I brought Tetley to the vet for the first time today because he was having some tummy issues which I mentioned in the thread 'Tetley's Tummy Troubles' in the sick & injured section. I was super happy with the vet I chose - he didn't charge me for the visit (complimentary!), just the testing fee for the sample I brought in ($30), PLUS he gave me a huge bag of food to try for free.
We had a very long discussion, the vet and I, about the different foods available on the market and the pros and cons of each (I quoted you guys a lot
) I told him I'm weaning Tetley off the Eukanuba and getting him on Canidae. The vet's response to that was that he could neither confirm nor deny whether canidae was a good food because they don't publish papers or research. He said
a big reason why vets recommend the brands they do is because part of the $$ from the sale of the dog food goes back into research - that's why vets recommend the big names, and apparently Purina is the top research company. I hadn't thought of it that way. I thought they were just getting a kickback.
Anyway, in the end he said I was free to feed Tetley whatever I wanted, but offered to give me a bag of food to try that he feeds his own dogs. It's called Purina Veterinary Diet (Paediatric Formula). He gave me a 8 lb bag of it! I thought this was a clever way to get Tetley hooked on an expensive brand of food but the receptionist said it was only $13 a bag.
So has anyone tried this brand? Any comments?