As we have said on other occasions, dogs have accompanied us from the caves. Then they would eat what they hunted or what their coworker, the man, was pleased to give them. But when one of the greatest civilizations settled down, the diet of the canines began to change. We are referring to the Roman Empire, in which a man ventured to defend a specific diet for dogs.
Lucio Junio Moderato Columela proposed a food based on barley flour and whey or escaña bread mixed with warm broth of cooked beans. The composition of this food may be scientifically debatable, but the great value of this pioneering action is not.
Good Lucio’s recipes were not improved until well into the 20th century. It is sad that many dogs that eat “on a whim” today eat worse than the ancient recipe for bread and warm bean broth.
The vet’s hard work: promoting good nutrition
This professional is responsible for ending archaic ideas, it is the prolongation in time of Lucio’s spirit: a dog must not only eat his fill, he must be nourished .
The veterinarian’s work becomes a crusade against customs: leftovers, bone, milk, etc. A crusade against the old and wrong traditions. It is very difficult to fight against beliefs that are almost two thousand years old, it is difficult despite the obvious differences that exist between a man and a dog.
The veterinarian runs into a major obstacle: many people see an exclusively commercial background in their nutritional recommendation. Is the veterinarian an interested person who uses his degree to sell us expensive and useless things? Do you take advantage of the naivety of young and old to increase your coffers? Is he a merchant in a white coat?
No, it is not. The simple answer to these questions is that if the veterinarian thought exclusively about money, he would not try to get us out of the error and would allow the pathologies caused by incorrect feeding to be more numerous.
It seems incredible but a large percentage of the consultations that are received in veterinary clinics are for food reasons, for something that depends exclusively on the hand of man. We cannot measure the affection we have for the homemade food that we give them because what we are doing is harm. We love them better.
The Spanish veterinarian tries to make this very high percentage decrease, so that the owner is aware that with a quality commercial food most problems are solved. The professional bets, like Lucio Julio Moderato Columela, for a specific and balanced food, for a quality food, even if this means that he collides head-on with the wrong ideas of most of the owners.
Also, if vets thought that the best food for a dog is homemade food, they would sell it! Packages of rice with liver, grandmother’s paella, macaroni and meat. They would sell it in an envelope, in a box or in a “tupper” or even set up a butcher shop “door to door” with their veterinary clinic.
If the veterinarian thought exclusively about money, perhaps he would not be a veterinarian and if he did, the shelves and displays of his clinic would be crammed with products very different from those he so professionally recommends. The veterinarian will always defend the health of his furry clients and for that reason he will fight for us to give them the best diet.
In summary, if our veterinarian advises us a special high-end feed for allergic dogs , it will be because our animal has an intolerance; If you recommend a light product to us, it is because our animal is a little over its weight and although it is not necessary to diet, it is better, at least, to keep it as is. These are some of the examples, but there are many others that would portray the reason why our veterinarian recommends one type of feed or another. Let’s follow their directions.
