by Dr. Herb Friedman

When I was a student in veterinary school, these diets were already well-establish­ed in the U.S. They were then—and are now—used by most veterinary hospitals, university clinics and re­search facilities.

When I was one of the military veterinarians in Yokohama, I brought these diets to Japan for the first time. I continue to recom­mend them very highly and believe that they are an es­sential part of good veterin­ary therapy.

First of all, there is a special diet for those dogs over the age of seven. These dogs, as they grow older, suffer a loss of kidney func­tion, which of course is a normal part of aging.

K/D diet eliminates work for the kidney by using only the highest usable protein sources in the diet. There­fore, the amount of nitrogenous waste products that the kidney must eliminate is kept to a bare minimum. This diet is especially valu­able in older dogs and in dogs suffering from kidney disease and other conditions that put excess kidney stress.

P/D is a very high protein diet made expressedly for puppies after weaning until they reach maturity and for the female during the gesta­tion period and for about two months after she gives birth to the puppies. P/D is about the finest diet one can feed.

I/D is a very bland diet that is very low in fat. It is used along with medica­tion in cases where dogs show recurrent diarrhea. It is also extremely useful in cases of malabsorbtion syn­drome and chronic pancrea­titis.

I advise petowners to keep a case of this handy in case the dog comes down with diarrhea.

R/D is reducing diet and of course is only useful in cases where a dog eats a fixed amount of food daily and still puts on too much weight. Weight control in most cases can be controlled by the type of diet fed, the amount fed and the amount of exercise.

In some cases that are hormonal in nature, I have found that only R/D was able to effect a weight loss. A decrease in the amount of the dog’s normal diet had no effect on the obesity prob­lem. Dachshunds are especially susceptible to this.

D/D is a food allergy diet that has some effect if the dog is highly sensitive to allergies and especially to food allergies. It is a very bland diet and hypo-allergenic.

H/D is a diet for those dogs suffering from various types of heart disease. It is a low salt diet that is a very good complement for the usual therapy employed in cardiac disease.

C/D is a diet for cats and is especially useful in those cats that develop a high urinary pH and build stones in the bladder and urethra. We have found this diet to be very successful, the only problem being that many cats are very finicky eaters.

It is easy to see that these diets are very complete in their range of uses and that they are a great asset to any veterinarian who has diag­nostic skills. They are not sold in pet stores or in supermarkets because they are not regular pet foods and must be given out by veterinarians who under­stand their usage.

They are available from more than 400 veterinary hospitals in Japan and most of the larger hospitals in the Tokyo-Yokohama area.