I have worked in the human health care industry for years and I can tell you that human physicians know next to nothing about nutrition. It is barely touched on in medical school. If there is a nutrition question like diabetes the physician will usually send the patient to dietitian or hand them a prepared diet sheet. Illnesses and "health" are approached with a prescription pad.
I believe that vet's are about he same with their knowledge base. They depend on the pet food industry to provide the proper nutrition for their patients. The vet sells the stuff because it is all that is available for their patients. Not a lot of thought put into what the actual contents are. Pet food has had to be manufactured with ingredients that will have long shelf life not what a natural dog diet would be. Synthetic vitamins and other supplements are added to make up for what is missing. The pet may do well on it for a long time or it may not depending on it's system's ability to cope with the ingredients. It's the long term effects that concern me. But no, I don't believe that the vet makes a lot of money on the deal though there is a considerable mark up on everything they sell. They just depend on another industry to do the research and produce the food for pets. |