Achieving Qi: Local vets develop balanced dog food for healthier, longer living pets
By Donna O'Neil, Staff writer
doneil@williamsonherald.com
The trend toward healthy living has gone to the dogs. And that’s a good thing, according to two area veterinarians who have developed a pet food blending 5,000 years of Eastern food therapy with 500 years of Western nutritional science.
Dr. Marc Smith, Natchez Trace Vet Clinic in Franklin, and Dr. Casey Damron, White Oak Animal Hospital in Fairview, are the driving force behind Pet-Tao Pet Foods, a human-grade, fresh food source that promotes the lifelong health and the well-being of your beloved canine. A feline product is currently under development. Training at the Chi Institute of Florida led the pair to determine that this approach was worth pursuing for pets.
Pet Tao’s unique four-product offering is the culmination of three years of product development and a number of case studies. The result is a two-fold approach to feeding – a balanced diet and a diet that is based on the seasons of the year. Pet Tao’s product line with raw and pasteurized options focuses on specific needs dictated by age, breed and activity level of the dog and the climate where the pet resides.
The Canine Balanced Diet includes ingredients that provide a variety of nutrients from an assortment of sources and is pasteurized. This blend is designed as a year-round food source and includes items found in a traditional human diet of beef, turkey, carrots, celery, eggs and broccoli. It also includes button mushrooms, olive oil, sardines, Vitamin E supplements, rosemary, clove and basil.
Three other canine food products are raw and geared toward a holistic approach where owners feed their pets according to their environment. Canine Qi Diet is designed to be consumed by dogs in the winter months as the food has warming qualities. It can also be fed to dogs whose temperatures run cold throughout the year. Balancing out that product is Canine Yin Diet, a product where the ingredients promote internal cooling. Ideally a dog would be fed a balanced diet in between the warm and cool seasons to transition them.
“Among veterinarians, there is a consensus that some problems can be attributed to nutrition,” said Smith, who said feedback from pet owners who feed their dogs Pet Tao include remarks about less health problems.
“The goal,” he said, “is to provide people with a pet food they can rely on to promote health.”
Smith and Damron, both University of Tennessee veterinary science graduates, have also studied Eastern Chinese veterinary medicine and embrace the notion of balanced feeding.
Based on the belief that diet should mimic environment, these products offer benefits that off-the-shelf commercially produced foods do not. Commercially created products are believed to contribute to common health problems, including obesity, tumors, vomiting diarrhea and skin allergies among other common canine ailments.
Offering a slight variation of ingredients is Canine Blood Diet, available only by prescription from a veterinarian.
For complete details on the philosophy of the company, food products and how to purchase the dietary regime, visit www.pettao.com.
Posted on: 1/28/2010
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