# vet recommended proplan?!



## SummerInMyHeart (Mar 7, 2010)

I think you answered your own question. All dogs are different. Some THRIVE on ProPlan, others on Blue Buffalo. 

My pup was doing very well on ProPlan and then I switched her to Nutro Natural Choice because I felt like I had to buy her one of the more trendy expensive brands. Now she's gassy all the time. We are slowly transitioning her back to ProPlan. 

Best of luck!


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## jwemt81 (Aug 20, 2008)

Pro Plan is an excellent food. Our breeder feeds her dogs Pro Plan and both of our boys ate Pro Plan as puppies. The only reason we switched Tyson from Pro Plan when we changed him to adult food a couple of weeks ago was so that he and Tucker could be on the same food since it's a huge pain for them to be on 2 separate foods. Tucker has a corn allergy, so he eats California Natural, which is what we're putting Ty on. If he didn't have that allergy, both of our boys would still be eating Pro Plan. It's a great food that a lot of people swear by.


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## Tahnee GR (Aug 26, 2006)

A lot of breeders use ProPlan, and are very happy with it. It all comes down to what works best for your dogs.


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## NapaValleyGolden (Mar 24, 2008)

When we got Cody, the breeder used ProPlan Chicken and Rice. Cody had no problems with it at all. I subsequently changed him to Blue Buffalo, only because we have our son's dog alot and he didn't do well on ProPlan and it's easier to have both dogs on the same food.


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## CarolinaCasey (Jun 1, 2007)

ProPlan is a good food and many swear by it.

I would much rather have a vet recommend ProPlan than Science Diet (non-prescription).


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## quazman (Feb 12, 2010)

Our vet and breeder recommended Pro Plan and Sadie has done great on it. We are just transitioning to the adult version....no issues.


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## Retrievers Rock (Apr 4, 2010)

Molly came to us on Blue Buffalo, with a side of extremely loose stools. It was way too rich for her.


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## Adriennelane (Feb 13, 2008)

I haven't tried every food, but my girls do great on Blue Buffalo. Everyone always asks how they have such shiny coats, and it's due to good food.


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## Pointgold (Jun 6, 2007)

I have fed Pro Plan for over 15 years. EVERY dog I feed it to, whether my own, or boarders/training dogs, thrives on it. I have beautiful coats, excellent condition, my dogs see the vet for only ROUTINE visits, and they enjoy great longevity - HEALTHY, vigorous geriatric dogs, not just _old._

There is a very good reason that most of the top dogs in the country, in all venues, are fed Pro Plan.

The "star" ratings are ridiculous. the rating system is from a website promoting a certain niche' of foods. I have to ask why people feeding those foods are so frequently switching? My dogs are as described above, consistently, for generations.


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## NuttinButGoldens (Jan 10, 2009)

Comet and Dakota were ok on ProPlan, but I had to take them off of it due to food allergies. Their panels showed them allergic to several of the main ingredients in it.


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## timberwolf (Apr 1, 2009)

Timber's breeder feeds all her dogs Pro Plan. When we brought him home, we continued.
He has an amazing coat, has no stomach upsets, and is a healthy 72 lbs. If fact, when we had him to the vet last week to be neutered, the vet told me that whatever I was doing, to keep doing it, he is in superb shape!!! (Pat on the back for me!)
You know you could drive yourself crazy with all the "crap" that is written about dog foods (no pun intended).
If Pro Plan works for your puppy, why change it?


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## Lucky's mom (Nov 4, 2005)

I think....and this is my entirely unscientific opinion...that commercial foods like ProPlan work well for most dogs....meaning you don't have the high rate of digestive issues you might from an extreme high protien, low grain food (aka the five stars) So a vet would probably be inclined to advise something that has such a good track record with the "masses".


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## timberwolf (Apr 1, 2009)

Lucky's mom said:


> I think....and this is my entirely unscientific opinion...that commercial foods like ProPlan work well for most dogs....meaning you don't have the high rate of digestive issues you might from an extreme high protien, low grain food (aka the five stars) So a vet would probably be inclined to advise something that has such a good track record with the "masses".


I'm just curious here but what are the "five stars" products and who is it that decides how many stars a product gets?


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## Pointgold (Jun 6, 2007)

"Five Star" ratings are a crock. I've seen far too many people having "issues" with foods rated with a galaxy of stars, and watched them constantly switching, tweaking, and supplementing these foods and the dogs paying for it. "Extreme high protein" low/no grain is NOT the optimum way to feed a dog, especially not the average pet.

I'll just feed my "masses" (common yellow dawgs that they are...) the crappy one star Pro Plan that has kept them healthy,beautiful, without food issues, and in the ribbons for so long.


Edted to add that I say "Kudos" to the vet who recommended Pro Plan. Most vets when asked what to feed go to autopilot and say "Science Diet". Now, that food should have no "stars" but rather a black hole.


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## jwemt81 (Aug 20, 2008)

I'll also mention that our vet's office recommends Pro Plan and they send every new puppy owner home with a free small bag of Pro Plan Chicken & Rice puppy formula. Thankfully, they don't carry Science Diet at all. There are so many other vets in our area who only carry SD products. It's disgusting. Even our local animal shelter feeds their dogs and cats SD. When we adopted our Maine **** about a year and a half ago, she had been on Science Diet at the shelter and came home with bloody diarrhea and extremely loose stools and the worst gas I have ever seen in a cat. As soon as we switched her to our cat food, which was Iams at the time, it cleared right up. This past winter, we switched our 4 cats to the Pro Plan indoor cat turkey formula kibble. They're all doing wonderfully on it.


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## CarolinaCasey (Jun 1, 2007)

jwemt81 said:


> I'll also mention that our vet's office recommends Pro Plan and they send every new puppy owner home with a free small bag of Pro Plan Chicken & Rice puppy formula. Thankfully, they don't carry Science Diet at all. There are so many other vets in our area who only carry SD products. It's disgusting. Even our local animal shelter feeds their dogs and cats SD. When we adopted our Maine **** about a year and a half ago, she had been on Science Diet at the shelter and came home with bloody diarrhea and extremely loose stools and the worst gas I have ever seen in a cat. As soon as we switched her to our cat food, which was Iams at the time, it cleared right up. This past winter, we switched our 4 cats to the Pro Plan indoor cat turkey formula kibble. They're all doing wonderfully on it.


I forgot to mention that our cat is on Pro Plan when I posted earlier. I have to agree with you- Charlotte is also doing wonderfully on Pro Plan Indoor Salmon 50:50 mix with the Weight Management formula. I tried to switch her because I thought I could find something 'better.' Well, she did terribly on the other food. The Pro Plan keeps her eyes bright, coat silky, and her belly full. I think it is a great food. I'd love to see my vet recommend ProPlan over a lot of other garbage, including SD (non-prescription). I do think the prescription foods serve the purpose for medically necessary conditions.


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## Blondie (Oct 10, 2009)

Food is a highly controversial topic it seems. Everyone has experiences and opinions to share. Take it with a grain of salt and do the best you can. I did get my 19 week old off of the puppy food she was on, which caused her some gas and soft stools. She is on Innova adult now and her adult coat is coming in rather nicely.


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## my4goldens (Jan 21, 2009)

I'm in the process of switching to Pro Plan, not thrilled with coat conditions of my dogs or the protein level I have been feeding the older dogs. Asked my vet, he reccomended Pro Plan. Good for him. That is what I was thinking about switching to anyway. And I might be able to save a little money in the process.


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## Swampcollie (Sep 6, 2007)

jenp said:


> I know, i know there are so many threads about food. I have a 5 month old golden boy, we just got him 2 weeks ago. The breeder had him on Verus food, he came here and had terrible diarrhea, the metronidazole didn't do anything so the vet gave us purina DCO food for colitis. The diarrhea stopped. I called the vet to ask which food we should try now, she recommended purina pro plan. Now that is like a 1 star food and has corn and wheat in it. I feel like thats saying go buy the walmart brand. I was looking into wellness, blue buffalo, and innova. *I know every dog is different, what works for one may not for another. Anyone have any recommendations? Thanks!*


 
Yes, listen to your Vet! 

ProPlan is an excellent food.


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## Bender (Dec 30, 2008)

I think it's not a bad food, not what I'd use though. My guess is the vet is suggesting a middle of the road food, which works for most dogs and is available at grocery stores. So many people won't go for an expensive brand or make a special trip for dog food, so it kinda makes sense. I have talked to a lot of people who have no idea that there is dog food sold anywhere other than walmart or safeway. I know I've suggested better kibbles to some people and had them come back to me saying they couldn't find it at walmart so bought beniful for the 'veggies' in it. 

It's kinda a smart move in a way, not the worst food out there and easy to pick up, not as expensive as some....

Lana


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## paula bedard (Feb 5, 2008)

Ike's Breeder feeds ProPlan and I continued to feed ProPlan until I discovered that Ike has food allergies and I needed to switch food. Don't know if it's a coincidence or not, but Ike's appetite picked up after switching, though, if he was miserable with allergies he probably had a diminished appetite too.


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## Retrievers Rock (Apr 4, 2010)

Pointgold said:


> Edted to add that I say "Kudos" to the vet who recommended Pro Plan. Most vets when asked what to feed go to autopilot and say "Science Diet". Now, that food should have no "stars" but rather a black hole.


That was actually my first thought! My last vet sold Science Diet, and was constantly trying to push it on us, even though Chloe was fine on the diet she was on at the time. 

My current vet sells Purina (special diets), so yep... I'm constantly getting that pushed on me now. :doh:


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## riddle03 (Jun 9, 2005)

I feed my boys Pro Plan and they have done wonderful on it. We get many compliments on their coats and they are very healty. My boys have done the best with Pro Plan compared to other "5 star" foods. I personally will not be switching anytime soon. Good luck and find what works for your pup and stick with it.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

The people who write the dog food websites rarely have serious credentials in canine nutrition, and even less often have they passed vet school. Even a mediocre vet is better qualified than a dog food website to comment on a food's quality.

Those "star" ratings are typically set by fairly arbitrary criteria that aren't grounded in hard nutritional science. They seem to have an irrational fear of corn, with wheat not far behind. Why they think a potato is good and an ear of corn is bad, I still haven't figured out. They also have a huge prejudice against non-meat ingredients, as if dogs haven't changed at all from wolves in the 10,000 years they've been living off of human scraps and garbage.

ProPlan is a great food if you measure it by criteria that make sense. Do successful showers, breeders, and competitors use it? Yes. Do most dogs that eat it thrive? Yes. Have they been testing and evaluating their food for decades? Yes.

If your dog does even better on a boutique food or on some variation of a raw diet, hooray! There's nothing wrong with trying to find the best for your dog. But when you start obeying official looking websites, you can inadvertently make your dog sick.

If you poke around this forum, you'll find a handful of people who switched away from a food like ProPlan because of skin or digestive issues and found something else that worked better, and you'll find SCORES of threads posted by people who tried to switch a dog to a boutique food because it had more "stars" on some website or because it didn't have a bugaboo ingredient like corn but had to switch back because the less-tested, less-balanced, too-rich food made the dog sick.

Is the dog happy, healthy, shiny, and energetic? Is he producing well-formed stools once or twice a day? Are his eyes clear, and does he have good muscle tone? If the answer is yes to all of those questions, _you are already feeding the right food_.

As a disclaimer, my dogs are on Eukanuba, which is a little different from ProPlan, but gets one "star" on those websites for pretty much the same reasons.


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## MillysMom (Nov 5, 2008)

I've been thinking of switching Milly from Fromm Surf and Turf to ProPlan. I've tried quite a few foods to get her ear infections and itchy skin under control, and Fromm does work, but it's gone up even more in cost. Part of me is reluctant to switch, because she does well on Fromm, but I've heard so many great things about ProPlan (and it's what my vet feeds) that I've thought it might be worth a shot. Milly did not do very well on the Eukenuba Sensitive Skin formula... if that says anything about how she might do on ProPlan (I know they are very different foods), and did terribly on Science Diet (gee, I wonder why? haha ).

Also, Milly is 11ish, and I was curious if other ProPlan folks feed the regular adult formula for geriatrics, or the senior formula. I'm pretty much positive I'll use ProPlan on any future dogs I own, but I'm a bit hesitant to switch now, because if it ain't broke don't fix it... but Fromm might make me broke in the process! It's nearly $70 for a 26lbs bag!


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## DNL2448 (Feb 13, 2009)

I feed Pro Plan Performance. I have tried the others (high end stuff) and then changed back. I won't change again, unless we have medical reason to do so. Lessons learned.


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## kira (Jan 13, 2009)

Murphy came home eating Pro Plan Puppy chicken and rice. We switched to Innova adult at about 13 weeks because we were switching foods (to an adult formula) anyway. We have had no food issues and he is healthy with a nice soft coat.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

MillysMom said:


> Milly did not do very well on the Eukenuba Sensitive Skin formula... if that says anything about how she might do on ProPlan (I know they are very different foods), and did terribly on Science Diet (gee, I wonder why? haha ).


The Eukanuba sensitive skin is a very specialized formula (fish based, I think). My sister's lab is on it (and doing great, thank goodness), but I bet lots of dogs wouldn't do so well on it.


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## BeauShel (May 20, 2007)

ProPlan makes a sensitive skin and stomach blend with salmon and a Senior blend. I put Beau on he sensitive skin and stomach blend when he was a senior.


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## jenp (Apr 2, 2010)

wow thanks for all the responses guys! I did try the bag of large breed puppy proplan. I got a 6lb bag for dexter to try it out. It was 11 dollars and i sent in a rebate to get the full amount back plus a coupon for next time! We mixed it with the purina DCO for colitis food. His bowel movements seem to be loose again! :uhoh: I wonder what it is that is upsetting his tummy! I do see him itching too... he kind of "throws himself" against our kitchen cabinets for a good scratching. Maybe he is allergic to corn or wheat, but i dont know how long we should keep him on this food until we try another. His poop could get better or it could get worse. I am cooking up some rice now to mix with his food so I will see how his bowels are tonight.


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## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

Mine eat Blue Wilderness right now. All the Goldens I have had look better on a grain free diet. None of my dogs have any digestive issues, but they are used to top quality food. I switch because I believe variety is good. So I switch protein sources, and I feed raw when I can.

My old (1997) Whippet looks 4 or 5 and still lure courses.

Recent photos:


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## timberwolf (Apr 1, 2009)

How long has he been on the ProPlan???


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## CarolinaCasey (Jun 1, 2007)

jenp said:


> wow thanks for all the responses guys! I did try the bag of large breed puppy proplan. I got a 6lb bag for dexter to try it out. It was 11 dollars and i sent in a rebate to get the full amount back plus a coupon for next time! We mixed it with the purina DCO for colitis food. His bowel movements seem to be loose again! :uhoh: I wonder what it is that is upsetting his tummy! I do see him itching too... he kind of "throws himself" against our kitchen cabinets for a good scratching. Maybe he is allergic to corn or wheat, but i dont know how long we should keep him on this food until we try another. His poop could get better or it could get worse. I am cooking up some rice now to mix with his food so I will see how his bowels are tonight.


I don't think you would see 'itchy' reactions to the food for a few weeks. I'd do a bath with an oatmeal or puppy shampoo first. Transition all the way to the Pro Plan. If continued itchy behavior continues after 6-8 weeks, he might just have a dry coat and need some fish oil. It could be seasonal allergies from the environment. It also could be allergies due to the food. Good luck!


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## Blondie (Oct 10, 2009)

I'm not sure the mindset for grain free, but had read that it's best to wait until around 18 months to go grain free if you so desire.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

Dry skin can happen whether there's grain in the food or not. Higher fat intake (particularly fish oil) seems to help. That's one of the reasons raw-fed dogs may have shinier coats—more fat.


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## BeauShel (May 20, 2007)

You need to make sure you do the transition very slow. Like 3/4 old food and 1/4 new food. Keep it like that for 1 week and then switch to 1/2 and 1/2 for 1 week then 3/4 new food 1/4 old food. Especially if he has had tummy problems.


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## paula bedard (Feb 5, 2008)

This Thread got me looking at ProPlan again. They now make a formula (or it's now finally available here) that Ike can eat, Selects: Salmon and Brown Rice. I noticed that they have many formulas, one for just about any issue or taste, and they are each reasonably priced. It's still not available at the grocery store, so a trip to a PetCo/ Petsmart/ or other local Pet supply store is necessary.

I think my next bag of dry food will be ProPlan, try it and see how Ike does.


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## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

Brian, that photo is awesome


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

AquaClaraCanines said:


> Brian, that photo is awesome


The new signature or the new avatar? (Thanks either way!)


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## Tahnee GR (Aug 26, 2006)

tippykayak said:


> The new signature or the new avatar? (Thanks either way!)


Both are great!


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## Enzos_Mom (Apr 8, 2010)

For a dog that has the itchies, I've heard great things about California Naturals because their ingredients are so basic. We started Enzo on a puppy weaning formula at first, then moved on to Eukanuba large breed puppy. He seemed okay on the Eukanuba at first, but then he got really gassy and stopped eating it all together. We tried switching him to the Blue Buffalo large breed puppy slowly, but the little bugger ate all around his old food and just at the Blue Buffalo. He still eats that now. He gets it 3x a day with 2 tablespoons of the Blue canned chicken & rice food mixed in. His littermate that my fiance's brother adopted is on Purina One and is thriving on that much the same way that Enzo is thriving on Blue Buffalo. My dad's golden at the Kirkland brand food for quite some time and did well on that until they changed their formula. It really depends on the dog.


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## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

Sig... it is just... heavenly!


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

Thanks, guys!


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