My otherwise great vet is completely against the raw diet!

[mardnajela]

Hello everyone
I just wanted to know what to do in this situation because I’ve been feeding my cat raw since I got her as a small 3 month old kitten. She’s been thriving on it and she never had a problem with it. I feed her food in chunks so she gets the whole bone munching teeth cleaning, so because of that her teeth are spotless and I was getting so many praises from my vet. My usual vet left the practice and it was my first time seeing this new vet that came in after her. My previous vets never made an issue with the raw diet, they more or less just didn’t even acknowledge it or didn’t care. But this vet told me to stop feeding my cat raw food. Just flat out told me that she would be susceptible to parasites and salmonella and a whole list of problems. If I hadn’t done the research I did before starting my cat on raw that would’ve been so intimidating! Her recommendations afterwards were a whole list of dry foods. I just couldn’t believe a vet would recommend dry food after telling me over and over again that my cats bloodwork was absolutely perfect and that her teeth were beautiful. Im sorry for such a long post I just had to rant for a bit because how can someone as a medical professional see the benefits and still advocate for something that has been proven harmful? I don’t even know what to do in terms of fighting back. I was just so shocked that I just cut the conversation short. I do not want to be disrespectful, they are after all the ones in charge of my cat when she’s at the vet and I don’t want them to potentially give her less than the best treatment because of a potential issue they could have with me. What do I do?

 

[dhammagirl]

That sucks!

Frankly, vets, like human doctors, don’t get any real nutrition education, so they readily advocate diets, the most common diets, that are not the healthiest. I also am disappointed that veterinarians encourage dry food for cats. I can understand that they might be reluctant to encourage a raw diet because they aren’t very informed about it, but they should then be encouraging wet food, not dry food.



Can you switch to another vet or veterinary practice?

I once took my raw fed cat Zeke to an emergency vet clinic for constipation. This vet proceeded to tell me assorted bullshit, like cats need fiber because they have evolved to have different dietary requirements due to domestication; you can’t feed them like bobcats! I was taken aback by her attitude, and didn’t get into arguing with her. She became very antagonistic, and finished the visit by handing me his collar, saying she had to remove it because it was extremely tight and causing fur loss. His collar is loose enough to fit three fingers under it, he just is prone to bare skin in that area. My regular vet was a bit shocked by this vet’s attitude and accusation. I just needed to reduce the bone content to 7% for him, and no more constipation issues.
I hope I never have to interact with that vet again.

I suppose you could print out articles, written by veterinarians, or with veterinarian article references, to support the raw food diet, and ones that point out the harms of dry food, to give this vet, but that might or might not bring a positive reaction.

 

[allypuk]

I guess as vets do not receive mass amounts of nutritional training they may base their opinions from cases they witness in their practice. So they see more cases of food related issues such as salmonella when people have been feeding raw diets and wet foods, and much less with dry. But that's only because you can leave dry food down all day without much risk. As where some people may have done that with other foods and their pet got sick. The vet is not actually looking at the benefit of the food itself but more the ability of the owners to obtain and serve it correctly and safely. So the vet is likely playing it safe and recommending idiot safe ways of feeding a pet.

You could try as mentioned above the printing of evidence based research and challenging your vet, but like said above that could go either way. I get the general impression vets don't like to be educated by us general public.

You could decide that apart from this issue they are a good enough vet for you or you could maybe look at finding an alternative vet for your kitty.

 

[klunick]

If you are happy with how your cat is doing on the raw diet, stick with it. Just nod your head when your vet says anything and do what you are going to do.

 

[LTS3]

You do not need the vet's approval to feed a raw diet. Remember, it's YOUR cat and YOU make the decisions. You don't need to "fight back" against the vet. Just politely and firmly tell the vet that you disagree with her and you will continue to feed raw. Any good vet will respect a client's decision. If your vet gets nasty or anything, find a new vet who is more respectful of client decisions.

I assume you are using a commercial raw food or a good raw recipe?

 

[mschauer]

Finding a vet you trust to provide good care to your cat can be difficult. If you like her other than her objection to a raw diet maybe do as klunick suggests and just grin and bear it during her lectures against raw. If she hassles you so much that that is difficult to do maybe try telling her, as respectfully and diplomatically as you can, that her hear and understand her position but that you are satisfied that you understand both the risks and the benefits and are comfortable with you decision to stay with raw. End by saying that you would hate to have to find another vet because of her continued objections.

There is a potential problem with staying with a vet that has a strong objection to a raw diet, they may be too quick to blame a nutritional deficiency for a problem and waste your money with unnecessary tests before moving on to the tests needed to find the real problem.

 

[mardnajela]

You do not need the vet's approval to feed a raw diet. Remember, it's YOUR cat and YOU make the decisions. You don't need to "fight back" against the vet. Just politely and firmly tell the vet that you disagree with her and you will continue to feed raw. Any good vet will respect a client's decision. If your vet gets nasty or anything, find a new vet who is more respectful of client decisions.

I assume you are using a commercial raw food or a good raw recipe?

yes you’re absolutely right it was honestly just the initial shock that they spoke against something that was so clearly beneficial and then the second that they would recommend the dry food! And yes I’m feeding my cat a recipe I got from felinenutrition and she’s been loving It for years now

 

[mardnajela]

There is a potential problem with staying with a vet that has a strong objection to a raw diet, they may be too quick to blame a nutritional deficiency for a problem and waste your money with unnecessary tests before moving on to the tests needed to find the real problem.

I actually went in because my cat had been throwing up and they completely ignored her hair tie eating history and used the opportunity to lecture me about the raw food dangers. I also forgot to mention above that they even said I could be causing her so much harm that she could end up dying. Dying. Again, if I hadn’t been previously educated I would be scared to death. But they told me her blood work came back stellar that everything was perfect. And then proceeded to tell me her diet could kill her.

 

[mardnajela]

If you are happy with how your cat is doing on the raw diet, stick with it. Just nod your head when your vet says anything and do what you are going to do.

That’s what I did the entire conversation and I’ll continue to do that if I have to but I wish I could find a raw friendly vet. It would be easier to get better feedback and not have them blame everything on the raw diet. She was throwing up? Must be salmonella! When in reality she has a bad habit of eating hair ties. I just want her to get the best care

 

[klunick]

I actually went in because my cat had been throwing up and they completely ignored her hair tie eating history and used the opportunity to lecture me about the raw food dangers. I also forgot to mention above that they even said I could be causing her so much harm that she could end up dying. Dying. Again, if I hadn’t been previously educated I would be scared to death. But they told me her blood work came back stellar that everything was perfect. And then proceeded to tell me her diet could kill her.

Wow! To actually say that you might be killing her by feeding her the raw diet is ridiculous! With her ignoring the cat's history and going as far as blaming you if something happens, I'd look for another one. She will always use the diet as an excuse and not look any further.

 

[mardnajela]

This vet proceeded to tell me assorted bullshit, like cats need fiber because they have evolved to have different dietary requirements due to domestication; you can’t feed them like bobcats! I was taken aback by her attitude, and didn’t get into arguing with her. She became very antagonistic, and finished the visit by handing me his collar, saying she had to remove it because it was extremely tight and causing fur loss.

That’s the thing I also had to deal with. They maybe don’t realize they’re talking down to us like children instead of adults. I’m in my early twenties and maybe that’s why, but On the phone the vet was talking about impossibly complicated balancing their diets could be and that there’s ‘no possible’ way I could completely understand their needs and know how to supplement her diet. I just had to roll my eyes. At least I know I’m not feeding my cat carcinogenic pellets.

 

[Talien]

There is a potential problem with staying with a vet that has a strong objection to a raw diet, they may be too quick to blame a nutritional deficiency for a problem and waste your money with unnecessary tests before moving on to the tests needed to find the real problem.

Thist is what would be my biggest issue. If your vet is so dead set against a raw diet that is what they will look at for every problem your Cat has and could misdiagnose something, wasting your time and money and at worst possibly harming your Cat by prescribing medication or treatment that is not needed.

 

[mschauer]

I actually went in because my cat had been throwing up and they completely ignored her hair tie eating history and used the opportunity to lecture me about the raw food dangers. I also forgot to mention above that they even said I could be causing her so much harm that she could end up dying. Dying. Again, if I hadn’t been previously educated I would be scared to death. But they told me her blood work came back stellar that everything was perfect. And then proceeded to tell me her diet could kill her.

That's a pretty extreme stance for even an anti-raw feeding vet to take. How old is your cat and exacting what are you feeding her?

 

[mardnajela]

That's a pretty extreme stance for even an anti-raw feeding vet to take. How old is your cat and exacting what are you feeding her?

shes 4 and I’m feeding her the recipe I found on Feline Nutrition

 

[mardnajela]

Thist is what would be my biggest issue. If your vet is so dead set against a raw diet that is what they will look at for every problem your Cat has and could misdiagnose something, wasting your time and money and at worst possibly harming your Cat by prescribing medication or treatment that is not needed.

Thats a huge concern for me as well but I’m also thinking she’s received great care from this place before. If they continue to blame the food I’m going to just end up going somewhere else

 

[mschauer]

shes 4 and I’m feeding her the recipe I found on Feline Nutrition

Aw! I can help you out then. An analysis of the Feline Nutrition recipe shows it ALMOST meets the AAFCO recommendations for the nutrient content of cat food. If your vet objects to it then she must also object to every pet food on the US market.

I say it almost meets the AAFCO recommendations mostly because it comes up low in manganese which is easily corrected.

Also, the Feline Nutrition recipe calls for using bone-in chicken thighs and I've never found what I consider a reliable source of the nutrient content of bone so my analysis excludes the bone and so shows calcium to be unacceptably low. But that won't be true if you use an adequate amount of bone. Edit - Just realized the FN recipe includes instructions for using boneless meat. Do you bone-in or boneless meat?

I can give you a complete analysis of the FN recipe for you to show your vet. You could add a bit of manganese and I can include enough calcium carbonate to cover the calcium if you are confident the bones in the FN recipe do provide adequate calcium. Now that I think about it, I should email the author of the FN recipe and ask where they get their bone nutrient information from.

PM me your email addy and I'll send you the PDF.