This is a story, and it's long - so humor me, I'll get to the point. About a year ago, I had some problems with my 7 year old Chesapeake Bay Retriever. Chronic urinary tract infections, scratching, nasty/yeasty ears, bad breath and tarter coated teeth, the list goes on and on. So, I take her to the vet - they tell me that they'll do a urinalysis and culture to determine what sort of bacteria is causing this infection and outline a course for treatment. In the meantime, "here is this broad spectrum antibiotic and we'll be in touch". A week passes, and the veterinarian in charge gives me a ring to tell me that the bacteria causing the debacle is proteus mirabilis. "It's a nasty bacteria, but the antibiotic we've given you is a good one - so continue and come by and get more", the good doctor says.
$389 and four weeks later, the infection is no better. I ask if it may have something to do with her diet? They ask what I am feeding and I reply with: "Well, I had her on Beneful - but heard it's not that great, so I switched to Eukanuba. But then heard about their terrible trial conditions and harms inflicted upon innocent animals so I've now switched to Nutro", I say.
"Oh, no... You need to have her on Hills Science Diet. It's evidence based, with many studies, for many years and on many animals", he says condescendingly. "And let's continue this course of antibiotics, it may take about 4 months to get this bacteria under control". I leave. Sad, confused, guilty. Then, I start digesting what I had just been told. Four months of antibiotics?! Is this man out of his mind? Now at this time in my life, science was a foreign language, fortunately it doesn't take a genius to understand that four months of antibiotics is absolutely and positively bad for ANYONE.
With that, I became annoyed. I ask for her lab reports and decide that I will decipher them myself. With the help of an environmentalist friend, who had also been a vet tech - I realize that she had been prescribed the antibiotic that responded the least to this bacteria during the culture and sensitivity testing. Why would they do that? Later I would find out that Clavamox (Pfizer) started requiring bulk purchases of this medicine by vet offices and that they (vets, and no - not all) dump abx according to expiration whether it's the best medication for the treatment or not. Now, I am beyond angry.
I start looking into diet and with all of the focus on human health geared toward natural whole food, clearly that would be the best choice for my girl and help to put her on the path to wellness. With that scratch of the surface I uncovered more conflicting information than I cared to shake a stick at. I ask a family member, who is also a vet tech about the possibility of raw feeding (whatever that meant). She admonishes me, "no, we've seen too many cases of salmonella". I dig further. What I found out, was that in all of the deaths associated with salmonella in responsible feeding - is that it had occurred only one time and in a kibble fed pet. Then, I stumble upon a community of people who feed their pets a raw, natural diet. And what I found out about kibble, and processed pet food - is that through loopholes in the regulatory and rendering process the following savory items are making their way into our pet's food bowl: styrofoam, plastic, metal, euthanized pets, flea collars, citronella - and much more. I found out that a law student from Harvard had already done all of the research for me.
I learned that underneath it all, my dog's physiological make-up is nearly identical to that of its ancestor - the gray wolf. Endless pages and commentary debunking all of the "myths" I had recently heard and read. As I began to question what my vet had told me, I also took at look at the ingredients of the pet food they were pushing: corn fillers, by-products and chemicals. Never mind that the label on a bag of kibble is so cryptic, I can't even begin to tell you what the hell is in it - what is crude protein anyway? And how can you call this chicken flavor without it containing any chicken? What I found out, according the Center for Veterinary Medicine, is that "animal feeds (yes, dog food) provide a practical outlet for plant and animal products not fit for human consumption". They go together in a huge rendering vat and cook at extremely high temperatures (turning everything carcinogenic) and are ground into a powder then used to make this lovely feed (kibble) you are supposed to pass on to your unsuspecting carnivorous friend. To make it more appetizing they spray it with enticing fats etc... so that your pet will eat it.
One of those loopholes that I spoke of above, allows for miscellaneous items to enter that vat except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably in good rendering processes. What that translates into, is that it costs too much money to remove the euthanized animals from the green plastic bag that they arrived in from the vet's office, and of course any and all items on the poor animal's body - collars, tags, and the like. Food that is yanked from grocery store shelves is not removed from the plastic and styrofoam that it is packaged in. Road kill, beaks, eyeballs, feet, intestines - anything goes. I didn't believe it at first (euthanized pets) until I came across the FDA webpage that provided details and a subsequent breakdown of each pet food.
What I also found out, is that of the 28 veterinary colleges in the United States that the majority only receive about 4-6 hours in nutritional training and in some cases, nutrition is an elective. Then, I learned that the majority of that training was done by a PET FOOD SALES REP. Hills (Colgate) has paid first year vet's salaries. They have offered free food to those vets, and allowed them to retain roughly 40% of the profits from the sales of that food. They fund some these colleges with scholarships and research allocations. If that is not racketeering (and an ENORMOUS conflict of interest), I don't know what is.
Just because your dog can survive on a diet of food that you wouldn't eat yourself, doesn't mean it's good for them. Your dog, cat, or ferret, lacks the digestive capability to break down carbohydrates ie: grains, veggies, sugars. As a result, they ferment in the gut of the poor animal and come out through their skin resulting in allergies and a whole host of bacterial imbalances. Now, let's take a look at that mouth... Studies have shown that 80% of pets are afflicted with periodontal disease by the age of 2. Periodontal disease is the gateway to other disease and is best explained by Tom Lonsdale, Australian Veterinarian and tireless advocate for carnivore health. Open the mouth of your carnivorous pet and you will see razor sharp grinders that are meant for ripping, shredding and tearing the meat off of a carcass (hence the term carnivore). There are no molars in there that would typically be used to grind up plant matter (like ours). This act of ripping and tearing acts as nature's toothbrush and cleans the teeth of the animal, while the connective tissue does an excellent flossing job to boot.
Periodontal disease and its subsequent treatments account for a significant source of revenue for veterinarians and for those with advanced cases, the anesthesia required is risky and costly. Just when you thought you had heard it all, here comes Pfizer - and Periovac, a vaccine to protect your pet against this absolutely preventable disease. Now, our veterinarians (whether unknowingly or knowingly) who are partly responsible for this disease are jumping into bed with Pfizer to market, distribute and administer this vaccine. In my great state of Texas, vaccines account for approximately 75 million dollars in revenue for veterinary practices. So, of course your vet is pushing Hills Science Death - it's free to him, he earns a profit from it, Hills paid his first year salary and it causes periodontal disease that he can now vaccinate your pet against and make more money. This being said, it behooves you to be extremely diligent in your choice of veterinary care for your animal's health.
For those of you that have the courage to explore the links I have provided, I commend you - it's a lot of material. It's not an easy task, and I have personally invested thousands of research hours into this topic. After a year, my companion is infection free, allergy free and her teeth are cleaner than mine - seeing is believing.
--red
