Is the pet food you are serving up killing your four-legged friend? (and making your vet rich)

Like millions of pet owners, Fiona MacMillan was anxious to do the very best for her cat. 'When I got my first kitten, Jaggers, I asked the vet for some advice on feeding, and when she directed me to a well-known brand of dried food, I was happy to take her professional advice,' she says.
'My vet said she gave it to her own cats and had never had any problems. I was delighted. It never smelled, I could tip some in Jaggers' bowl before I went out to work in the morning and leave it out all day without any fear that it would go off. And he loved it.'
Today, Fiona, 59, a former university librarian, bitterly regrets her decision to feed Jaggers on the convenience food. For when he was just seven, Jaggers was diagnosed with kidney disease. The same vet prescribed some more dried food, especially designed for cats with urinary problems.

Yet, despite Fiona religiously following her vet's advice, Jaggers collapsed three months later. And by the time Fiona got him to the animal hospital for treatment, it was too late. Her beloved cat was so unwell he had to be put to sleep.
'I was devastated, but at the time I thought there was nothing I could have done to prevent Jaggers' kidney disease,' she says. But then she decided to do some research.
'Was it genetics? Do a lot of cats suffer from it? I just wanted to know,' she recalls.
'And then I came across a website created by Lisa Pierson, a pet nutritionist, that completely shocked me. It explained that processed dried food - the exact kind I'd been feeding Jaggers for years - is linked to urinary and kidney problems.
'I was horrified. This had never even been raised as a possibility by my vet. But after I'd read about this, I spoke to another vet, who agreed with Lisa Pierson.
He knew about the problems caused by processed foods, and said that if I'd fed Jaggers a more natural diet - such as raw meat or cooked chicken - he might never have fallen ill.'
Her story is sure to concern anyone with a pet, particularly because few people are aware of the little-publicised concerns about processed pet foods - and that includes 'wet' (i.e. tinned and packet) foods as well.
And part of the problem, as a Mail investigation can reveal, is that much of the veterinary industry is inextricably linked to the pet-food manufacturers.
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