Country Vet's Blog

I have returned from attending a four day veterinary conference.  There are many new approaches and expensive equipment that at least was fun to see.  My time was spent attending classes relating to chronic gastro-intestinal diseases like chronic diarrhea, vomiting,  inflammatory bowel syndrome, and acute pancreatitis.  Nutritional care for chronic kidney diseases, auto-immune diseases, skin, and ear problems were a few of the other topics covered.  While it is nice to know the latest drug therapy for particular disease problems, the question that was never asked was WHY are we seeing these chronic health problems?  It was stated many times to always look for an underlying cause but that was as far as it ever went.  Diarrhea is not a part of a healthy digestive system.  Healthy skin is not plagued with ringworm (fungal infections), mange (mites) or allergies.  To me, the answer is basically wrong or a lack of proper nutrition.  Dogs and cats were not designed to live on grain diets commonly found in our commercial pet food.  We need to get back to the basics of whole food nutrition in an effort to spare our pets a lot of pain, discomfort, ill health, and early aging.  Consider upgrading to a more holistic approach to what you are feeding your pet like the Halo brand pet food.  Your pet will say thank you from the bottom of their hearts!!