FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - A 5.5-ounce can of "holistic pheasant" cat food sells for $1.73 at a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., specialty pet food store. Three blocks away, you can get the same sized can of a supermarket chain brand cat food for 39 cents.
Is the more expensive one better for your cat than the supermarket food?
Not necessarily, at least according to eight dog and cat nutrition experts at seven well-known veterinary medical schools who were interviewed by Consumer Reports. The bottom line of the article in the magazine's March issue: "There are quality foods at every price point," said Jamie Kopf Hirsh, the associate health editor who wrote the piece.
Dr. Joseph Wakshlag, an assistant professor of clinical nutrition at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, was more direct: There is no scientific evidence that "any food is better than the next," regardless of price, he told Hirsh. Two years ago, a spate of pet food recalls -- most connected to tainted wheat gluten imported from China -- started consumers looking more closely at what they were feeding their pets. More than 100 brands ultimately were recalled and hundreds of animals are believed to have been sickened or died from eating these products.
Click here to start typing your text
In 2004, there were 5 dogs in the Mosman household. On Friday October 22nd, 4 of the 5 dogs were brought to the grooming department of our local "PetSmart" for a nail trim. That evening Donna paused after eating 2/3 of the food in her bowl and continued to sit and pant. Overstimulation of the sympathetic nervous system leads to a large serum adrenalin level, which possibly causes a reduction in appetite. By the way...., check out an article entitled "Vomiting in dogs, cats, and ferrets". www.thepetprofessor.com/secArticles/dog/vomiting_in_dogs_and_cats.asp
Puddin was taught to chase or catch a tennis ball, retrieve the ball and bring it back to the person who threw it. He wouold do several successive runs of this and this activity was used to keep his weight down. I might just have the world's most cardiovascularly fit dachshund. He has never had a back problem to my knowledge, anmd I can certainly say that he is quite athletic. He can jump onto and off of a sofa with great ease.
One of the most important uses of the log was to transition a dog from one food to another. Often it was to get the dog on a special formula such as R/D or K/D, or to get the dog off a food such as Eukanuba on to a natural brand. Personally, I wish to avoid Eukanuba, Iams or anything produced by Proctor & Gamble owned companies. The way to transition the dog is by mixing 75% by volume of the old food with 25% of the new food for the first few days. After 3-4 days of 75% old food, switch to a 50%/50% mix. After 3-4 days of the 50/50 mix, switch to 25% old food. After 3-4 days of 25% old food, switch to 100% of the new food. This can be easily done by using a glass measuring cup when you are giving the dog approximately 1 cup of food. My logs show that most of the time when transitioning was done, it was based on using a volume of 1 cup. Now what if you try to do this and your dog consistently finishes less than one cup? Then you need to base your mix on say half a cup or 3/4 of a cup as the total volume. How do you adjust the proportion of each dog food in that mix? You are doing this for solid food. An easy way of adjusting it is to pretend that fluid ounces are the same for a solid. 1 cup = 8 fluid ounces. 3/4 of that = 6 fluid ounces. (3/4 * 8 =24/4=6). 1/2 cup= 4 fluid ounces. One of those will be the volume mark that you measure up to. If you are portioning to make up 3/4 of a cup total volume and you need to start out with 3/4 old food, here is what you do. 3/4 0f 6= 18/4= 41/2
1/4 of 6= 6/4= 11/2
For a volume of 3/4 of a cup you will start out with 4 1/2 fluid ounces of old food to 1 1/2 fluid ounces of new food. It is difficult in some measuring cups to see where 4 1/2 is or where 1 1/2 is, so it is ok to use roughly 4 ounces and roughly 1 ounce. As you transition the dogs' diet, the proportions are going to change in such a way as to make a smooth transition. At least, you are not jumping suddenly from one food to the other and the changes you make are not going to be sudden jumps. Now if you have a dog that is only eating half a cup, that's easy. 3/4 0f 1/2 =3/8. 1 cup =8 ounces. 1/4 of 1/2 = 1/8. So what you have here is a 3 to 1 mix of old food to new food. After a couple of days that becomes a 50/50 mix which would be 2/4 of 1/2 =2/8. So you give 2 ounces of each. A few days later that becomes 3 ounces of the new food and 1 ounce of the old food until finally it becomes 100% of the new food.
Consider the following two dachshunds: Marble and Puddin were brought to Lakeside Animal Hospital in Plantation, FL for checkups on Tuesday June 3rd of this year. Marble weighed 23 lbs. 7 oz. Puddin weighed 20 lbs. 2 oz. and when last weighed before then in April, Puddin weighed 19 lbs. 4 oz. At one time, both Marble and Puddin were in the same weight range < 22 lbs. and received the same category of FrontLine. Both of these dogs need to be kept in a weight range appropriate to the Heartgard and FrontlIne they get. Both dachshunds are being switched to dry canine R/D (green stripe bag) and will have vegetables such as carrots, peas, or green beans added to their food instead of canned R/D or any other meaty canned food.
As of Wednsday 7/10/08 the decision was made to switch these dogs from Heartgard to Interceptor which handles 3 types of intestinal parasites in addition to heartworm. Marble and Puddin were weighed again on 7/10/08 . Marble was 21 lbs. and Puddin was 18 lbs.
If it were completely up to me all of the pets in the household would be on natural pet foods. In addition,
Natural Veterinary Medicine has alternatives and preventive care for vaccines and flea or tick problems. I will not provoke further controversy until I know more. A good resource to view is Gary Nulls' DVD on Natural Pet Care. Soon to come, a website entitled "Precious Pretzels", the veterinary problems and funny antics of dachshunds. The Animal Health Logs will be expanded as a research topic for Veterinary BioStatistics and Epidemiology.
Additional information: 8/14/08
There are now 3 dogs in the Mosman Household. All of them are dachshunds. The new addition is a puppy named Speckles.
On Wednesday 7/30/08 @ 7:25 pm Marble had produced some soft stool with a small amount of blood in it. The next day, he visited LakeSide Animal Hospital. His weight was 22lbs 3 oz. Temperature was 103.1 degrees. Lakeside considers the normal Temp range for dogs to be 100-102.5 degrees. A fecal was taken and the result was negative. Thus, there were no intestinal parasites. The veterinarian we saw, Dr. Saporito gave him an anti-diarrheal. She said that he could have colitis, which has several possible causes including the stress of dealing with a new animal in the house. He has adjusted to the puppy and plays with him. Dietary issues were also discussed with Dr. Saporito. She said that banana can cause diarrhea. Therefor the amount of banana given to the dogs has been scaled back some.
Some other dietary issues have resurfaced. Although I have a leaning towards believing in natural medicine, some concerns about garlic and essential oils have been raised. For a discussion of one veterinarians' concerns that garlic can be deadly please go to the following online article in "Pets By Nature" and written by Dr. Laura Murphy.
http://www.petsbynature.com/
The article is entitled "Garlic Can be Deadly" and it comes with a nice bibliography of scientific research literature.
Another concern I have is with essential oils.
I was introduced to "essential oils" through an MLM company that markets them primarily for human use but some of the people getting involved with the company may be getting the idea that all of these oils can be used on pets. I found an an excellent article with an even more excellent chart on it by a veterinary toxicologist who was showing how cats cannot metabolize these oils because they are lacking an enzyme called glucuronyl transferase which would break down the terpenes in the oils. Since the enzyme is lacking exposure to essential oils would cause a build-up of toxic matabolites. This article can be found at:
http://www.thelavendercat.com/3501.html
This article as I said, discusses why essential oils are not suitable for cats and has an excellent chart of biochemical pathways concerned with lack of ability to metabolize the oils.
There is also an article entitled "Do essential oils kill cats?". It can be found at:
http://naturalmedicine.suite101.com/article.cfm/do_essential_oils_kill_cats
Having collected these articles, I wanted to give equal time to some health professionals or researchers in the natural medicine side of things and whom i respected, and see what their responses were to the issues raised by these articles. So I sent an e-mail containing copies of these articles to Gary Null, a nutritionist with a Masters degree who often speaks to audiences about eating a healthy diet and who has produced a DVD about natural pet care in which he interviews several holistic veterinarians.
He responded by saying:
have found no problems wirh garlic on my animals in thirty years of use.
Look at the supporting scientific studies. Try to disprove yourself. that
is good science
To which I responded:
So that's your answer?
1) What supportive scientific studies and are there enough of these that data can be properly replicated? Are these well designed/well controlled studies? What studies?
2) Good science transcends the personal experience you're asking me to believe.
3) Ok..., it would be great if you turned out to be correct about garlic. Now what about essential oils and the fact that cats lack glucuronyl transferase which is needed to metabolize the terpenes in the essential oils and without which they get a buildup of toxic metabolites after being exposed to essential oils?
Gary has not answered me since.
Next I sent the same batch of material to Nancy Brandt D.V.M. a holistic veterinarian out west who uses essential oils in her practice.
Here is her response:
i am aware of your work thank you. I am also aware of my 10 years experience with oils and have developed safe methods for cats and dogs. all is not good and all is not bad. that is why i recommend a phone consult to indivualize each protocol just like prescribing pharmacuticals. I do disagree that all is bad and I disagree all is good, there is however, what is best for each individual animal. based om my years as a holistic veterinarian that is what I bring to the table. thank you so much for your valuable input.
When she says "all is not good and all is not bad", I can respect that . I have to keep an open mind here. Her statement is in accord with my way of thinking.
I still don't really know who is correct on these issues. For the meantime I am going to err on the side of something being wrong with the exposure of some animals to garlic or essential oils and avoid their use.
The puppy (Speckles) was on Wellness puppy food, which had garlic in it. As the bag was getting low, I decided that I would switch him to a natural food that didn't have garlic in it. I came across a product line called AVODERM. AVO because the food contains avocado and DERM because it is formulated to be healthy for the skin and coat. However, when you try a new dog food the dog has to be transitioned from one to the other. I had to buy another bag of puppy wellness so that Speckles can be transitioned from the wellness to the new food.
The next relevant issues come from the Mosman Household Animal Health Log beginning on Thursday 9/4/08 and ending on Wednesday 1/28/09. On 9/22/08 Speckles was given 1/2 of a leftover mix of the previous food with Avoderm and 1/2 Avoderm. This came to probably the equivalent of 75% Avoderm. This was at 8:39 am when he is also given the contents of a fish oil capsule. It is important to track the proportions of the foods in the mix so as to assure proper transitioning and avoid the dog having gastrointestinal problems. The possibility of transitioning Marble and Puddin off R/D and onto Avoderm was discussed. They must be weighed first and if Avoderm has a weight maintenance or weight control formulation that would be preferable.On Tuesday 9/23/08 at 6:31 am, Speckles was given 50% mystery mix and 50% Avoderm. The mystery mix once again, was probably a mix of Wellness and Avoderm. As usual, he was given the contents of a fish oil capsule. On Wednesday, 9/24/08 Speckles was given >75% but < 100% Avoderm. This sort of thing will continuw until the "Wellness" runs out entirely. On Sunday, 10/5/08 at around 10:00 pm, a splotch of very loose stool was found in the kitchen and was suspected to be from Speckles. At 10:21 pm, Speckles received Pepto-Bismol. How does Pepto Bismol work? and why did some chemist get the idea to try a Bismuth compound? Well, Pepto-Bismol is really a compound called Bismuth Subsalycillate. Salycillic acid is aspirin. Bismuth is probably able to coordinate with and carry several units of salycillate to its' target area in the body. It was originally designed to treat cholera in infants. How did researchers learn that it would be effective in treating the variety of gastrointestinal symptoms that it is touted for? That would be an interesting story.
Anyhow..., on Monday 10/6/08 at 1:10 pm, Speckles made a 2P2X. The 2X could be divided into 2 components, Xa and Xb. Xa, the major portion appeared almost normal although a bit mucousy. Xb, the minor portion, was very soft.
Speckles has a pattern of attempting to lick the urine or eat the feces of another dog (these are entered into the log as "circle u" or "circle c" respectively) or eat grass or something in the grass (which is noted as "circle g").
So when a dog is vomiting or having diarrhea or both does it come from something picked up by these behaviors, attacking a garbage bag in the kitchen and eating out of it, or from having an excessive amount of chew bones?
Isolated incidents: On Sunday 11/9/08, @ 5:41 pm, Speckles was running around in the backyard attempting to "circle u" and "circle c" and was difficult to get to produce an "X". On Monday 11/10/08, at 12:26 Puddin vomited in his kennel.
On Monday, 11/17/08, between 11 am and 12 noon, The dogs were weighed at home. The scale at home is about 7 lbs off from the scale at Lakeside Animal Hospital in Plantation Florida. First I weighed myself. My weight reading for that date and time is 150 lbs. Specky and I were 163. Marble and I were 173. Puddin and I were 170. That puts Speckles at 13 lbs, Marble at 23 lbs and Puddin at 20 lbs. In the evening of that day, each of the dogs received Frontline and an Interceptor. Speckles and Puddin received the Frontline for the weight range "up to 22 lb s, while Marble received the Frontline from the weight range 23 to 44 lbs.
Interceptor is supposed to protect against heartworms, hookworms, roundworms and whipworms. Now I am an animal welfarist which means I believe in animal rights to a point but only to a point. So if I listened to the fanatical animal rightists who base their beliefs on Peter Singers Animal Liberation, I would have to treat all species as equal. Therefore, one could not treat a dog for these infections.
I have also heard a theory put forth by an environmentalist who researches whales in California. He told me that the pesticides that (as he referred to them) we treat our animals with end up in the ocean and are taken up by plankton along with plastics. He claims that we are choking off our own oxygen supply. I consider myself a strong environmentalist and perhaps there are natural alternatives to these widely used compunds. For right now, until I understand what the natural alternatives are and how they work, I consider it too dangerous to stop using these products.
On Wednesday 11/19/2008 Speckles vomited twice in his kennel. This is indicated as a 2V. On saturday 11/22/08, Speckles vomited once outside his kennel in the kitchen. His stool was recorded as normal. During this week, the dogs received broccoli before going to bed and during the day when left in the kennel on days when nobody was home, they have been from time to time given pig ears to chew. I believe that animals should have fun activities rather than simply being "eating machines". This may be considered a jump from science to religion in a sense. On Thanksgiving night, all of the dogs were given pig ears. On Friday 11/28/08 Puddin was observed scooting in the kitchen. Normally in the morning after receiving a fish oil capsule dipped in peanut butter, Marble and Puddin receive pieces of banana. On Monday morning 12/1/08, they received slices of apple instead.
On 12.8/08 Speckles went to Lakeside Animal Hospital for neutering. At 11:41, after receiving banana, both Marble and Puddin were observed to be drinking extensively from the kitchen water with Puddin taking larger amounts. Speckles returned home on 12/9/08 and was given Torbutrol and Amoxicillin. At 4:04 pm, his stool was soft.
Speckles has had a habit of tipping his food bowl over in the kennel with food pellets spilling out of the cage orunder the puffed up pillow that he rests on in the cage. He is wearing an e-Collar which might make it extremely difficult to reach the rest of the food.
On 12/10/08, Marble and Puddin went to PetSmart grooming and Puddin was supposed to have had his anal sacs expressed.
On Saturday 12/13/08, the dogs were weighed. Using the same procedure with the same home scale, the results were as follows:
Marble was 18 lbs. Puddin was 22 lbs. Speckles was 10 lbs.
About 11:00 PM each dog received the weight appropriate Frontline and interceptor.
The last Amoxicillin pill was given to Speckles on 12/15/08. All medications given post-surgery for neutering are completed.
On Monday 12/22/08, at about 12:50, Marble and Puddin arrived at Lakeside Animal Hospital. They each had fecals, heartworm tests, and bordetella tests, and parvo tests. The results were negative for all tests for each dog. Marbles' weight was 18.14 lbs, while Puddins' weight was 17.8 lbs. While this appeared to be a significant discrepancy from the home scale measurement, Puddin was still within the weight range for the same Frontline. Since it was mentioned that Puddin had been observed scooting, his anal sacs were expressed. The contents of Puddins' right anal sac were described as "chumky" and "full" while his left anal sac was described as "pasty" and "half-full". Puddin has a tendency to breathe with a wheeze when excited or fearful. Dr. Fernandez said this was not asthma but was similar to post-nasal drip and to hold his nose when he does it. She gave her approval on Avoderm and said it was ok to transition Marble and Puddin on to it.
Beginning Thursday, 12/25/08 Marble and Puddin were transitioned on to Avoderm. Since Marble gets a total volume of 1/2 cup and the first stage of the transition is 3/4 R/D to 1/4 Avoderm-> make up 1 cup using 3/4 R/D and 1/4 Avoderm and mix. Then take 1/2 cup of the resulting mixture.
By 1/1/09 Marble and Puddin were shifted to 50% R/D/50% Avoderm Adult lite.
On Friday, 1/2/09 One of the dogs vomited. It was suspevted to be Marble. At some time after 9:18 am, he produced a P3Xd. His "X" was pure diarrhea. Afterwards, he was observed drinking from the kitchen water container that had not been changed yet. Marble was given a teaspoon of Pepto-Bismol and his kennel was cleaned out. A considerable amount of vomitus was found. The kennel was washed out, sprayed with Lysol and wiped . Sometime after 2:37 pm that day, Speckles stole 2 potatoes from the potato pantry. In the course of this, pieces from the potato were strewn about the kitchen floor in front of Speckles kennel. The dogs were taken out and after returning, Marble tried to eat some of the remaining potato pieces. Marble was not fed that evening. The following Saturday, the kitchen water container was removed. At 5:37 pm, Marble was fed white rice only and fresh water was available. At 10:51 all of the dogs received "pupcorn" as their nightly treat before going to bed. Sunday 1/4/09, Marble produced an "X" in which the stool quality had improved to soft level. At 7:58, Marble produced a "PX" in which the stool quality was the same as the previous "X" and that is logged in as "PXc c: stool quality ibid". At 9:12 pm, all the dogs were fed, however Marble was on his second night of white rice Puddin was still at 50/50 R/D to Avoderm level and Marble was to be returned to 50/50 level after stool quality reaches acceptable level. On Monday 1/5/09, @ 9:54 am, Marbles' stool quality was similar to the previous day. At 11:55 am, it was the same soft consistency and was yellow-orange and rather mucousy. The last tiny drop was pure liquid. At 3:04 he produced another "X" which was dryer with patches of dark brown in it. At 7:14 pm, all of the dogs were fed and of course, Marble was given 100% white rice. At 10:38 pm, all of the dogs were given carrots as their nightly treat before going to bed. On Tuesday 1/6/09, the Kitchen Water was left available to all of the dogs. At 12:53, Marble produced an "X" in which the stool quality was very much improved. It was slightly soft but a solid pipe was present and the last portion was very mucousy. At 7:30 pm, all of the dogs were fed, but Marble was given white rice and some pebbles that were a mix of R/D and Avoderm. At 10:22 pm, all of the dogs received carrots. On Wednesday 1/7/09 Marble received only 3 small pieces of banana. At 6:34 pm, all of the dogs were fed Both Marble and Puddin are still at 50/50 level. Marble did not produce an "X" on this day. Therefore it was time to see what his GI ystem will do. On Thursday, 1/8/09, at 2:13 pm, Marble produced am "X" that overall appeared healthy. On Friday, at 3:27 pm, Speckles received a "circle c" for an attempt to eat feces in the backyard. On Saturday at 11:44 vomitus and feces were found in Speckles kennel. The kennel was subsequently cleaned out. All dogs were fed that evening at 9:51 pm. On Sunday at 12:33 feces and urine were found in Speckles' kennel. The kennel was cleaned and Speckles was fed. At 3:13 pm, a soft diarrhea-ish stool was found in the kitchen. At 9:26 pm, another soft diarrhea-ish stool was found in the kitchen. At 3:02 am on Monday 1/12/09, Speckles made diarrhea on a cloth in the kennel. He was given a plastic teaspoon of Pepto-Bismol at 3:07 am. At 3:12 He produced an Xd. The plan was now clear. Speckles was to receive no food or water for 24 hours, followed by white rice until the condition improves. Monday morning at 6:07 am, Speckles had diarrhea which was described as being all over the kennel. The kennel was cleaned. At 8:41 am, Speckles was given a tiny dish with Pepto-Bismol. The kitchen water container had been picked up so that Speckles did not have access to water and the other dogs received water in the cups attached to their kennels. Tuesday evening at 6:14 pm, Speckles received 100% white rice. On wednesday, 1/14/09, Speckles was taken out at 12:27 and produced an "X" in which the stool quality was somewhat improved but made 3 attempts at a "circle c". At 7:31 pm, he was given white rice with light chicken soup mixed into it. At 7:45 he produced a "P" but not an "X" and again attempted a "circle c". Thursday 1/15/09 at 10:56 aman "X" was found in Speckles' kennel. At 11:25 am he was given white rice with a fish oil. I felt that not giving him the fish oil was not helping him since fish oil was supposed to have anti-inflammatory effects. At 4:42 pm, he produced an "X" in which not only was the stool quality still soft, but there appeared to be a drop of blood right on his anus. On Friday, 1/16/09 Speckles was taken to Lakeside Animal Hospital. His weight was 10 lbs, 21/2 oz. He was given a fecal, a bacterial test, and a test for Giardia. All of these were negative. He was sent home with Cerenia, Flagyl, and Sulfasalazine. The instructions were to give Speckles 1/2 tablet of Cerenia once/day for 3 days, 1/2 tablet of Flagyl 2x/day till finished, 1/4 tablet of sulfasalazine 2x/day and which was finished on Tuesday evening 1/20/09.
The last 1/2 tablet of Flagyl was given Friday, 1/23/09. On that day his GI meds were completed and his stool was back to normal. This is close to the completion of that particuular volume of the Mosman Animal Health log. At this point I wish to move on and discuss an article on pet food which turned up in the "Sun-Sentinel" the major newspaper of Broward County. The article is entitled "Don't Pick Pet Food By Price" and was written by staff writer, Diane C. Lade. The article shows up in the section of the paper titled "Your Money" and has a brief introduction on the bottom of the front page. The introduction states the following:
"Think splurging on organic pet food means you are buying quality chow for Fluffy or Fido that will keep them healthier? Not necessarily so according to a new report. We'll tell you why "organic" and "natural" food isn't really any better than the supermarket stuff".
Here is an unauthorized reproduction of the article, which I intend to use to destroy Ms Lades' erroneous assertions and implications. I don't disagree with the general statement about high priced pet food not necessarily being better. It is the subtle insinuation, or ather the impression that she gives to the effect that natural or holistic veterinary medicine and the belief in the need for natural pet foods are somehow incorrect. This also includes the assumption that all natural pet foods are processed and packaged in the same way as pet foods from the major commercial pet food manufacturers.
Anyway here is the article:
From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Don't Pick Pet Food By Price
Food and Drug Administration Spokeswoman Siobhan DeLancey said the agency, which regulates pet food along with the states, is working on updating pet food labeling requirements. But many pet owners remain confused by vague ingredient lists and terms that are more about marketing than nutrition.
Phrases like "holistic," "gourmet" and "premium" now are commonly found on pet food packages. But any product could make these claims because they aren't regulated and FDA does not define them.
There also are no FDA standards for "prescription" diets, usually sold by vets, and non-prescription diets. And "senior" foods do not need to be specially formulated, although manufacturers now must show proof of scientific claims, such as foods designed to reduce urinary tract infections.
Dr. Gary Edelson, an associate veterinarian with Hometown Animal Hospital and Dental Clinic in Weston, Fla., said there is no reason to believe higher-priced pet food is safer or more nutritious than less costly varieties.
"(You) would like to think that the more expensive the diet, the more expensive the ingredients" -- which may sometimes be true. "But expensive also could mean you are paying for a marketing campaign."
He said the best way to tell that a pet is being fed the right product is if the animal is healthy and active, with a glossy coat.
Edelson always picks products with labels stating the food was developed through "animal feeding tests" under guidelines by the Association of American Feed Control Officers, a regulatory group that sets ingredient standards.
He also said he prefers companies with a nutritionist on staff, "so if there is a problem, I can talk to someone who can do some research on it."
As you can see, Diane C. Lade cites no evidence other than an appeal to outside authority. She does not give equal time to holistic veterinarians. I believe that holistic veterinary medicine is a residency that is offered in some veterinary schools and just because one person at a school of veterinary medicine is asked their opinion, that doesn't mean that the entire institution believes the exact same thing that this person states. She appeals to
the authority of one professor from Cornell University, one veterinarian in south florida, the FDA, and Consumer Reports. I have a copy of that Consumer reports article. It is rather short and flimsy. However, the Consumer Reports article is what probably spurred Ms Lade on to write her article. The article is poorly written, poorly researched, and betrays noting but ignorance and a contempt of what is truly healthy for animals.
For an excellent introduction to natural veterinary medicine and what it has to say about healthy pet food I invite you to visit this delightful website:
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/
I am also grateful to the following holistic veterinarians who were very supportive, gracious and willing to supply me with intellectual ammunition to combat Diane C. Lades' propaganda and the statements made by those who seek to deny the validity of or trvialize the importance of natural pet food or natural veterinary medicine:
Michael Dym VMD
Dr. Dym recommends contacting Richard Pitcairn DVM Ph.D. who wrote
Dr. Pitcairns Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats.
and
Andrea Tasi VMD
Just Cats Naturally
In Home Homeopathic Health Care for Cats
(703)-440-3637
Cell (703)-901-6107
These holistic veterinarians also "turned me on to" a very important and most excellent article written by a 3rd year Harvard Law Student. The article discusses the nature of the pet food industry in depth.
Feel Free to read this for yourself:
http://leda. law.harvard. edu/leda/ data/784/ Patrick06. html
