So many questions! - Page 2

A lot of folks acknowledge that vets lack nutritional training on their patients, and yet advocate strict obedience to only to their vets' advice. This doesn't make sense to me (unless someone has a low tolerance for risk and is simply advocating the "safest" recommendation, which I completely understand), so I would be interested in the answer to this question, too.

Thanks!

AC

Who is to say who is right or wrong Minka? You claim to be training to become a vet. What is going to happen when you give sound advice to a patient's parent and they immediately go to the Internet and take someone else's advice? The cat does not respond well to said advice and you wind up with a big mess on your hands. It's a catch 22 IMO. Yes, I agree getting information from verifiable sources on the Internet is a great thing, and it's one of the reasons that makes the Internet so useful. It will help the pet owner make an informed decision on their pet's care. However, there are a lot of "arm chair" experts on the Internet that give advice that is at best, ancedotal and their blogs and sites make me skeptical more often than not.

I firmly believe in following a veterinarian's course of action. If I've found something I feel might work better, I discuss it with the vet. I'm lucky to have a really good veterinarian for my cats and dogs. My vet is also very open to suggestion and will investigate what I think might work and then we'll go from there. Not all people are as lucky to have a vet like that. That much I realize. But, if you can't trust the vet you're seeing, change vets. Personally I just feel like I'm doing the right thing by listening to my vet and not necessarily some anonymous person typing out medical advice on a keyboard.

I answered to Minka's post. So, who's advice do you take Auntie Crazy? A veterinarian's or someone you met on the Internet?

Edited - I forgot to say; There is nothing more valuable than someone else's positive experience with food, training or any other thing you might think of. You can find much of that on the Internet and I find it to be invaluable sometimes. When it comes to my pet's health, I will always work with the vet if possible, in particularly if I've found something I would like to try to bring my pet back to good health.

If I listened to my vets advice, I'd still be feeding Science Diet dry, no wet, to my cats. Panther would be dead, Jack & Jill would have had their eyes removed, Amiga would still be 4lbs vs. 8 lbs, Clover would be horribly underwieght, Mikey would still be throwing up every day,...

All vets here recommend junk food - Science Diet, Iams, Nutro, Cat Chow, or whatever is on sale at the grocery store for the lowest price. Your pretty much get yelled at for even mentioning the possibility of feeding wet food. Yes, they are very smart people, and really know their stuff when it comes to medical issues. But they sure don't when it comes to nutrition, which is why I don't listen to them about it, choosing to research on my own. There are some amazing resources available to pet owners on the internet - catinfo.org, fnes.org, huge facebook/yahoo groups dedicated to the topic of nutrition/raw feeding, etc.

IMO, all vets should be locked up in a room with the book "Not Fit For a Dog", and have to read it before being let out

For anything related to the huge amount of training and education my (cat-only) veterinarian received, I discuss the situation thoroughly with him and most likely will do exactly as he advises. Not blindly, but because I understand the options and believe his course of action has the best chance of succeeding. If it doesn't, and he's at a loss, you can bet I'm coming to the internet for some good old-fashioned research, the results of which I'll bring back to him for more discussion and perhaps a tweak of his recommendations.

When it comes to nutrition, and health related to diet, my vet asks me questions. And then we discuss, just as before.

And the question shouldn't be phrased as an either / or scenario. Nobody knows everything, including my awesome vet. For me, it's an analysis, "given the preponderance of information I have, and the biases inherent in the sources, what's the most valid path forward?"

In these cat forums, I toss out my experiences and opinions on all kinds of topics, but when it comes to nutrition, I advise, recommend, encourage, and sometimes even cajole; it's probable, on this topic, I fit your description of an "arm chair expert".

But one of my strongest messages (hopefully!) is the importance of making your own decisions, including conducting your own due diligence. Research, review, analyze, decide - yourself! There is a reason feline nutrition sites invariably recommend raw, and you can, through research and analysis, uncover that reasoning yourself, independent of those sites. Heck, the Feline Nutrition Education Society didn't even exist when I first started digging into feline nutritional needs! There is also a reason veterinarians recommend Science Diet and the other kibble and canned products they sell - and that reason, too, can be uncovered by independent research.

So, for me, a blanket "listen only to your vet" (or only to me, or only to your mom) recommendation is anathema. Instead, research to understand the topic, discuss with your vet, then make your decision.

Make sense?

AC

You've no need to apologize, Orangeishcat; this is your thread and it is we who became side-tracked!

I'm glad you've settled on a new plan for Peanut. Let us know how it goes, ok?

Best regards!

AC

When it comes to medical issues I listen to my vet. For nutrition, I know that vets do not receive much of an education and unless I know the vet has taken further training in nutrition I prefer to do my own research. I would not take advice from just any internet site and act upon it. Fortunately, after 11 years on this site, I'm aware that there are some members here who have much knowledge to share and I'd listen to those persons re nutrition before even my vet.

I also do not just blindly trust advice from folks like vets who are biased toward the food they sell and make money on or have a vested interest in. I ask questions and get answers I can live with first. I do believe there are times when prescription food is needed so would not discount it completely.

It makes perfect sense in the fact that this is almost exactly what I stated in my post.

Make sense?

No apology necessary! I am so very glad Peanut is improving. That is really good news

That in itself is quite a broad statement. I will stand by my conviction that if you have a sick animal, you should stick with the vet's recommendations. If you find something you think might work better; discuss it with them. I'm talking about a sick animal or an animal with a condition that a vet's care is required.

For healthy animals and nutritional advice, have at it. I'm all for new ideas on the subject.

These debates will never end. I think they are good because it gets people thinking about the quality of their pets' diets, and hopefully, their own

My Claude has been on low calorie diet food since December now, and he has lost 3 pounds. He is very active and content, and his coat is so shiny.

My vet, who does sell Hills food, said the ingredients in the Hills prescription low cal food weren't enough different from the Science Diet low calorie food to warrant the expense of buying the stuff from him. However, I'm feeding Claude Wellness and Natural Balance low calorie foods as I like them better.

In the past I fed cats who lived over 18 years a primarily dry diet of Science Diet, or worse. Good cat food wasn't available, and I didn't know any better then anyway. None were obese.

Robin

I didn't say anything about right or wrong. I asked why you would recommend to get information from a source you Know is invalid. Why not recommend them to go to a nutritionalist? There are official ones on the internet you can email/call, or you could set up an appointment with one in real life.

No matter who you are, you can't stop people from going somewhere else for information, so that's kind of a moot point. The best you can do is make yourself seem as reputable as possible.

Once again, you are straying from the topic. We are not talking about medical science. We are talking about nutrition. If you don't trust your vet to sew up your cat, then I agree you shouldn't go to him. However, there is nothing odd about wanting to get advice other than from your general practitioner when you sprain your ankle running. They simply don't have the knowledge a sports medicine doctor would.
Oops, sorry for that.. <__< (done arguing now xD)

Yay, Peanut!

I don't know that the "source" was invalid, and neither do you. I did not recommend a nutrition expert right off hand because the cat was under a veterinarian's care for specific issues. There might have been a lot of other factors in the equation.


Who on earth is trying to "stop people from going somewhere else for information"? I'm not.

I did not stray from the original topic Minka. You and several others did. And once again, you are perpetuating off topic thread drift.

Medical Science vs. Nutrition? Interesting statement coming from someone claiming to be preparing for vet school. Don't the 2 work hand in hand to help create a health pet?