Healthy Food Choices for Cats and Dogs

Buyer Beware! Pet food manufacturers do not have your pet’s best interests in mind, they are in business to making money and quite a few cut corners so that profits are larger. Current pet food regulations allow manufacturers to use ingredients that you would never knowingly give to your pet. In fact, you may be shocked to learn what some brands of pet food really contain.

One of the best things you can do to ensure your pet stays healthy, is to feed your pet a high quality pet food that has no added fillers, by-products, pesticides, and preservatives.

When selecting a pet food, your pet food should not include:

• corn, wheat, or soy - These three ingredients are cereal grains and not easily digestible by your pet.

• Byproducts - indigestible protein sources

• Meat and bone meal - can legally include dead pets and road kill

Switching your pets food to a more organic, protein based food may help your pets live longer. According to Dr. T.J. Dunn D.V.M.- "There is ample proof that today's pet dogs and cats do not thrive on cheap, corn-based pet foods. Dogs and cats are primarily meat eaters; to fill them up with grain-based processed dry foods that barely meet minimum daily nutrient requirements has proven to be a mistake."

Acupuncture treatments for your pet

Acupuncture has been around for at least 3,000 years. Acupuncture involves the stimulation of specific points on the body which have the ability to alter various biochemical and physiological conditions in order to achieve a healing effect. Acupuncture is a great complement to traditional veterinary medicine.

When people think of acupuncture they rarely think of animals receiving acupuncture treatments, but animals have been receiving acupuncture treatments almost as long as humans have.

For pets suffering from arthritis and other muscular-skeletal problems, acupuncture is proving to be a less expensive and evasive treatment than the alternative treatments of surgery and medications. Other examples of clinical conditions where veterinary acupuncture may be used are:

• Digestive system: ulcers, colic, miscellaneous motility disorders, appetite stimulating after trauma, surgery
• Respiratory: sinusitis, pneumonia, allergies, nose bleeding
• Urinary: incontinence and retaining urine, infections.
• Neurological: behavioral problems, epilepsy.

Only a veterinarian who has received formal training in acupuncture for animals should perform acupuncture treatments.. To locate a veterinarian in your area who offers acupuncture treatments, check out the American Academy of Veterinary Acupuncture website.