Posted on 09/12/2012 4:13:35 AM PDT by EBH
The FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine has issued a draft compliance policy guide outlining how the agency intends to handle pet dietary products that claim to treat specific disease conditions.
The guide is titled “Labeling and Marketing of Nutritional Products Intended for Use to Diagnose, Cure, Mitigate, Treat or Prevent Disease in Dogs and Cats.” As the guide is currently in draft form only, the FDA is asking for people to submit written comments to the address listed at the top of the guide.
According to the FDA, the agency has observed a concerning rise in the number of products marketed as cures for pet disease conditions. These products used to be sold by licensed veterinarians and used under their exact orders, but now any pet store, grocery store, or Internet company can market them directly to the consumer.
The trouble lies in the fact that many of the products are targeted toward specific needs, and some pets may not tolerate the products as well as others.
One example offered by the FDA is how owners might misinterpret a product that claims to control blood glucose. Pet owners might think that the dietary product is all they need to maintain the health of diabetic cats and dogs, when the animals might actually require insulin therapy or other treatment methods.
The draft compliance policy guide lays out the FDA’s considerations when determining whether to take enforcement action if a product is sold or marketed inappropriately. According to the guide, the four main factors that could trigger FDA enforcement action are products that:
Are marketed as alternatives to approved animal drugs. Contain unapproved food additives, unless the use of that unapproved food additive conforms to uses as listed in the 2012 Official Publication of the Association of American Feed Control Officials.
Include words or vignettes on the label of the product(s) that explicitly or implicitly indicate diseases for which the product is to be used.
Are made directly available to the public circumventing the role of a licensed veterinarian for provision of directions for use, supervision of treatment and evaluation of the treatment outcome.
Read the entire draft compliance policy guide.
Ah... the proverbial tempest in a teapot syndrome! Just a few weeks ago the AVMA and AAHA both issued statements regarding "raw" pet food and now this one from a government agency!
For the pet owners out there that don't use the prescribed diets from your vet to treat your cat's hairballs or maintain urinary tract health you might want to take a heads up on this Non-binding CPG.
For all the rest of us? A very interesting note is how they describe nutrition and how that is the part through which all things are regulated.
or your cat or dog will become a liberal and insist he does things his way...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK5ZdMD00YQ
Whatever you do, don’t feed any dog you love food from the Chicoms.
When will we impose a trade embargo against those evil scheming people?
And they’ve been evil and scheming since the Han Dynasty. its not just their execrable Maoist/Corporate Fascist government.
Truman should have listened to MacArthur, not fired him.
Doggie and Kitty ping
According to this they are targeting 5 companies and only 375 products. If these guidelines are only enforced when existing regulations are violated, then why do we need the guidelines and added reporting requirements?
As a stepping stone to even more contol over everything?
ACtually a closer reading indicates they want to get all ‘theraputic cat food/dog food’ to be through your vet.
One such food is Evo, in dry food form. Ironically, dry food is one of the causes for high blood glucose levels. The claim that any dry food can lower BG's is absurd. Feline Diabetes can follow the same guidelines as people with diabetes. Low carbs, more protein. Feed wet food ....get rid of the dry. (dry food in cats creates a whole host of other health problems over time. It's cheaper at the outset but more costly with vet bills over time)
It’s this sort of crap by Government that causes more problems than it cures IMO.
In this case rural America is going to be inundated with pets dumped by people totally confused as to what to do as they cannot afford to pay the outrageous costs of the veterinary society we have today.
Used to be the old time vets would be able to diagnose an animal pretty accurately simply by touching them in specific areas of suspect, or by profiling, but todays verterinarian is schooled to pump up the dollars with unnecessary testing, overnight observation costs, etc.
Used to be $25.00 office calls, and medication. Today it’s multiple office calls $$$, Laboratory $$$, Evaluation $$$, Overnight observations $$$ running the tabs up to almost human medical costs.
With our sixteen cats, four dogs, two horses, and donkey we are fortunate to have old time veterinary people, but we sought out that type of veterinarian when we saw what was happening to the Veterinarian Industry.
Back to my point though....animals will be dumped more than ever with this type of legislation in this economy the cause.
My 14-year-old healthy cat will not eat wet food. She will occasionally eat a very few bites of chicken or venison, if it is shredded very finely, or a few tsps. of milk or broth. There is no way to tell her Meow Mix is not food. As far as she is concerned, it is the only food, outside of a mouse or a baby rabbit. My vet suggested baby food ground chicken. Kitty was not impressed. The vets’ cats adore it.
I wish they would get their noses out of things. It’s like the fact that I cannot buy heartworm meds without a vet prescription. It really really irritates me. Biggest scam going. Eventually I see a day when we are forced to get medical insurance for our non-human companions (if PETA doesn’t get their most fond wish and do away with pets altogether).
The AVMA has a pretty strong lobby, apparently.
Amen.....no Chicom food for our doggie family. Blue Buffalo only!
I’m not a cat person (by that I mean I have never owned a cat other than one we had when I was a kid and she was not really mine, just the family cat) so I’m not an expert on them by any means. But I remember learning, when I worked for a vet, that cats can get very specific about things like food shape. That’s why cat food companies make their foods in certain shapes, so that the cat will learn to like that shape and then be more difficult to change to another food. Now, this may or may not be true, but it’s what I was taught. For some reason I thought it was interesting enough to recall. I do know cats can be finicky enough that they will starve to death simply because they do not like what they are being fed. Dogs on the other hand WILL eat, eventually even if they are not crazy about what you are feeding them. The old saying is, no dog ever starved to death in front of a full bowl of food (unless of course they were sick).
Oh, one other thing we always tried with sick animals or ones that were refusing food that sometimes worked was warming the food a little. Sometimes it helped to get them to eat. (I don’t mean HOT of course, just warm).
Fascinating!
Of course, Meow Mix IS a mixture of specific shapes.
As for warming: she will eat tiny bits of raw venison, but ignore it if it is cooked.
She is too old to change, IMO and there is no way any human is going to do that for her.
Yeah, cats are funny that way. I always wondered how they had survived so well (they are amazingly able to fend for themselves in feral communities—not that I’m supporting that, particularly). They seemed to have a lot of difficulties. But I always found them fun (except for the ones who bit me! LOL) And they are one of my favorite photo subjects and I rarely get to photograph them since I don’t have any.
all that is needed is for those that market dog food to put in large letters on the bags, THIS DOG FOOD WAS PRODUCED IN CHINA... end of problem..
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