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  1. #1
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    Whitefish? Oily Fish?

    Does this sound like a complete meal?

    Prompted by the thread above, I thought I'd ask this. I think a lot of folks have no idea how fish are classified as to diet and it could be important. I had to learn for Oban's sake.

    Do you know what the term Whitefish really means? Nope, I thought it was the species we fish for, Lake Whitefish too. Not. I thought it was a bit strange that species was used so widely as a description though. I pretty well had to find out when Oban's Nutriscan saliva test came back with Whitefish on the caution list. Whitefish is low fat and he's not to have a high fat diet so Whitefish would be logical one to turn to but he can't have it due to food sensitivity.

    The other main term is - Oily Fish. Huh? Not another colour? Well if he has to be on low fat then Oily fish is obviously out too. But what do the terms really mean?

    Whitefish is the descriptor applied to fish that store most of their fat in their liver. They do not have as much fat as Oily Fish, which have fat in other places in their body and more fat over all. It has nothing really to do with colour (except Oily Fish do tend to have darker flesh). To make it even more confusing Lake Whitefish, the species, are a member of the Salmon family, making them an Oily Fish. Not as oily as Salmon.

    Not even my Vets, plural, could give me the answer. I had to google and found several confirming websites that were mostly cooking sites. Some of what we might consider to be fish, such as shark and tuna, I'm still not sure about, sites disagreed. Here are a couple of sites:

    Here, fishy fishy… Fish facts for you

    [ARCHIVED CONTENT] Food Standards Agency - What's an oily fish?

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  3. #2
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    Do you know whether Oban's saliva test uses "whitefish" as specific (i.e., Lake Whitefish) or generic? I'd ask...perhaps other forms of whitefish might actually be OK (especially if Salmon was also on the caution list).

    Thanks for sharing, Nancy....that's good to know. (I also always thought whitefish meant a specific fish).

  4. #3
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    I just sent Hemopet an email. The test does include Salmon so it's reasonable to wonder if they mean the species instead of the body fat classification.

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  6. #4
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    I'm concerned. I have not had a reply. I sent another email. What are the chances the people running Nutriscan don't know what their terms mean?

  7. #5
    Senior Dog Labradorks's Avatar
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    I thought white fish was a type of fish like Halibut, cod, etc., that was light and non-fatty or oily and that oily fish was a fattier fish, usually with darker meat, like Salmon. I did not know that white fish was an actual breed... But yeah, I don't know definitively. I probably could not pass a white fish versus oil fish test.

  8. #6
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Labradorks View Post
    I thought white fish was a type of fish like Halibut, cod, etc., that was light and non-fatty or oily and that oily fish was a fattier fish, usually with darker meat, like Salmon. I did not know that white fish was an actual breed... But yeah, I don't know definitively. I probably could not pass a white fish versus oil fish test.
    That's the problem, it's both a species and a classification that is opposite to oily. It's very confusing. Especially when the species falls into the oily group.

    I was early to the ortho appt. on Thursday so asked if the three staff at the desk knew the difference while we were chatting. One asked me if I was retired and had lots of time to research. That was before they all said they had no idea. And this place is also where we go for Oban's Lymphangiectasia, the ailment requiring his special low fat diet that caused me to look into this in the first place. OK, so they were all just office staff, not even Vet Techs, let alone Vets. But they acted like this was beyond the need to know and I have a sick dog and I need to know.

  9. #7
    House Broken Lainie's Avatar
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    Just reading this thread & as Snowshoe knows, Jessie had a saliva test from HemoPet as well & whitefish came up as sensitivity but salmon was ok. I too didn't know how to interpret exactly what white fish would be since I often gave Jessie mackerel or sardines, so I called their lab & was told that they consider whitefish to be any fish whose flesh is white.

  10. #8
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    I have now sent Nutriscan THREE emails on this same question!!!!

    I just received an email from Nutriscan asking for more digestive issue case studies. They still have not answered either of my two queries on the whitefish. I just used the reply feature on the email and asked them again, making that three times I've asked the same question. I'm getting pretty ticked off. The digestive issues email I got today even has the nerve to feature dogs who successfully thwarted their issues by avoiding their avoid foods and some were whitefish. It's making me see red.

  11. #9
    Senior Dog Charlotte K.'s Avatar
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    Call them. Website email forms often have a glitch. Or if the person who has that account is out, there can be a delay in response at some companies. I have found phone contact with Hemopet preferable.

  12. #10
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    I know I can phone them. I prefer an answer in writing. They were very prompt with email response to two other questions I had.

    I see the answer Lainie got when she phoned and it says to me they don't know the answer. The terms have to do with oil content and dispersion in the body, not the colour of the flesh. Flesh colour is incidental but not always concurrent.

 



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