food opinion from a veterinary nutritionist

[Ginny Nightingale]

My daughter, who is a vet and hears me sing the praises of grain-free dog food, posted this article online today from a veterinary nutritionist...grain-free is not necessarily better according to her...but the other foods seem to be all corn or wheat--what is best?

http://now.tufts.edu/articles/grain-free-diet-healthier-my-dogs-and...

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

In my IBD Dogs support group, the most commonly used phrase is "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." :)

There just simply isn't any reason to feed a food that contains grains if your dogs are doing well on a grain-free diet. Conversely, if a dog is doing well on a diet that contains healthy grains, there's no reason to change to a grain-free diet.  

[Melissa]

Depends on the individual dog and how they process corn or wheat.  I think having the first 2-3 ingredients as a meat source is what is important.  I feed my dogs Performatrin Large Breed Dog food from Pet Valu and they do very well on it. No allergies, no stomach issues, their coats are healthy.  These are the ingredients in the food i buy:

Chicken, Chicken Meal, Ground Rice, Pearled Barley, Ground Corn, Oatmeal, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken Fat (stabilized with mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid), Dried Beet Pulp, Dried Egg Product, Natural Chicken Flavor, Ground Flaxseed, Herring Meal, Calcium Carbonate, Potassium Chloride, Oat Hulls, Salt, Dried Kelp, Chicory Root Extract, Dried Yeast, Sodium Tripolyphosphate, Choline Chloride, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, DL-Methionine, Rosemary Extract, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Chondroitin Sulfate, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), Ground Ginger, Dried Chamomile, Ground Fennel Seed, Dried Lemon Balm, Peppermint, Parsley, Zinc Proteinate, Zinc Sulfate, Iron Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Vitamin E Supplement, Manganese Proteinate, Manganese Sulfate, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Copper Proteinate, Copper Sulfate, Niacin, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Beta-Carotene, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin, Folic Acid, Inositol, Ethylenediamine Dihydroiodide (source of Iodine), Sodium Selenite.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Do you know the sourcing for your ingredients, Melissa?  That is hugely important.

[DonMarie and Picco]

Thanks for starting this post Ginny!  I know it's gone off topic but very interesting and informative. 

The food manufacturers in our country are out of control making low-cost, low quality food for humans and diabetes and cancer among other diseases are rising dramatically.  Connection? um...yeah!  Are doctors too busy with other stuff to make the connection?   The sorry part is that we seem to be dragging our pets that can't make these decisions along with us!

Okay....sorry but that's my rant for today!!!

[Stacy]

I've been giving this discussion a lot of thought. What I wish for in veterinary and human medicine is greater transparancy in pricing. I know that vets and doctors can't always tell you what is going to happen and how costs will accumulate, but they can give you a reasonable idea, and often they don't. The vet dermatologist gave me an estimate that was right on. And the emergency vet gave me a very accurate estimate. When I personally went in for a "cosmetic" procedure I didn't submit it to insurance and as a self-pay they gave me the total price in advance.

But when I see a general vet or a general physician for that matter it's almost like the pricing is a secret. And I respect my vet and have great faith in them, but I do try to take care of some things at home when I can. I would do anything for my dogs, but I'm not rich. And it hurts to be charged $75 to be told to give them some benedryl or chicken and rice for a couple days.

And the pricing at different vets is significant. Some vets charge a couple hundred dollars for a wellness exam and vaccines for a year. And then others charge $30. And no one will ever tell you which vet is which! I don't subscribe to the idea that the more expensive vet is necessarily the better vet. Sometimes I think it's just the luck of the draw - exactly how it is with human doctors.