Iams Veterinary Formula

[moon]

A friend's English Setter (10 yrs old) has been having stomach issues. She was feeding Alpo, I recommended she change his food, but she took him to the vet. The vet couldn't find anything wrong but has put him on IAMS Veterinary Formula Intestinal Low Residue canned at $4.00 per can:

Chicken Broth, Chicken, Whitefish, Brewers Rice, Corn Grits, Chicken Liver, Beef By-Products, Chicken By-Products, Fish Meal, Dried Egg Product, Dried Beet Pulp (sugar removed), Fish Oil (preserved with Ethoxyquin), Fructooligosaccharides, Potassium Chloride, Calcium Carbonate, Monosodium Phosphate, Salt, Mannanoligosaccharides, Choline Chloride, DL-Methionine, Dicalcium Phosphate, Ferrous Sulfate, Vitamin E Supplement, Ascorbic Acid, Zinc Oxide, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of Vitamin B1), Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Manganous Oxide, Biotin, Niacin, Riboflavin Supplement, Inositol, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of Vitamin B6), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Potassium Iodide, Folic Acid, Cobalt Carbonate.

This looks horrible to me! It's only got 7% protien and 2.8% fat...

The dog is very thin - as some English Setters are. And now he's acting very lethargic.

Do you guys have any suggestions for an older dog with stomach issues that I could pass along?

[k9capture_16]

$4 a can It costs me less to feed raw...the only thing I can suggest is Natures Variety, worked on my friends dog whos 15 years old and has stomach issues. She could also try adding a pro/pre biotic in a form of a pill....

[xxshaelxx]

That is just about the WORST looking dog food I've ever seen in my LIFE!!!! O.o

All those meat ingredients up front are water inclusive, meaning they're more like tenth or lower in the ingredients, so fish meal would be the first actual meat ingredient, and that's NINTH!!! No wonder it's only 7% meat. That's HORRIBLE!!! XO And corn is the second ingredient.

Let's not mention the fact that it blatantly states on there that it's preserved with Ethoxyquin.

I can't imagine ANY dog would do good on that!

[stajbs]

Aww, poor thing. Lots of options beat the canned stuff prescribed by the vet.
One would be cooking the dogs food, not that difficult, but you need to do your research and really make sure you are offering a complete diet with plenty of variety. Definitely an undertaking until you get it down right and have a system.

If not going raw but the kibble route a couple of kibbles with limited ingredients could be considered. Blue Buffalo Basics(2 formulas), California Natural(but then there is the whole P & G takeover to monitor closely), our local k9 police use Holistic Select Duck Formula and the Anchovy/Salmon/Sardine formulas and the dogs with sensitivity issues do very well. Fish and sweet potato formulas sometimes work well.

I agree also with the prebiotics/probiotics added to foods. While trying to figure out what works best for the dog I would use the pre and probiotics and then continue them once finding a rotation of kibble that works. Eventually perhaps some canned of good quality can be added too....Merrick BG, Evangers there are many coices here that do not cost $4/can.

Also, has consideration been given to this dog having a sensitivity to grains in general? In which case there are tons of grain free options.

Just my babbling two cents worth.

Wishing your friend good luck, hopefully they will hit on something that works for ther dog soon.

[rannmiller]

All those meat ingredients up front are water inclusive, meaning they're more like tenth or lower in the ingredients, so fish meal would be the first actual meat ingredient, and that's NINTH!!! No wonder it's only 7% meat. That's HORRIBLE!!! XO And corn is the second ingredient.

For the record, since canned food still has a ton of moisture in it, the meat content isn't actually that off, and keep in mind that "protein" and "meat" content are not the same thing, I'm sure some of that tiny percentage is coming from the corn as well. Also you have to keep in mind that the percentages are always lower in canned food since they're like 80% moisture anyway.

Having said that, yes it is a terrible food, I'd recommend CA Natural as well.

[moon]

Thanks everyone, she's in her 80's so I don't think she'd be up to cooking her own dog food, but I'm going to pick up some CA Natural for her to try.

Her dog is what's keeping her going.

[DaneMama]

Also for the record....All RX diets that the vets try and push are garbage. They do have research behind them, and sometimes "work" but not in really addressing the issue, but covering it up for a while. Eventually the animal will regress further and further into whatever disease they were put on the food for.

[xxshaelxx]

My mother put her cats on Prescription Diet CD, because the one cat had urinary tract infections, and she refuses to believe me when I tell her that it's all the crap fillers they put in normal cat foods that are sold at the grocery stores. The other cat has an allergy to beef (supposedly), and bleeds out her bum every time she eats it, and she has all kinds of allergies and crap, and gets allergy shots every three weeks to keep her alive, and she's completely miserable. My parents refuse to believe me that a better diet would help.

[magicre]

$4 a can It costs me less to feed raw...the only thing I can suggest is Natures Variety, worked on my friends dog whos 15 years old and has stomach issues. She could also try adding a pro/pre biotic in a form of a pill....

that's kind of what i'm thinking...not ideal but certainly better than most....easy for her to prepare, too....and better than what her dog is getting now...

[sassymaxmom]

Might suggest putting the dog on white rice and chicken breast cooked food to see if that helps. If so the owner might go from there. I just used 1 cup of raw rice and a pound of chicken breast for 2 days of food for Sassy. Add in 1/2 tsp of powdered egg shell for calcium and read up on balancing the diet from there. $4 a can? At worst it would cost $3-4 a day to feed home cooking. I don't know about this canned food but Sassy would have needed 2 cans of her kidney script stuff if I put her on it.