Iams Veterinary Formula - Fish and Potato - Page 1

My vet suggested Iams Veterinary Formula - Fish and Potato for a dog that was having adjusting to American food after being imported.

I was skeptical at first, but I must admit the stuff is amazing.

I tried Orijen, Taste of the Wild, Boiled chicken and rice, and raw to no avail.

After only 2 days, this dog's poo is becoming firm and has plenty of energy, plus he loves the stuff.


Just thought I'd pass along my experience.

I have a friend with a dog with AF whose condition is managed very well on Wafcol Salmon & Potato.  If you don't like Iams for ethical reasons or otherwise, you will probably find the other brands of fish and potato equally effective.

Not surprising, actually.  Once upon a time, it was easy to find a novel diet for dogs--lamb and rice RX dog food, worked like a charm.  Unfortunately, it worked so well that people whose dogs did better on L&R foods than on chicken- or beef- based dog foods went ahead and bred those dogs, not considering that a dog that has to have a specialized diet is NOT the norm, it's the exception, and soon more and more dogs were being born that needed L&R if they were going to thrive.  The manufacturers saw how much L&R they were selling, and brought it out as a mainstream food to capture the complete market, and not just the owners who would pay the price for the RX version.

So the veterinary world had to switch to other protein sources that weren't being used in dog foods, such as duck, fish, kangaroo, venison, rabbit and so forth; and eventually the carb source had to be changed, too, hence the potato, quinoa, oatmeal, barley and other plant product carbs.  And even those forumulations can be had off the shelf now. 

I wonder what we're going to be able to use when we've run out of novel sources of protein... We certainly won't stop breeding dogs that need specialized diets, as that might cut into someone's checkbook.

Not directed at anyone in particular, I should note--just musings on how far we've come to lose so much ground.  Remember when dogs that were fed commercial food got Ken-L-Ration or Alpo horsemeat?

Vet said there's research that shows 10 weeks on fish/potato and it "resets the system" and its most likely the dog can go back to the regular food. But the dog cannot have anything else, not even a bite. I've never heard such a thing, but i'm willing to give it a try.

My vet is one of the few that things Science Diet stuff that can be bought without prescription is total crap.....LOL

Yeah, the fish & potato food seems to still be novel enough to stem the inflammatory responses and allow the damaged lining of the intestinal tract to recover.  If that combination starts getting too popular, I suppose we'll be looking at seal & poi food next...

Popular or not, its working for us.......

Seal and Poi.........lol, good one.

Sita, hopefully once your dog's system has had a chance to recover, you will be able to transition him back onto foods with the more typical protein and carb sources.  I do worry about what we'll do if we run out of novel food sources, though...what if someday there isn't anything novel to give a dog with a GI crisis such as yours experienced? 

Perhaps by then we'll be using Soylent Green....

Oh Hexe, what a thought ! But I'm sure you are right, thinking ahead;  it had just not occurred to me yet.
Having relied on L&R to sort tummies out, I had latterly moved to fish & potato, (fortunately NOT
breeding with anything that would perpetuate this).  But I hadn't thought it through, to where you've
taken it.  [I must find out whether this factor is being taken into a/c by the RVC studies on IBD & SIBO.]

Mind you, we always have the old fail-safe of original Chappie ! (Can you get that in America ?)  We rely
on that as you lot rely on pumpkin, ...  but how long have we got ?

NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOO not Soylent Green....! 

LOL

SitasMom & Hundmutter, now we're all showing our ages, to know about Soylent Green. 

Hundmutter, no, I believe Chappie is strictly your side of the world.  Possibly even a UK-only product? 

Given that there is still no slaughter channel available in the US for 'excess' equine, and such an 'excess' truly does exist (and will continue to do so as long as mares are bred annually for the sole purpose of the collection of their urine during that pregnancy), perhaps we may go full circle and start seeing horses slaughtered specifically for dog food.  It is a sad concept to those of a mind that horses are meant as companions only, but the raw fact is that there are far more people who view them as no different than another livestock species that can be shown, bred, profited from, and if or when all that fades, ultimately can be eaten.  Better that those horses benefit another life in their death, IMO, then just take up landfill space.