Feather meal diet

[catpack]

Royal Canin's Anallergic diet is made using corn startch and feather meal.

So, we have a shepherd-mix in the rescue that has allergies that have gotten progressively worse since he has been in our care. He is HW+ and currently on steroids. He has had marked improvement on steroids; but, still has a ways to go in being 100%. The thought now is that there *may* be a food component.

I want to mention that this dog presented to us with a severely broken leg that has been very slow to heal (12 wks post-op and it's 85% healed.) I have to wonder if it's just going to take longer for his body to respond to steroids (he's been on them for 10 days.)

He's been on Nature's Variety Instinct LID Turkey formula (first dry and canned...then just canned) for about 6 weeks w/o improvement, then switched to Wild Calling Rabbit (canned only) for 4 wks w/o improvement.

Now the vets are wanting to put him on Royal Canin's Anallergenic formula. The protein source of this..."Feather Meal."

I'm all about doing a food trial, but It makes me nauseous to think about putting him on this food. What are your thoughts?

Here are links to 2 articles. 1 is a Forbes interview with the RC President. The second is an independent article (which pretty much sums up my personal thoughts.)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/marcbab...made-from-feathers-a-win-win-for-royal-canin/

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2013/07/17/feather-meal.aspx

I'm definitely the first to admit that I am a total cat person (not that I don't like dogs, I just don't have the knowledge/experience like I do with cats.)

Also, are there similar websites like this where I could get more input?

 

[Willowy]

I think I'd try one of the hydrolyzed meat protein hypoallergenic foods first. Feather meal, ick. I'm not even sure how they made that bioavailable at all

 

[furmonster mom]

I would consider feather meal a fiber source, not a protein source.  Fiber should not be that big of a percentage in the diet.  I suspect they are using it as a filler.

 

[catpack]

Thank you both for your input! @Willowy, I had the same concern about the bioavailability and the author of the healthypets article addressed this and said the protein was there; but, the bioavailability was 0%. This coupled with the fact that corn start h is the first listed ingredient is more than concerning to me.

My vet (who is WELL aware of my beliefs on diet and who is open to the use of home-cooked and commercial raw) is telling me that 1 week on this diet would be enough to say whether this dog as an associated food allergy or not. If it IS food related, we would start food trials.

So, I guess my question is, would you agree to 1 week of the prescription food, knowing that the food doesn't appear to be nutritious and possibility is 0% bioavailabile?

This dog was in VERY rough shape when we got him, so IMO, needs as much wholesome nutrition as possible. (Ex: He had a severely broken leg that required surgery with 2 plates and 8 screws...after 12 wks, the leg has finally healed 80%.)

 

[Willowy]

The thing is, there are other prescription allergy foods, most of them using hydrolyzed meat proteins. The other ingredients aren't anything special, but it is at least meat. I'm not sure why the vet would want to start with that one. It seems kind of extreme. But, sure, a week probably won't hurt anything.

 

[catpack]

The biggest argument I am receiving is that we don't know the history of this dog (he's about 4) and thus don't know what proteins he has been exposed to (though I suspect a grocery store brand of dry and foraging in the trash, etc...) Because of this, they say to even do a hydrolyzed diet wouldn't be sufficient (not to mention that we have had issues with the latter diets causing major GI upset.)