[Patricia J]

Hi Great V, and thanks for chiming in on this topic. I appreciate your concern, and all of your suggestions. We are, indeed, continuing to follow our vet’s advice, feeding Sammy only Pro Plan NF, with no additions. She also continues to take Proin ER and Fortiflora. I am happy to report that the “leaking” problem is tremendously lessened, and also that she absolutely loves the food. For the time-being, I have put my nutritional worries pretty much out of mind, as long as Sammy continues to thrive.
I hope your dog is doing better also:)

[Patricia J]

Hi Nina,

Thanks for joining in:) Without having researched the specifics of what you said, I’ll say that it sounds sensible to me. However, what prompted my original questions was the fact that Sammy’s vet has prescribed a diet of ONLY Purina Pro Plan NF food; no additions, not even treats marketed as kidney-issue friendly. She maintains that dogs with kidney problems who are fed this diet exclusively live 2-3 years longer than those fed otherwise. Since I have been quite satisfied seeing this vet for over 20 years, through 2 dogs, I am following her advice. I simply came here seeking more understanding of the value of this diet to a dog’s overall nutrition. If you haven’t already, see comments by Aimee, above, which go some way towards that goal.

[Patricia J]

Nina,

Not that I disagree with anything you said, but my question dealt specifically with a particular prescription diet, Purina Pro Plan NF. My dog is not on a weight-loss diet, she is restricted to that food due to a kidney issue. Therefore, a balanced “healthy” diet as you describe is not apparently available for Sammy.

Patricia

[Patricia J]

Thanks, Aimee, for diving deeper for me; I appreciate your staying engaged. I will look at the PubMed info you referenced. And I understand that even with “experts” there can and will be differences of opinion, so what you say about DFA’s statement is fair. (BTW, my characterization of corn as “a filler” was certainly all mine, extrapolating from what he’d said.) Before further study, I now see from what you say that the amino acids in corn are probably key to its selection. And I did understand that controlling phosphorus is important, so that helps to explain why plant-based protein is better, which I knew was part of this, but not why.
What my attitude probably boils down to is my lack of faith in the good faith of large companies. Purina charges quite a bit for this food, which I’m perfectly willing to pay if it is truly what’s best, but I just felt that perhaps the overall nutrition was being neglected. I will look further; I’m willing to admit I could be wrong, lol! My previous dog spent years eating prescription food due to a purine problem(he was a Dalmatian), and I had similar misgivings about that, but never saw an alternative.
Anyway, thanks again.

[Patricia J]

Hi Aimee,

Thanks for chiming in:) First off, rather than just listening to dog food marketing, I come here, to the Dog Food Advisor site for less- or un-biased info. To quote him directly on the subject of corn in dog food: “Corn is an inexpensive and controversial cereal grain. And aside from its energy content, this grain is of only marginal nutritional value for dogs.” Now, gauging from what you said above, I will guess that you will say that the large corn quantity in our food is chosen to work with the other ingredients to help with Sammy’s createnin problem? If so, I guess what that amounts to for the non-nutritionists among us (me) is we should just trust the company (in this case Purina, for whom I have no great amount of respect) to mix the ingredients correctly to help keep our dogs alive!
I’m sorry if I’m sounding snarky, and I’m really not trying to be antagonistic towards you personally, but I really don’t care for explanations that boil down to it’s complicated; trust us. I don’t trust big companies to do what’s best rather than what’s most profitable, so I want to understand why an “inexpensive, marginally nutritionally valuable” food ingredient is really the best for my dog, even in her specific circumstance.

[Patricia J]

Irena, Thanks for your reply:) Glad to know someone else is having the same questions! Hopefully, someone who knows more on the topic than we do will also respond! My only solace with the food is that Sammy absolutely loves it, which very pleasantly surprised me! If your dog continues to dislike the RC, maybe you could ask your vet about the Purina Pro Plan NF that we’re using. (Although, I have talked to people whose pets didn’t like it either, so I guess it’s all very individual.)
Oh, on our original concern: when I called the pet shop owner where we’d been buying the Fromms all these years to explain why we’d be stopping, she said that for the RX foods the manufacturers “do something different” to the corn to make it more nutritional than that in standard foods. Don’t have any idea what that would be, or if she’s right . . .

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