Why Are Vets Against Raw Diets? | 4 Key Reasons

1) Lack of nutritional training

Many vets aren’t extensively trained on the topic of nutrition in vet school [1].

This lack of knowledge regarding healthy feeding practices means many vets tend to err on the side of caution when clients seek advice on feeding their pets a raw diet.

Thankfully, some vets go out of their way to receive additional education on nutrition from other, specialised institutions, which is why we’re now seeing an increasing number of raw feeding vets in the UK.

2) Health concerns

Veterinarians are scientists. For this reason, they have a wealth of knowledge about bacterial risks.

One common myth about raw feeding that is often cited by vets that are against raw diets, is that it’s unsafe due to bacterial concerns.

However, much of the prevalence of bacteria in raw meat stems from lack of testing for these organisms.

Reputable raw feeding companies follow stringent safety protocols.

These include proper freezing practices and safety testing, both measures have virtually eliminated the risk of harmful bacteria in raw dog food [2], especially when dog owners adhere to standard storage/handling guidelines.

3) Nutritional imbalances

There are also worries among the veterinary community regarding the potential for nutritional imbalances with raw feeding, which is a valid point.

However, this is predominantly in regard to homemade raw food diets created by inexperienced raw feeders.

Problems only really occur if a dog is fed a single protein routinely for an extended period without the other vital balancing components. Find out about the importance of variety in more detail here.

When purchasing raw dog food from a reputable supplier who works in collaboration with vets and canine nutritionists to ensure balanced nutrition in their products and provided a variety is fed, nutritional imbalance is a concern that is not necessary.

Provided a variety of well formulated food is fed dogs will thrive.

4) Lack of evidence to support benefits

Vets have been taught that the commercial food diet, with its added vitamins and minerals, is what’s best for your dog.

They’re not at fault for this; their education has simply led them to doubt the efficacy of raw feeding due to a perceived lack of evidence to support the benefits of raw dog food.

There is, however, much more evidence becoming available to support the health benefits of raw feeding which more and more vets are gradually becoming aware of.

Thankfully many more vets are now becoming advocates for raw feeding thanks to organisations such as RFVS (Raw Feeding Veterinary Society), who work to raise awareness about the immense benefits of a natural species-appropriate diet raw.

Some of you will be familiar with the diagnosis that you receive from your vet. It could be that you have a very healthy dog that suddenly develops a case of diarrhoea.

Often, if you take the dog to the vet and a raw diet is mentioned, they suggest salmonella tests and suggest it is the raw diet that is to blame.

Of course, this is not the response of every vet but it is not an uncommon one.

Never mind that dogs can pick up all sorts of bacterial infections or parasites on their daily walks or even from eating something out of the garden.

Trusting our vet’s experience and judgement, we then panic and change the dog back to something that is worse for their health? Like kibble.

Thankfully, the tide appears to be turning on this topic, slowly but surely. There are now thousands of vets that do support raw feeding all around the world and those numbers are increasing daily.

Our consultant vet, Dr. Nick Thompson (The Holistic Vet) is an example of this exciting change. He advocates raw feeding for dogs and has been practising as a raw feeding vet for over two decades, with thousands of happy dogs (and owners) to show for it.

Learn all about why Dr. Thompson recommends raw feeding in the video below.

Not all vets are against raw diets, and those that are may simply not be fully informed.

Through years of vet school their primary education is on the topics of pharmacology, injuries, and illnesses; with additional, separate education being required for those that have an interest in nutrition.

However, it is more than possible to find vets that recommend raw feeding, and their population is steadily growing. Our raw food for dogs is approved by both vets and nutritionists, who work tirelessly to ensure the health and wellbeing of dogs.

Raw Feeding Veterinary Society – RFVS

Many studies have been investigated by the RFVS in relation to the benefits of a species appropriate diet and they strongly advocate this method of feeding. Not least of all because dogs are carnivores and a raw diet is what they would eat in the wild.

Wild dogs don’t succumb to cancers and other such diseases like diabetes anywhere near as much as their domesticated relatives.

It is a strong belief amongst these professionals that the intensively processed, low quality man-made food many dog consume that is responsible for much of this.

In their mission statement on the website, the RFVS quote this:

“Benefit, bugs, balance and bones: these are the four major criticisms of feeding a raw meaty bones diet (RMBD) to cats and dogs as stated by the World Small Animal Veterinary Association in 2011, claiming harm to pets and pet owners.”

They then go on to state:

“We, the Raw Feeding Veterinary Society (RFVS), strongly contest these criticisms, namely that there is a lack of evidence for the proposed benefit of raw food, that there is a threat of food-borne infection, that it does not offer dogs and cats a complete and balanced diet and that there is a risk associated with feeding raw, bony material to pets.

We shall fully counter each of these four criticisms with current and referenced argument. Lastly, we will define a ‘gold standard’ for the whole pet food industry.”

In addition to their very detailed mission statement, there is a wealth of evidence and many articles based on extensive research that dispel the myths and offer solid, scientific arguments for why raw feeding is the best option for your dog.