Vet Recommended SCIENCE DIET???

[MizMaRLeysMoM86]

So since no one commented on my other thready about taking marley to the vet I thought I would start another about what food the vet recommended. Science Diet for puppies. Now I don't know too much about this food but all I have heard is negative things. By the way I live in Japan right now and went to a Japanese vet so I don't know if that makes a difference. Please Please everyone let me know what you think. He gave me some samples of dry and soft and said to mix them because she needed more protein. He said to only mix with the wet occasionally.

[suda]

My vet recommended Science diet for my baby too but he would not eat it, the can of wet cost me $8.00 and I ended up feeding it to the wild birds, still have dried food and sometimes mix it in with his kibble but he picks around it, I sometimes wonder if vets get a back hander from pet food companies

[Wylie's Mom]

I guess it depends on what other brands are available to you. I think there are better brands than SD, but there are many worse too. What brands can you get where you are?

[MizMaRLeysMoM86]

Originally Posted by Wylie's Mom

I guess it depends on what other brands are available to you. I think there are better brands than SD, but there are many worse too. What brands can you get where you are?

It's mostly Iams and other brands that I have heard nothing but bad things about. I drive about 45 minutes just to go get the Royal Canin now. I was thinking of ordering food offline but alot of places don't ship to APO addresses and the shipping costs are outrageous!

[Wylie's Mom]

Originally Posted by MizMaRLeysMoM86

It's mostly Iams and other brands that I have heard nothing but bad things about. I drive about 45 minutes just to go get the Royal Canin now. I was thinking of ordering food offline but alot of places don't ship to APO addresses and the shipping costs are outrageous!

Gosh, that makes it tough. Can you post the ingredients of the specific food the vet is recommending? That's a good place to start in terms of seeing if there are any red flags.

[snickers65]

Hello! I prefer to use natural food for my yorkie. I have used Royal Canine and I think it's very good food. Now, I am using Holistic Select Natural food. You can order it online.

[snickers65]

I forgot to tell you that my vet from my past yorkie recommended me Science Diet, too. He did not liked it. I found out that it contains by products. Natural food does not contains by products.

[Hollee]

I think that Science Diet pays vets to advertise for them. Really. It is sad but most vets actually do.... My vet told me thats what I should have her on and the breeder I got Ella from had her on it also because thats what HER vet recommended & she lives in another state. My vet has like Science Diet posters and stuff up everywhere so I am almost positive they are "working together" or have a contract together or whatever you'd call it.

I didnt listen I feed Royal Canin

[Leigh22]

I know you're having trouble finding a good dog food over there. I've been googling and found out that Japan is actually the second lagest market for dog food in the world (US being the first). So finding that out I'm surprised you can't find plenty of brands to choose from. I did find this article and I hopes it helps in your search- Top 10 Dog Food Companies - Who Rules in the World of Dog Food?

[cj125]

Well, after trying a TON of different dog foods, including raw, and many bouts of diarrhea our Vet told us to use Science Diet I/D and J/D. It's not what I wanted to give my babies, because they do deserve the best, but it seems to be doing the job. I would pay for steak if their little bodies could handle it but it just can't. You have to do what's best for you and your baby. Wishing you well!

Oh, btw, was your baby sick? Is that why your Vet wanted you to feed her Science Diet?

[Zanders' mom]

Some science diet contains by product, pork, other things that I would not even eat.
Take a look at the description of the Innova products, California Natural, Wellness, natures variety.

What I did when looking for a food for my furbabies, I looked up every ingredient on the bag..... I give my furbabies California Natural - lamb, we have done the chicken too. So far very good. Good luck.

[capt_noonie]

My vet also recommended SD, but he is the vet at the humane society and does not have all these posters and things up advertising for SD. My old vet at Banfield had TONS of Royal Canin stuff up, and guess what that's what he recommended. If you can, get NATURE'S BEST Science Diet, it's an all natural food, I feed lamb and rice formula, and they do have a puppy formula as well. I did the kibble grading chart on it and it got a 94.

[MizMaRLeysMoM86]

Yeah I just find if very odd that SD has such crappy ingredientst and he recommended it! He also said to add CAT FOOD to my furbabies kibble. I have never heard of such a thing. All her blood tests came back today normal so I don't know why I would change anything. I went home at lunch to check on her like usual and she had tossed the SD wet/dry mix around but hadn't so much as ate one bite. Thats when I laid down about 2 tbsp of her Royal Canin. I don't know what to do. She is still shaking like she is cold but the vet did blood work, felt around her belly and bladder and intestines and all that good stuff. And he said she was fine. It's not cold in my home. I hate it when its cold and I have been super good at making sure she is always warm enough. I am at my wits end. She is still in good spirits and rushed over to greet me and wagged her tail when I came home for lunch . I am just concerned with this shaking thing.

[lucyaboo]

Originally Posted by Wylie's Mom

Gosh, that makes it tough. Can you post the ingredients of the specific food the vet is recommending? That's a good place to start in terms of seeing if there are any red flags.

Here is what is in Science Diet Small Bites (when I first got Lucy back in 2004 she was on this) Unless they have made changes, this is what I saved in an excel file.

SCIENCE DIET

CHICKEN
GROUND WHOLE GRAIN CORN
GROUND WHOLE GRAIN SORGHUM
GROUND WHOLE GRAIN WHEAT
CHICKEN BY-PRODUCT MEAL
SOYBEAN MEAL
ANIMAL FAT (PRESERVED WITH MIXED TOCOPHEROLS & CITRIC ACID)
CORN CLUTEN MEAL
BREWERS RICE
CHICKEN LIVER FLAVOR
SOYBEAN OIL
DRIED EGG PRODUCT
FLAXSEED
POTASSIUM CHLORIDE
IODIZED SALT
CHOLINE CHOLRIDE
CALCIUM CARBONATE
DL-METHIONINE
PRESERVED WITH MIXED TOCOPHEROLS & CITRIC ACID
BETA-CAROTENE
ROSEMARY EXTRACT

MINERAL SUPPLEMENTS:
CALCIUM IODATE
COPPER SULFATE
FERROUS SULFATE
MANGANOUS OXIDE
SODIUM SELENITE
ZINC OXIDE

VITAMIN SUPPLEMENTS:
BIOTIN
CALCIUM PANTOTHENATE
FOLIC ACID
L-ASCORBYL-2-POLYPHOSPHATE(SOURCE VIT C)
NIACIN
PYRIDXINE HYDROCHLORIDE
RIBOFLAVIN
THIAMINE MONONITRATE
VITAMIN A SUPPLEMENT
VITAMIN B12 SUPPLEMENT
VITAMIN D3 SUPPLEMENT
VITAMIN E SUPPLEMENT

[Nikitta34]

GOOD NEWS! After a lot of searching, I've found a company in CA that ships to APO addresses. I'm in Korea, and since packages get routed through CA, the shipping (within CA) is really cheap. The bad news is that I can't think of the name right now... California Pet Supply Warehouse, maybe? Something like that... THey have a pink/green palm tree logo on their website. I will look it up when I get home - it's bookmarked on my computer. Anyway, they don't stock every single variety of food, but I got Taste of the Wild and Wellness Super5 Puppy, and they had a bunch of other premium kibbles that'd I'd consider feeding Meg.

I've ordered from them twice now and I'm very happy with them. They ship fast and are very helpful. I think they are a fairly small mom and pop type of store. Sometimes teh prices are a couple dollars more than I've found other places on teh internet, but they ship to APO addresses and that's what counts.