Wet food isn't necessarily more nutritious. It contains 75% water, and cats are notoriously not big drinkers. They tend to drink less water than dogs. Consequently, they sometimes walk around a little bit dehydrated. So the wet food gives them extra water that they could use. It also gives them more enrichment as it resembles their natural diet because of the little chunks. Sometimes your cat will growl while eating the canned food, so I do think it’s more enriching. It adds to their fluid balance, which helps them with other diseases later on.

Nope. Cats can not eat vegetarian diets. Some scavengers would, but cats have to have meat because they are obligate carnivores. They cannot produce essential amino acids that are important for their heart and other health. They have to get it from meat. It's unfortunate for some people, but that is a reality.

Not necessarily better in quality, but if your dog is on a prescription diet, it usually has a medical need for that diet. The prescription diets are all of excellent quality. Are they better than the regular commercial diets? Not necessarily, but there's probably a reason we're asking the prescription to be fed. They're formulated differently for diabetes, kidney disease, all kinds of things. So it's maybe not appropriate that they eat an over-the-counter ration because of whatever disease they've been diagnosed with. It's almost like a heart diet. If you've been diagnosed with heart disease, you can't have salt and fat. They’ll put you on a prescription diet.

Not necessarily. Wet dog food is 75% water. It tends to be higher in fat than dry dog food, consequently, dogs love it. Is it more nutritious? Not necessarily. It has the same AFCO requirements as dry foods and they are nutritionally balanced. They're more expensive to feed. Because they're higher in fat, some dogs are going to have more intestinal upsets with them. Dogs really like them, so they tend to get more selective and picky about what they eat. Is it wrong? No. But for ease of feeding and cost and general gastrointestinal health, you're better off with dry foods and only feeding canned foods as a treat.

If you feel that your dog needs both, you can mix them. Some dogs become selective for the canned food and they hold out for it, but most dogs are happy with their good quality, dried ration. Often, they're getting other treats for positive reinforcement for good behavior. Canned foods aren't necessary, but it's not harmful to feed it to them unless you have certain breeds that are sensitive to intestinal upset. Diabetic animals shouldn't have canned rations.

Technically, yes. Dogs are omnivorous. They're not solely carnivores like cats that are obligate carnivores. They tend to be omnivorous and more on the scavenging side. They do hunt, but they're great opportunists. So they can live off a vegetarian or vegan diet. It is easy to cause imbalances in your dog while attempting this diet because it's hard to offer balanced nutrition, so a professional would have to do that. Palatability for those diets may, in my opinion, be the best for the dog. They prefer to have something with a bit of meat in it as an omnivorous preference. They like meat. You will seldom see them grab a stick of celery and run off with it.

There will be vomiting, diarrhea, their appetite will start waning, and refusal to eat the food will occur. An easy sign is when you know your dog has been eating food and suddenly they don't want to anymore. Try a new bag of food and see what happens, as long as your dog is acting fine and not showing any other signs.

Elimination diets are used to diagnose and treat food allergic disease or food intolerance. What that means is we eliminate everything that the dog is currently eating or has eaten and offer what's called a hydrolyzed protein diet, which is food that has been modified at a low molecular weight so the dog's immune system won't pick up the microscopic food particles. Either that or what's called a novel protein and a novel carbohydrate diet like rabbit and pea or duck and potato will be recommended. There's a bunch of them out there. You feed that and only that for one to three months. If the dog's signs, which include vomiting and diarrhea intermittently as well as skin itching, go away, it helps us to form a diagnosis such as a food allergy or food intolerance. We can then refeed items to see which ones trigger the response again. The only way to diagnose food allergies is with an elimination diet trial. There are no accurate blood tests.

It's hard for owners, but they have to stick with that food and nothing else. I'll give a list of certain treat-type items that are acceptable in food trials and won't cause an immune response, but you have to be very diligent. Everybody in the household has to be on board with the plan because if you feed for a month and then somebody offers them a hamburger, you have to start over. So that's important. Once we get the signs under control, those diets are meant for long-term feeding as well. Most owners don't want to re-introduce foods that cause signs again.

It can. Usually, you'll see intestinal upset because the microbes in their intestines don't like quick change. They need time to adapt to new food substrates and levels of carbohydrates. Gradual mixing of foods over 7 to 14 days is recommended. There are a few instances where we'll recommend going straight to other food because of health reasons.

You're usually going to see weight loss, a dull hair coat, vomiting and diarrhea, and failure to thrive. We will investigate all aspects of the pet's health with blood work, but their food may be incriminated.

There are lists of things they shouldn't eat. In general, grapes, raisins, macadamia nuts, and chocolate should be avoided. Never feed them anything that has sweeteners in it, like diabetic peanut butter, as it contains xylitol. Those are some household things you don’t want to feed your dog.