Lio has hip dysplasia... how do we prevent the worst?

[Yzma]

Thanks, I'll be sure to tell him as soon as he gets up... Then maybe we will swop over to a large breed formula... Any suggestions? We were thinking of feeding them Canidae... www.canidae.com

[k9Karen]

I've not personally used the Canidae, but I've heard good things about it. I've had good luck with the Nutro Natural line (not the Nutro Max), but haven't used anything else. Do remember that when a vet tries to sell you food, he may have the best intentions, or the info he gives may be slanted because he will be making a profit on the product. Eukanuba and Science Diet used to availble only from vets and it was better then than it is now. Read the ingredients on bag of whatever food you decide on to make sure they are what you want.

[Yzma]

We eventually bought was science diet large breed adult formula as it has a higher level of vitamin c, and all the other things that you mentioned. I can't recall the names but it seemed pretty solid.

We didn't pick canidae because it is not specifically for large breeds and with the possibility of him having hip dysplasia we decided to play it safe.

Any recommendation for what type of vitamin c to give them? will a couple of orange segments do? or should we get him some gnc ester-C? or is there a vitamin c formula for puppies? actually, maybe we should ask the oracle (our vet)... we're going tomorrow anyway.

[Traci]

Do remember that when a vet tries to sell you food, he may have the best intentions, or the info he gives may be slanted because he will be making a profit on the product. Eukanuba and Science Diet used to availble only from vets and it was better then than it is now.

Sorry, Karen, but I want to add 2 cents to this.

The info is not slanted....how many pet foods are you aware of that are actually developed by vets, and researched by vets? (can't say that for many of the brands out there, hence marketing gimmicks)

How many pet food products back their product with continuing research, and back the product by having vets, nutritionists, scientists available to answer questions and provide data and interactive communication when requested? How many pet food manufacturers sponser client and vet events, continuing health research, veterinary conferences (shall I go on)

Vet's don't make much of a profit on the food products they sell. I can tell you with confidence that their "cost" isn't a profit, least of all any profit that reflects much on total sales within the clinic (they also don't "markup" foods as opposed to pharmaceuticals, lab services, etc). Depending on the inventory, number of employees, etc, they might get a free bag of food here and there as a courtesy from the reps or because they have a standing customer relationship, this would apply to any business/service.

If a client doesn't want to feed Science Diet or other veterinary brands, that's fine, but I get really upset when I hear over and over how vets get kickbacks and sell their products without knowing anything about nutrition or assuming what the rep tells them. UGhhhhhh........

[k9Karen]

Traci - I'm sure you're right about most vets here in the US (Yzma isn't - I don't know what things are like in Malaysia). Unfortunately, all it takes is one rotten apple to spoil the sauce. I do know of 2 specific instances where the person (one was my brother) felt the vet was insistant upon selling food that didn't work for their cat or dog, and was indignant when they chose a brand he didn't sell. (Brother changed vets). It is probably rare, and it may have been more of an ego thing than a nutrition one, I don't know. My vet doesn't sell regular food, only the prescription ones, so I've never been faced with the problem myself. On another board several years ago one of the vet techs that posted there said that the reps often misrepresented their products and didn't tell them when the product had been changed. Again, that may also be rare, and may have had to do with the area of the country they were in, but I have to believe it does happen. We have some great reps that call on us, but one in particular that is pure sleeze - unfortunately, his products are great so we have to deal with him. That one bad apple, unfortunately.

[Traci]

I can't speak for the reps, that's a different story....I don't know whether they are thoroughly trained in the product they sell or not. I am speaking of the actual product, who it is developed by, and the knowledge/experience/ongoing research behind the product. Science Diet and Iam's, for example, go far and beyond for both the vet and the client, the availability for communication, training, research, etc far exceed that of most other pet food manufacturers, that was my original point.

And you are absolutely right on about only taking one bad apple to spoil the sauce.....unfortunately, that occured (and will continue) across the net, based on personal opinion and/or conjecture, fabricated stories/propoganda/hype, but little factual evidence.

[k9Karen]

Hasn't Iam's changed it's formula since it was bought out by Purina and put in the grocery stores?

[Guest]

Actually, we've had two vets. And in both cases we've fed our pets what the vet has recommended, BUT we haven't necessarily bought the product from him as they do sell the exactly the same foods in the petstores here, and they sell it cheaper, plus they have all these membership cards so if you get a card you get a further 15% off and stuff like that... I can't remeber the exact numbers, but the vets here do sell their products for a much higher price than the pet stores... Besides the pet shop industry here is pretty big these days, so most, if not all of them carry all the brands that the vet carries. The only exception to this is all the waltham's products, because you need a prescription for those.

*sigh.... I just wish Science Diet would start using human grade products like some of the other companies do.... I know it's probably not a huge factor in the food quality but i HATE to think that i'm putting food that isn't good enough for me on my kitties plate... We feed ours felidae, but we took the full nutritional analysis for felidae and had it looked at by our vet before we started feeding it to them, just to make sure it was ok...

[Yzma]

So we went and bought larged breed dog food by science diet... Then yesterdy while Luna was getting her shots, we asked the vet if it was ok to feed them large breed dog food, and she said that it would be better to stick with puppy food until they are at least 6months old and then swop to non-puppy food....