new purina product

I've said this before but I figured it would be worth repeating again.  My vet, who is not a holistic vet, was very surprised that I was aware of foods like Innova and Solid Gold.  When I told her I had tried them she was thrilled. 

However, until I mentioned them she didn't.  We had a talk about nutrition and food in general and she told me that people want something easy to get and that is inexpensive. AND, that they've heard of.   The same way we find it hard to discuss nutrition with people who don't feed their dogs well, they have the same problem.  The clients don't listen, they don't "buy all that holistic stuff", especially since the dogs they had when they were kids ate Purina and lived a long time.  So, if someone asks or is interested, she will tell them.  But, unless a dog is having a problem that is coming from food, if the dog is doing well on whatever it is, she leaves it alone.  She might say, well you might want to try something without BHT or artificial colors, she puts it that way. 

When I told her I homecooked a lot for Willow she got her nutrition books out and copied pages for me about supplement and portions, etc.  I have to say these books had nothing to do with Hills, Iam's or Purina. 

myorganicpets, please don't be this way. This is a nice forum and we all have different opinions, but you are not being very friendly about yours.

Not all vets are holistic vets, and a lot of them are wonderful. Some holistic vets are horrible, just as some traditional ones are. A lot of vets also integrate both holistic and traditional medicine just wonderfully.

I worked in a clinic for years, and I also work for a supplier of natural pet supplies. I too have done a lot of research, from credible sources. My business has been around for 8 years.

I understand your stance on food, but I am really dissapointed in your take on Vets. For years I devoted my life to other people's animals, and the people I worked with did the same thing. You don't hear about a lot of things, like all of us volunteering our time to correct a liver shunt, or spending our days off neutering feral cats.

Your words are very hurtful.

Emma's vet's office sells Science Diet, Greenies, pig ears, and CET chews. They have NEVER even suggested that I purchase these things. Her vet HAS suggested that I try accupuncture or chiropractic for her, make her meals, and give her milk thistle for her liver. He wouldn't suggest these things to the general public, I'm sure, b/c they'd look at him like he's crazy, but he KNOWS the lengths I'll go to for Emma, and these are things that he's done for his own animals, over the years, and he knows that they work.
Not everything is black and white.

The simple fact is most dog owners don't spend there days on dog nutrition web boards, they don't spend anymore time on a dog food purchase decision than they do on buying toilet paper.  Most consumers purchase on price and convenience, Purina markets to the masses, they are not just going to give up the $12 for 40 lbs bag market, because some people don't like the fact they have corn in there kibble, and even if they did surrender that market, some other manufacturer would swoop right in behind them and take over, because that is what most people will buy.

This is precisely why the courses on Pet Nutrition that are taught in vet schools across the country are funded by and texts are written by persons affiliated with Purina, Hills and Iams. That is exactly WHY those three brands are PUSHED by vets. Yes.. they are scratching each other's backs and keeping one another in business.

While these food companies may be donating to vet schools, I do believe that there is more money going to them AND to human schools from drug companies.

I think its a very good thing that Purina is trying to get some better food on the market,,, and as someone said above, I also hope that Iams and some of the other companies follow along.  Even if there are still ingredients that you don't like in them, they are still better than their lesser expensive brands. Afterall, we can't even agree to which food is best (of the premium brands) here on the message boards where many of us spend a lot of time reading up on the ingredients. But to me it shows that people are listening more about their dogs health and diet, and so is Purina. They are trying to appeal to some of the people that care about their pets diets.  A young fellow that I used to work with, last year proudly announced that he changed his dog over to Purina One, from the cheapest food that he could find. While most of us here wouldn't use Purina One,,,it sure is a heck of a lot better than something like Old Roy! There is just a very very small percentage of people that frequent dog message boards like us, and many that do still havn't paid much attention to the food conversations. So if the larger pet food companies keep advertising their better dog food like they are with Purina One, and then come out with even better food, that is only good for our dog society!

Exactly Dyan! That is just what i was trying to say. I would not feed this food becuase i have better ones available, but the small changes that Purina made in their food is a big step in helping pets become more healthy.

Bravo, Dyan!!  Well said!

I think Dyan hit the nail on the head!!

I think that if someone were just looking for a career that would bring in *big bucks* there are certainly more lucrative fields than vet medicine to go into.  None of the vets we know could be considered very wealthy - and if *wealth* was their major concern they would have become Beverly Hills plastic surgeons.

LOL[] Good point fuzzydogsmom!

Hello all I rarely speak to such matter but feel compelled to voice my humble opinion.  I was at a training dinner recently for the roll out of the new purina selects products.  Its a good step in a good direction for our company.  The reps and I both were bothered about the NO WHOLE CORN ad on the front of the bag and yet on the ingredient list it has corn gluten meal listed quite high on it.  It is confusing to the majority of consumers I deal with.  If a customer tells me they have grain issues with their dogs, I will point this out to them.  I for one am staying on Pro Plan and not switching to it.  My dog is too unstable for dietary changes for the rest of his life.  I made a big mistake and got a free bag of some crappy grocery purina treats.  He only gets pro plan senior biscuits on rare occasion as it is.  He threw up for three days from one little T bone snack.  No changes for my boy!  I meet more and more customers lately in Petsmart who feed home cooked, raw and the other super premiums you all mention often.  I say "thats cool" and chat about other dog related topics instead.  I respect the choice, the educated choice they have made.  But for the customers that I get off Alpo and Gravy Train and Dog Chow and move up to Selects or regular Pro Plan I have done them a service.
 
In respect to the vet topics discussed.  I do know many vets get some very nice vacations from Hills.  There is a reason why vets promote their speciality line products 99 percent of the time to clients.  Its no different than the drug for your allergy your doctor prescribed this week, its what the drug companies are promoting to them at this time.  Its how the world works. 

n respect to the vet topics discussed. I do know many vets get some very nice vacations from Hills. There is a reason why vets promote their speciality line products 99 percent of the time to clients. Its no different than the drug for your allergy your doctor prescribed this week, its what the drug companies are promoting to them at this time. Its how the world works.

Do you work for Purina? (Just curious)

It is fine to hear another side of this. Maybe I am looking through just one hole of the fence. I worked INSIDE of this industry for years, I simply do not feel that vets are as evil as Sharon was saying. I do use google, actually I prefer lexusnexus as a graduate student that is allowed to only use actual credible resources, not just "Cindy's homemade website guide to the pet food industry" or whatever. I am done with this thread. It sickens me. Literally.

I know many many many vets, I have never heard of any perks like this I have called a few good vet friends and asked them the same thing. They thought it was funny that someone would think this. One of them said that would be nice since they don't really get to go an vacation becasue they don't make very much money. Those student loans are a killer to pay off.

I am just going to let this nasty, toxic energy go away that certain people seem to swallow every day. I feel really sorry for you.

Hey, Susan! Haven't seen you around in a while. How's that boy doing???

My thoughts:

1.  I agree that any improvement by Purina, Hills et al., in food quality should be welcomed;

2.  I disagree that Purina is genuinely interested in matching Innova, et al., for quality.  Note how the new product contains by product meal while the Pro Plan website touts the lack of by products in it, yet they are both supposed to be "premium" foods.  The corn gluten meal level is high to keep the protein % up.  If they just used meat, the protein % would be much lower and the label would be far less impressive. 

3.  I agree that the vast majority of vets want only what is best for the pet. 

4.  I disagree that a fair number of vets are not influenced by Purina, Hills etc., into believing that their foods are the best.  After all, you have experts like Remillard et al., out there telling the vets that is so.

5.  I agree that holistic vets are more likely to recommend a food like Innova.

6.  It is naive to think SD and Purina and Euk and Walthams don't lobby the vets.  The drug company/doctor analogy is a good one.  There have been articles in the paper about  drug companies targeting cheerleaders for sales positions.  I can assure you from my dating experiences that the # of attractive, outgoing women who are pharm reps is WAY above the statistical norm for the general female pop.  I am not saying that dog food rises anywhere near this level but the principle is the same.   However, I believe that most vets are not conciously being controlled by this lobbying.  On the old forum, I started a seperate thread on the whole what food vets suggest issue - the results were generally positive and I can say that the vets I use don't generally push any foods unless there is a diet issue.  On the other hand, most vets don't encourage people to feed their dogs better foods either, so I see vets as essentially neutral in this regard.

7.  I agree that many vets are anti-RMB.  A close friend was aghast that I would suggest a RMB because her vet told her that only cooked beef bones are ok.  I have had a vet tell me that I should never give my dogs RMBs and have read articles by other vets that are in accord. 

Okay, so what am I missing here? 
 
I do know many vets get some very nice vacations from Hills. 
 
I would say the vet has to SELL one hell of a lot of Hills dog food to earn a vacation from the Hills people. Not like dog food is that expensive that the markup could pay for a ton of vets going on vatcation. And since I have never ever been to any vet that tried to sell me any dog food, I can't figure how this could be.    I mean if you said PetSmart owner or manager earns a vaction from a food company it would make more sense. But gee, the vet is not in the business to sell dog food even if they do recommend one for a troubled dog or so...how many could that be?