Grain Free Dog Food Linked To Heart Disease?

Monday morning our phone lines were buzzing and our emails were flooded with concerned clients who read the FDA's recent report regarding a possible link between certain types of pet food and heart disease in dogs. Dr. Kelsey & Dr. Rush sat down to address your concerns and provide advice on how to proceed.

[Pladsea]

The AKC has published this study and promotes these recommendations, as well. But, if you check their list of sponsors, Purina is at the top. Purina has mainly been grain based for years and has lost substantial profits to the grain free dog food industry. How about let's do a study on how grain has affected dogs' health over the years. Lol, just check their life expectancy compared to fifty years ago.

[karene]

I fed my Cocker Spaniel “Taste is the Wild” for nine years...she died from congestive heart failure at only nine years old. I don’t think it was coincidental!!!

[trevorbraden]

Man, I am so confused on what brand to buy for my dog.... I am more confused than ever.... I don't have time to do the raw food diet ...I have to feed them dry I just started feeling them Pet Wants it's a Cincinnati local food but now. I am everytime I research a brand of food it seems like there is something negative about it

[mwilk]

Amazing that only the boutique dog foods were named. No Purina or major manufacturers.

[veganlifestyleloveanimals]

My pitbull was fed taste of the wild his whole life. Puppy food until I had to put him down. He was 18.

[davidbellecy]

Where is the link to the study, you didn't include it.

[Mesquinoquesada]

Why do people keep reccomending purina, hills, rc and Iams even tho their ingredients are low quality???

[bamasher]

I feed a home made diet of meat and veggies and sometimes raw, but always organic. I have an 18 yr old shih tzu and a 16 year old pomeranian. They are healthy. They still look great and play like puppies!
Yes, I include additives such as:
Moringa Oliefera, ashwagandha, suma berry, diatomaceous earth, activated charcoal, baked/ground egg shell, azomite, chia or flax, milk thistle, dandelion root, horse tail, curcumin vitamin d3, and L-methionine.

[diegor]

Is there any update on this? On the Internet I only read that grain-free foods are deadly for health. I recently bought taste of the wild bison for my dog, but with so many negative comments I don't know whether to give it or not

[edenriegel]

I would just like to know why they think grain is the issue. No one can tell us. I feed grain free because the ingredients in grain inclusive diets are terrible and mostly filler, but I have yet to hear anyone say why the lack of grain or introduction of other carbohydrates is detrimental.

[FCE-dogs]

"'Ive heard so many people say "Well, only 560 dogs have been diagnosed with this. & there are millions of dogs, so that's nothing." That number is going up everyday. & that number is ONLY the number of dogs who have been diagnosed & reported to the FDA by a cardiologist. Do you have any idea how many people cannot, or will not, spend the money it costs to take a dog to the cardiologist?? So, imagine how many dogs are going undiagnosed & are just dying from this without their owners ever even knowing! "

Dogs with this condition show symptoms a vet would recognize, they might not take the dog to a cardiologist for a definitive ddiagnosis/treatment, but it's not a hidden disease.

Things like beat pulp have been in dog food for decades, so have most of the other ingredients. Peas and lentils can't be THE cause either, because if they were then only the dogs fed those would have this issue and taking them off that diet would reverse the disease, neither is a complete truism- dogs not fed peas and lentils have developed the disease and dogs fed those who have the disease and taken off it don't always reverse course.



This is also important because it shows this;

According to the FDA Vet-LIRN, 176 dogs diagnosed with DCM and without DCM had both tests run. Of those diagnosed with DCM:

51 dogs had low taurine status (either whole blood and/or plasma)
38 had normal taurine status
27 had high taurine status

So 65 of the dogs had NORMAL or HIGH taurine levels, 51 dogs had LOW levels (but not zero) all of these dogs were affected. The numbers there prove a lot, that's it's not JUST something like low taurine levels, and it's not as simple as one cause.

[carolinabeth]

My question is where in nature do dogs ever eat grains like wheat, or corn? My Golden was showing signs and I added 1drop Lugol’s iodine, selenium, coconut oil, fish oil and ground Flaxseed to her diet daily and the heart valve problem healed. Her thyroid disease improved as well. Not sure which additive helped so I continue doing them. She is 14 last month.

[dianelamonica]

i took my dog back to the vet today for shots & to check on his heart murmur and he went from a level 4 to barely a murmur. he asked what i fed him & it was grain free, but the vet told me about grain free & some dog foods have changed their formulas to put in what is necessary, ours is the costco brand. I just wanted to let people know it's reversable & we will be backing off the medications & checking again. I hadn't heard this before.

[averymcdaniel]

I'm so confused. It seems that there is no method of dog food is safe.

[IndiCarrasco]

I give my dog chicken and eggs about half the time as it is what dogs have eaten before commercial dog foods. I wonder if the big dog food companies are just trying to squash their competitors?

[BobPritchard]

My 7 year old Samoyed male who's been fed Orijen (grain free) for most of his life, grew lethargic over several months and was eventually diagnosed with Dilated Cardiomyopathy in July, 2019. Prior to this he was extremely energetic and we would run together and skijor in the winter. I'm sure the canine food manufacturers had good intent when they created their grain free food lines but since this has been uncovered they have behaved like tobacco company execs being dismissive of any link. Very disappointing. Now, my poor dog's life is in the balance and we're praying for a recovery. For what it's worth my 9 year old female Samoyed hasn't shown any symptoms, but the vet has told us to NOT provide any grain free food to either dogs anymore. It doesn't seem worthwhile to pay a lot more $$ for your dog food and risk their lives in the process.

[davidolvera]

I feed my dogs this brand. I need to change up. What would you recommend?

[biblebill]

Dog food is horrible period . Dogs should regularly live to be like 25yrs as they did before dog food which was about like the 60's and before .

[mich_n_mikii]

You know there's a trend in every dog video, most of the vet would always recommend Purina and Royal Canin, and most of the comments would say these two are the most rubbish of all rubbish. Funny I hardly see vets on Youtube recommending other brands. :/

[mel]

Because dogs cannot assimilate carbohydrates, do animals in the wild have peas, lentils, sweet potatoes?