Pets as Therapy - crazy, crazy world

The big food companies don't need vets to "push" their foods, they sell in all of the normal retail shops now and the variety of food available on the open market has massively increased in the last few decades..thankfully!

Even the supermarkets are stocking semi decent brands in most places. The larger market forces have already started to jump on the grain-free bandwagon though as thats the current "trend" in dry dog food.give it time and if they think theres money to be made and the large companies will follow raw as well.....if its economical and passes their risk assessments. If a business thinks they can make money on something....they tend to do it.
(Prescription diet's for the record are an entirely different ballgame as they are a medical related food imo)

Raw is going more and more commercial over time and thats not necessarily a bad thing as commercial companies usually have to meet a certain standard before they can claim to be a complete food and they are generally better for trying to prevent the contamination issue(several I looked into either irradiate or batch test for listeria salmonella campy e-coli etc)......

The issues I have with raw are based on research on google scholar and searches on VIN(the vet online network where vets share imfo,new research etc)To high a con list for me personally however unlikely issues may be.
As it happens we actually sell a few raw product ranges in the petshop thats attached to the vets I work in....along with dozens of other dog foods of varying price ranges. I get a discount on all of them thanks to working where I do...and I still picked kibble.

People like to say Raw is the best things since sliced bread....and imo dogs tend to look fantastic on it,does wonders for the skin and coat in most cases..and allergy dogs where foods an issue do great....

Anecdotally it is mostly positive but anecdotes are not unbiased. Given how staunchly some of the members of pro raw groups I am part of, refuse to even consider the cons of the diet...I don't entirely trust some of the opinions about this diet as non biased...I read a thread recently on a raw facebook group which highlighted why.There was an absolute lambasting of a vet for raising concerns about the diet to a newbie owner and the thread very quickly became about how vets know nothing about nutrition and how they are all in it for the money in the pocket of hills etc,ignore them your doing fine etc. As it happens the vet appeared to be expressing very valid concerns about a very very unbalanced raw diet in a large breed pup. Id have done the same...a few voices pointed that out but the overwhelming majority seemed to think as it was a vet who raised the concern they had to be wrong. If all criticism,especially from a medical professional that your paying for their opinion, is considered suspect and untrustworthy maybe its time to look a little more objectively at why thats the case and do your own research from reliable sources before deciding everything is a conspiracy.
I find its a bit like veganism. Im not convinced about following that path personally but those who are often very passionate about their choice.

Claiming it is problem free and the best thing for every dog just isn't true. Nothing in life is perfect. I like people to make informed choices.....and I don't want to be the person that advised this sort of diet say nothing about the cons have to mention later on that ah yes this bone impaction/broken tooth/campylobactor,salmonella,ecoli infection/abnormal bone growth in your large breed pup/high urea is very likely due to that diet I advised.
If you want to do raw you need to do your research know the pros and cons and at least try and balance it..or get someone to do it for you,theres a few nutritionalists this side of the world who will do just that for you,including one in Massey Uni.

I don't feel confident that I could balance a raw diet appropriately for a pup personally....so I feed kibble and the occasional raw as a treat. I might change over when she's an adult and if more positive research comes out...but at the minute she's thriving,has wonderfully solid poo that she likes to gift me inside sometimes so I don't plan to fix whats not broken.
 
The other issue with holding all nutritional info from the likes of royal canin/hills etc suspect....is that its not a rational way to judge canine nutrition.

A massive amount of the nutritional info for dogs available is in some way affiliated with these companies as because all medical research tends gets done in areas where there is a commercial interest.
Its just the way the world works unfortunately. These are the companies that have traditionally sponsored the research in canine nutrition as they have been the main companies producing highend pet food traditionally ( no longer the case now but over the last few decades it was)

Go back over the decades and you'll see their affiliation in most of the research that has led us to deciding what counts as balanced feeding. They did or sponsored many of the studies to show effective mineral ratios,the effects of amino acid deficiencies, the benefits of restrictions of different elements in certain illness' etc....that sort of research let to changes in nutrional advise like change in puppy foods to modify the ratios for large breed pup etc...due to their findings on clinical research that suggested it was nessecary and easier to prevent by feeding appropriately. There have been **** ups along the way- taurine defiency in cats was a massive one....but once it was known the feeding guidlines were adapted not hushed up and ignored. Because thats the point of research to constantly adapt change and see if we can do better.
Its partly their nutritional research that helped build the aafco, which is the minimum standard of nutrition that pet foods have to hit in order to be considered complete......

Ignoring all studies that have some one affiliated/sponsored by one of the big feed company isn't a good way to judge the material as it reduces it to much....you need to look at the studies as they are presented and what was actually found and ignore the "spin" put on it after...unless you think every clincial nutritionalist and researcher has worked and contributed to this research sponsored by these companies is bias as well....
 
The Fediaf and their standards is the european nutritional standards agency are what I should have mentioned above as well. I think I stuck the american version in the above post sorry! been away to long Im forgetting the jargon for each continent.

On the off chance anyone is into nutrition.There are the current european guidelines available on the link on this page. http://www.fediaf.org/self-regulation/nutrition/
 
Last edited:
interesting comments Aru. I agree about the raw feeding group fanatics. What are your views on part kibble and part raw. I know what the groups advise but wonder how correct that view is?
 
Frankly if someone is so sick they may get c-diff or salmonella from the meal a dog has ate, do they really need a dog visiting them anyway? As said, dogs can eat any array of things we dont know about unless they are literally watched 24/7

I actually assumed this would be about them not being allowed as they may be more aggressive due to blood lust haha
 
gunnergundog... what did you thing as of the whole pets as therapy scenario as a whole? I am looking int registering my dog with them, I think it's a great thing to do, just want to know your experience?

Thanks
 
So long as you are happy to conform to their current rules and regs re feeding and vaccination then by all means go for it....for me, however, this was a deal breaker and I have resigned. It is a fairly simple test the dogs have to pass.

Interestingly, it has been brought to my attention that there are two other UK charities of a similar nature that do not impose such stipulations. Also, some of the privately owned care homes have turned around and said that they are happy to accept the risk as the good the dogs do outweigh any downsides. PetPlan are also providing suitable insurance. :)

You need to find places to visit that suit you and your dog; for instance, my current (sorry, ex-) PAT dog tolerates kids but doesn't love them as much as some of her predecessors so I've focussed on visiting care homes and the local uni with her. Have made many good friends as a result.

Good luck!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top