The Measure of a vet by Foley Monster

There are few loves in life more precious than a dog.  Our parents love us so much they would spare no expense to keep us healthy.  Unfortunately a good vet is hard to find.  Mommy and Daddy have gone through a lot of them and are still searching.  If your parents find one make sure they never let them go.

This is one of the ways I measure a vet.  Ask them if Pedigree is a good dog food.  My Dad was talking to a woman who had a sick dog and he asked her what she was feeding the poor pooch.  The woman answered Pedigree and told my Dad that her vet said it was a good food

Now let me say this about dog food.  There are a lot of reasons parents feed their dogs certain brands.  I got a high end brand, but Mommy and Daddy have no children, and two tiny dogs, so feeding us a high-end food was not expensive for them.  If they owned two Great Danes they may not have been able to do so.  Parents have other expenses and sometimes they have to feed their dogs food that isn’t high end, and that is fine.  You can only do what can do.

But when a vet says a food like Pedigree is a healthy food they are not saying it because they believe it, they are saying it because they are being paid by the food company to say it.  It’s like a liquor or a tobacco company paying doctors to say smoking and drinking are the answers for everything.  If they are willing to say that feeding a lower quality food is all right for a dog then they are willing to say anything.

Not that I am really blaming them.  The world needs veterinarians and it costs a lot of money for a student to become a vet.  Unless they are wealthy to begin with, and wealthy people usually don’t choose professions like veterinary science, the vets leave school with huge debts, because you can only become a vet by going to college, and nothing sucks up money faster than college.  With these debts the young vets need to make deals to be able to support their families, and usually such deals are made with devils, and there are few worse devils than big dog food.

          Perhaps that is why so many parents prefer the older vets who don’t owe bills to anyone and can use their own judgment.

          Praying that all my friends have the very best vets who get the best health care regardless of the cost just like their humans.

          What’s that?  Humans don’t either?  Maybe that’s why it’s so crowded up here.