Vet recommended food....selling snakeoil?

[Purpledomino]

Okay, today a friend asked if the Purina Veterinarian Diets were good food for her new puppy. Apparantly her vet yesterday gave her the whole monologue she had memorized from the Purina supplier, and sold her a bag of expensive puppy kibble. I looked at the ingredient list, and told her that to my knowledge, she can do much better in feeding her pup, as it contains a whole lot of crap...corn, animal digest, etc. Just out of curiousity, I just checked out the veterinarian diet website, and was shocked at the ingredient lists on the food that these vets are recommending. This one is for canine maintenance, can't find a whole lot of anything in there that is any good. I just cannot wrap my head around how a skilled professional could recommend this....any thoughts?

Purina Veterinary Diet (DCO) Ingredients, dry:
Whole grain corn, dried beet pulp*, poultry by-product meal, corn gluten meal, barley, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), pea fiber, dicalcium phosphate, dried whey, potassium chloride, fish oil, animal digest, salt, calcium carbonate, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, choline chloride, Vitamin E supplement, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, niacin, manganese sulfate, Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, copper sulfate, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), sodium selenite.

[Skryker]

It's a very expensive food, is it? Because that is pretty much crap! All corn and other filler. I don't think I've ever seen beet pulp as a second ingredient before.

Your friend could do much, much better than this stuff, IMO.

[TeriM]

Wow, gotta say that is one of the worst foods I have seen . Shame, shame, shame on that vet.

[Prin]

Just sad. :sad:

[SARAH]

[QUOTE=Purpledomino;401996]I just cannot wrap my head around how a skilled professional could recommend this....any thoughts?
QUOTE]

Easy to figure, at least theoretically. No proof of course. I would imagine vets are like human medics, they get dividends from the manufacturers of the stuff they peddle. The more Purina (in this case) this vet sells, the closer she is to a Lincoln SUV (forget the name)!

Sad, but I feel this is often true. And it goes for many human doctors as well, so don't just swallow all that the "pro's" tell you is safe and necessary.

[Edgewaters]

[QUOTE=SARAH;402244]

Originally Posted by Purpledomino

I just cannot wrap my head around how a skilled professional could recommend this....any thoughts?
QUOTE]

Easy to figure, at least theoretically. No proof of course. I would imagine vets are like human medics, they get dividends from the manufacturers of the stuff they peddle. The more Purina (in this case) this vet sells, the closer she is to a Lincoln SUV (forget the name)!

Sad, but I feel this is often true. And it goes for many human doctors as well, so don't just swallow all that the "pro's" tell you is safe and necessary.

It's not just the direct incentives (free trips and so on), it's also the fact that many doctors tend to invest in pharmaceutical companies because they are most familiar with that industry and have a big head start in predicting and understanding it. I expect the same is also true of veterinarians.

[worrier]

Originally Posted by Purpledomino

Okay, today a friend asked if the Purina Veterinarian Diets were good food for her new puppy. Apparantly her vet yesterday gave her the whole monologue she had memorized from the Purina supplier, and sold her a bag of expensive puppy kibble. I looked at the ingredient list, and told her that to my knowledge, she can do much better in feeding her pup, as it contains a whole lot of crap...corn, animal digest, etc. Just out of curiousity, I just checked out the veterinarian diet website, and was shocked at the ingredient lists on the food that these vets are recommending. This one is for canine maintenance, can't find a whole lot of anything in there that is any good. I just cannot wrap my head around how a skilled professional could recommend this....any thoughts?

Purina Veterinary Diet (DCO) Ingredients, dry:
Whole grain corn, dried beet pulp*, poultry by-product meal, corn gluten meal, barley, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), pea fiber, dicalcium phosphate, dried whey, potassium chloride, fish oil, animal digest, salt, calcium carbonate, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, choline chloride, Vitamin E supplement, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, niacin, manganese sulfate, Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, copper sulfate, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), sodium selenite.

I would contact a reporter and expose this vet. If you don't, more and more little ones will be exposed to this evildoer.

[Purpledomino]

I figured that there were incentives involved for veterinarians pitching these diets. And it just isn't this particular food (there are others) or this particular vet (there are many), but probably the majority though. The ingredients in this food in particular caused my jaw to drop, I cannot fathom any doctor could recommend it in good concience for their patients. I would think that a diet such as this would compromise the health of the dog.......hmmmm, something weird going on there? Maybe I'm wrong though, it's not like I am a vet or anything..........

[lt_danish]

Whoa, what a food. Poor pets eating this must have the most horrible bowel movements!

I liken this to seeing my patients in the hospital get jello to help them get better! Maybe it looks pretty or comes in neat shapes, but does nothing for health.

[Purpledomino]

After looking over that ingredient list again, funny thing, if I just removed a couple of ingredients...it would probably be more suitable to be fed to my horses, rather than the dogs. Geez, they just love all that corn, beet pulp, and barley.

[wmarcello]

Here are some specs on that food:

Purina Canine DCO Diabetes Colitis

http://www.allivet.com/

Medical Indications
Diets with these nutritional modifications have been recommended for dogs with the following conditions:

- Congestive heart failure
- Hypertension
- Fluid retention such as ascites and edema

Medical Contraindications

- Dehydration or diarrhea
- Hypoadrenocorticism (Addisons)