have you heard of...

[Lucky_Lover]

Hi I was just wondering if any of you have heard of "Medi Cal" good things or bad. My vet reccomended it it is special vet food and has to be bought from a vets office or the animal hospital.

[Mordy]

medi-cal is the prescription line of techni-cal foods.

i question why you would want to feed a prescription food unless there is a particular health problem. and even for certain health issues a prescription diet is not necessary.

here are the web links for the two product lines:
http://www.techni-cal.com
http://www.medi-cal.ca

if you want ingredient definitions etc. on commercial foods, click on my signature below.

[Lucky_Lover]

Umm my vet recomended Medi-Cal. Lucky is on the Medi-Cal Preventive Formula, I just read up on it on the Medi-Calk site you listed and it sounds really good. It says it lowers the risk of heart and joint disease, may slow down aging, promotes healthy skin and a luxurious coat, and Helps maintain a healthy urinary tract and prevent the formation of struvite urinary crystals and stones. Lucky doesn't have any health issues though. I had Lucky on Natural Balence just for one bag of it because he was getting bored of his food and didn't eat much and now since then he eats alot lol. But the Natural Balence food was so so cheap it was like 10 dollars less then Medi-Cal, but it was in a bit of a smaller bag.

[Mordy]

I just read up on it on the Medi-Calk site you listed and it sounds really good.

really good?

a food that doesn't even have a meat source as first ingredient but instead one grain type and one grain fraction? that contains more processed fractions and preprocessed ingredients than whole, fresh ones?

please look past the fancy advertising claims and examine what your dog needs. you can find a comparison guide here:
http://www.mordanna.com/dogfood/index.php?page=identify

he was getting bored of his food and didn't eat much and now since then he eats alot lol.

he's not eating more of the medi cal because it's a better quality food than the natural balance but because it contains flavoring agents that are added to the food to make it more attractive to animals. if it weren't for those flavors there wouldn't be any dog interested in eating what is essentially a chicken-flavored cereal.

the price of a bag of food doesn't mean squat. a bag of science diet advanced protection or a bag of nutro natural choice ultra cost more than some of the real high-end brands but they don't even come close in quality.

and just FYI - both medi-cal and techni-cal are owned by royal canin, which is in turn owned by mars, just so you can keep track of what other types of foods they produce.

[Lucky_Lover]

I do want you to know that I am only 12 lol

[Lucky_Lover]

Im guessing you don't know about Sierra I wrote about her int the rainbow bride and in the member intros. I didn't say this but she was on Royal Canine. She died just in last November and i don't know why.

[gaddylovesdogs]

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/NoPuppyMillsVA/Poo-dogs___Designer_Mutts/poo-dogs___designer_mutts.html

[Renee750il]

Hey, Lucky - glad you told us that you're still young enough to have to convince your parents about dog food (and lots of other things, lol). If you need help convincing them, let us know and Mordy and I and I'm sure several others will help you with it.

[Mordy]

i agree with renee, i had no idea. :)

maybe you can make use of some of the stuff on my site and print it out for your parents to read.

there is really no need to spend a lot of money on a prescription food from the vet, you can get higher quality products for less money - you just need to know what to look for. :)

[Lucky_Lover]

Umm no big lol. Read my member intro Its called " A Newbie trying to get through..."

[Lucky_Lover]

But I don't have to convince my parents lol. Lucky is MY dog. Im aloud to feed him whatever I want. My vet who is a very good vet just higly reccomended Medi-Cal. He had a golden retreiver that got to be in the news paper for being so old and so healthy when it died, and both of his Golden retreivers ate Medi-Cal. I told my mom what you said though about Medi-Cal and she and my older sister both said that its not like us people don't eat food with alot of chemichals in it like you were saying about Medi-Cal being scientific chemichals or somthing. But next time I see my vet I'll ask him about it. But he'll probably just say somthing like "well is he a vet?" or something like "oh what vet is this" but he is a GREAT vet.

[Saje]

Nobody is saying that he isn't a great vet. The thing is that vets don't study nutrition that much. You need to get the most information you can about the ingredients in food and they make the best, educated decision you can. That's your responsibility.

I don't trust everything that every vet has to say. I do my reading and research. I talk to people. I definitely consider my vets opinion and I make my own decision. I think that's the best thing you can do. There are so many people out there with opinions and 'facts.' And the truth is that you can find a fact for anything.

[Renee750il]

My vet is great when it comes to 'vet' stuff, but he knows diddly about dog food. Like most vets, the only real nutritional instruction he got was from the dog food company reps!

And even very good vets like to sell foods that they make a nice profit from!

[Lucky_Lover]

I definitely consider my vets opinion and I make my own decision. just FYI - both medi-cal and techni-cal are owned by royal canin, which is in turn owned by mars, just so you can keep track of what other types of foods they produce.
I did make my own decision and my decision was to feed Lucky Medi-Cal. Mordy said somthing about Royal Canine being like Medi-Cal and Royal Canine was the food that my little Sierra was on. And Sierra was fine with Royal Canine Sierra had a problem with eating, she didn't do it much. And Royal Canine was the only dog food she would eat. Lucky is a perfecty healthy dog that has never had any health problems and has always been on Medi-Cal... except for when he was a pup and was on Iams. His vet said Iams was a fine dog food but said that we could stay on Iams if we wanted or we could change Lucky onto Medi-Cal which we did and yes it was completley are decision the vet just said eiher one was fine. And Sierra was a perfectlty healthy puppy that woul only eat Royal Canine and I know the fact that Sierra died at the age of Six months doesn't support the fact that Sierra was a perfectly healthy puppy but she was.

[Renee750il]

WHOA! Hold up! Iams is NOT good food - not by a long shot! Check out some of the other threads here; there's been a lot of discussion about Iams/Eukanuba. It's horrible stuff - you're no better off than feeding grocery store dog food, which is all Iams is now anyway.

[Lucky_Lover]

I know! I read all the posts on the thread the don't buy Iams thing. Thats why I mentioned it. He gave me the choice he did say that it was are choice but that he recomended Medi-Cal over Iams. And I know Iams does all that ver cruel Animal testings but the food itself is suposed to be allright. But you were all just dissing Medi-Cal and acting as if I was a stupid 12 year old that was practicly setting there dog up for a death bed and now Im even more stupid for feeding him Iams ok I get the point I am a stupid kid that feeds her dogs crap ok fine whatever.

[Renee750il]

No, no, that's not the point! The point is that you have to do your own research; this is something you SHOULD be able to depend on your vet's advice for, but you can't. You're not a 'stupid kid' at all. If you were stupid you wouldn't be asking questions, now, would you?

I hope you'll go to Mordy's site and do some further reading on dog foods. I was appalled when I really started to look into the differences in dog foods and saw just how bad most were and how misleading their information and advertisements were. And I really wish vets would learn something about dog foods. There is one near me who actually does recommend Innova and won't sell the Iams/Eukanuba and Science DIEt like most vets do, but there are other aspects of his practice that I really can't get all that enthused about. Dr. P. is a much better vet, but I know better than to ask him about dog food. :rolleyes:

That one thread wasn't the only one that discusses Iams. It's discussed in several threads. The company does practice some heinous treatments of its animals, and the food it produces is almost as reprehensible as its treatment of animals. If you think about it, why would a company that cares so little about animals have any concern about the health of your pet? They just want to make a profit.

[Mordy]

Lucky_Lover, excuse me - you asked for feedback and got it, and now you're mad?

i give up.

[Lucky_Lover]

**** I just spent like 20 minutes making an apology to u but it turned out that I wasn't logged on and when I went to log on my whole letter got erased but it pretty much went like this... Hi Im so so sry I was being a ***** and I know it. I just thing so much of all you guys your like such good dog people and when I found out that I was feeding my dog crap his intire life it hurt I was kind of embarred for ever thinking that I was a good dog owner. Also it hurt when you said that Royal Canine was a bad dog food to because Sierra was on it and I have been trying to think of any possible way to cause Sierras death and when I found out that she was on crappy food to I felt like maybe the crappy food caused her death. I know that is a really stupid thing to think and I know its probably like inpossible but still I felt like I should have known and that its my fault that Sierra had to even smell crappy food she should have been eating the same food as the queens dogs she definetly deserved it. Anyway Im so so so so so sorry. I understand if you never want to respond to another one of my posts again. I look so forward to all of you guyses posts I check for them as soon as I wake up, as soon as I get back from school and at school in the computer lab in between projects. But now blew it and I know that I don't deserve you guyses help no more. Well u know teenage girl raging hourmones lol anyway it was nice knowing yah I know you wont want to talk to me anymore Im so so so sry. Am I being to Dramatic?

[Saje]

Nobody is mad at you. We like that you are trying to get help and find out the best way to help your dog. I understand why you are upset. I always feel sick if I think that I have done something harmful to one of my pets. We understand that. All of us.

Don't worry. We still want to talk to you. We know you are trying to find out the truth.

I am going to tell you something unpleasant. My boyfriend worked at a slaughter house for a VERY short time. They had a bin where they threw all of the 'meat' for the regular brands of dog food. That meat would be tumours. Infected parts. Dirty parts. Parts with pus. The 'good' part was for people. It was horrible. That is what goes into any brand of dog food that doesn't use human-grade meat.

And that is only the begining. there are a lot of factors for what makes a good food. The quality of the product going in, the type of the product, how it is digested...

And Iams is not the only company that uses invasive/cruel tests on animals. Most of the companies do unless they state otherwise.

Those are some of the things that you need to consider if you are going to make your own decision about a product.

[Mordy]

Lucky_Lover, please don't beat yourself up over things in the past that you can't change anymore.

everyone lives and learns, i doubt that there is a single person here on this forum who hasn't done things to their pets that they regret.

when i was a kid, i had a beautiful great dane. it was our first dog and nobody in my family knew a whole lot about dog care, feeding and so on. we did many things that i wouldn't do now that i know better, and i sometimes still feel bad about it too, but i know my dog had a good life with us, better than most dogs have. i also still feel bad that until about five years ago i fed my cats science diet, which is one of the worst "popular brands" on the market.

but guess what. at some point i started researching, and while i know a thousand times more now than i did five years ago, five years into the future i will know a thousand times more than now and probably laugh about what i don't know right now. live and learn. when i was 16, i couldn't wait to get out of school and do something better with my life. i'll be 33 this year and actually looking forward to go back to school and learn more. it's probably not going to happen this year and maybe not even next year, but eventually i want to prove myself and get professionally certified.

don't be embarassed. do what i did, take things into your own hands and learn what you can. i can offer you all the info on my website, to which you can get by just clicking on my signature. if there's anything on there that you think needs more clarification, or you have any other questions, feel free to email me.

[Renee750il]

Lucky, dear, Sierra was only 6 months old. That's not really enough time for even the worst dog food to cause her death. Okay? There was probably something internally wrong or she may have picked up some doggy bug that you and her owner had no way of knowing about.

Just think, as young as you are you have a long time ahead of you to care for other animals. There will always be something new to learn; you can't blame yourself for not knowing something. The only thing you can blame yourself for is not trying to learn - and you are certainly trying to learn!

So, stick with us, kid and we'll all be learning new things together! (((hugs)))

[Lucky_Lover]

Thanx so much for your forgivness. lol lol I just read my horoscope for today and it said That is I am looking for people to forgive me its not going to happen and they will probably not want to talk to me agin. lol. And I no that dog food couldn't have caused Sierra's death but I am trying to find something to balme it on. Or else I will continue to think that I could have stopped it. Unless I knew that she like some people have said had a bad heart or somthing and was born that way I will always think that I could have provented it. I actually havn't asked her owner what happened but I meen she doesn't want to be reminded of it what if she left something out and Sierra got in to it. That would be a nice convo. "Hi Karen, oh by the way how did Sierra die?" My mom says that is Karen wanted me to know that she would have told me and that Karen probably did leave something out or something that Karen might be beating herself up for. I will always continue to think oh what if I got home from school early and then went right over to Sierras house like I did sometimes and take her over to my house and play with her and then she wouldn't have gotteninto anything or chocked or whatever happened. Thanx again.

[Renee750il]

Lucky, maybe Karen would just like to talk to someone who loved Sierra as much as she did. Karen may even be worrying that you think she did something wrong. Just go over and give her a hug and tell her that you miss Sierra just like she does.

[Lucky_Lover]

I have... the night I heard that Sierra died I went over with my mom to Karens. I gave Karen a hug and then sat down on her couch and looked at all Sierras stuff still laying around I picked up her bed and clutched it to me and cryed into it. Then for about 5 weeks I didn't cry. My mom said I was in shock... but I sure do cry know... some weeks I cry evry day others not so much some weeks not at all. When i didn't cry I would think that I was being mean to Sierra by not crying. http://www.chazhound.com/pictures/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=3271
go there and look at the pic of Sierra it is so gorgeus. I always wonder if Sierra knew I love her.

[Renee750il]

Dogs always know. Sierra won't mind when you don't need to cry so much; dogs, and especially puppies, are joy all wrapped up in warm, furry bodies.

[Saje]

Oh she knew. She knew in a much clearer way then we know about love. That's one of the great things about them.

Renee's right. Whatever happened to her was probably not food related. Don't worry about it. You didn't do anything harmful to her ever!

[Lucky_Lover]

I know that the food couldn'tt have possibly caused it I just need to blame it on something.

[Renee750il]

Sometimes things just happen for no reason that we can see.