Just a rant about how vets in general don't know enough about pet nutrition.

It seems whenever you take your pet in for anything they want to know what you are feeding the animal. When you tell them the brand they poo poo it and recommend what they sell at their clinic - this has happened to me 4 different times with 4 different clinics! It's so annoying because Science Diet isn't such a great pet food to be recommending over my superior pet food. I know how the makers of Science Diet set up new vets and pay for clinics, etc. so I understand why they promote the product but don't they bother checking up on other brands too and just fall for the brainwashing?

How hard is it to read a few labels to compare ingredients? I guess what irks me the most is when I try to explain the difference they just look at me blankly.

" It's so annoying because Science Diet isn't such a great pet food to be recommending over my superior pet food. "



Isn't SUCH a great dog food?

Ah-hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

My vet had never heard of giving pumpkin to a dog for diarrhea either, it kind of makes me wonder about their credibility sometimes when I thought pumpkin was general knowledge.
No wonder people don't like taking their pets in to vets, you never know when you are going to get scammed next.
Why are so many vets against feeding BARF diets also? Just because a pet food company told them it was a bad idea?

Just a slightly different perspective - While I'm in total agreement that Science Diet leaves a whole lot to be desired as far as diet goes, I don't think they are out there paying vets loads of money to promote their foods. I keep hearing that Science Diet pays for this that or the other thing with vets, but I really don't think this is the case. It certainly isn't for a couple of new vets that I know of.

I think SD heavily markets their products and research to vets and vet students and that the products have some proven results. In my experience they market to owner too with freebies for vets to hand out. They also are a leader in prescription diets - think total cereal tailored to your dog's condition (even though it's not optimal nutrition by any stretch of the imagination).

As to why vets wouldn't recommend BARF, well, I can totally understand it. It's too much work for the average pet owner. Raw feeding takes a certain amount of research and work that many owners just won't do. So in the end it's healthier to eat total cereal than a diet of all ground beef.

I think any good vet is going to work with the owner - on diet, meds, owner concerns, etc. If a vet is disregarding any food but what they sell, I think this speaks poorly of the vet in general. I wouldn't take my dog to a vet with that type of "my way or the highway" attitude because it's going to be an issue with more than just food.

My understanding is that SD DOES set up grants & scholarship funds for vet students. Not sure if there is any so- called agreement about promoting their products in return...but they all DO seem to push it. Although my vet also has other brands that they sell.

As for raw, Mara is right, most vets, mine included, don't promnote raw, as most pet owners would just toss ground whatever at their dog & say they are feeding raw. Mine is onboard with raw if she knows that you understand what you are doing & do it properly. It is worse to feed a crap kibble then a poorly done homemade raw diet & far more distructive to your dog's health. At least there is nutritional balance in the kibble even if lesser quality meat sources & grains. But still better then giving a dog raw ground meat only daily, which is what most pet owners think is a raw diet.

 Quote: Anne Jones

My understanding is that SD DOES set up grants & scholarship funds for vet students. Not sure if there is any so- called agreement about promoting their products in return...but they all DO seem to push it. Although my vet also has other brands that they sell.

Scholarships and grants I understand. But I've heard several people say that SD sets vets up in practice, gives them huge kick backs for selling food, etc, and I've just never seen any proof of this.

I'm kind of guessing that the foothold SD has is more marketing than money. SD is well established in the veterinary community, there are some sponsored education/nutrition classes by SD in school and vets never go any further than that. I would imagine the SD is very user friendly for veterinary practices to get set up with/order/use etc.

Anyways, that's just my supposition. I have no real proof of that either, it just makes more sense to me than that they are buying off an entire industry where a good portion of the people entering the field have a love for what they do as opposed to being in it strictly for the money. Not saying that there aren't some rotten apples out there, but I don't think the majority of them can just be bought off like that.

I worked for a large pet food company a few years ago, a competitor I suppose of SD. I did not see proof but we heard stories from vets how SD had bought vets right in vet schools. They would provide huge incentives to these newly graduated vets to open up their own clinics with financing from SD. I actually asked my own vet about it and he told me they give them money, throw it at them actually and for many vets who are in debt up to their ears by the time they graduate it is very tempting. I'm not sure about the details but based on behaviour I would suspect they tell them to sell X amount of SD to keep the money rolling in, the kickback. So if a pet needs the medicated food they will sell the owner SD rather than another vet brand.
My point is that you would think a vet would check out the information for themselves to educate themselves on what is a better quality pet food and what is not. They don't seem to care.

http://clubs.ncsu.edu/scavma/Hills/index.html

http://www.hillspet.com/hillsvet/articles/articleDetail.hjsp?JSESSIONID=LG6CjNAz44tQ4T91S1SvphGn5udosG9Nl8wzFERADWVgqGvlgCsW!593833!167846923!7005!8005&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=1408474395190949&FOLDER%3C%3EbrowsePath=1408474395190949&bmUID=1262910147031&bmLocale=en_AU

http://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/articles/avma-partners-(again)-with-the-hill’s-pet-nutrition.html

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/vet/news/hillspetnutritionfundingfortheschoolofveterinarymedicineandscience.aspx

http://www.vetschoolblog.com/2010/05/18/why-i-wont-be-heading-for-the-hills/

http://twodogbarkery.com/articles/designer_chow.html

http://www.hillstopdog.com/terms

http://vet.osu.edu/education/professional-development-funds
"Sponsor: These funds were made possible through The Hills Pet Nutrition College Feeding Program."

 Quote: Mara Jessup

... As to why vets wouldn't recommend BARF, well, I can totally understand it. It's too much work for the average pet owner. Raw feeding takes a certain amount of research and work that many owners just won't do. So in the end it's healthier to eat total cereal than a diet of all ground beef.

I agree 100%.