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Originally Posted by Ellie May  I don't dislike T/D necessarily. I don't dislike Rx foods in general. I've fed them before and I'm about to feed one again. Some of them are truly amazing products and I'm very thankful for all the research that goes into creating them.
Vets make money on things they sell. Yes, some oversell to make a larer profit. Some don't. Some even hate stocking food because they don't get enough return on it.
I highly doubt that T/D would harm your Yorkie. And it almost certainly will help prevent tartar buildup (I believe it's like up to a 39% prevention). There is no doubt that it works.
What I was saying was this. T/D is a prescription diet. You can use it as a preventative and that is fine. I personally would lean toward using it only if my pup actually had a health problem. While the food is fine for adult dogs, I wouldn't be too happy about giving it because I would have to wonder if I'm giving up on good things in a diet for her overall health by only focusing on teeth...
I think if a vet says to feed it, that is fine. It would just be my preference to brush daily and see if there was going to be a problem before making that a permanent diet. |
If you decide to go with a higher quality ingredient food (human grade quality ingredients and no fillers) there are chews you can give for treats to aid in dental health (such as CET chews and bully sticks). I like what Britster said too about the way we look at food in general. When I talk to family and friends about their food choices for their dogs and cats, I always put it that way - sure you can do fine on fast food and processed food and most of us eat it once in a while with no ill side effects, but would you feed your child a Happy Meal for every single meal?
Not saying Sience Diet is as unhealthy as a happy meal (although I think something like Kibbles n bits is
) but it just gives you an idea of how to think about it.
As was also said, most (not all) veterinarians don't give much thought to nutrition. As Ellie Mae said, prescriptions diets absolutely have their use and can be a wonderfull aide if there is a specific heath problem to address (I needed to give my cat s/d after surgery for urinary crystals, but after a month of letting the rx diet do it's thing (which I was really gratefull for), I switched him back to his holistic food (and stopped giving the crappy grocery store treats that the dh picked up which is most likely what threw off his ph balance and caused the problem
) and he's been fine since.
If you decide to stick with your vet's advice and use the T/D, you can look into adding a wholefood suppliment to your dog's diet to help fill in any nutritional gaps. I personaly reccomend Missing Link (their site link is below)- it's a great product and in powder form that most pet even enjoy the taste of when it's sprinked on their food. Foster's and Smith seems to sell some good ones too, but I don't have personal experience with using those.
www.missinglinkproducts.com/
Honestly, I trust YT member's and my small local holistic pet store owner's recomendations on food combined with my own research more than my own veterinarian's.