I am completely disgruntled with my vet!!

[cocoincanada]

My husband just took our dog to the vet for his annual check-up and needles. While there, she checked his urine concentration, because he had that nasty UTI for 2 months before xmas, and since then (even though we have him on a cranberry supplement and are feeding him plain yogurt), his urine is still VERY concentrated. She checked it and said it was the most concentrated she's ever seen in her life!!!

So, my husband told me that her recommendation for this was to start feeding him CANNED food. We don't want to do this, and asked what other recommendations she had...and she said nothing. That was her ONLY recommendation. She also was trying to push the weight-loss formula they sell, because our dog needs to lose 5 lbs apparently. I know vets are constantly pushing food....but the ONLY solution she had for my dog's concentrated urine was CANNED FOOD? Ugh! I'm so angry and sad at the same time. A pet doctor should be able to provide a better medical solution than this.

To top it off, after recommending the canned food, she checked the calorie content and then said "Ohhhhhh, maybe you should only feed him 1/5 of a can per day, and reduce his kibble by quite a bit, because this stuff is VERY high in calories". I am completely appalled. I feel she should have been able to recommend something that did not involve food, especially after we said we didn't want to go this route. I am thinking of looking into a holistic vet, to see if they would have better options.

Sorry for the rant -- I just feel like fellow doodle owners would understand me :) Thanks for listening. Does anyone here have a holistic vet?

[cocoincanada]

He is on Orijen. It's a high quality, high protein, grain-free food made in Canada.

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

We use Orijen here also and it is our fav of our several acceptable brands here we rotate from time to time. Our dogs also really like the ACANA line which is also theirs. We use the grain free ACANA but if I recall correctly they may have a line with grains? We do not do grain free here, but rather start with this as a base and now control what grains and the quality of the grains they do get. We have many additions to our food, too many options to list. All that though is really beside the point, sorry. IF you feel you need to move away from the food and you are able to obtain the ACANA line with grain I would think that would be of interest to you since you are already fully aware of the quality of the company and you have done well with it. It may be worth changing the flavor of your Orijen also, some proteins are easier to digest and do not cause the body to work as hard on them.

Other thoughts I just had...have you checked with others within the Canada group to see if any use or can recommend a vet that might meet your criteria? Was anything different back in October when this all began? Any family history available?

[Linda and Murphy]

Make sure she checks the specific gravity (measure of concentration) with a refractometer. Don't use just the dipstick for dogs as they concentrate their urine more than humans, The dipstick only reads to ~1.030.

Again, HOW is the urine collected? The collection can introduce red cells (trauma), white cells, or bacteria.

I agree, NEW VET.

Good luck with everything and you certainly are entitled to rant at this point.

[2m42srv7vi6sq]

Personally, I am totally tired of ALL vets! We have been to 3 different clinics, since Caeleach came to us last March and not ONE of them is any good.

We are in a small town in a small county in NC and there just aren't too many good vets around. We already take Caeleach and Seamus to Georgia to see the vet that I am not happy with.

We just need more GOOD vets, not ones that are in it strictly for the money!

Since that idiot vet gave Caeleach her shots, for the second time in 6 months, she has had green pus coming from her eyes! Their response is, "It will go away"!

[Nancy Cullen]

Hi: This might sound nuts, but I now cook "people food" for my 10-month-old doodle in the evenings. In the morning, she gets Eukanaba, but in the evening either hamburger, chicken, tuna or salmon along with green beans, carrots or applesauce, along with, always, a little cottage cheese. Some nights I add some brown rice or a half a piece of bread or some cheerios. I have been reading alot about commercial dog foods, and even the best are cooked at extremely high temperatures which essentially destroys some of the nutrients. If you google dog food recipes or just "commercial dog foods" you'll be appalled at what is in some of even the top dry commercial dog foods. Rather than opting for totally eliminating the dry food - I do it only in the mornings. She absolutely, of course, loves her dinner. When you think about it - 40 or 50 years ago dogs ate table scraps. Just don't feed raisins or grapes, onions or chocolate. Try to balance out the meals. I feel alot better about the whole thing - and she doesn't gain weight - she's a nice size. Nancy Cullen

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

It doesn't sound nuts, check out the Food Group. Many of us are Homecooking for our Doodles. My std Poodle of 7 years died throught the Dogfood recalls of 2007. I have been home cooking since then.

Before she died she had been having some problems with smelly ears and leaking urine, etc and my vet of 20 years treated the various symptoms but never told me all I now know about dogfood, that I learned on my own. It seems to me that vets would keep up with their profession and read the literature and studies and be knowledgable. It's scary that we can learn it but... what... they don't care to?

I have also read that vet schools are funded and scholorships are given by...guess who... Commercial Dogfood companies. Also, some companies give kickbacks to vets to "push" their food in their offices. Read the AVA's recommendations on vaccinations and tell me if vets are following it. Many are not. Titers are recommended for many of the vacs given every 1,2 or 3 years because it was found that they are still active in the dogs systems. When I asked the vet why he still gives them instead of titering, his response was, "because that's the way we always do it." ??? So, what, you can't change because new things are discovered?

We have to be the "voices" for our dogs. I haven't been able to find a better vet so now I tell him what he can and can't do. I don't let them give anythng or do anything until I research it first. I pay extra to have my dogs titered instead of giving yearly shots, etc. All the info available to the vets is available to us now, thanks to the Internet. Do your own research and you'll be amazed at what you find!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I think if we all start questioning and presenting information ("A friend told me that such & such is so & so...is that right?"), it helps. My vet never told me that there was such a thing as a three year rabies shot instead of getting one every year. My friends in the neighborhood who use other vets didn't know either. Or about titering for parvo & distemper. I learned these things in various doodle forums. Jack's specialist advocated for these things, and I told my regular vet that. I had no problems getting his annual check-up done the way I wanted it. The regular vet sold me a 6.5 oz bottle of shampoo for 28.00...I don't pay that for MY shampoo. I asked the specialist about it, and she gave me some samples plus the website where I could order it for 13.50. It's too bad that we have to be the ones to tell the vets what to do, but once they see that YOU know more than the average person, they start to respect that, and some of them do rise to a higher level. When I recently discussed my plans for switching Jackdoodle to home-cooked food, his regular vet asked me what vegetables I was going to include!!! I think some of the vets are trying to change to a newer way of thinking, but we have to let them know that we expect and demand that from them.

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

That's a really good point. I have been trying to put together a list of what I want and don't want when I go to my vet. I plan on making an appointment and talking to him about what I expect as far as vaccinations and titers, food and tests. I figure if he has a problem, I'll start looking for someone who will. I plan on approaching this the way I did when my boys were babies. I had to know everything. That's what we need to do. We need to research, question and tell them NO when something isn't or doesn't sound right.

[Doe Asombrado]

I feel so bad for you and your doodle. I know your pain. Yes, you should shop around for a new vet and Yes you should try a holistic vet. I take Winston to a holistic vet, her name is Tamara Hebbler and she is in San Diego. She was able to help my Winston and correct his imbalanced immune system that constantly wrecked his stomach issues, allergies, and emotional instability due to the constant change in home environments. After I had spent 3k in vet bills from conventional vets: specialists (dermatologist/gastroenterologists/allergists), primary care vets. Their treatments were so unsuccessful and waned his immunity even more with the repeated: anti-parasitic drugs, antibiotics, anti-fungals. Oh God, I could go on and on! I was referred to Hebbler, was hesistant, but at that point I had nothing to lose. We discovered that Winston is allergic to grain. Placed him on supplements to bolster his immunity along with digestive enzymes, etc. Off all antibiotics etc. We do vaccine titers. Eats Raw foods. Now he is a 100% after 3 months. I won't go anywhere else. I recommend you ask the holistic vets for testimonials and if you can contact these clients. If they love him/her they won't hesitate to give you a good referral. Not one person said anything bad/had bad experience with Hebbler. These referrals came from word of mouth, Not from her office. Good luck!