Walmartian, please pardon my intrusion here but I think you should know that if your vet is traditional the chances are that everything your vet knows about nutrition came from the very few hours they get in vet school — and the materials used are sponsored by the pet food industry. If you want to know what to look for in a commercial food, or what food is best there are sources to go to for that, but your vet most likely isn’t one of them. If your vet is a holistic or integrative vet they usually HAVE gone beyond what they got in vet school. I don’t think it’s about compensation as much as it’s about just not knowing any better.
Here are some links you might find helpful — from a DVM who has studied nutrition beyond what she got in vet school:
Sadly, it’s up to the pet parent to do the requisite research into what our babies should eat. If you want to have an interesting convo with your vet, ask him/her if they have looked at the ingredient list on what they’re recommending. Then ask if they can tell you the industry standard definition of what’s behind each ingredient. Take it from someone who’s done this: dollars to donuts he/she won’t have any idea. That should give you a huge green light to do your own research. Knowledge is power and your furbabies will benefit from it.
JLLH is right on the money. Most vets are actually trained by representatives from commercial dog food companies. Pet nutrition is often an ‘elective’ class so you can never know how much training in nutrition your vet actually has. When I move or change vets, that’s one of the first questions I ask.
I decided to get informed because my Lab is a part of my family. I’ve read a ton of articles on dog food and came to one conclusion. I needed to make my own dog food. I wasn’t going to risk giving ‘Jake’ cancer by feeding him commercial dog food.
I know making your own homemade dog food isn’t for everyone but if you’re willing to try I recommend this site:
I’ve given my overly energetic dog the chance at a full cancer free life. You can do the same