The Help I have Received So Far

I get a lot of correspondence regarding responses received from the Royal Canin company to various letters and e-mails that have been sent to them by friends who are concerned about Louie.

Most recently they have been reassuring everyone who writes that they have been in touch with me. One person said that they were told that they are trying to help Louie.

I wish I knew myself what they are doing to help.

When I spoke with their nutritionist on the phone, she did express strong concern for Louie, seemed sympathetic, and after hearing the details of our situation offered to have one of Royal Canin's veterinarians speak with Louie's veterinarian. I gave her the contact information for the small animal clinic at UC Davis and told her the name of the resident who has followed Louie's case most closely in Internal Medicine there, and also the name of the faculty who conclusively diagnosed his lymphangiectasia last year.

I haven't heard anything from either of those doctors at UC Davis. I understand that many of the residents are away right now, studying for their board exams this week, so maybe this just isn't a good time to be getting in touch with a resident. I would guess that faculty are there, but faculty do take extended periods away from the clinics for various reasons, so perhaps this just isn't a good time at all. I don't know, because the nutritionist at Royal Canin did not return my call when I left a voice mail for her later that same day to ask if they had had any success. So I continue to wait and see if they can shed any light on our predicament through those channels.

The only other contact I have had with Royal Canin was when I was asked to call them by someone at one of the large chain stores which had some of the food we need. The person at the store was not sure what had been changed in the food and, my understanding at the time was that her impression from speaking with Royal Canin was that nothing had actually been changed. She wanted me to call the rep myself so that I would be certain I was buying something that I really needed.

I've done some research on the matter, but she was very nice and very helpful, and I always think it's a good idea to be reasonable and cooperative and leave no stones unturned. Maybe something had changed or they had decided to make the old food again. So I did call the gentleman at Royal Canin she suggested I call. I got him on the phone, told him my name, told him I have a little dog named Louie and that I was calling about the change in the Digestive Low Fat and that I understood that he wanted to speak with me about it. He said that he had no idea what I was talking about and was in a meeting, but that he would call me back. I never heard from him.

That's the full extent of the help I've gotten from Royal Canin so far, just to clarify for those of you who are receiving those letters (I never even got one of those). It's not that I'm not open to working with them. I am not sure what they can offer in terms of medical advice that we haven't already received, however, I really am interested to know if they can help us in some way.