# Vet making us switch to Royal Canin for 3 months and I am paranoid!!!



## leafy (Jul 23, 2011)

I own a 2.5 yr. old pekingese/poodle mix. We adopted her from the Humane Society in February. She's has a pretty regular history of throwing up bile and licking one back paw. Yes, we've tried meals 2x a day, 3x a day and even 4x a day. The vet decided to switch us off of chicken and try the duck instead for her tummy and the itching. She seemed fine for a number of months. We chose Pinnacle duck/potato rather than go with Royal Canin. She is also on Prilosec at 5mg a day. 

Recently our dog resumed throwing up bile again....yesterday, a week ago and about every other week prior to that. She has also been licking her paws quite a bit. Ugh!! So now the vet wanted us to choose rabbit or venison -- obviously I have no choice but to choose Royal Canin because everything else out there is laced with chicken or some other protein!!! We chose the rabbit -- which we are slowly introducing tomorrow.

I am paranoid. If the rabbit works, then great. I will finally have a dog that stops throwing up bile and licking 3 out of 4 paws. But, the price kills me...and there is no way around it. :doh: 

If the rabbit doesn't work -- we need to do some testing. I understand that food is a cheaper way than tests -- so we can start there. But, I don't trust Royal Canin. It isn't the best dog food. Anyone else been through this? Is this why people switch to raw diets? *sigh* I think my vet is legit -- but now I'm not so sure. Help!!!!


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## +two (Jul 12, 2011)

Your Vet can't make you do anything. It is an educated suggestion based on experience. 

I would also think a food allergy may be the cause of her upset stomach. Have you tried a fish variety? Royal Canin isn't the worst food either, and honestly if it keeps her happy and healthy then it will be okay. If price is the issue, how about Taste of the Wild? The Pacific Stream and Sierra Mountain formulas don't have grain or chicken. If you don't feel comfortable feeding the Royal Canin you can try that. I personally feed TOTW and prefer it to most other kibble. 

Raw is also an option, and one I would consider in your situations. Some dogs do wonderfully on it and it alleviates most if not all of their digestive problems. Your Vet may not be the best source of information about Raw feeding though, so I would do a lot of outside research. There are many people here who feed raw and are very knowledgeable if you have specific questions.


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## ChaosIsAWeim (Feb 12, 2011)

Most vets know jack about nutrition, so you can't hold that against them, what you can hold against them is if the vet is pushing RC on you, instead of letting you make your choice of food. There are other foods that have venison and rabbit (granted rabbit is very rare). What about fish, bison, beef, lamb, etc? I see what your vet is trying to do by ruling out proteins one by one, but there are better foods to do so with. 

You could try raw, but you would really need to do your homework on it. People could probably help you with choosing a food if we knew a general location, as some food are not sold in certain areas of the world.


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## Jacksons Mom (Mar 12, 2010)

A few of the RC RX diets aren't too bad. Their rabbit & potato formula is pretty decent, IMO, just highly over priced. If it works for your dog, it works.

I'd rather have a dog eating Pedigree over Orijen if, for example, he was constantly throwing up, itchy, diarrhea, on one vs. the other. Sure, ingredients can look great on paper, but if it's not coming out of the dog right, then it's clearly just not working.

Have you looked into California Natural yet? They have grain-free venison and lamb formulas that may work.


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## Blue_Heeler (Jul 31, 2011)

leafy said:


> obviously I have no choice but to choose Royal Canin because everything else out there is laced with chicken or some other protein!!! We chose the rabbit -- which we are slowly introducing tomorrow.


there are plenty of foods available out there that don't have chicken or some other protein in them. Limited Ingredient diets. Natural Balance comes to mind right away.


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## Firem4nJoe (Oct 10, 2011)

Being paranoid when it comes to pet food is a very healthy practice. Consider things like this; Purina is owned by Nestlé, one of the world's biggest junk food manufacturers, Pedigree is owned by Mars, another one of the world's biggest junk food manufacturers. If you take your time and do the research and listen to the arguments of both pet food companies & vet's that recommend them, and the comparatively few vets that recommend feeding raw you will notice a pattern emerging. Every pet food company will naturally recommend it's own product over everyone else's and fall back on questionable or fictitious science to back up their claims. But now there are so many raw feeders spreading the word of how much better their dogs are on raw the pet food companies are sneakily using the truth about what's wrong with all other brands of pet food and then falling back on the false and sometimes laughable claims of what makes their brand good. Anything to keep making money.
It was a big eye opener for me when I started taking my dogs to my new local vet, http://www.rawmeatybones.com is his website. He merely suggested I try cutting out all the factory processed pet foods and just feed them the raw meaty bones that I had already been feeding along side the kibble and other muck. Within 48 hours the dog breath and coat odour were both gone. A few days later we started noticing other benefits such as much more pleasant stools, less farting, after a week or so, their already shiny coats were even more shiny without having a bath (at 16 months they've only had two in their lives) after a month sticking to the raw meaty bones we even noticed fur regrowing on the tips of the dogs' chins where it had all but vanished.

So people can call me biased if they wish, they're basically correct in that description, but I'm speaking from the experience of seeing my dogs go from being stinky & unhealthy to happier, healthier and more energetic in a very short period of time. We're even saving money by not going to the vet every 5 to 6 weeks for the same stomach bug treatment all the time.

I highly recommend the raw meaty bones diet, I also recommend reading up on the subject, it won't take long to start picking the flaws in the arguments of pet food companies and the vets who recommend them because they are funded by them and receive about 40% of the pet food profits, I can't blame the vets too much though as many universities are training the vets to believe what the pet food companies are spouting - guess where the funding for all the lectures comes from.

Ellie & Buddha now enjoy a healthy balanced diet of raw human grade meat and bone. Chicken carcass is the daily norm but variety is the key, so they also get lamb shanks, lamb necks, lamb heads, ox gullet, ox heart, ox liver, ox stomach, whole fish (not too often and not always the same fish), and whole rabbit (no more often than once every 3 weeks). The bones clean the teeth and the dogs get a good work out tearing and ripping the meat off. General rule of thumb; if the dog can swallow the piece whole it needs bigger chunks.

I hope you do give it a go and don't get scared off by the usual things like occasional diarrhoea, the odd choking scares or a little blood in the poop. If you break open a raw chicken drumstick you are going to see blood in the bone and little bits of undigested bone are going to pass through the dog with out causing damage, just pick up any little left over bits of bone fragments you may be worried about. As for diarrhoea, wolves in the snow that hunt down a moose or dear (they do some scavenging but are excellent hunters) will rip the beast open, devour it's organs, heart, kidneys, liver, etc, and as a result they'll secrete black rather runny turds all over the snow, then they'll start on the bone. 

I hope you find this helpful and wish you and your puppy dog the best of luck with it.


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## Miss Bugs (Jul 4, 2011)

have your tried the Natural Balance LID yet? my retreiver is allergic to everything and doing very well on it(I actually had to switch her OFF raw, she is doing much better now), they have Bison, Venison, Duck, Fish etc.. limited ingredient, so no extra meats tossed in.


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## leafy (Jul 23, 2011)

Thanks guys.....we have tried the Natural Balance LID diet ....duck and lamb already. The vet has tried to explain to me that Natural Balance is unable to prove that their production practices are legit -- and not contaminated. So, to humor the vet, we will stick with the RC for the next three months. Our dog is small and doesn't eat a whole lot....so I think we can do this. Yes, the cost really hurts.....but if our dog has a happy stomach then it is worth it.

On another note, our dog is absolutely in love with the rabbit. She relishes her meals. I don't need to water it down or add canned food to it. She dives into the kibble. She even sits in front of the cabinet where we keep her food and licks her chops.


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## InkedMarie (Mar 11, 2009)

You might need to order it but Nature's Variety Instinct has a rabbit formula. They also have two new limited ingredient ones. One is turkey and working well for our dog who can't eat chicken. What about fish formulas? Also, Primal, which is prepared frozen raw, has rabbit.


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## flipgirl (Oct 5, 2007)

Wellness makes a Simple Solutions line with single source proteins. I spoke to one of our clients who works at Simmons foods where, in Ontario, Wellness is made. He said that the factory is thoroughly cleaned before making any foods made for Wellpet (the company that owns Wellness) and before making the Simple Solutions foods. If you have questions, you could contact Wellness.


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## ks75852 (Aug 17, 2011)

My vet tried to push RC on me as well, even though she said during my dog's appointment that she didn't think he was allergic to his food. Then proceeded to tell me all of the treats I feed him are bad and TOTW is nothing in comparison to RC, which I had never heard of before. I got home and did my research on the food and seeing grain as the first 5 ingredients I decided 15 lbs of food wasn't worth $65. I felt like my vet was taking me for a ride for a variety of other reasons as well. I asked to see a different vet at the same clinic. He actually called me after hours to check on my dog and tell me he had been reviewing the case. He suggested to not feed my dog that food. Maybe a second opinion would help? Maybe its not the protein that is upsetting your dog but the grain? I opted to go ahead and have the allergy test done instead of taking the guessing route. Now I know Jack is allergic to all mites, most grasses and trees, the deer fly, milk, venison, kangaroo, and I'm sure I will find out more at his next appointment.


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## xxxxdogdragoness (Jul 22, 2010)

Also natures recipe is a good one & has limited ingredients as well as that one that starts with a "P"... Pu .... Something, I have been to both of those sites & their food is good, I got the info by googling "grain free limited ingredient dog food".

TOTW is also good, I feed high Prairie but I think it has chicken broth somewhere in the ingredient list. But I did feed pacific stream for a while & its also good... My Dogs just dont care for the fish.


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## Helen Saul (Sep 12, 2011)

Which Royal Canin. You need to learn to read the labels. Some have meat listed as the first ingredient. Good. Some have a "meal" listed as the first ingredient. Not so good. You should think about the Natural Diet for your dog, based on its ancestry. There is a new book coming out called Chow Hound which tells you all about dog food that is really good for your dog.


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## lucygoose (Feb 11, 2008)

Can you get ZiWi Peak? Venison and Fish?


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