This morning, I took Raven to see a new vet.

She has itchy ears with dark goo. I’ve seen this before, but wanted to make sure she didn’t have an infection or something serious. Nope. She probably has allergies. I was afraid to clean her red ears with the vinegar/water I usually use, because I thought it would be painful. Well, Raven has new ear medicine now, so I hope to get the red cleared and I will keep rinsing them out with vinegar/water with a tad of isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol as they clear up. The alcohol is a drying agent. The solution the vet used this morning had a sweet smell that was overwhelming and made in a laboratory, probably some place in China.

The vet showed me Raven’s ears – yikes. He used a microscopic lens, which you could see the picture of on the computer screen. The goo was there and so were little hairs (so cute). He washed her ears out, and I learned a new method to rubbing the ear.

There is a part about veterinarians, though, that as pet owners, we have to watch out for. This one was no different. They are in this to make money, and some of them see that before they see the welfare of the pet.

This man pulled out a picture of the anatomy of a dog’s ear, which was a very good visual. He put it away, and later brought it out again. “I don’t know if you noticed,” he said, “but this anatomical picture was put together by Science Diet. See?” He pointed to the pictures of the dog food on the sides and the “Food can cause allergies” quote at the top of the page. I told him I didn’t see that because I was only interested in the anatomy and Science Diet was crap food anyway. It’s a company making millions using sub-standard ingredients and calling it a prescription food. Go in the garbage and find the same ingredients.

Science Diet used to offer recipes that were equivalent to each prescription recipe they sold. Did you know that? They did. So when my boy, Luigi, who I am not speaking to today, came down with bladder stones, the vet (of course) told me to use Science Diet. He also told me Science Diet would not prevent the stones in the future, but there wasn’t anything else I could do. Oh? First, I went on line.

Science Diet has no equivalents listed on their website. Nope. So I called them. What did they say? Oh, we don’t advise you even trying to make a similar food because you won’t get it in the exact proportions…blah blah blah. What it comes down to is if I make their food in my kitchen, I won’t be buying their bag or can of crap. Meanwhile, if the food on the label was the food on the recipe, I wouldn’t be following that recipe either.

Look at the labels. It’s crap. Dogs were not meant to eat corn. How often have you seen a dog hunt an ear of corn? The dog food business was brought about due to the fact that food manufacturers didn’t know what to do with the “stuff” left over from food they were manufacturing for humans, so they decided to make it “dog food.” Science Diet, and a lot of dog food is disgusting. Read the labels.

Do you want to help your dog? Get a subscription to the Whole Dog Journal. (Click and buy.) Those people do not get advertising – not a lick of it in a single page of their Journal. Every year they tell it like it is – which foods are top grade and what to look for in a good food. They teach you how to fish, so to speak. They teach a lot of good things that will come in handy for a dog owner who wants to keep their dogs happy and around for a long long time.

Back to Raven’s vet visit. The other thing I was disappointed about was this vet is pushing the one-year rabies vaccine, which is not only out-dated, but can be harmful. Pets are being so over-vaccinated for the sake of the mighty dollar, that it is out of control. This vet used the scare tactic by telling me that the only dog that ever died on him during vaccinating was a dog he vaccinated with a 3-year rabies vaccine. If the dog died from a 3-year rabies vaccine, it would die from a 1-year vaccine because they are both the same! But this is the process he is using to get people to use the 1-year vaccine.

Why do you think our dogs are dying from disease so much more than before? From food that is crap and vets vaccinating them to death.

I will post some links about vaccinating in another post. Meanwhile, buy the Whole Dog Journal. It’s only $20 for a full year subscription!

And if you have a dog with kidney problems or stones, please go to the K9KidneyDiet group on yahoo. They are a wonderful group of people.

Helen