I have been taking my cats to the same vet for about 20 years, and she has a partner that joined her practice about 5 years ago. She sees my cats as well. Both of them seem caring and have always been good with my cats, but I fear that they don't know very much about nutrition.
When my adult female cat was constantly vomiting after eating every food that I gave her (including two prescription foods), one of them told me that she was just eating too fast and to put a big rock in her bowl to slow her down. I am the one that did the research and suggested to them that the corn and corn gluten in all of the foods could be an issue. They agreed to let me try a different food and suggested Blue Buffalo, which has no corn, wheat or soy (that much they knew about). Sure enough, when I started giving her the new food the vomiting stopped almost immediately. It has been about a month and a half on the new food, and so far, no vomiting! Neither of them had ever suggested a diet issue until I brought it up.
I have a kitten that has chronic loose stools, and both of the vets seem to blow me off when I suggest that it could be a diet issue. They want me to keep sticking with the same food while they keep giving him different medications. He did have coccidia parasites when I first got him a few months ago. He doesn't anymore. A stool sample sent to a lab confirmed that there are no parasites present. They seem to think that the coccidiosis wreaked havc on his intestines and he is not quite over it yet and there could still be some leftover bacteria in there. This sounds reasonable and the Sulfasalazine did work when I gave it to him, but he was back to loose stools after a couple of weeks of being off of it. He is now on his second round of it. They have said that it could be IBD as well. I have been told to avoid chicken, beef, wheat, corn, soy, dairy, and eggs. The Blue Buffalo Basics Fish and Potato that I am feeding has none of these things. I asked one of the vets if all grains could be an issue and if I should start feeding grain-free (the formula I am currently feeding has whole ground brown rice and oatmeal). She didn't think it was an issue but said that I could mix some of the Blue Basics grain-free in with the other food if I wanted to, but that it had to be the same brand. I mentioned to her the problems that I had read about online with Blue Buffalo, but she insists that it is a good brand and she has never had any clients that had problems with it. I am currently feeding all dry, and they want me to keep it that way. I give the kitten just a tiny bit of canned with his pill, and he always cries for more. I think he wants to eat wet food, even though he does like his dry. I asked one of the vets if I could start giving him more wet food. She was amused by this and said that I just want to give him the wet food for ME so that I don't feel bad when he cries. She said that I could give him just a little bit of wet food as a treat but that he doesn't really need it. This goes against a lot of what I have been reading lately.
I really don't want to switch vets, but I'm not sure if they are giving me very good nutritional advice. Could TWO vets that I trust be wrong or are all of the pet owners on the Internet wrong? It's tough to decide.
I
When my adult female cat was constantly vomiting after eating every food that I gave her (including two prescription foods), one of them told me that she was just eating too fast and to put a big rock in her bowl to slow her down. I am the one that did the research and suggested to them that the corn and corn gluten in all of the foods could be an issue. They agreed to let me try a different food and suggested Blue Buffalo, which has no corn, wheat or soy (that much they knew about). Sure enough, when I started giving her the new food the vomiting stopped almost immediately. It has been about a month and a half on the new food, and so far, no vomiting! Neither of them had ever suggested a diet issue until I brought it up.
I have a kitten that has chronic loose stools, and both of the vets seem to blow me off when I suggest that it could be a diet issue. They want me to keep sticking with the same food while they keep giving him different medications. He did have coccidia parasites when I first got him a few months ago. He doesn't anymore. A stool sample sent to a lab confirmed that there are no parasites present. They seem to think that the coccidiosis wreaked havc on his intestines and he is not quite over it yet and there could still be some leftover bacteria in there. This sounds reasonable and the Sulfasalazine did work when I gave it to him, but he was back to loose stools after a couple of weeks of being off of it. He is now on his second round of it. They have said that it could be IBD as well. I have been told to avoid chicken, beef, wheat, corn, soy, dairy, and eggs. The Blue Buffalo Basics Fish and Potato that I am feeding has none of these things. I asked one of the vets if all grains could be an issue and if I should start feeding grain-free (the formula I am currently feeding has whole ground brown rice and oatmeal). She didn't think it was an issue but said that I could mix some of the Blue Basics grain-free in with the other food if I wanted to, but that it had to be the same brand. I mentioned to her the problems that I had read about online with Blue Buffalo, but she insists that it is a good brand and she has never had any clients that had problems with it. I am currently feeding all dry, and they want me to keep it that way. I give the kitten just a tiny bit of canned with his pill, and he always cries for more. I think he wants to eat wet food, even though he does like his dry. I asked one of the vets if I could start giving him more wet food. She was amused by this and said that I just want to give him the wet food for ME so that I don't feel bad when he cries. She said that I could give him just a little bit of wet food as a treat but that he doesn't really need it. This goes against a lot of what I have been reading lately.
I really don't want to switch vets, but I'm not sure if they are giving me very good nutritional advice. Could TWO vets that I trust be wrong or are all of the pet owners on the Internet wrong? It's tough to decide.
I