IAMS Veterinary Diets to Be Discontinued
Mars Petcare, who owns IAMS brand pet food, is discontinuing their line of veterinary prescription pet foods. This is only for prescription diets. The over-the-counter pet foods made by IAMS are still in production. The discontinuation applies to both dog and cat food.
IAMS Veterinary Diets We Carry:
- Intestinal Plus/ Low Residue
- Renal Plus
- Urinary-S
- Skin and Coat Plus
This is NOT a recall. The IAMS veterinary line is perfectly safe and you can continue feeding this diet.
Transitioning to a New Diet
You will want to plan for the transition to a new diet, however. Stop in the office before the end of the year. We have complimentary sample bags of veterinary diets by Hill’s, Royal Canin, and Purina for your pet to try.
Whenever you switch pet foods, your pet may experience stomach upset. To prevent this, we recommend a slow transition from one diet to the next over the course of one week. When you start the transition, offer 90{cc651acb8fd21d18461bab90e3951e117ad976e0f5f2bec6fa2ec763fee94208} of the current diet and 10{cc651acb8fd21d18461bab90e3951e117ad976e0f5f2bec6fa2ec763fee94208} of the new food. Each day adjust that ratio so you end up after seven days or so feeding 90{cc651acb8fd21d18461bab90e3951e117ad976e0f5f2bec6fa2ec763fee94208} of the new and 10{cc651acb8fd21d18461bab90e3951e117ad976e0f5f2bec6fa2ec763fee94208} of the old.
If you want to read up on pet foods and pet nutrition, here are a few articles to get you started:
Our Thoughts on This Change
We sell quite a bit of the IAMS veterinary diets to our clients and have for many years. In fact, the Intestinal Plus diet is what we feed in the kennels for our boarding pets. We share your frustration in losing a good product.
But, change is inevitable. We will all work on finding new diets that we like just as well as the IAMS line. Who knows, trying something new might lead to great things!
The discontinuation is part of a broader business decision by Mars Petcare, who also owns Royal Canin pet foods. As you can guess, owning two similar brands of pet food might make for a good merger. Several of the IAMS veterinary diets will be rolled into the Royal Canin pet food line. We do not have details at this time.
Please be assured we will work with you during this transition. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call. We are happy to answer questions!
