No WSAVA recommended foods from my vet

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reformedpowerhouse

New member
I was struggling to figure out what to feed my pup so I consulted my vet and they offered me their nutritional guide. Low and behold, not a single WSAVA brand is on there. It’s a pretty in depth guide with ingredient list breakdowns, brand breakdowns, specific diet breakdowns, etc. They don’t sell the food themselves so I’m not sure what they would stand to gain from recommending something specific.

I’m confused by this as Reddit seems to really drive home using only WSAVA foods for your dog because they’re recommended by veterinarians. What’s the deal?

Was feeding my pup Hills, but he’s currently eating Honest Kitchen dehydrated turkey per the guide’s recommendations and I’m more confused than ever.
 
@reformedpowerhouse Hate to be pedantic here, but there are no "WSAVA recommended" foods or "WSAVA approved" foods. WSAVA merely publishes a set of guidelines, and it is up to the marketplace (us) to decide whether or not the food fully meets those guidelines. The general consensus is that there are five brands that do, with a few others coming close.
 
@reformedpowerhouse I'm really curious what brands your vet recommends! And why those brands were chosen! It's a little surprising to hear of that difference but mostly it makes me curious about your vet's experience and opinion. Do you happen to have a printout of the guidelines they gave you?

Regarding WSAVA, here is their nutrition guidelines page. There's a lot of interesting reading in there.

https://wsava.org/Global-Guidelines/Global-Nutrition-Guidelines/

One of their publications is a list of questions we're supposed to ask of our pet food makers in order to understand quality. When people on Reddit talk about WSAVA they usually mean this list of questions specifically. Just to clarify, WSAVA does not approve or recommend brands.
https://wsava.org/wp-content/upload...dated-2021_WSAVA-Global-Nutrition-Toolkit.pdf

If you don't think the foods they're recommending can answer those questions fully well, I would ask your vet for clarification wrt WSAVA and get a second opinion from a different vet if you're still concerned.
 
@kawaiichristi It was a PDF they emailed me that I am fairly sure they put together themselves. If I can figure out how to share it here I definitely will as I’m curious what everyone would think.

It breaks diets down by type, ie raw, home cooked, dehydrated, wet, kibble, etc. and ranks them according to how easily it’s processed?

I’m definitely curious to get a second opinion. I did take over care for him from my parents and he was eating those individual Caesar wet food packs, soooo I think he’s eating better regardless, but I do want him to be eating what’s best for his particular needs.
 
@reformedpowerhouse You could screenshot it, and cross out any identifiable info from the vets! It's so weird that they're not recommending WSAVA foods. This is a normal vet and not some holistic type one right?
 
@alexm961 It's likely a "holistic" vet or someone that is catering to the people in their surrounding area who want to feed the boutique, fancy sounding foods. I went to a vet in Williamsburg, Brooklyn who handed out a (I would guess) similar PDF recommending foods that I've never heard any other vet recommend. They cited to sources such as Dr. Karen Becker. It was honestly pretty shocking and I never went back to the vet. They also misdiagnosed my dog's nail infection (on a single nail) as caused by his "processed" Purina diet. My regular vet prescribed antibiotics which immediately took care of it....
 
@reformedpowerhouse The list I got from my vet was Purina Pro Plan, Hills Science Diet, Eukanuba, and Royal Canin. These all have a ton of research behind them.

The other thing I was told was to stay away from "grain-free" foods. There is data potentially linking these foods to heart disease. Her advice was to avoid them until there was more information.
 
@reformedpowerhouse We feed our dogs Purina Pro Plan and haven’t had any issues. Some people don’t like the big brand products for one reason or another. Personally I think it is safer to stay with brands that have a long history and research behind them.

The grain-free craze being a case in point of not jumping on fad diets.

We did look into using FreshPet at one point, but decided against it. With three dogs kibble and treats are a lot easier to manage. Outside of training treats I give my dogs pig ears, duck feet, and rolled pig skin. I’ll also grab raw short ribs from time to time as a special treat.
 
@acatholic I do see Purina Pro Plan recommended quite a bit since I've joined this sub.

We've used Farmer's Dog for over a year, with good results. But the cost is truly astronomical. Last night I sat down and did the math. By switching to PPP, we will save $3 a DAY, and I have a little 12lb Chiweenie. She loves the Purina True Instinct with turkey and venison kibble, so that is now her "treat". A few pieces at a time, in addition to her wet PPP. We are making a gradual change, mixing the FD into the PPP, and she is happy as ever. Still acting like a puppy, and she's almost 13!
 
@kjwg All three of mine are mini-doxies (15, 14, and 8lbs). We actually started on Hill’s, but my oldest was scratching his ears after eating. My vet wanted us to try swapping and see if it was a food allergy.

We swapped to the PPP small breed (and small breed puppy for the little one) and haven’t had an issue since.
 
@reformedpowerhouse The DCM link seems to have some data-based evidence but has never been proven, since correlation is not causation. That said, I'm not willing to let my dog be a "guinea pig" to test that theory. We're feeding PPP and she's doing great on it, so we're leaving well enough alone.

We did feed grain free to our last dog, because she seemed to be allergic to some ingredients in her previous food, and our vet suggested her red, inflamed, and itchy chest and belly *could* be a grain allergy. We switched her to Orijen (around 2009-10) to test the hypothesis, and within weeks her redness, inflammation and itching was gone, and never returned. We never did a true elimination diet, but the results were obvious. This, of course, was before the possible DCM link was known, and she lived to age 14, succumbing to cancer in 2017. Knowing what I know now, if my dog is thriving on a WSAVA-compliant food, I'm sticking with it, and our dog now is doing so.
 
@reformedpowerhouse Jsyk I have been keeping up with the research on this and the most recent stuff is indicating the DCM-diet link may actually be due to high legume content (possibly because of issues with taurine absorption). They still haven’t pinpointed an exact cause, but UC Davis recommends avoiding diets with legumes in the top ten ingredients, whether they have grains or not.

Personally I do feed my dog a food that has a legume as the tenth ingredient (Purina Pro Plan), but I’m comfortable doing that because they follow WSAVA guidelines, do feeding trials, and have never been linked to diet-associated DCM, so apparently it’s still minimal enough legume content that it’s not a problem.
 
@reformedpowerhouse While most vets tend to recommend only WSAVA compliant brands, some vets don't, and others (like my vet) don't really care what you feed as long as the dog is doing well on the diet. A lot of it's just personal preference (what works for their individual pets and budgets/lifestyle) or their experience as a vet. But most prefer WSAVA brands due to their extensive research and testing. And I personally prefer them, and I'm not a vet nor have I ever worked in the industry. I just can't bring myself to trust a brand that does the bare minimum. Not worth the risk to my dog's health.
 
@reformedpowerhouse Ingredients breakdowns is a big red flag since even the American College of Veterinary Nutrition is very clear that this is not useful in evaluating a diet.

What brands do they recommend?

It sure doesn’t sound like they’re following scientific consensus or expert opinion, and that’s not a great sign.

My dog has been at six different vet clinics (because I’ve moved) including two specialty hospitals and every single one emphasizes science backed diets in line with WSAVA guidelines
 
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