# Does your vet support RAW diet?



## JudynRich (Apr 16, 2010)

When we brought Mia home a year ago we had intended to keep her on the raw diet she was weaned on. She wasn't eating and the breeder suggested we try again when she is an adult-which we plan to do. (She and Bella are both doing good on home made food-never a tummy or poop issue ever! Bella will be a year at the end of September. So when I mentioned the eventual switch, the vet I saw at that visit (there are 5 in our vet's office) didn't sound very supportive. I am wondering if your vet supports your choice for RAW.


----------



## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

One vet didn't say anything when I discussed feeding RAW to my cat. The other vet wasn't to happy when she found some turkey bones in Jax's poop. I just ignore them and do what I want.


----------



## Relayer (Apr 29, 2010)

Vets are often the product of how they were trained. Same is true for human medical doctors (think vitamins and some MD's). If they were not schooled much about raw, they likely have only focused on kibble and and canned. They can also be heavily influenced by the sales reps and industry that market those foods. It's not even always that they are against raw, they just don't have a comfort level with it. They may also be concerned about every yahoo that asks being truly responsible about making sure it's done correctly. I don't ask my vet's opinion about simple and personal issues like that. There is plenty of public info available to make up your own mind.


----------



## Zoeys mom (Jan 23, 2010)

I don't feed raw and no my vet doesn't love the idea but he doesn't knock it either. If done correctly with supplements it's a perfectly fine diet in his opinion he just says it's too "new" to prove it is superior to high quality dog kibble. I hear chocking, blockage, and intestinal tears are rare especially if your going to be monitoring feeding, and honestly I have many friends who swear by the diet for their dogs with allergies. My lab suffered non stop diarrhea when we tried the gradual switch with him, but any bones seem to give him the runs so he may not be the best candidate. I would have tried with Zoe my GSD, but with him around it's just easier to feed the same food


----------



## jakeandrenee (Apr 30, 2010)

Both of Jake's vets do not support RAW and are not helpful at all when I have asked their opinions on trying RAW because I suspect a allergy to chicken and grain.


----------



## Relayer (Apr 29, 2010)

jakeandrenee said:


> Both of Jake's vets do not support RAW and are not helpful at all when I have asked their opinions on trying RAW because I suspect a allergy to chicken and grain.


Hey, did you ever try the chicken only experiment, to rule out chicken?


----------



## DianaB (Jan 3, 2007)

Our 'traditional' (original) vet was very much against RAW. Our new 'holistic' vet recommends it for some dogs, but not for Siena (at this stage of her life - she's had a lifetime of tummy, digestive, parasites, etc. so we keep it simple).

Most traditional vets I talk to don't recommend RAW, but some of them are open to it.


----------



## jakeandrenee (Apr 30, 2010)

No, not yet. He is FINALLY having normal poops so it is time to try...I all but eliminated chicken and still itchy so I guess it's grain but...I know I need to do the experiment to know for sure.


----------



## Dainerra (Nov 14, 2003)

I no longer feed RAW, but only 1 vet had a problem with it. Otherwise, they were all impressed by how Rayden looked and how clean his teeth were. Even more so that he had never needed a tooth cleaning in his life. 

So, even though they did not specifically tell clients "feed RAW" they were open to the idea and very impressed with the results.


----------



## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

The vet practice I went to for over 20 years was abandoned when the vets daughter(who was taking over her aging daddy's practice) railed on my for my choice in feeding raw. Her argument was so weak and hilarilous, it wasn't worth trying to educate her.
I go to a vet now that is fine with what I feed, she just wants to make sure that I have done my research and know what I'm doing. That goes with my limited vaccinations as well...she does have it noted in the files however, to keep her from being liable if my dogs get sick or something because I refuse lepto, lyme, distemper vaccinations.


----------



## lhczth (Apr 5, 2000)

I have never discussed it with my vet. He is pretty open to my using limited vaccines so I doubt he would argue much with me.


----------



## UConnGSD (May 19, 2008)

Zoeys mom said:


> he just says it's too "new" to prove it is superior to high quality dog kibble.


:rofl: Raw diet too new??? Didn't know high quality kibble existed for 1000s of (no? 100 then? 50?) years! But alas, your vet is not the only one to think like that.

Mine would die of a heart attack if she found out that Wolfie thrives on a raw diet, especially after the horrible prognosis they gave him re his kidney disease. "We didn't think we'd see a second birthday", she tells me the other day. I don't have the time nor energy to try and convince conventional vets otherwise. I just don't bring it up.


----------



## Stosh (Jun 26, 2010)

Our vet is very holistic, natural, alternative whatever you want to call him- he's still against feeding raw bone-in chicken because of the possibility of tears and blockage. He does however, sell Nature's Variety raw frozen diet which I use, comes in chicken, venison, bison, beef. It has the bones ground up in it so he's fine with that. We do have a second vet in a different office for back up and she's fine with the chicken bones- so I guess my answer is a qualified yes.


----------



## Zisso (Mar 20, 2009)

I don't think my vet is 100% on board with me about the raw diet, but she definitely agrees that I must be doing something right since we have not been in for GI issues for ages  She said she will trust me to do what I feel is right and she ALWAYS admires their good health when I take them in for weight checks!


----------



## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Nope. 

I was giving chicken leg quarters -- not totally on raw, my vet was all worried about salmonella. I had them check Whitney for any type of bacteria from meat when we were having our little issue. She was perfectly fine. 

After one x-ray on one of them, the vet said they did not see what we were x-raying for, but said she did see these chicken bones, like she was all concerned. I told her yeah, I gave her a raw chicken leg quarter late last night. Since I was not worried, she gave it up as a bad job. 

Sometimes I think they marvel that my critters are still living.


----------



## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

When I had Karlo's prelim's done, there was a chicken bone in his tummy, the vet tech immediately spotted it while he was still sedated. I told her the diet and both her and Dr. Mos just laughed!


----------



## Rott-n-GSDs (Jul 7, 2010)

Stosh said:


> he's still against feeding raw bone-in chicken because of the possibility of tears and blockage.


LMAO. I'm having an image of a wolf or coyote in the wild eating a grouse or a farmer's chicken and saying, "Gee, I'd better eat around these bones. I might get a tear or blockage!" 

My vet blames everything on the raw diet, and then gets to eat her words when I don't feed the Hills crap she recommends and my dogs recover from whatever ailment they happen to be suffering from without switching off raw.

I took Apollo to a specialist at the University of Minnesota and the vets there had no problem whatsoever with a raw prey model diet.

Another regular vet I consulted with looked at me like I was nutz but didn't say anything.

The holistic vet I consulted with told me I needed to add veggies.


----------



## Lauri & The Gang (Jun 28, 2001)

I have 3 vets. 

The first one is 10 minutes from my house. I go to him for the basics - shots, minor injuries, and emergencies (he has a 24/7 pager). He knows I feed raw and thinks it works for my dogs but doesn't advocate it.

The holistic vet I go to for serious issues. They advocate a raw diet.

My surgical vet is an hour away. He doesn't care what I feed my dogs.


----------



## JudynRich (Apr 16, 2010)

I am wondering about this since I doubt I will get apporval from my vet...plus the girsl are doing so well on my homemade dog food...not once in a year have we had vomitting or weird stools. The girls are regular and have good ppops!


----------



## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

omg omg omg!! I think I just found a vet that does support it!

Went today!!! 

Walked in, I was a bit early, and scoped out the stuff on the shelves. I picked up a supplement for cats and said to the technician, "I feed my cat a RAW diet. Would this supplement be good for him?" Fully expecting a crappy answer, I about fell over when she replied, "Oh..a RAW diet? You want this supplement over here!"

Really? No kidding? You guys don't have any issues with RAW diets? Nope...alot of our clients feed RAW. So I asked about calcium/phosporus ratios. Then if a cat/dog had time to process flax seed ALA to epa/dha. She said, "oh he's going to love your questions!"

Asked him about the C/P ratio. He replied, "The problem with being vet in this age is that we aren't taught much about nutrition so I'm ashamed to say I can't even answer your question. But I'll call a nutritionist at Cornell."

At this point, I'm just sure I have silly little hearts floating over my head!


----------



## GsdLoverr729 (Jun 20, 2010)

My vet supports a raw diet with large breed dogs, but only when the meat is completely safe and there is no risk that it could have bad bacteria in it (salmonella, etc.). My old vet, however, was against it.


----------



## Gib Laut (Feb 21, 2010)

No, that's why he got fired and is now the EX vet....I think it's wrong not to be able to have intelligent, educated discussions about nutrition with your vet. Since most no nothing about that subject, it takes some looking and talking to find one who does.....they don't have to luv it, but if they think the be all and end all of food is kibble, not my vet! Last I checked, I pay THEM so they better know their stuff and that includes species appropriate nutrition.


----------



## natalie559 (Feb 4, 2005)

Yes my vet does! But I completely understand where some vets are coming from as many raw diets aren't well researched and may or may not provide the right amounts of nutrients needed for good health and development. There is a lot of misinformation out there. But I do wish the vets that felt this way would use it as an opportunity to educate rather than dismiss the whole idea.


----------



## aubie (Dec 22, 2008)

Our vet practice has like five vets. We see two of them regularly. The younger male vet who usually sees Duncan does NOT support it, so we don't discuss it.

The older female vet who typically sees Anna, and was her trainer at OB school, does support it and titering and his Ester C treatment. We'll probably be switching Duncan over to her when we go in for his annual check up in the next week. 

The younger male vet, or any of them really, are fine, but she's a little more on our page when it comes to how we treat/feed our puppers.


----------



## Anja1Blue (Feb 27, 2008)

Yes - I have two vets (one is a classic homeopath, the other offers alternative medicine as part of her practice.) They both endorse it 100%, and vet #1 feeds both of her dogs a raw diet. 
__________________________________________
Susan

Anja SchH3 GSD
Conor GSD
Blue BH WH T1 GSD - waiting at the Bridge


----------



## goatdude (Mar 3, 2009)

I have Ruby on a hybrid raw/commercial diet mainly for the reason that she will not eat straight kibble anymore. Ruby also has been diagnosed with low folate numbers and her cTLI score came back at 4.1 where the low end of the range is 5.7. Ruby has not gained weight in 11 months and has in fact lost 4 lbs. This is a puppy still. The switch to raw/kibble has helped her and my vet wants that continued or get rid of the kibble entirely and go with raw alone. In his opinion if the dog can't handle dry commercial food then don't feed it. Makes sense.


----------



## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

Goatdude, is that a pic of Ed in your profile?


----------



## goatdude (Mar 3, 2009)

The one and only


----------



## Dawn (Jun 23, 2010)

I know my vet very well and consider her to be her to be a friend. She works in my clinic and is great!! One day during surgery I mentioned the RAW diet as a topic of coversation and was kinda floored. She is so against it.
Is this common?


----------



## Anja1Blue (Feb 27, 2008)

Dawn said:


> I know my vet very well and consider her to be her to be a friend. She works in my clinic and is great!! One day during surgery I mentioned the RAW diet as a topic of coversation and was kinda floored. She is so against it.
> Is this common?


Yes, I'd say it's pretty common. Vets get little training in nutrition, and they get "consideration" from the manufacturer for pushing junk like Science Diet (which explains why their reception areas are generally packed with it.) They dismiss the raw diet without bothering to research it, and scare people with stories of how so and so died from salmonella poisoning after eating a chicken leg. (What they don't bother mentioning are the thousands of dogs and cats which make it to a ripe old age on raw.....) I knew I was in the right place the first day I walked into my vets' office and saw a freezer full of raw food and good quality kibble like Wellness and California Natural. Not a bag of Science Diet in sight. 
__________________________________________
Susan

Anja SchH3 GSD
Conor GSD
Blue BH WH T1 GSD - waiting at the Bridge


----------



## Chicagocanine (Aug 7, 2008)

Yes, my vet feeds her own dogs raw so she definitely does! In fact she recommended raw to me. She always talks to her clients about what food they feed and encourages them to use higher quality foods.

Actually, I buy a lot of raw food and raw bones from my vet because she orders from a pet food distributor so the cost is lower. In fact she has some in her freezer she's holding for me right now. We got a new fridge and the freezer turned out to be smaller than I thought but I had already ordered some frozen food, so I was only able to take some of it home. She said she'd keep the rest for me until I can fit it. I'm hoping to save up for a chest freezer to solve the problem. 
I love my vet! I've followed her from the offices she used to work for, and was very happy when she finally opened up her own clinic last year. 

My previous two dogs also saw a holistic vet in addition to our regular vet and she was also supportive of a raw diet, although we didn't discuss food as much.


----------



## aubie (Dec 22, 2008)

Just an update, we had Dunc's bloodwork done. "At 12, he has the BW of a dog a quarter of his age, I wish I had younger dogs with bloodwork like his!"--a quote from my vet. Of course she asked "what's his diet?"

When I replied raw, she just winked and said "Keep doing whatever you're doing, it's working."

It takes some time, but raw believing vets are out there!


----------



## malinois_16 (Aug 8, 2010)

My vet does not support the raw diet. I think what the issue is they are so used to seeing greasy coats on the *good* food they recommend they assume its normal, so when a dog comes in with a healthy coat they think its not. Honestly, I ignore my vet. If he asks what I feed I say prey model raw. When he goes onto rampage about it I let it go in one ear and right out the other. His blood work is fine etc. When he is sick I go there for medical advice..not nutritional advice. had I wanted that I would call a veterinary Nutrionalist. Normally he shakes his head and goes about what he was doing.


----------



## Blitz Burgh Steeler (Jun 13, 2010)

aubie said:


> Just an update, we had Dunc's bloodwork done. "At 12, he has the BW of a dog a quarter of his age, I wish I had younger dogs with bloodwork like his!"--a quote from my vet. Of course she asked "what's his diet?"
> 
> When I replied raw, she just winked and said "Keep doing whatever you're doing, it's working."
> 
> It takes some time, but raw believing vets are out there!


What do you feed your dog. Want Blitz to live forever!!!


----------



## Castlemaid (Jun 29, 2006)

That's great!! My vet always brings up the "study that showed salmonella in raw-fed-dog's-poop" (and his point is?), and mentions that once, a "raw meal" was sent off to a lab for analysis, and it showed it was incomplete in nutrients. 

Hmm, just exactly what was in that "raw meal sample?" and if you packaged up any one of your meals and had it analyzed, would it contain 100% of all the nutrients you need? Probably not, but by eating variety, over the long-term, both raw fed dogs and normally-fed humans are just fine! 

Plus, any blood-work that I have had done has always come back normal, so not sure what the problem is . . .


----------



## aubie (Dec 22, 2008)

Blitz Burgh Steeler said:


> What do you feed your dog. Want Blitz to live forever!!!


Lol...I don't know if he'll live forever, but he's still pretty spunky for an old guy. He was on kibble most his life, just switching to raw the last year and half. He gets raw and little else, other than chews such as bison cartilage, moo tubes and bully sticks. Little or no people food.


----------



## aubie (Dec 22, 2008)

Castlemaid said:


> That's great!! My vet always brings up the "study that showed salmonella in raw-fed-dog's-poop" (and his point is?), and mentions that once, a "raw meal" was sent off to a lab for analysis, and it showed it was incomplete in nutrients.


 
Umm...its poo....what's supposed to be in it? Gummybears and candy?? :smirk:


----------



## GSDElsa (Jul 22, 2009)

I don't feed RAW, but my vets supports it and even sells some of the pre-made raw products in the office.

They are VERY pro nutrition, which I love. They sell brands like EVO, Blue Buffalo, and Orijen (think they only carry Orijen for cats though). Makes me very happy........they are few and far between.


----------



## Castlemaid (Jun 29, 2006)

aubie said:


> Umm...its poo....what's supposed to be in it? Gummybears and candy?? :smirk:



haha, my point exactly! Plus, since then, I have seen an overview article on the 'net discussing this study, and yes, more raw fed dogs had salmonella in their poop than kibble fed dogs (note that kibble fed dogs STILL shed salmonella in their fesces), but the percentage of raw-fed dogs with discernable amounts of salmonella in their poop was only 30%. !!! 

So what I NEVER hear, is that 70% of dogs fed a raw diet did NOT shed salmonella in their poop - and the difference may be due to the fact that a normal, healthy dog can neutralize all salmonella bacteria in their diet, but about 30% had some digestive issues where they were not able to do so.


----------



## kidkhmer (Jul 14, 2010)

Um......what were dogs eating before kibble came along and they were all running around wild ?


----------



## Mac's Mom (Jun 7, 2010)

Mac had a regular vet visit today. I asked him his opinion on how much kibble Mac should be eating at 74 lbs. A reliable source on this forum explained its important to establish that in order to determine the correct raw/kibble ratio when implementing raw into a kibble diet. Instead of answering my initial question he told me that there is no data indicating a raw diet is healthy for dogs. He said that as long as I give him enough AAFCO approved kibble for him to get the nutrition he needs it doesn't hurt to throw in some raw except for salmonella and other bacterial issues. I told him according to my research dogs weren't effected by that...he cut me off and said that I should be more worried about people around Mac being hurt by it. He made it clear that there was no proven nutritional value in the raw food itself. I was a little dumbfounded by the things he was telling me...but again just simply asked him how much kibble a dog Mac's size should have and he said that Mac is a puppy and should get as much as he needs. I was like "no sh*t, sherlock...but, how much is that? He told me I'd have to contact a nutritionist. This story may be confusing...believe I heard the twilight zone music.

Listen, I'm no doctor or vet. But whether you agree with raw or raw/kibble...wouldn't ya have to agree that there has to be nutritional value in meat & bones...Really.


----------



## Stosh (Jun 26, 2010)

My vet is a very holistic/natural/alternative kind of vet and he supports raw diets; however, he does not support feeding meat on the bone. He says it's too dangerous and has seen too many dogs die a slow painful death after a eating a bone that splintered. He sells Nature's Variety frozen raw meat patties and the bones are ground up so he's fine with that. The breeder we got the pups from feed raw chicken and other meats on the bone without any problems, but the vet has a hard time believing that.


----------

