# Prescription vs. high quality "natural)?



## CattailGal (Jan 25, 2011)

My dog has allergies. I had her tested for various allergens and give her allergy shots every two weeks. I was told to keep her on hypoallergenic food - Purina HA or Iams KO. I am not pleased with the ingredients. I printed out ingredients for various "natural" dog foods to take to the vet to ask about switching. The vet said to stay on KO or HA. HA doesn't even have any meat in it! Vet says KO and HA are high quality

I left the office with yet another bag of HA. 

I have been giving the dog some Taste of the Wild, but I see today that it has chicken meal in it, and that may be something she's allergic to. I'm stopping the TOTW.

DH says vet is the expert - follow her advice. However, she profits from the sale of prescription food, too.

Anyone else in this situation - prescription low quality vs. higher quality "natural"?

KC


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## naturalfeddogs (Jan 6, 2011)

I would for sure go with high quality natural over anything the vet sells. Purina,Science Diet, Eukanuba are all junk. Junk, Junk. Try Origen or Acana if you can find them. They are pricey, but really good foods. The're made by Champion foods so you could look online at the ingrediants before buying.


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## Ania's Mommy (Feb 8, 2009)

CattailGal said:


> I left the office with yet another bag of HA.


^^^I think this answers the question regarding why the vet would promote such crap; He/she is making money off of it.

While vets are awesome at treating injuries and illnesses, they are not nutritionists. What they learned about canine nutrition in vet school is extremely minimal and FUNDED BY HILLS!! So of course, the little info they get is extremely biased (and incorrect).

I might suggest a limited ingredient diet such as California Natural or Natural Balance. Both foods have much more species-appropriate ingredients than anything your vet peddles. 

Can you return the Iams?


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## wags (Jan 31, 2009)

Theres also the wellness brand simple solutions formula. There are a few nice foods out there other than perscription formulas! For probiotics go with a nice plain yogurt!


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## PUNKem733 (Jun 12, 2009)

I understand how Hill's funds most of what vets are taught about canine nutrition, but if us, everyday people can actually find out the good and bad in food, why can't these supposed intelligent, for the most part well off people do like us and research a bit more in their spare time why foods are good or bad?


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## CavePaws (Jan 25, 2011)

-________-'

I don't understand why so many vet's push horrible products for dogs. I agree that SOMETIMES these diets can agree with a dog...But overall its all just crud, crud, and what? MORE crud. Consider a good diet with no grains, a small amount of grains is 'okay' but I'd say overall you'd be good to do without. Grains can cause severe allergies in some dogs...But so can poultry and certain types of proteins. I'd look into feeding your dog Wellness Core Ocean variety or Turkey, Orijen, or Evo Red Meat. I'm partial to Core turkey. >__> I feed it, solved many problems with my dogs and has a good amount of protein! You just need to watch that with some dogs as it can disagree with them if they are inactive.


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

You aren't going to accomplish what you want with any commercial foods. If you do it will be hit or miss while trying a variety of brands. I think the only way to solve your dog's problems is with real natural foods.


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## Jack Monzon (Jul 25, 2010)

What were the results of the allergy tests?


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## cast71 (Sep 16, 2010)

Is your dog on flea, tick and heartworm pesticides? That could be where the allergies are coming from. I would find a decent minimum ingredient food like wellness simple solution and stop all meds and shots. Than go from there. You can use ACV and garlic as alternatives to flea, tick and heartworm pesticides.


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## 3Musketeers (Nov 4, 2010)

Ima go to vet-school and see how this brainwashing process works.

I agree with the others here, don't go with the vet food, maybe try a good grain-free (or raw, lol), Orijen, Acana, Wellness, Canidae, Evo, etc. and maybe keep her on it for at least a week or two to see if her allergies start to look any different.

Is she doing worse on the TOTW? What was she eating before? Were her allergies also as bad on it? There are a lot of things to consider, and it might not even be the chicken meal she's allergic to.
Like Jack said, ask the vet to see the results of the allergy test, that way you know exaclty what to avoid.


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## Serendipity (Aug 13, 2010)

Many good brands have allergy options, like California Natural, etc. Raw is a good option for allergies as well.


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