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Posted by Deerhounds on July 28, 2002 at 19:25:11:
I get asked a lot why most vets are so totally opposed to raw diets, and to homemade diets in general. A lot of people seem to believe it's because it eats into their income, either because they make money selling "Science Diet" etc., or because healthier dogs mean less income for vets. But I don't believe that is the case at all.
I think most vets are agaist "BARF" because it goes agaist the grain of what we have been taught for many many years. I think that most vets TRULY and SINCERELY believe that eating raw and bones is totally without benefit and very, very risky. I don't really think they recommend commercial foods for any reason other than they really believe they are best, that home cooking is unreliable, that the "recipe" the pet food manufacturers use is good and the "recipe" a home diet preparer uses is bad, and that feeding home prepared diets is a huge waste of time and probably not good for the pet.
Also, for some reason they seem to think that the recipes invented by the vets who work for the pet food companies are better than the recipes invented by the vets who write books on holistic and natural pet care. Why? Dr. Pitcairn's recipes have been used since the late 1970s. I doubt there is ANY pet food out there that has done food trials that long. I know one vet who said that he couldn't think of any reason to feed raw or home prepared. I didn't want to get into a debate so I didn't say anything, but the "reason" for me is that once I switched to raw homemade back in 1986, all my dogs and cats became visibly and remarkably healthier. The tartar on their teeth went away, they simply stopped having fleas and worms, they stopped having coat problems, body odor, bad breath.... the cats' litter box stopped smelling! One cat who had been on cortisone for TEN YEARS for an uncontrollable flea allergy simply stopped itching. Forever. Now, the other problem is that vets (and many other people) perform their risk vs benefit analysis this way: Raw = some or no benefit, lots of risk Commercial = benefit, no risk BUT.... in addition to underestimating the benefit of a raw diet, they also underestimate the risk of a commercial diet. Commercial diets are extremely supportive of the development of dental disease, which is responsible for far nastier bacterial problems and severe, often fatal health problems, than a raw diet is. In fact, thousands of pets die every day from the periodontal disease that results from a lifetime of eating commercial foods. Kidney disease and heart disease are common in dogs and cats, and can be caused by periodontal disease, which can be caused by a lifetime of eating processed, starchy foods. You have only to compare the dental health of wild animals eating their natural diet to that of our domestic pets to clearly see what is happening here. Kim Hennemen, DVM, who is a former AOL Pet Care Forum staff vet, told me that she attended the Western States Vet Conf (one of the biggest in the US), at which there was a lecture on Mountain Lions and Grizzly Bears. The veterinarian who gave the lecture is from Canada, and he has worked on these animals for years, including captive-raised in zoos and wild animal parks (which mimic natural environments), and done research on wild animals. He showed photos of the teeth of 9-10 year old cougars (they know because they were tagged at birth) in the wild that look like they just erupted (white, no tarter, no gum irritation) as well as cougars that were kept in game preserves...same thing. He said that it wasn't unusual to find cats about that age in the wild. He reported no problems with impactions due to eating bones, and any decrease in numbers in their area was due to hunting or fluctuated with the deer/elk numbers. I believe that there is risk to feeding a raw diet, and there is a risk to feeding bones. I believe that risk is far less than it is usually thought to be. I believe there is a risk to feeding a commercial diet, and I believe that risk is far greater than it is usually thought to be. I believe the benefit of feeding a raw diet outweighs the risk for most dogs and cats. Does this mean that there is absolutely NO RISK? No. But neither is there "no risk" to feeding a commercial diet. Those diets are inappropriately formulated, based on ingredients that EVEN AT THEIR HIGHEST QUALITY are not correct for carnivores to eat. Most commercial foods, especially the ones frequently recommended by vets in their offices, are made with ingredients of very poor quality, even if the recipes themselves were acceptable, which they generally are not. Improper urine pH, stress on the intestine due to high fiber/high carbohydate diets, stress on the pancreas, stress on the liver... all these things are the result of feeding commercial RECIPES... not just the poor quality ingredients found in most foods, but the RECIPES used by even the very best pet food manufacturers. (Donald Strombeck, DVM PhD, "Home Prepared Dog and Cat Diets," 1999. Dr. Strombeck is a gastroenterologist and professor at UC Davis vet school and the author of the textbook used in all vet colleges, "Small Animal Gastroenterology." He is not a holistic vet, and he is completely opposed to commercial foods. He doesn't advocate feeding raw, but he has PLENTY to say about the ill effects of feeding prepared foods to dogs and cats.) Add in the generally low quality ingredients, the effects of high-heat processing, the huge investment of dollars into packaging and advertising, the effects of shipping in non-refrigerated trucks, and you do the math. Would you eat a meat product that was not kept refrigerated? That was shipped across country in all kinds of weather? That had a "shelf life" of weeks or months or years? Of course not. The potential for contamination and bacterial growth is HUGE. You want to be safe? Make it yourself, fresh, from ingredients you buy at the grocery store using a recipe or feeding plan that is balanced and complete over time. You want to take a chance? Risk your pets' health on the variations of the market, the ethics of large corporations or the egos and whims of small "one man" companies, the fluctuating prices of raw ingredients, the effectiveness of our nation's food inspection and safety processes. Risk vs benefit? Hands down, for me, homemade wins. Christie Keith
Caber Feidh Scottish Deerhounds
Holistic Husbandry since 1986