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Silly question about vets, xrays, and raw diets...

779 views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  Anubis_Star 
#1 ·
Can a vet tell from an xray alone that a dog will not do well on a raw diet?
 
#3 ·
For the record here I don't buy it.

The story is...

My friend has a pup that she has been going back and forth to the vet with because he has been yelping every now and then. The first time they seen him they chalked it up to a minor ear infection and full anal glands with some allergies. I didn't buy that and told her so. The following week to brought him in for vaccines which I told her to wait on. Now they did xrays and are telling her degenerative disc disease, which I am not sure I agree with. Blood work came back good.

Anyways when they did the xray he had some gas and thd vet said that some dogs do good in raw but he wouldn't based on his xray. I personally think the vet is crazy but I wanted to see if maybe I was missing something they can see that would determine this.
 
#4 ·
A lot of vets aren't too knowledgeable about raw feeding pets.

However, based on what I'm reading in the thread, it sounds more like the vet is saying the dog's bones are in a bad condition as it is and switching a diet at the time may be too rough. Or possibly concerned, knowing there are those who poorly do raw diets (ie, doesn't feed bone/organ)?
...or, just not aware how much better a diet with a real calcium source is.

Who knows?
 
#5 ·
I'm not sure, but the vet referred to his stomach, which is what the xray was of. I almost had her convinced to go with raw because she is always looking for different dog foods. I just can't imagine what the vet seen in the stomach. The vet did give a probiotic, but I'm not sure why. I told my friend 3 weeks ago to look at probiotics. I suggested Digest All and at least the vet agreed with that.
 
#7 ·
You can't tell if a dog would do well on a raw diet through xray. However, lots of extra gas in the GI tract can indicate GI upset. Many german shepherds have sensitive GI tracts. Perhaps the vet is concerned that switching to a raw diet would make that worse.

Disc disease is actually fairly common, and although technically you can't diagnose it without an MRI, you often times can see narrowing of the disc space on xray. This definitely could explain intermittent pain/yelping. I don't know why you disagree with that diagnosis? Disc disease is also NOT a problem with the bone, it is a problem with the soft discs that cushion in-between the vertebrae.
 
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