and there's no weight gain/lose or allergy problems then I'm fine with your choice of dog food" I was really surprised but what he said.

I (vagly) remember the vet my grandma had for all her cats (this is about 10 yrs ago, every cat she had the vet put on a special diet, and this is 6 cats. So that's about 5 different foods for her cats. When she found a food the cats did well on, so when the vet found out she was arguing with my grandma bout the foods she was feeding. After that my grandma switched vets.

One of the things I find really bizarre is how picky we can be about dog food -- yet unless you are buying organic meat in the US, there are huge amounts of antibiotics and hormones that are perfectly legal and quite routine in everyday chicken, beef, etc. Some of those additives are not allowed into the European food chain and thus we don't tend to see US meat in Irish or UK supermarkets. Not that European meat is all that pure though -- cattle in both the US and Europe are routinely fed meal that is made of ground up animals -- in other words, farmers feed vegetarian animals meat. Beef is now banned in feed as well as sheep because of mad cow disease fears, but all of the following are allowed to be fed to grazing animals intended for the human food chain -- lambs, cattle, etc. In other words you are likely eating beef that quite likely was fed with ground chicken, pork, or horse, or blood or gelatin (a beef by-product), or restaurant waste that includes meat ("plate waste"). This list is directly from the FDA website:

Blood and blood products
P Gelatin
P Milk products (milk and milk proteins)
P Pure porcine (pork) or pure equine (horse) protein products
P Inspected meat products, such as plate waste, which have been
cooked and offered for human food and further heat processed for
animal feed
#
The following nonmammalian protein products are exempt:
P Poultry
P Marine (fish)
P Vegetable
#
The following products are also exempt because they are not protein or
tissue:
P Grease
P Fat
P Amino acids
P Tallow
P Oil
P Dicalcium phosphate

Given that a dog will only ingest whatever we feed it for a decade-plus, but we will be eating this for 70-80+ years, I think I'd have more issues with what is considered fit for the human food chain (and thus for that matter, ending up in the premium dog foods) too. :shock:

Generally, I think most of us spend a lot more time aiming for a great diet for the dogs then sneak off for donuts and chips, cans of soda and chocolate bars. :lol:

I guess it's just easier to neglect myself than it is for me to neglect a small animal who is entirely dependent on me. I feel so responsible for Kingston's well-being that I obsess over every tiny detail. Sometimes I catch myself desperately researching things on the Internet (like the possible cause of doggie diarrhea, for instance) and all of a sudden I'm like, wow I have to stop doing these things!

Hopefully I'm not the only crazy one out there! :yikes

I don't suppose you have tinned Butchers tripe over there ? Though advertised as an adult food, it is very mild; in fact lighter on the tummy than many special puppy foods. There are no artificial additives and it can be used as a complet fodd or with mixer. My boys love it , even picky Izzy and the bonus is that it's one of the cheaper products, which is also often on special offer as well.

There are certain well known brands which i would never feed; not because of the content, but the cruelty involved in the production experiments. If I get complete dried (Which I do for a change) i buy the ethical Pero from Wales or Vitalin , from Yorkshire; both being made by small companies.

Yes, we have canned tripe-- green tripe even. I believe the brand name is Tripett or trippet. It is the worst smelling dogfood, but the dogs love it.

Re: meats-- the USDA has decided that the hormones and antibiotics are at safe levels in the USA. (whether or not - is a totally different issue). They have come out and stated pregnant women and children should avoid (or severly limit) canned tuna(and other seafoods) due to the Mercury content. There are many areas that I am more fearful --- contaminated water, nuclear power etc... You can worry yourself into an ulcer. I just try to make the best choices for me and my family. FWIW
Sandy

I will have to say, as negative as it may be: most vets push certain brands because they sell it in their clinics. Not to mention the more they sell or recomend, they get a commission off the sale as an agreement with the food company. I read several articles about the animal-by-products in Science Diet and almost every vet in Tampa carries it and pushes it like it was a drug. I'm sure there is a link between recomending "national brands" and the commission the vets get. Brands like Wellness and Innova seem to really care about their products and they are a lot more selective about who they allow to sell it.

My shih tzu has ridiculous allergies to wheat, corn, soy, dairy and eggs so my cavaliers end up eating whatever he gets to prevent a skin break out. I feed my dogs Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul and it is pretty good. Not as good as Wellness, which I am going to switch back to because it has become more available in my area. I just have to wait because I bought a 50 pund bag of Chicken Soup last month :sl*p:

I hear you - I am going to stick with this Eukanuba until the bag is done but then will probably switch to the CA Natural since it gets such rave reviews on this site.

I am just hesitant to mess with something that is working because Lucky's had such tummy troubles and it is nice to see something controlling it ... Even if it is not really up to my quality standards otherwise in terms of the bi-products, etc.

My shih tzu has ridiculous allergies to wheat, corn, soy, dairy and eggs so my cavaliers end up eating whatever he gets to prevent a skin break out. I feed my dogs Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul

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Doesn't Chicken Soup contain soy???

KingstonsMom said:

My shih tzu has ridiculous allergies to wheat, corn, soy, dairy and eggs so my cavaliers end up eating whatever he gets to prevent a skin break out. I feed my dogs Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul

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Doesn't Chicken Soup contain soy???

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Here is the list of ingredients:

Ingredients
Chicken, turkey, chicken meal, turkey meal, whole grain brown rice, whole grain white rice, oatmeal, potatoes, cracked pearled barley, millet, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), duck, salmon, egg product, flaxseed, natural chicken flavor, kelp, potassium chloride, salt, choline chloride, chicory root extract, carrots, peas, apples, dried skim milk, cranberry powder, rosemary extract, parsley flake. Vitamins and minerals.