Grain Free Dog Food: does it cause heart failure? (FDA warning)
Grain Free Dog Food: does it cause heart failure? (FDA warning)
Does grain free dog food cause heart failure? that is the warning issued by the FDA when they announced an investigation into the potential link between feeding dogs a grain free diet and them developing a form of heart disease known as dilated cardiomyopathy.
All might not be as it seems though as at this stage there are more questions than answers. Were all the dogs fed the same grain free diet. Were they in fact fed a grain free or just a low grain diet? How many dogs are really affected. Is another ingredient (or even contaminant) responsible? The answers may take some time to become apparent.
It does though raise some interesting points about the feeding of grain free diets to dogs. Is there any real health benefit or are the benefits hype? Are grain free diets formulated appropriately to meet the needs of your dog?
These are questions and concerns all owners who are feeding their dog a grain free food should ask. They are questions every dog owner should ask so that they can feed their dog the best diet possible to match their lifestyle.
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Content
0.06 -> are grain free diets causing our dogs to
die of heart failure
3.78 -> just what is the deal with the recent
FDA announcement that grain free diets
8.34 -> are being investigated for this and
should you think about changing your
12.15 -> dog's diet Hi I'm Dr Alex from ourpetshealth.com helping you and your
19.47 -> pet to live a healthier happier life and
today I just wanted to discuss the
23.939 -> recent announcement by the FDA that a
number of grain free diets are causing
29.91 -> heart disease in dogs that don't
normally suffer from heart disease now
33.6 -> this type of heart disease we're talking
about is something called DCM or dilated
37.95 -> cardiomyopathy and what this is is the
heart becomes enlarged the muscles don't
43.14 -> work properly and so the heart is just
not able to pump blood around the body
47.55 -> to match the needs of that animal okay
so the FDA announcement goes the US Food
53.67 -> and Drug Administration is alerting pet
owners and veterinary professionals
57.3 -> about reports of canine dilated
cardiomyopathy or DCM in dogs eating
62.82 -> certain pet foods containing peas
lentils other legumes seeds or potatoes
67.77 -> as main ingredients these reports are
unusual because DCM is occurring in
72.63 -> breeds not typically genetically prone
to disease the FDA's Center for
77.64 -> Veterinary Medicine and the veterinary
laboratory investigation and response
80.61 -> network a collaboration of government
and veterinary diagnostic laboratories
84.689 -> are investigating this potential
association okay so that's part of the
89.46 -> announcements and I'll leave a link to
the full announcement and down in the
93.119 -> description below so what are the issues
that we need to discuss well I guess the
97.259 -> first one is the fact that the number of
dogs affected is really very low
102.09 -> compared to their total number of dogs
eating these diets now that's not to say
106.439 -> that that's not a cause for concern this
may very well be the very tip of a big
111.329 -> iceberg but I think it's important to
put things into perspective and not have
117 -> complete panic when we're only talking
about a small number of dogs it's
120.509 -> definitely important and we should
definitely all be paying attention to
123.63 -> this situation especially if you're
feeding a grain free diet or thinking
127.38 -> about it but yeah at the moment it seems
that only a small number of dogs have
132.12 -> being
affected so the next issue is that the
134.67 -> statement discusses a number of diets
that contain different pulses and things
139.56 -> in different ingredients as the main
source in their diet so it doesn't
144.12 -> specifically say grain free although
diets that do contain lentils or
149.1 -> potatoes and things like that is the
main component of their diet typically
152.79 -> our grain free so we don't know for sure
that we're talking about completely
156.87 -> grain free diets and we don't know which
diets are involved so that's certainly
160.32 -> something to take on board we also don't
know whether we're dealing with just one
164.04 -> diet or one manufacturer or whether
we're dealing with multiple diets from
169.08 -> multiple sources also at this very early
stage the cause is just completely
174.6 -> unclear and that's really what's being
investigated so you know there are a
178.26 -> number of questions is it a lack of
grain if they are in fact grain free
182.25 -> diets it's probably not the only the
only part of the story but it certainly
186.84 -> could be is it just a lack of grain is
there a common ingredient that's causing
192 -> these problems so do all of these diets
have one certain ingredient and when
196.53 -> that's faded at certain quantities does
that cause DCM and heart failure in dogs
201.63 -> there have also been a number of dogs
that have been affected that have had
205.56 -> low taurine levels and this is something
that we know is associated with the
210.36 -> development of DCM or dialectic
cardiomyopathy and so that may play a
215.37 -> role
having said that only it was about half
218.52 -> I believe of the dogs tested have very
low taurine and other dogs have normal
223.71 -> levels so a low taurine is definitely
not the only story so could we in fact
228 -> be dealing with a couple of different
causes and we're dealing with diseases
233.1 -> the same disease caused in dogs but from
a number of different reasons that's
237.96 -> certainly an important question to
answer
239.85 -> so really it's too early to be drawing
any firm conclusions it's definitely an
244.71 -> important and important development and
it could like I say actually be
248.88 -> affecting a really large number of dogs
so heart disease can go unnoticed and
254.58 -> undiagnosed for quite a period of time
so over time in DCM the heart will
261.18 -> become bigger and
the efficiency of the heart to pump
264.98 -> blood will slowly deteriorate and it's
only when that reaches a critical point
269.93 -> that your dog will start to develop
signs of heart failure so DCM can be
274.82 -> diagnosed time in a number of different
ways and if you're concerned about this
278.84 -> at all then you should definitely be
getting in touch with your vet and
282.56 -> seeing what they have to say and seeing
if there is anything that you should be
285.86 -> thinking about doing for your pet
without a blood test or an ultrasound of
289.64 -> the heart or x-rays there are a number
of things that we can do what this
294.41 -> announcement does do is it does raise
some important or interesting questions
299.03 -> about why we are feeding grain free
diets in the first place so it's
303.38 -> something that there are a lot of myths
misconceptions misinformation that are
308.27 -> being thrown around and there is a lot
of marketing involved as well
312.5 -> with a lot of food companies especially
kind of boutique food manufacturers
316.82 -> really jumping on the grain-free
bandwagon that we have in human health
321.38 -> as well so as far as our dogs go there
is to my knowledge absolutely no clear
327.11 -> evidence to suggest that grain free
diets have any benefit to the vast
330.86 -> majority of dogs so one of the big
things that's thrown around is that
334.67 -> grains are a source of allergy and food
allergies when in reality food allergies
339.169 -> themselves are actually pretty uncommon
and in the vast majority of cases it's
344 -> actually due to the protein component so
that chicken the pork the beef or
348.169 -> whatever kind of protein or animal
animal muscles is put into those diets
353.12 -> sure there are a few individuals that
are allergic to grain but it's a really
358.31 -> tiny minority and that in itself
certainly doesn't justify the mass
361.82 -> feeding of grain free diets to my mind
so the other thing that is often quoted
367.28 -> is that wolves are carnivores dogs come
from wolves and so dogs really can't
374.45 -> process can't digest and have no use for
grain in diets well this actually kind
380.419 -> of ignores an awful long period of
evolution and the dog genome is
386 -> definitely not the same as the wolf
genome and the dog genome has developed
389.63 -> to such an extent that there are a
number of genes that allow dogs to
393.65 -> digest grains to a much greater
efficiency
396.59 -> our wolves can so dogs are wolves and
they are able to digest and utilize
401.99 -> grains so that's something that's not
really true the other issue with some of
406.22 -> these grain free diets is that as I said
before there are a lot of more kind of
410.18 -> boutique or smaller food companies that
are not only producing grain free diets
415.28 -> but they're producing diets that contain
kind of quite novel or quite exotic
419.95 -> ingredients so that might be kind of
different types of meat of crocodile
424.88 -> ostrich kangaroo whatever and different
pulses and seeds and things like that
429.74 -> that haven't traditionally been used in
pet food manufacturing and now that in
434.27 -> itself isn't a problem necessarily but
what it does mean is it means it can be
439.31 -> quite hard to know whether a diet is
completely balanced and whether it's
443.75 -> being digested as would be expected so
every different protein every different
448.58 -> ingredient will be digested in a
different way into a different extent
451.85 -> and it might be that several ingredients
kind of interact and reduce or increase
455.93 -> absorption of different different
vitamins and minerals compared to our
460.22 -> standard diets also a lot of these
boutique and smaller feed companies they
465.86 -> might not be or they're very unlikely to
be feeding having long term feeding
471.05 -> trials to assess kind of the quality of
the diets and to assess animals that are
476.42 -> fed on these diets for a long period of
time before they're released and what
481.52 -> they're often doing is they're comparing
nutrient profiles between different
485.66 -> diets and that can cause big problems so
like I say if you're comparing one diet
490.43 -> that contains say crocodile and lentils
compared to another diet that contains
495.32 -> chicken and rice then if we're just
trying to get the the more exotic
500.36 -> ingredients profile very similar to the
other one then that actually may result
504.77 -> in inappropriate feeding and it may
result in deficiencies or equally excess
509.72 -> of certain vitamins and minerals which
may or may not cause problems and it
513.26 -> might be for this reason why we're
finding a low taurine in some of these
518.12 -> dogs that are being investigated so we
just really need to be careful with
521.63 -> marketing buzzwords because there's not
really any legislation or control about
524.93 -> the use of these these these terms so
grain free short there's
530 -> being touted as having health benefits
but really are there well we don't know
533.99 -> it may well be that a grain free diet is
better but we just don't know so to
537.89 -> suggest that there definitely is a
benefit to your dog is is you know maybe
541.97 -> not true also hypoallergenic that is
very often kind of printed on food bags
548.06 -> and really unless we're talking about a
very small selection of diets that we
552.26 -> use specifically as food trials to rule
out food allergies then hypoallergenic
556.04 -> really doesn't mean very much and in the
vast majority of cases is is unnecessary
561.47 -> to be feeding your dog also natural a
lot of diets will claim to be natural
566.48 -> and really our dog you can of what what
does this mean I think in a lot of cases
570.26 -> it probably doesn't mean what we think
it does and again it's not really
573.74 -> necessary it's more of a kind of a
marketing term so a lot of these smaller
577.55 -> brands they really focus heavily on
marketing and you know they produce
581.87 -> fantastic adverts and videos and all
that kind of thing and they could be
585.2 -> very compelling but perhaps the evidence
behind feeding them isn't as strong as
589.55 -> they would suggest so that's not to say
that like like I suggested that's not to
593.63 -> say that grain free diets aren't better
we just don't know it might be that
597.17 -> feeding a home prepared well balanced
diet is better for your dog than feeding
601.91 -> a commercial food it might be that wool
feeding is better than then again the
606.08 -> commercial diet when fed appropriate and
when fed in a balanced state but the
610.07 -> fact of the matter is there's just not
really any hard evidence or compelling a
615.29 -> compelling body of evidence to suggest
that one diet is better than the other
619.4 -> in many many cases diet is something
that it brings out a lot of passionate
624.95 -> responses in a lot of people there are a
lot of stories thrown thrown around you
629.9 -> know my dog was fed this food I switched
onto this food and their health improved
634.76 -> massively really anecdotes are a very
poor form of evidence they're really not
640.01 -> evidence at all and you know what we
need and what would be fantastic as if
645.32 -> we had some large-scale feeding trials
but you know they're just not available
649.04 -> at the moment hopefully they will they
will be developed in the future but you
653.42 -> know we really need to watch this space
we certainly know that there are risks
656.78 -> with some diets so for example role
feeding it does have an
660.99 -> crease risk of conditioners like Salman
net Salmonella it does increase
665.55 -> bacterial load installs and also
potentially a multi resistant bacteria
669.899 -> installs now in a normal healthy adult
and adult household those things may not
674.94 -> be too much of a risk but if there's a
baby if there's an elderly person or if
678.24 -> there's someone who's immunocompromised
then that could definitely be a
682.16 -> significant risk and it could cause a
really serious disease in those
686.399 -> individuals so you know we need to think
are the benefits that we think they're
691.56 -> actually present and what are the risks
of feeding these diets and you know
696.33 -> potentially this investigation will
highlight some of the risks with feeding
699.6 -> a grain free diet but really watch this
space okay so that's my thoughts on the
705.24 -> FDA investigation into grain free diets
causing heart failure in dogs really
710.13 -> there's more questions than answers I
know but it's that it is something that
713.79 -> we really should watch this space we
should try and stay well informed and we
717.45 -> should try and stay up to date with the
actual evidence and information that's
721.02 -> out there so I hope you found this
interested that interesting I'd love to
725.07 -> hear your thoughts below are you feeding
a grain free diet while you worried are
729.6 -> you thinking about switching or we're
thinking of changing to a grain free
733.589 -> diet and as this changed your mind I'd
love to hear but until next time i'm dr.
738.06 -> alex from our pets health because
they're family
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnHq0n-UMP0