Pet Food Survery Results

What’s In Your Pet’s Food? Survey Shows Owners Don’t Know!

DVM News Magazine® recently reported the results of a survey of pet owners regarding the ingredients in their pets’ foods. In the wake of many food and treat recalls, including a current FDA warning about chicken jerky treats from China, I find the results a bit disturbing, to say the least.

According to the survey, two thirds of owners said they feed their pets as if they were family members. Doesn’t that sound great? Yet only 38% said they always or often read the ingredients on the labels of their pets’ food! To further muddle the issue, 56% worried that their dog or cat food contained ingredients they would not want their pet to eat. In fact, the survey found 48% of cat owners and 44% of dog owners were unsure of the first ingredient of their pets’ food. And only 38% of the survey respondents said they understood all the ingredients listed on their dog and cat food labels.

For me, the take-home message of this survey is that pet owners care deeply about their pets, but they do not have the information and/or guidance they need to make the food choices they want to make. To further complicate matters, in my opinion, there is a great deal of misleading advertising for foods  — one that comes to mind touts the meats, vegetables, and “healthy grains” that the food is based on. The actual first ten ingredients of Beneful®, directly from their website, are: Ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal, whole wheat flour, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), rice flour, beef, soy flour, sugar, sorbitol… I ask you, does that bear any resemblance to the commercials you can see at their website?.  Two forms of corn, wheat, and soy? Give me a break, does that sound like food for a carnivore? And the reason we need sugar and sorbitol (a sugar substitute, humectant, and ingredient in amateur rocket fuel!) in dog food escapes me — perhaps I missed that lecture in veterinary college…

If you think the dogs eating Beneful® have it bad, consider the cats eating Friskies Seafood Sensations.® Again, from their website, the top ten ingredients are: Ground yellow corn, corn gluten meal, poultry by-product meal, meat and bone meal, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), soybean meal, animal liver flavor, phosphoric acid, calcium carbonate, salt. Excuse me, but where is the seafood? What kind of meat is in meat and bone meal? And what is animal liver flavor made of?

I encourage you to learn more, and share what you know with friends and family. Our pets are depending on us.

I highly recommend reading Foods Pets Die For, by Ann Martin. While some of it may seem a bit unappetizing (pun intended), this book gives you the lowdown on what’s really in pet foods, as well as insights into the pet food manufacturing business.

Read Full Post »

Happy Holidays

Another long overdue update–but I promise more soon! In the meantime, can you spot the holiday problem?

Merry Christmas

Read Full Post »

The Honest Kitchen

Those who know me will tell you I rarely endorse commercial pet foods. My preference is for a natural diet, with appropriate supplements to meet the animal’s specific nutritional needs. I have fed my own dogs a natural diet for over fifteen years, and have experienced firsthand the benefits of doing so.  It will come as a shock to many to read that I am recommending a commercial food.

The Honest Kitchen’s products are unlike any others I have encountered. Made from dehydrated raw ingredients, their foods are as close to a natural diet as possible. Dehydration is done at a much lower temperature and pressure than is used in producing kibble, preserving nutrients. Their formulas include grain free and gluten free options. Grains are certified organic. Meats are hormone, antibiotic free and  fruits and vegetables are guaranteed non GMO. Quinoa is certified fair-trade. And people actually taste the food — what other company can say that? One of my favorites in their line is Preference, a foundation formula to which fresh meat is added.  This allows me to vary the meats I feed, as well as adjust quantities.

All of their formulas can be fed in conjunction with a natural diet or as a standalone meal, which provides me with the ultimate in convenience.  Some days I arrive home from a long day at the office only to realize I forgot to defrost enough meat for everyone. No problem, I can make up the difference with The Honest Kitchen.  When I travel to an event with my dogs, I no longer have to pack a huge cooler of frozen food and stress about keeping it frozen — I just pack a small one and add one of The Honest Kitchen formulas.  All I need is warm water to make a meal the dogs love.  It really is the best of both worlds — the convenience of a commercial food with the benefits of a natural diet.

See for yourself at their website: www.TheHonestKitchen.com

Read Full Post »

Overdue update

Sorry I haven’t written much recently.  Life has been busy…

I have been accepted into the first Chinese Herbal Medicine class of the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society! I am really excited about being able to offer traditional Chinese medical options for my patients, and will soon be immersed in the course materials.

I have been outlining info for a book I am working on, and came across some pictures. Memories and interesting things and daily life…

Flit

Piper

Can you spot the problem?

Read Full Post »

Prescription Dog Food

By now any of you reading this blog know that I often write about pet foods. And that I am an ardent supporter of natural or home prepared diets.

As a veterinarian, my viewpoint is certainly among the minority. Let’s face it, most veterinarians have minimal training in pet nutrition, and a big part of what they do have comes from the folks manufacturing and selling commercial foods. Hardly a neutral source…. I am so grateful for the owners that really are the driving force behind the natural/home prepared diet movement. They are the only ones who can force many veterinarians to really look beyond the companies that name their foods with letters rather than names.

This morning, I took a chance and opened the newest issue of dvm Newsmagazine New Product Review. I lucked out — nothing that really raised my blood pressure, just inspiration for a new blog

Purina Veterinary Diets has announced that their food OM, designed for dog weight loss, now contains high protein and isoflavones. These isoflavones promote weight loss and decrease oxidative stress. Isoflavones come largely from soybeans, and are strong antioxidants (a good thing). There are reports of them lowering cholesterol, also a good thing. So, on the surface, looks like this food is improved — more protein, and a good supplement.

Yeah, right.

I looked up the ingredients of this wonder food. Here you go, from the top site on a Google search:

Ground yellow corn, soybean meal, soybean hulls, corn gluten meal, beef and bone meal, pea fiber, wheat gluten, animal digest, cellulose, dicalcium phosphate, beef tallow preserved with mixed-tocopherols (source of Vitamin E), defluorinated phosphate, salt, choline chloride, calcium carbonate, zinc oxide, ferrous sulfate, vitamin supplements (E, A, B-12, D-3), manganese sulfate, niacin, calcium pantothenate, brewers dried yeast, riboflavin supplement, biotin, pyridoxine hydrochloride, copper sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, folic acid, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), calcium iodate.

Obviously the food is mostly soybeans, as soybean is the second and third ingredient. And corn is number one and four. Sound like a diet for a carnivore? How much protein is in meat and bone meal, or the horrific animal digest? It’s no wonder dogs lose weight on this stuff….

The site I found will sell you this product for a mere $54.99 for a 35 pound bag. That’s $1.58 a pound, not including tax or shipping. At my grocery store, I can buy beef, pork, and poultry for less than $1.58 a pound. At the moment in my freezer I have a chicken that was $0.79 a pound (Purdue, on sale), and a roast that was $1.19 a pound. And when I add vegetables and/or grains to the menu, both of which often cost less than meat, my dog’s meal costs even less per pound. With a bit more effort on my part, and a small freezer, I can further lower my costs by taking advantage of sales and buying case quantities at my local meat market. It’s more work than scooping kibble into a bowl, but how could anyone put Purina Vet Diets OM (or similar products) in their dog’s bowl, if they knew what was in it, and that they had other options?

Spread the word.

Prank, dreaming of dinner.

Read Full Post »

What is Wholistic?

Selecting a type of health care, for yourself or your pet, is very much a personal choice. Many people choose to investigate holistic or natural methods when traditional medicine has exhausted all options. Others have seen or experienced benefits with one alternative method, and want to explore other options. My interest in holistic approaches was stimulated by my own dog’s autoimmune disease. His long survival with great quality of life using natural methods convinced to explore alternative medical options for my patients. Combining holistic or natural methods with the best traditional medicine has to offer makes the most sense to me – what I call a “wholistic” approach.

While I want to be able to offer “something more” for my patients as well as my own pets, I was and am not dissatisfied with conventional medicine. Instead, I find that the traditional medical approach only includes one way of thinking, while the alternative methods approach disease and healing in many different ways. I believe progress requires “thinking outside the box.” Combining complementary and alternative therapies with my conventional training goes beyond the limitations of just using an either/or approach. It treats the whole animal.

A wholistic approach to your pet’s care includes consideration of lifestyle, nutrition, and medical conditions. Prevention of problems and supporting the body’s own efforts to heal are major aspects of many alternative medical techniques. Chiropractic and acupuncture both emphasize returning the body’s structures and energy to normal, so that healing can occur. Nutritional and herbal medicine emphasizes supporting the body at the cellular level, providing the raw materials each cell needs to function optimally. Other natural supplements work in a similar way, enhancing organ function.

Combining traditional medicine with alternative methods lets us attack health issues from multiple angles. The most common example is the arthritic dog, who is given a pain-killing drug, and also a joint support supplement. This is a basic example of integrating natural and traditional methods. The wholistic approach could also include chiropractic adjustment, dietary management, carefully selected herbal products or other remedies to decrease the amount of drugs needed, and exercise management. Together, this multilevel approach gives us the best chance to help the arthritis pain, and improve quality of life for both dog and owners.

I find one of the greatest aspects of a wholistic approach is the number of therapies available, and the possibility of using them in combination. With a strictly traditional approach to, for example, a pet with long-term digestive issues, I am largely limited to antibiotics, corticosteroids, and prescription foods. With a wholistic way of thinking, I have those options, as well as probiotics, vitamin therapy, supplements, digestive enzymes, chiropractic, acupuncture, home-prepared diets, and more. In short, many more chances to help the pet recover.

By combining the array of alternative techniques with the remarkable advancements of traditional veterinary medicine, we are often able to help cases that would not respond to any single therapy. A wholistic medical approach promotes healing by supporting and strengthening the body, as well as directly attacking the disease. In many cases, the means greater length and quality of life for our pets.

Read Full Post »

Top Veterinary Advances for 2007????

I just got the latest issue of Veterinary Practice News. It’s a free magazine for veterinarians, and has a wide variety of news and information, in a very easy to read format. I usually flip through it when it arrives.

In this issue, there was a short list of the top 2007 Veterinary Advances, according to ABC News. What do you think of this list?(companies in parentheses)

The Canine Melanoma Vaccine (Merial)

The Porphymonas bacterin dental vaccine (Pfizer)

The Canine Transdermal Device, for giving vaccines without injections (Merial)

Slentrol, for canine obesity (Pfizer)

Breed specific pet food (Royal Canin, Iams)

WholeMeals, a “bone” shaped meal for dogs (Mars)

Pain management techniques and guidelines (American Animal Hospital Association)

Wisdom Panel, DNA test for mixed breed heritage (Mars)

Fortiflora, a probiotic (Purina)

Hannah Pharmaceuticals Joint support products (Schuyler, LLC, Canada)

Reconcile, drug for separation anxiety, identical to Prozac (Eli Lilly)

WOW.

Three vaccine products. A drug that is already on the market in generic form, and one that is an alternative to controlling what your dog eats. Oh, and a selection of over-processed grain rich kibbles, and one made into a “bone”. And a probiotic– I do think probiotics are a good thing — whose first ingredient is animal digest.

You may wonder what animal digest is. From Wikipedia:

As defined by the AAFCO, it is produced by chemically or enzymatically treating animal tissue (such as flesh, bone, organs, etc.) from slaughterhouses and other sources, in a process akin to rendering.

Yet another expert defines this as “a cooked-down broth” which can be made from unspecified parts of unspecified animals. The animals used can be obtained from almost any source and no control is in place over quality or contamination. Any kind of animal can be included: “4-D animals” (dead, diseased, disabled, or dying prior to slaughter), goats, pigs, horses, rats, euthanized at animal shelters, restaurant and supermarket refuse and so on.”^[2]

In the “maybe” category of advances, we have the Wisdom test. Find out the breeds in your mixed breed dog’s heritage. The worst that can happen is you can’t see any of the breed characteristics in the dog you love, the best is the results make perfect sense. Doesn’t seem harmful to anyone.

You may be wondering if I agree with any of this list. I would list the pain control protocols at the top of this list. While it seems very commonsense, actually spelling out and scientifically supporting the needs and means for pain control in animals has brought many veterinarians out of the dark ages when we either chose not to control pain or didn’t acknowledge the pain animals felt.

Joint support products are also a no-brainer when it comes to things that benefit our pets. There are a number of great products out there, so I would expand this beyond the mentioned product. Interestingly enough, the mentioned product was the only one who wasn’t associated with a huge corporation. However, with just a bit of internet sleuthing, it is clear that Schulyer, LLC is affiliated with Banfield, one of the largest corporate chain veterinary hospitals in the country. Makes you wonder….

Being on this soapbox is a bit tiring, so I will step off now. Thanks for reading. Thanks more for thinking and commenting.

Read Full Post »