In Search of Veterinary Allies

I understand and am sympathetic to how much harder a vet has it than a human physician—a veterinarian is expected to know how to treat all kinds of species and handle clients who can barely be bothered filling up a gravity feeder with Crappy Meat Flavored Cereal Mix, never mind paying attention to why canned is better than dry.  But the fact is that veterinarians are on the front line. They are the first line of defense against the dominant paradigm that implies, “Dry food is fine, it’s nutritionally complete, and it’s a perfectly fine diet for cats.” While it may be a lot of work and initially overwhelming to make education on nutrition a part of a short veterinary appointment, being overwhelmed doesn’t justify practicing substandard medicine.

Diet is a very big thing to get wrong, after all.

Vets are who people turn to first when they’re looking for guidance on how to feed their animals. And it’s exasperating for me and so many others to see that despite the overwhelming data to the contrary about dry food, most vet clinics are still selling and therefore implicitly endorsing dry food. That’s an awfully strong message that’s being sent. And it harms cats.

There is a spectrum out there and indeed, I talk about that same spectrum on my site. But dry food is clearly at the lowest end of the spectrum and I cannot and won’t ever say it’s okay to exclusively feed dry food to cats. These essentially thirstless carnivores need to get their moisture with their food; their low thirst drive means that even with supplemental water drinking, a dry-fed cat has about half the moisture intake overall as a cat on canned (or raw) food. The downstream consequences for that in a cat are well known.

Until dry food stops being an acceptable choice to endorse in a vet clinic, the people who look to the veterinary community won’t start getting the message and making healthier choices. I think that caring vets want to do what’s best. I also think the odds are stacked against them. So my self-appointed role as a passionate layperson is to join the chorus of voices that can give their clients as much information as possible. So that they can ask better, more informed questions.

Until vets disentangle the knot between financial health of their practice from dependence on the sale of dry food, this problem will remain. If you’re a vet?  Thank you being here—you can’t possibly know how grateful I am that you’re here.  I’d be honored if you would read my open letter and have a look at the sample client handout I’ve prepared. And I’d be delighted to hear from you too.