Vets pushing their food

[LauraLeigh]

Took the pups to the vet today, got a lecture about food.... And tries to sell me science diet....

Told me Henry was too thin, next breath watch his weight these guys don't do well fat....

Argh.... Nice enough young female vet... But I really wish my regular vet had been available! Just wanted their shots not a lecture!

Oh and my vet only charges me one "exam" when doing puppy shots if I being them all together, she charged me 3 separate 60 dollar exam fees and the shots on top....

 

[JessLough]

Did you get a third puppy??

Yah... I'm super glad that none of the vets around here seem to push anything. At least, I've never been pushed for any of it.

 

[Yorkie Mom]

Vet Prescribed Food

I've been there.
When I became a first dog owner, my first concern was diet.
I talked to everyone and read pretty much everything I could get my hands on - even before I brought my dog home!

One day at the vets I am directed to a brand of the food on their shelf. I took one look at the ingredients and said "no way".

Been feeding my girl whole food ever since and believe that she is super healthy to this day because of it.

Honestly, what's the point of a vet selling food that contains known allergens to dogs? Ca-ching, ca-ching?

To this day I can not understand why vet offices sell the food with less than the best ingredients that they do except to say that canine nutrition is not a subject that vets go deep enough into during training so why even try to push food?

In my experience I have yet to find a vet who I can talk in depth with about diet when it comes to feeding whole food.

I think next time I am into my dog's doctors office I am going to ask the vet why they sell a certain food and question particular ingredients.

Good for you to have the sense to avoid such rubbish.

 

[LauraLeigh]

No third pup, I took Sophie in for my friend as well, she's on the same schedule as Larry

My regular vets not pushy, this one... Well... She seemed to believe it at least...

 

[faustus]

Reminds me of one time when my mom took the family cat to the vet. She had been overweight for quite a while and the vet would always mention it every time she was in for an appointment. I managed to convince my mom to switch her to a much healthier food and she was doing so much better on it and had started to lose weight. My mom took her to the vet for her yearly exam. The vet told my mom how great it was that the cat was at a healthier weight and then tried to get her to switch to Science Diet... So the food is finally working and you still want us to switch?! :doh: I wish I had been there to hear it myself so I could have given the vet a piece of my mind!

 

[adojrts]

I purchase the vacc's from them for $10.00 and give the pups their shots after the first vacc's and exam. So much cheaper. Did they give a full vacc to the tiny chi pups?

 

[Grab]

the current trend at the clinic I work at is obsession over SD's new metabolic diet, which promises to speed up your pet's metabolism through the use of tomatoes and a few other choice ingredients. Nevermind that you're really feeding a small portion of something with the nutritional equivalent of sawdust...

but the other techs are allll about pushing this wonder food

ETA that they also won't recognize 'breeder vax'. So anyone whose dog was vaccinated by the breeder or owner has to have them redone there if they want to be counted as up to date in the system

 

[JacksonsMom]

I've honestly never encountered a vet pushing their food onto my healthy dog. I have zero problems with them recommending an RX food for a dog who may have a health issue though. Those foods help a LOT of dogs and they recommend them because they know they work. Vets in general don't really have time to research every brand out there and try and hope something works, so I see no issue with them recommending brands they know have proven to work in the past.

 

[AdrianneIsabel]

Lucky for me none of my vets have ever pushed food when not needed, such as specialized SD can foods for IBS issues, etc. I did have one of my favorite vets ever try to talk me out of raw when I had a starved foster but he wasn't forceful and really he was just trying to help. I hope the fact she put on weight in record time with raw helped him with his next clients.

 

[Whitewave]

I have never had a vet push food on me. My vet even ask for diet advice for their blood donor Greyhounds since he knows I own, foster and very familiar with Greyhounds.

I had one vet suggest raw for a dog with allergies, but overall never really had any vet question what I feed or push anything. I just went to a new vet for a 2nd opinion and she did ask what I was feeding. But she said it was fine, just limit salt since Pongo has CHF and encouraged home cooking which I'm doing with a little kibble.

 

[skittledoo]

I've had vets push science diet and royal canin on my dogs... especially on Cricket because she has food allergies. Annoying to me.

I also get the raised eyebrows with Whiskey when they ask what he is eating and I mention he is on a raw diet because germs and bacteria.

 

[sillysally]

Other than my vet not being a fan of raw, not really. The vet did recommend a prescription diet for the cats, which they are on. Our bird vets push Harrison's, which is a high quality bird "kibble," but my 2 boys solidly refuse to touch it, so we have them on a slightly lower but still good quality food.

 

[Southpaw]

Yeah we don't push foods unless there's a reason an animal would need an Rx diet or something. Otherwise we don't tell people what to feed. The only exception, of course, is when people feed raw... then they usually get told they should try cooking it, and going to balanceit.com so that they do it properly.

I am a huge food snob when it involves my own pets, but when clients want my opinion and ask me if I think it's okay that their dog eats Purina? I don't really have a problem telling them that it's fine to stick with that if they think their dog is doing well with it. And that's how our vets are too - we are supposed to ask everyone what food they feed, but we don't make suggestions unless it seems warranted (ie, chronic diarrhea/vomiting, allergies etc).

 

[crazedACD]

I haven't had anyone lecture me on food, ever (and I've been to a million vets). Except for recommending a prescription diet which was warranted. Shrug. My dogs are at reasonable weights and have healthy coats, I don't think they have any reason to lecture.

The vet I'm going to now, no one had any idea what Fromm was though.

 

[JessLough]

CD;2273251]I haven't had anyone lecture me on food, ever (and I've been to a million vets). Except for recommending a prescription diet which was warranted. Shrug. My dogs are at reasonable weights and have healthy coats, I don't think they have any reason to lecture.

The vet I'm going to now, no one had any idea what Fromm was though.[/QUOTE]

Yah, it always amazes me the stories people say about vets pushing things (food, vaccines, speuter...). I'm always sitting here thinking "where does everybody find these vets?!"

The receptionists/vet techs at my back up clinic... None of them believed Fromm was a name of a pet food. So on file, under food, they just have "mix of expensive grain free cat kibbles". LOL i wasnt going to fight that

 

[LauraLeigh]

This was the first time for me, in all my years, and I wasn't pleased....

My dogs have always been in great shape too? I'm not sure why she felt the need, young and likely been taught what she was saying was right?

 

[BostonBanker]

I've never had a vet push anything on me either, except for one vet who was really into the Lepto vaccine. Having said that, the vet I use now sells Orijen and Sojos, so I think we are on the same general page as far as nutrition. I actually haven't broached the vaccine stuff with her yet. I normally ask about it before I even take any dogs in, but I started using her because she does a lot of rehab stuff and Gusto was injured. I liked her so much (and needed to not be using the vet I had been at) that I just had the dogs' records transferred over for everything.

 

[*blackrose]

Yeah we don't push foods unless there's a reason an animal would need an Rx diet or something. Otherwise we don't tell people what to feed. The only exception, of course, is when people feed raw... then they usually get told they should try cooking it, and going to balanceit.com so that they do it properly.

I am a huge food snob when it involves my own pets, but when clients want my opinion and ask me if I think it's okay that their dog eats Purina? I don't really have a problem telling them that it's fine to stick with that if they think their dog is doing well with it. And that's how our vets are too - we are supposed to ask everyone what food they feed, but we don't make suggestions unless it seems warranted (ie, chronic diarrhea/vomiting, allergies etc).

I've honestly never encountered a vet pushing their food onto my healthy dog. I have zero problems with them recommending an RX food for a dog who may have a health issue though. Those foods help a LOT of dogs and they recommend them because they know they work. Vets in general don't really have time to research every brand out there and try and hope something works, so I see no issue with them recommending brands they know have proven to work in the past.

^ This and this.

We try to get people to switch to a "quality" dog food if they are feeding Beneful, Ol' Roy, etc. And by "quality", I mean that typically Iams/Pro Plan/Eukanuba is recommended.

The only time we try to push a rx food is when there is an animal having issues and it NEEDS an rx food. And the reason the prescription foods are pushed versus other foods is that the vets have experience with them, they are educated on them, and they have used them often enough to know they work, because they see the results they want.

I think the times a prescription food isn't necessarily needed is for allergies and weight loss, but unless the owner knows what exactly the dog needs and does all of the research needed to find the proper food for the dog, it is so much easier to just say, "Feed OM" or "Feed D/D", because the vet knows what is in the food and the can help the client develop a proper feeding plan.

 

[Shakou]

Only time the vets ever pushed their food on us was when my cat developed lower urinary tract disease. Science Diet makes a special prescription food specifically for that, and since my cat is in the care of my mother who's not as resourceful as I am, and since he responded well to the food and seems to like it, I decided to let her keep buying it.

 

[CrazyDogLady]

Ugh. Vets around here are ridiculous! My first 4 vets refused to listen when I told them not to talk nutrition with me (after multiple visits) even go as far as to tell me raw was slowly killing my dogs and to switch them to purina, because they had been around the longest and knew what they were doing (insert massive eye rolling on my part here lol) so I kept looking. Finally found a vet who is a raw advocate, but sells fromm, Merrick and zignature at their office. They also are knowledgeable about limited vaccine protocols and use a special rabies vaccine that is less likely to cause reactions, its free of some ingredient, I forget which exactly. I consider myself very very lucky to have found them