Vet advice and feeding your pets?

Question

A lot of times, questions about dog food are answered "ask your vet!"

How many of you take your vet's advice on what food to give your pets?

Does your vet recommend only the "popular" foods (Science Diet, Iams, Purina, etc), or do they recommend more holistic foods (Innova, Merrick, Canidae, etc)? Or do they recommend "any major brand" (including foods like Beneful, Kibbles n Bits, Alpo).
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Answer 1

This is the very reason why I switched vets. The old vet tried to get my dogs on Science Diet or Eukanuba. He claimed that Innova and Canidae weren't good food because not enough testing was done on them. No matter how much I argued about the ingredients, he would not budge. No surprise that Science Diet and Eukanuba were the ones he sold at his office...

My new vet, while they do sell different brands at her office, she has NEVER tried to get me to buy them. When I told her my dogs were on Canidae, she told me that it was an excellent food.

Answer 2

Most Vets know very little about nutrition. They don't have the time or the need to really get into the many brands of food on the market now. Yes most only know Science diet or some other brands because they have their reps coming into the practices give them a ear full of junk about the food.
You have to be a good pet owner look at the food your feeding your dog or cat and then read about what your feeding your pet. This is the only way to really get an informed decision before you feed your dog any food.
I am very forunate to have a vet who is also a breeder her self so she knows the importance of quality dog food. She not only gave me her blessing with the Canidae she feeds this to her dogs as well.

Answer 3

I don't pay attention really to what my vet says about food. My view is well, if Patch's liver can't handle protein, WHY? Let's fix the cause and give him a good quality food. Not prescription junk that's high in artery clogging saturated fat (seriously, look at the ingredients of Hepatic diets).

Most human doctors don't talk about healthy nutrition enough either. A lot of our problems has come after corn took a major role in our diet. Did you know, our bodies don't acknowledge High Fructose Corn Syrup. It automatically stores it and sends to the brain, hey I need more sugar, not getting enough. Which leads to overeating and problems with diabetes.

Gee, is that the problem with our dogfood? The main ingredient is corn and the body says "Hey, I'm still hungry, give me more corn" so our dogs beg for more and we think he's hungry and give more. Hey, could be!

Perhaps Dr. Oz (from Oprah, I love him) should do a book "Fido, on a Diet"

This is an added bit. Don't worry about Patch and his liver. I don't feed him the prescription diet, but I do feed him Natural Balance Vegetarian formula and he's been doing great on it. My point was a lot of prescription diets are great for one ailment, but may make the rest of the dog suffer (ie the cholesterol from all the saturated fat in the hepatic diet).

Answer 4

One of the reasons we chose to change vets was because ours didn't seem very sharp during our last visit- we told him that one of our dogs was intolerant of beef. A few minutes later when we were asking what to give him during a stomach illness, the vet recommended beef. Um, hello?

In my experience, vets do lean toward the popular brands- especially Iams and Science diet. This is another area that I wouldn't take a vet's word on. The other is training. It seems to me that the bulk of vets know almost nothing about effective training. It's disheartening because I feel like I have to take what they say with a grain of salt, unless there's a direct medical correlation.

Don't get me wrong- I'm not saying I'm more competent than vets or that they don't know anything. I have tremendous respect for them.

Answer 5

You should NEVER take the advice of a vet who is not a holistic one. Many vets think Iams, Purina, Science Diet, Eukanuba, etc. are the "best" because they are the largest brands and therefore "must" be the best. One of Iams' sales lures is that 4 out of 5 vets recommend their food. HAH! Undereducated, ignorant vets, Iams!

Our vet hasn't recommended a food 'cause our dog's pretty healthy and we never asked for one.

Answer 6

I have a young female with some digestive system issues, which has forced me to really tune into the whole issue of food ingredients and quality. While my vet does sell prescription diets, he has never pushed me to buy that, or any other food. In fact, he is willing to look at ingredients and give me his opinion. I respect his advice, but feel that I should make the final decision. So I suppose I'm fortunate in that regard.

Answer 7

I don't take my vets advice on food. Vet's push foods like Science Diet and Eukanuba, both are total junk IMO. I chose the food I feed my dogs (Canidae) according to suggestion from people with similar breeds and by looking at the ingredients and most importantly, by what works best with my dogs systems.

Answer 8

vet advice feeding pets

Answer 9

I make it a point to not listen to vets when it comes to dog food. My dog's first vet recommended Purina Puppy Chow. The second recommended Science Diet. Both foods are horrendous. Ive talked to the vet a few times to try to get them interested in other foods; he has now admitted that Science Diet sales are a large part of his income so he has no intention of getting rid of it in his office.

Answer 10

Well, my vet recommended Wellness food to me which is a holistic cat food. I can ask my vet for advice and they will give it to me. For instance, I was feeding "Science Diet Sensitive Stomach" to my cat because she couldn't keep anything down, and after a few vet visits and a sick cat they recommended a more natural food like Wellness.

Not all vets are pushy on their foods, mine was wonderful because now I have a happy plump cat, where before I had a thin misrible cat.