Vets and nutrition

[Carolinamidwife]

While I am sure the vets who post here (and many of your personal vets) are not like this [/disclaimer] every vet I have ever been to has been clueless about dog nutrition.

Our current vet has framed articles in the exam rooms decrying the dangers of the raw diet and she told me that organic dog foods can be dangerous. Instead of Solid Gold she wanted me to feed Eukanuba with that nasty gravy stuff.

Our previous vet harassed me non-stop about switching to Science Diet.

Why is there a gap in vet knowledge when it comes to nutrition. I wouldn't feed a rat Eukanuba let alone my dog.

[mom0810]

Same reason pediatricians are so pro-vaccine. THey are FLOODED with information from the food companies, but not from any other sources and they don't have time to really research any other side of the info. They get free samples to give out from the food companies, too. I always used to get free Iams-labeled stuff every time I went in with new puppies. Since I get free stuff as a breeder, I kind of understand it. A lot of the big food co's have "breeder programs" and it makes it quite tempting.

My vet HATES the raw diet (but then I won't feed it, so I don't care) she is really old school, like me in a lot of ways. There is a huge electric sign in her office that reads all kinds of stuff about how bad a raw diet is.

But, a couple of breeders that work for her in the office feed raw and do nothing but holistic stuff. Including nosodes instead of vaccines. SO there is room for all kinds of thinking. It's not like Iams or Pro Plan will do any damage to MOST dogs... kind of like vaccines to kids. But for the concerned owner who wants to do better... there is a huge amount of good kibble to choose from.