Non Species Specific Furkid Topics > Veterinarians
Dr. Patty Khuly Explains "How Do Vets Recommend Pet Food?"
CarnivorousCritter:
A few years back, Dr Patty Khuly did a three part series on her blog (then called "Fully Vetted") on the pet food matter. It was one of the things which opened my eyes wider, particularly the comments following her second installment. Wasn't able to find it for a while, link had expired ... but now it's back. (Assuming it took some time for the archives to be restored with the new blog?)
Part One:
--- Quote --- ...Some of you are smart; you’ve been around the block more than a few times and now you’re jaded on the vets and nutrition thing. I don’t doubt that you have a reason to be. Nutrition is one of the few areas in which we vets don’t necessarily excel. And we’re not alone. That’s a perfect mirror of the human medical paradigm, too...
Nutrition is a big black box when it comes to science. We just don’t know as much about the intricate workings of the highly integrated system of organs involved as we’d like to think we do....
I’m just as cynical as you are. I speculate this dearth of knowledge exists (at least in part) because there’s not a lot of money to be made in human medicine when it comes to food. So our science is weak on nutrition because commerce drives most of our medical developments — and there’s little cash to be had in the slippery science of nutrition, despite the pressing social need for it...
--- End quote ---
http://www.petmd.com/blogs/fullyvetted/2007/june/how-do-vets-recommend-pet-food-part-1-industry#.TwugY5gqNyk
Part Two:
--- Quote ---When I was a second-year student in vet school, I received a tidy sum in scholarship money to help out with my escalating student loan debt. It was a Hill’s-sponsored subsidy based on an essay I’d written (on what topic I remember not — but it wasn’t nutrition, that much I recall).
Since then, vet medicine has changed dramatically in how it’s served, most notably though specialization across a wide range of disciplines. Nutrition is glaringly absent among these, despite the growing role of pet foods in daily vet life. What’s more surprising is that vet schools have continued to allow the pet food concerns to become even further entrenched in our curricula....
...Who has taught the last generation of vets? Pet food companies or large animal practitioners, of course. Who provides the grant money for the nutritional research conducted at veterinary institutions? Only those who have the money to ensure their products get the positive attention they need to maintain their market dominance.
Consequently, nutritional education has been lacking, to say the least. We thought we knew all there was to know about nutrition, now that obvious nutritional diseases had become extinct. But how many diet-“related” diseases do we now see? We‘re not really sure. Do we even know whether these prescription foods really work? Not always. Not independently. There’s very little competing research to tease out the reality given the intense supremacy of the marketing machines we’ve effectively sold our souls to. …
To make matters worse, the influence of this pet food industry oligopoly on real-life veterinary practice is extreme. Not only does the modern vet practice believe in the science behind the bags of food, it has come to rely on the income these foods provide...
--- End quote ---
http://www.petmd.com/blogs/fullyvetted/2007/june/how-do-vets-recommend-pet-food-part-2-education#.TwuhWJgqNyk
Part Three:
--- Quote ---For those of you who skipped the first two posts on this subject, I’m talking about how we vets recommend food and the problems we confront in doing so. Sure, some of that has to do with industry pressure, especially when every other vet down the street is carrying the food the pet food companies are expecting you to offer. Some of it has to do with our education, whereby we were inculcated into the belief that prescription diets can help almost any pet. And some of it has to do with the reality of vet practice economics, in which industry expectations, education and lack of resources (especially when starting out) can move you to sell foods to make up for the services you can’t yet move quickly or profitably enough....
Here’s where you might think all vets are in the pockets of the pet food companies—whether they think they are or not. And that may be true. But most of us recommend certain pet foods because we either know no better (for reasons related to training, explained in the previous post), because we want to do what’s best for our patients, and/or because we have few acceptably safe alternatives. And then there are the greedy (for the record, I don’t believe that’s most of us).
--- End quote ---
http://www.petmd.com/blogs/fullyvetted/2007/june/how-do-vets-recommend-pet-food-part-3-practice#.TwuiWJgqNyk
CarnivorousCritter:
You're probably thinking, oh brother, another CC anti-vet post.
I am very grateful to the wonderful veterinarians who are speaking up on behalf of their patients, and their humans who may be spared the heart-gutting agony which accompanies the seemingly uncurable effects of species-inappropriate diets.
Having experienced these nightmares first-hand, I feel the only way the guilt will subside is to try to get their word out, for theirs is a suppressed collective voice which needs to be heard. Please know that my chronic "picking on vets" is a fervent prayer that more pets might have a chance to not go through what mine did. It's been five years and the guilt has not supressed. So I keep posting... as an immediate family member still feeds you-know-what, you-know-why...
People TRUST their vets above all, when it comes to those who can't speak and point to where it hurts or TELL you what's bothering them, or WHY they're vomiting ... why they're having the seizures.... they can't say, PLEASE STOP giving me this@!! It's making me WORSE!!!! They can't TELL you this. So you trust MORE.... meanwhile the pet trust US more, too, with each pill we shove down their throats...
That's why I harp on the Vets so much. Was BLESSED with an ANGEL for too many years to not resent, HATE (to put it mildly) what is taking place ... what I have witnessed since those good old days.
Shadow:
and here is another one CC
http://www.petfood-bad.blogspot.com/
CarnivorousCritter:
Luv ya, Shadow :) and Professor Meg DVM. Another unsung hero confined to the Internet. Chef of "Old Boots" which passed the AAFCO test for pet food, co-author of http://www.amazon.com/Not-Fit-Dog-Truth-Manufactured/dp/1884956831 thumbsup1 thumbsup1 thumbsup1
Shadow:
--- Quote from: CarnivorousCritter on January 10, 2012, 12:00:02 AM ---Luv ya, Shadow :) and Professor Meg DVM. Another unsung hero confined to the Internet. Chef of "Old Boots" which passed the AAFCO test for pet food, co-author of http://www.amazon.com/Not-Fit-Dog-Truth-Manufactured/dp/1884956831 thumbsup1 thumbsup1 thumbsup1
--- End quote ---
Great book. I got this book as soon as it came out. :)
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