Do you really think vets would sell food which kills pets?!

Why is it so hard for people to believe that vets act in the best interests of their pets and are not out to bleed them dry of money or, as claimed in today´s Daily Mail, selling pet food which is actively harming pets? In the media in the past few months vets have been roundly beaten on various fronts, a set of completely unjustified attacks on a committed and hard working profession.

The Daily Mail article claims that all processed pet food is bad and could be potentially harming our animals. They also attack particularly the foods available exclusively from veterinary surgeries and appear to be stating that these are the worst of the bunch. Yes, there are some dreadful pet foods out there but they are found on the supermarket shelves, definitely not in the vets. They are the ones with different coloured kibbles hiding poor quality ingredients, or with extra sugars and e-numbers to make them super tasty. The ones which, when you add water, will turn into a gravy mixture, can you imagine the additives required to make it do that?! Or in plastic tubes or cheap tins with only ´meat products´ specified as ingredients. These are the diets which cause poor teeth, obesity and other health problems and I actively advise my clients against them. In contrast to the diets from vets, which will not contain any additives or colourings and are made from the best quality raw materials. These are the highest quality diets on the market, they are in the vets for this very reason and because vets do know what is best for animals, despite what this article will tell you.

Hairdressers display expensive quality shampoos, beauty salons sell make-up and tanning lotion, even mechanics will sell car accessories but nobody is accusing them of ripping their customers off. You know these products are more than the ones in the supermarket but also that they are great quality and on the shelves because the professionals believe in them, so why should it be any different for vets? Every single person I know in the veterinary profession feeds their animal a good quality processed diet and don´t you think that if any of the problems claimed in the Daily Mail were true, we would be aware of them by now?

There are several people in the article extolling the virtues of a raw food diet. These are fine but they are not the panacea they are often claimed to be. Feeding a nutritionally balanced raw food diet is not easy, it requires commitment, expense and can cause nasty Salmonella and Campylobacter infections. However, if I have a client who feeds it, or is interested in feeding it, I will not advise them against it, I think it can be good if done properly, the problem is that that can be very hard to achieve.

The article has quoted a few pet owners who animals have sadly contracted a range of illnesses and are convinced that their diets have caused this. I doubt whether there is a shred of evidence to prove this but their opinions are being treated as fact. This is completely misleading to the pet owning public at large and will be causing owners to worry unnecessarily and damaging the bond of trust between a vet and a client, who will be more suspicious of their, wholly professional advice.

Articles like this make me want to scream. They are written by people who know very little about their chosen subject but who want to make a media ´splash´, with no thought to the damage they may cause. The veterinary profession is highly trained, hard working and acts only in the best interests of their clients and their pets. If you don´t want to buy your pets food from them that´s fine, but at least listen to their advice and whatever you do don´t buy your animal´s diet from the supermarket shelves.