Hill's Pet Food is BAD

Editing original post as I acquire additional information

No, I'm not talking about the product. I'm sure it's a fine product (I have in fact previously used Hill's prescription products for other animals in my household). My complaint has to do with their business model which requires their prescription food dispensing partners carry no other brands of prescription pet food or they pay higher prices for the Hill's product. This puts my local supplier in a very difficult position.

I have a 12 year old dog. She eats Purina j/m formula dog food. She's eaten it for the past 4 years. The LOCAL pharmacy where I purchase this item is having to cave into Hill's demands that they stock and dispense only Hill's labeled product to get pricing breaks. This is an independent pharmacy. They should be able to dispense whatever products veterinarian's write a prescription for without penalty.

I am not changing my dog's food. I will change my pharmacy first. And if I have to change my dispensing pharmacy for one item, I might as well switch all my pet's prescription needs to another pharmacy. I have some expensive dogs in the medication department. This may cause the local pharmacy to go out of business. Great work Hill's. The economy could use more companies like you.

Hill's pet food has made a serious enemy today. Let the internet trashing of Hill's begin.

11-18-2011: Hills adamantly stands by their claim that they enact no coercion on the companies they supply to carry only their product. MyVetsMeds adamantly stands by their claim that their contract with Hills is contrary to Hills' claims. MyVetsMeds has changed their business model and I am no longer able to get ANYTHING from them on a local level so at this point I am despising both companies equally.

Eats at Barleycorn's Update

Well, Barleycorn's has become the new favorite. I go there any chance I get and have even taken visitors from out of town there.

The three cheese tomato soup is still my favorite, but the chicken noodle is pretty darn good too. I've managed to go beyond the Chipotle Chicken Wrap to try the Jalapeno Chorizo, the Cajun Chicken and the Club Sandwich. Hopefully it does well enough that I will eventually be able to make my way through the complete menu.

Stay tuned.

New Eats in Town

We've got a new restaurant in Wamego, Barleycorn's Downtown Bar & Deli. I've eaten there twice now and the food is really good. The first visit I tried the soup of the day, three-cheese tomato. It was awesome soup. You could really taste the cheeses and I'm sure it was made with milk, it had such a rich taste. Paired with a Chipotle Chicken Wrap it made the perfect meal.

Today the sides offerings included warm potato salad which sounded pretty good since it's getting colder. And it was. I wonder if they'll share the recipe with me 'cause I'd like to make that at home myself. I had the same chicken wrap as the first visit and I can say the good food is not a fluke. Spicy chicken and warm salad. I'll definitely be back for more! They have an amazingly large menu for a bar so it will take me a while to get through all they have to offer.

Pictsweet cares about customers!!!!

Pictsweet has redeemed themselves. I got a very nice letter of apology from Pictsweet regarding my negative experience and a coupon to cover the purchase price of the product. Now the question is, if I go purchase the same product, will I have the same experience? I will write down the codes from the previous purchase to make sure I get a different lot. I will then post the results here. For now, thank you Pictsweet!

P.S. I have heard from the dog food folks, but they requested I call a toll free number with a case number and I've not had the time to do that yet so any delay in resolution is my fault, not theirs.

Pictsweet Steam'ables

Update 4/9/2009: Pictsweet has redeemed themselves. I got a very nice letter of apology from Pictsweet regarding my negative experience and a coupon to cover the purchase price of the product. Now the question is, if I go purchase the same product, will I have the same experience? I will write down the codes from the previous purchase to make sure I get a different lot. I will then post the results here. For now, thank you Pictsweet!

It must be my week for product rants. I purchased the product pictured below and was disappointed with the quantity of shrimp contained within the bag. The picture clearly shows six (6) shrimp. You would think that there would be even more shrimp mixed unseen in the product, wouldn't you?. Do you know how many shrimp I found in this product? Three (3). Package says serves two (2). Two what? Two cats on a diet?

How much is that doggie in the window?

Update 4/9/2009: I have heard from the Pedigree folks, but they requested I call a toll free number with a case number and I've not had the time to do that yet so any delay in resolution is my fault, not theirs.

Mine are very expensive. One's got lousy hips and a bum knee. The other has allergies and a weight problem.

We've had success combating the weight problem through the use of PEDIGREE® WEIGHT MAINTENANCE™ dog food. She's slimmed down quite a bit since she's been on it.

So imagine my surprise when I found this in my most recent purchase of the product.

I'm told by someone familiar with food manufacturing that it is not foreign material, merely an unsightly lump of product.

So I went to the manufacturer's website to get an email address to mail this picture to but you can only submit to them electronically via a form, no email contact allowed. Their form was not cooperating with my data entry. It didn't want to wrap the text I was typing and I can't stand not being able to read back through what I've written so I simply directed them to this blog post to see what it was that I found in their product.

The bag was purchased at the Dillon's market in Manhattan, Kansas in early March of '09. The manufacturing codes on the bag are as follows:

BEST BEFORE 02/2010 901DLKKMF 02:55

I like the product, my dog likes the product (that's the important part), and I wouldn't stop using it for finding something like this once but a coupon would be nice.