Recently, one of our Knollwood clients was shocked when she asked how I had enjoyed a spring vacation and I responded that I hadn't been vacationing, I had been attending a continuing education event where I both lectured and attended a number of classes.  "Oh" she said - "but it was in a really great vacation place and you had lots of time to have fun, right?"  I laughed and told her that if having my butt in a chair for 8 hours a day - or lecturing to other veterinarians who had their theirs similarly situated - qualified as fun, then yes, I had certainly had plenty of it.  In Minnesota and Ohio.  In February, no less.  Was it highly educational?  You bet, (and since I'm a world-class egghead, it was fun, too), but certainly not vacation-style fun. Alas, the only place this spring I was asked to lecture that at all qualified as a fun place was at the North American Veterinary Conference, in Orlando in January.  And too many years as a starving undergraduate, graduate, and then veterinary student have left me, even today, unable to have much fun in anyplace where you hand over a $20 bill for a soft drink and a sandwich and don't get change!

Her questions brought up a good point though, and that is that many people don't know that veterinarians - and professional veterinary staff - are required to have a certain number of continuing education (CE) hours each year, in order to maintain their state licenses.  And there's a reason for that.  No matter how fabulous one's veterinary education, our field changes by leaps and bounds every year.  So very quickly, that fabulous knowledge base becomes outdated. On an ongoing basis, new books are published, new ideas about old diseases are discovered, and better ways to treat them emerge.  New health conditions are discovered as our environment becomes increasingly toxic. New medical and surgical techniques emerge continually, along with new medicines and new ways of providing better care for our patients.  It's not just desirable for a veterinarian and staff to keep up with medical progress - it's a necessity!

This year - thanks to a somewhat improved economy, the very hard work of every member of our staff, and to the generosity of a Knollwood client who wishes to remain anonymous - we've been able to send several of our staff to some wonderful continuing education events.  In January, both Chani, our Office Manager, and Nikki, our Head Nurse, attended the North American Veterinary Conference.  And in July, Chani and Jill (who recently achieved our top level of Nurse training) attended the American Veterinary Medical Conference in Atlanta.  I thought I'd take a few minutes to share with you some of what Jill learned this month. 

Jill attended some remarkable nutrition seminars at AVMA that reviewed how many people select pet foods on the basis of the information they read on the label, and how startlingly deceptive those labels can be.  For example, while the amount of an ingredient determines which order food items are listed on the label, this order is weight-determined, not volume determined.  And, many grain ingredients can be separated into parts. So, "chicken" might be listed as the number one ingredient, "wheat germ" as number two, "wheat middling" as number three, "wheat bran" as number four, and "wheat hull" as number five.  Wheat as a total may add up to a huge chunk of the food, yet chicken could still be listed as the major ingredient - when it isn't!

Ingredients are reflected in how a name appears on the can or bag, too.  If a food is listed as "chicken," it must contain at least 70% chicken.  But if it's listed as "chicken dinner" or "chicken entrée," it only needs to contain 10% chicken (canned foods) or 25% chicken (dry foods).  But wait!  It gets even more sneaky.  Have you ever purchased a food that looked like it said "chicken," and then you got it home and saw that little teeny word "with" above the word "chicken?"  You just purchased a food that only has to contain three percent chicken!  And if that little teeny print includes the word chicken "flavor," the food only has to be recognized as chicken as opposed to beef by the species who is supposed to eat it - which is usually far less than even 3%!  It can be as simple as a smell test - did that smell like chicken?  Or beef?!

And there's more...the words "organic," "natural," "home-made," "made with love," "healthy," "holistic," and all those other feel-good words, mean - you got it - nothing.  Anyone can use these terms. Pet foods sold in the United States must conform to both state pet food labeling requirements and AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Officials).  While the former has some meaning, the latter represents an organization staffed, regulated, and paid by the pet food industry.  As Lizzie would have said - "kinda like the fox guarding the chicken coop, dontcha think, buckaroos???"  In fact, if a label contains the statement "complete and nutritious," or "100% nutritious," this only implies that the combination of ingredients in that particular food will provide satisfactory results when fed to a normal animal as the sole source of nourishment.  In a sick pet, a senior pet, or a stressed pet, the food likely wouldn't be appropriate - and could even be harmful!

Finally, every pet owner needs to be understand what the AAFCO statement "meets or exceeds the minimal nutritional levels established by AAFCO," or "formulated to meet the AAFCO minimal nutrient profile for (specific pet groups such as puppies, seniors, etc)” means.   "Minimal" means exactly what it says - the least amount that is necessary to put in that bag or can.  Minimum is certainly not optimal!  Would you supply the minimal possible amount of love, or the minimal possible amount of litter box cleaning, or the minimal possible amount of grooming, to your pet?  Then why would you choose to supply the most minimal amount of nutrition?

So how do you pick a good pet food?  You recognize that no one truly sells pet food to be a good guy - pet food is sold to make money.  So labels are going to be sexy looking, and deceptive, and are going to make you want to buy that food.  And you need to look past that, and read those labels very carefully.  Then, you need to look at the level of care you want to deliver to your pet, and purchase their food accordingly.  For you, that may be moving to a homemade diet, or one of the available prepared raw diets, or simply to a better quality dry or canned food that doesn't have "with" in the label!

If you aren't sure what to feed, don't forget that nutritional consults with Jill are free of charge to active Knollwood clients.  Feel free to set up a time meet with her.  Call Chani, Kim, Lea, or Yaddi at the front desk at 847-891-8944, then collect your current food bags and canned labels and bring them for your talk.  You'll leave with new ideas about how to feed your pet better!