RCW & Purina

Re: RCW & Purina

Alison Daff — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:43:14 GMT

Thanks for the feedback Sally and Maisy - great to hear you enjoyed the course.

Re: RCW & Purina

Kerry Spain — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 23:54:36 GMT

[quote user="adaff"]

hi Kerry

RC offer a 3 day residential course called Pet Health Counseller, it has a lot of very good feedback.

If you just want an overview of the range or any specific areas your VBM can do a lunch meeting in your practice or just message me and i can send you literature for any parts of the ranges you are interested in finding out more about

Hope that helps

Ali

[/quote]

Ali, Thank you very much. I'd prefer a comprehensive course to be honest but don't know if I can afford 3 days off, so I will look into it. Any further info would be much appreciated.

kerry@vetnurse.co.uk

Thanks again

Kerry

Re: RCW & Purina

Maisy — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:45:56 GMT

[quote user="Sally Roberts RVN, MBVNA"]

I did the PHC course last year and it wasn't what I was expecting at all.

We wasn't "brainwashed" to the Royal canin food way. I was expecting this after doing the Hill's courses but looked at nursing clinics and ideas on running them successfully.

[/quote]

I agree. i found there wasn't a great deal of emphasis to diets, rather to clinics/client education. I really enjoyed the PHC course.

Re: RCW & Purina

Sally Howe — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:29:46 GMT

I did the PHC course last year and it wasn't what I was expecting at all.

We wasn't "brainwashed" to the Royal canin food way. I was expecting this after doing the Hill's courses but looked at nursing clinics and ideas on running them successfully.

Re: RCW & Purina

Alison Daff — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:26:53 GMT

hi Kerry

RC offer a 3 day residential course called Pet Health Counseller, it has a lot of very good feedback.

Hope that helps

Ali

Re: RCW & Purina

NorthernLass — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 09:26:54 GMT

We offer any brand the pet is happy to eat/client requests.

Seems to be especially important with diets for urinary or kidney disease: it would seem that the taste is very different for each brand..Also applies to the dental stuff TD seems to upset some tummies, so rcw always offered as alternative

Would never just recommend on brand: agree with others on the ethics of that

Re: RCW & Purina

Polly P — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 01:22:06 GMT

I agree Kerry, I am happy with TD (after getting over my shock at the size of the biscuits lol!) though I have only been using it for three months...

I swapped over to it after my cat's dental work from a non dental specific food because that was what my then- vet and boss, who treated my cat, reccomended, and I would trust him implicitly with anything to do with my pets welfare...

I just think in general terms that it is not necessarily in the best interests of the clients and their animals to only promote one brand of food (as we did there, not sure that that is the case with anyone else having posted here) when yes, it may well be a good choice for that animal, and yes, it may tick the boxes they need-

But there are other options that may be as good. or better, but the client isn't given the choice or any info about them when the practice or company is biased to promote a particular brand (I am using Hills as that was the one we promoted, but it could be the same for any other brand if the practice heavily promotes it or only stocks it or only trains the staff on that brand) due to incentives and deals with reps, when the client is not aware of that and just hears the vet say 'this is best,' and assumes that that is so without knowing that the choice of what is reccomended is often a business move, down to that being the designated practice brand.

Re: RCW & Purina

Kerry Spain — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 01:13:28 GMT

Polly... I see your point but to be fair T/D does do what it says in the 'tin'... however... after the lack of aftercare from Hill's over the past 12 months, my loyalty (on what otherwise said on here is a damn good food product) has dwindled somewhat......

Re: RCW & Purina

Polly P — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 00:17:27 GMT

Sandra, I wasn'r far off thinking along similar lines... I recently had Hills training on their new 'vet exclusives' line and the practice endorses it all (with some nice incentives..) but I just think constantly that it's not right to only offer, or to promote due to incentives, one brand over another...

Though my cats are on Hills (TD dental, because it was reccomended and I see the point in my situation) I think the whole rep thing and incentivising for practices to promote it is not so good...

And I hate anything gimmicky, and when the Hills rep gave us a little kit containing... Wait for it...

A little bag of the veterinary exclusive cat food, a screwdriver, and a bottle of tippex....

I knew this was going to piss me off before she even explained it...

Basically, you are supposed to do a little show for the client in which you paint the point of the screwdriver in the tippex, let it dry, and then drive it into one of the chunks of hard food...

The screwdriver coming back out with some of the tippex cracked off is supposed to prove that the food is excellent at removing dental plaque!

Now I am no expert, but cat's teeth aren't made of screwdriver, plaque isn't made of tippex, and plenty of other hard foods, specifically dental ones of various brands do exactly the same...

However they also gave us a little UV light (also packed in a small gray Hills branded clip case, thank you very much!) that you can shine in the animal's mouth and shows up the tartar on the teeth... Yes I admit that this is a pretty useful tool, but still to me, not a reason to promote Hills food above another brand!

Re: RCW & Purina

Sandra Taylor RVN, MBVNA — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 23:12:03 GMT

I am going to be my usual controversial self..... they are not really courses ladies... it is called brainwashing to the extreme!

Re: RCW & Purina

Doolally — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 23:07:41 GMT

RCW do the pet health counsellor course, it's a 3 day residential course, I did it last year, got some really good ideas for nurse clinics

Re: RCW & Purina

Steph Worsley — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 08:20:26 GMT

can't remember about RCW but pretty sure they do.

Purina (as far as I know) still do the "nutrional specialist" course which is a distance thing, they offer loads of staff training as well and their support was excellent when I was in practice which was a major reason for us moving over to them as the support from hills and rcw were rubbish!!!! well that and more animals liked the diets only had one animal turn their nose up at the purina vet diets!!

Re: RCW & Purina

NorthernLass — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 06:31:54 GMT

RCW do good courses and their sensitivity and urinary health diets in particular are very good (my own cats plus lots of clients show this)

Personally found Hills to be a pain...Sent off my money and got no course, phoned up and still no joy!! but there you go