Tuco might have a point. See the bags of dog food on the left side of the following photo? Hills Prescription Diet. That's my vet's office. I still don't get the Pro Plan connection though....

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Grasslands Liberty Belle "Bella" CGC (5-7-2012)

I haven't looked back at the thread but if I every made any connection between hills and purina it was a mistake...


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Tuco,

Does anyone else, other than Hills, carry a line of prescription foods? That could have something to do with it.

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Grasslands Liberty Belle "Bella" CGC (5-7-2012)

No others contains line of foods that are referred to as "perscription" exept purina I think. But at the vet I got tuco microchipped at they had a wall of basically perscription diets consisting of foods by evo purina blue and a bunch of others specializing in everything from weight management to kidney failure, quite frankly I think the perscription diets are a huge scam, if you feed a healthy food with adequate nutrition any particular changes you need to make depending on the condition, quite frank even without adjustments the results will still be better, I noticed that the difference in ingredients between the different prescriptions was almost nothing exept Afew different minerals


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I did not know this before, but according to Petsmart's website, you need a prescription from your vet to buy these in their stores. They're quite expensive.

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Grasslands Liberty Belle "Bella" CGC (5-7-2012)

Hills does the following

• offers scholarships for veterinary students
• offers educational grants for veterinary schools
• funds continuing education programs for licensed veterinarians
• maintains the Hills vet school graduate feeding program, providing food to students at no charge that they
can resell for a profit
• creates a nutrition curriculum provided to vet schools all over the world
• distributes Small Animal Clinical Nutrition textbook to vet students
• is a sponsor of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), of which Dr. Mark Morris, Sr. was
once president
• is a founding sponsor of the National Commission on Veterinary Economic Issues
• is a founding sponsor of the American Animal Hospital Association, of which Dr. Mark Morris, Sr. was the
first president
• sponsors the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine
• sponsors the North American Veterinary Conference
• sponsors the Western Veterinary Conference
• sponsors the Student American Veterinary Medical Association
• sponsors the Veterinary Business Management Association
• sponsors the International Veterinary Student Association
• is a member of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association
• self-professes to be one of the largest employers of veterinarians worldwide
• regularly takes its competitors to court, challenging their marketing claims

(Soggy paws.com)


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Also worth noting that no one else can call their food a perscription diet because hills has that trademarked
There are no guidelines to making a perscription diet and most of different ones are the same


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Royal Canin also makes prescription foods. My spaniel eats one. To my knowledge Purina does not...but perhaps I just haven't seen them. I agree that Hills has saturated the veterinary "detailing" market and that probably their foods are recommended more by vets who don't have a lot of education in nutrition. Purina also does the detailing type of marketing to vets and vet schools. I know that because my BIL used to represent them. It's not very comforting to think that the expert for your dog is making recommendations based on some company's ability to sponsor vet medical schools. But that's why it's so important to be informed about the products available.

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Kathleen, mom to one human, age 17, three canines, and a bunch of fish.

Our vet said Pro Plan is good despite the bags of Hills food that line the wall in the waiting room.


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Grasslands Liberty Belle "Bella" CGC (5-7-2012)

Purina does make prescription diets

Veterinary Pet Food | Purina Veterinary Diets