Prescription dog food, and/or alternatives. - Page 1

My young dog (18 Months) recently tore his ACL. During the X-Ray, The Vet also revealed that his hips are not great and may become problematic when he is older. One of the things he recommended on top of Rimadyl was to start my dog on a canine mobility prescription diet, made by Hill's Science Diet.

http://www.hillspet.com/products/pd-canine-jd-canine-mobility-dry.html

Right now my dog is on Taste of the Wild, Pacific Stream. I'm not opposed to a prescription diet or supplements, but this particular brand appears to be crap food, with the following being the first few ingredients:

Whole Grain Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, Flaxseed, Soybean Mill Run, Brewers Rice, Soybean Meal, Pork Fat 

When he mentioned the food he spoke of several success stories with this food, and the website also mentions a guarantee of improvement after 21 days (marketing). Another thing I'll mention is that over the years as a dog owner, I've relied on a lot of Leerburg's advice, some things have worked, some haven't. But one of the things I've seen on his site as far as glucosamine supplement is a product called Grand Flex. He says on the product description that he puts all of his working dogs on the supplement.
 
http://leerburg.com/grandflex.htm

He also sells a supplement called Herbsmith's Comfort Aches for pain, but i'm not sure if it has the anti-inflamatory properties of Rimadyl.

http://leerburg.com/77.htm

So I guess my question is, Does anyone have any experience with the Science Diet Prescription food? Are there any good alternatives for the food so that I don't have to feed what I view as crap. For those of you who may suggest raw, its not much of an option right now. Any help or feedback will be appreciated.

 

I agree .... Science diet is crap...  Stick with your current food (the Pacific Stream already has Omega 3 Fatty Acids which are  used to control inflammation and maintain joint health).  Your vet must want you to come in for multiple food allergies and ear infections... lol (just kidding).  

If you want a top quality joint supplement use DASAQUIN
 http://www.nutramaxlabs.com/index.php/products-by-health-type/by-type/joint-bone-animal-health-products/what-is-dasuquin

no science diet.  there are much healthier things you can do...  keep him lean, swim him, supplement with coesequin, dasequin, etc.  I would never use rimadyl in my house on my dogs....  I have used metacam as needed.  It is what I have for myself and use as needed.  I would keep him lean, swim him, consider chiropractics, accupuncture, don't let him overdo it just because he is having fun, oh and look into adequan injections.  JMO. 

Rimadyl is fine to use... as long as your vet is checking an NSAID profile every 6 to 12 months and your pets liver values are not affected.  Generally when you are just starting on it... they will do an initial check in 2 weeks after starting to make sure it is o.k. to continue.  NSAIDS affect humans in the same way... some people just cant take Advil, while others can.

Is the ACL going to be repaired??  On an 18 month old dog surgery to repair the ACL is the best bang for the buck.  Otherwise your dog will tear the other ACL compensating for the weaker leg and then you'll have a real mess.  Adequan has worked well for me for joint pains and Pano pains.  Both solutions are expensive!!

if your vet is recommending Hill's, the first alternative I would look at is another vet.

Stay as far away from Science Diet as you can - no matter the "flavor"!

It caused some nasty issues in my moms Golden. She began to develop skin issues, and would look like she had mange every now and then (specifically during shedding season). Terrible allergies. It would get so bad you almost didn't even want to touch the poor girl, she was just gross. :( When her teeth got bad they switched her to a different brand (which I'd been trying to convince them to do for years), canned food, and she hasn't had these issues since.

When we got our mutt he had just been switched to Science Diet and started losing all of the hair on his back/butt. When we switched him to Purina One, of all things, his hair grew back. Now he is on a grain-free food and he's as hairy as they come. :)

Science Diet is in my opinion the WORST food out there.

As for supplements, you could try Glucosamine for his joints. Both our dogs get that and it seems to help a lot. You can find it in dog treats, like Buddy Bites, or a friend of mine gives her 10 y/o lab mix the stuff for horses, just lowers the dosage. A couple people in our club also swear by that Vertex supplement, but I've never used that and don't know if it would help in this case...

I also agree Science Diet is the problem not the cure. Stick with TOTW, work the dog as normal and get the knee done. If your dog is less than 100 lbs i recomend the monoline tenden replacement. I have my Am Bulldogs knee done at the same age with fish line and he was 95 lbs his adult life. Never had a problem with the knee again. I'm very leery of the TPLO and so was my vet. Even though he was trained in the procuder.

I'm afraid I've gotten in the Food and Nutrition topic with a few vets...I always ask a new vet (new to me) what they suggest feeding my dogs or dogs in general...Just to see what they have to say on the topic...
When I moved to Michigan I began using a vet that was a sorta "country vet"...He does farm animals and the such..When the subject of Food and Nutrition came up he asked what I feed...I mentioned TOTW and then RAW...So he asked why RAW...I said I fed Veggies and RAW Chicken...He asked "Why RAW Chicken...Would you eat RAW Chicken"...My wife then kicked me to just shut up...Well...I didn't and so as he pushed me to talk about it...I asked in vet school how many classes did he take on Foods and Nutrition in general...Dah...Maybe 1 or if lucky 2...

End of subject...

My wife and I research dog foods and natural remedies...We have now found a vet that actually knows quite a bit about nutrition and is very sensible about it...We met this vet at a seminar that he gave and he not only seemed to know a lot about the subject but after the seminar I got talking to him and he owns a couple Import German Shepherds and does Schutzhund with them...

I think the more natural and RAW we feed our dogs...the better off they are...For many reasons commercial foods are necessary and much easier to use...
When asked "what dog food should I use"...I think there's too many out there and too many reasons to feed this or that...I think you need to find a food that has good ingredients and your dogs like and then give them time to see if it works for them...To me I always give my dogs a few months on a new food to see if it works for them...

~Bob~

Here you go...... read about Science Diet and why sales are plummeting lately..... thought you might be interested


http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2013/04/24/reformulated-science-diet.aspx