# Arguing with the vet



## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

I regularly take my dog to the emergency vet for stomach issues - I have bought their Science Diet and fed her chicken feet and corn cobs, and tried what they said and gave it up as not a good solution.

Yesterday, I had to take her back and we had the same argument, with the vet telling me dogs eat corn in the wild, corn is the same as rice, she needs the expensive food they sell.

I don't agree, but also can't argue that what I am doing is working - I feed her high quality food but she has severe constipation and so I add pumpkin, olive oil, mineral oil (on the advice of my regular vet), and stool softener and she still struggles. Regularly, she gets lethargic and starts throwing up and we have to go in and have an x-ray and they give me antibiotics (which I don't give her), and sub-q water shot, and off we go. Along with the argument of the food - right now she is on a combination of Blue for senior's and Nature's Choice no-grain formula - but I am smart enough to know that processed food is processed food, just like with people it's not the best.

She is 13 and probably has a long history of neglect. When I got her, she weighed almost 20 pounds but now is around 10 pounds, close to what she should weigh and I probably won't make her lose any more. She was diagnosed over Christmas with advanced mitral valve disease but isn't in heart failure so no meds yet.

My biggest problem is her teeth and jaws - she has a severe overbite (I mean really severe) and she has only four teeth. 

Plus, i gave her a soup bone once and she got sick, we had to go back to the ER. 

So I am in a quandary - nothing I try seems to work, I think I am overdosing her on oils and stool softener, and I am not sure a raw diet is going to work. 

Anyone else have an old dog that successfully eats raw?


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

Absolutely. Older dogs can do very well on a raw diet, even those who have few teeth. You just have to make the switch the right way giving her plenty of time to get used to raw. I suggest reading the link in my signature for more information and a detailed getting started guide. I also listed a grinder that would work for grinding meat and bones for her. 

Don't let the vet dictate what you need to do with your dog...it's your choice what she should be eating.


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## cprcheetah (Jul 14, 2010)

I think Raw would DEFINITELY help out your girl with several of her issues. My Zoey doesn't have any incisors (front teeth) on the bottom and has an overbite about 1/4" and still manages to eat raw. Soup Bones aren't really appropriate for dogs as they can break teeth. I personally don't have an old dog eating raw, but am on several yahoo groups where people have 13 & 14 year old dogs and older that eat it fine. Here are some of them: AuNaturel K9's Double Digit Club


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

i think if i had a dog who only had four teeth.....i might get some ground chicken with bone....i'm sure your butcher would create some for you....and try a tiny little bit and see...how she does.

i think, and sorry for being so blunt, you need a new vet because he is so wrong about corn cobs which will destroy a dog's stomach...and the food he recommends is just trash.....please change vets.....

i know you love your dog.....and i'm sorry this is happening to both of you.


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

magicre said:


> i think if i had a dog who only had four teeth.....i might get some ground chicken with bone....i'm sure your butcher would create some for you....and try a tiny little bit and see...how she does.
> 
> i think, and sorry for being so blunt, you need a new vet because he is so wrong about corn cobs which will destroy a dog's stomach...and the food he recommends is just trash.....please change vets.....
> 
> i know you love your dog.....and i'm sorry this is happening to both of you.


Yes, this is the emergency vet - sometimes I feel like I see him more than my regular vet. my regular has never lectured me about what I give my dogs, nor tells me to buy their perscription food, and when you go to the ER I think you get the folks most closest to graduation who get all the bad hours. But it seems like I get this fellow EVERY time I go in, and we always have the same conversation that is getting more and more strident as time goes on. I just don't know what to say to a vet that tells me corn and chicken feet are good for my dog.

I am actually looking at a homeopathic vet, though, for more than just food.

And thanks for the advice about a meat grinder and the premade food - I found someone locally who sells the Bravo so I might stop by today and get some, until I can get the meat grinder and figure it all out, try to find a butcher etc. 

I appreciate all the advice, when I was young we threw out table scraps and a can of Alpo now and then, and raw chicken carcasses etc. and I think I have gotten too wrapped up in finding a "good" quality processed food.


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

cprcheetah said:


> I think Raw would DEFINITELY help out your girl with several of her issues. My Zoey doesn't have any incisors (front teeth) on the bottom and has an overbite about 1/4" and still manages to eat raw. Soup Bones aren't really appropriate for dogs as they can break teeth. I personally don't have an old dog eating raw, but am on several yahoo groups where people have 13 & 14 year old dogs and older that eat it fine. Here are some of them: AuNaturel K9's Double Digit Club


Thanks - I am somewhat concerned about changing her diet so completely, but I have tried probably 15 brands of dog food since I got her and the results are always the same. So it's nice to know other old dogs are eating like this, if I can grind it up I don't have to worry about her eating bones.


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## RaisingWolves (Mar 19, 2011)

Where are you located? My supplier delivers to Midwest states and they carry a wide variety of ground prey model.


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