Grain Free Diet For Dogs Causing Heart Problems

Updated june 27 2019.

Grain free diet for dogs causing heart problems. This alarming trend led the us food and drug administration fda to launch an investigation into whether diet and other factors are putting pets at. When a dog comes to us and we learn during the history that it s on a grain free diet we advise switching to a non grain free diet said dr. We ll hope that fda will address this glaring problem then. After conducting an investigation last july they concluded that 90 percent of dog foods connected with dcm cases were grain free and 93 percent of those foods contained peas or.

In july 2018 the fda announced that it had begun investigating reports of canine dilated cardiomyopathy dcm in dogs eating certain pet foods many labeled as grain free. The fda s investigation of grain free dog food and heart disease many of the cases of dcm have involved dogs that were fed grain free diets suggesting that diet may play a role in this disease. This study looks at other potential causes and how to communicate this information to clients. The latest research on grain free dog foods and heart disease the fda has been instrumental in alerting consumers to the potential for dcm with specialized diets.

Diet is a likely factor in about 20 30 of dogs with dcm for which supplementing taurine may reverse the disease. The food and drug administration s investigation of grain free dog and cat foods. Grain free diet for dogs leads to canine heart disease alternative diets have long been a suspected cause of dcm. The next aafco meeting will occur soon january 21 23 2019.

Symptoms of dcm include tiring easily shortness of breath and coughing. But for the majority of dogs it s not yet clear what is causing the heart disease experts say. Certainly there is another issue with grain free dog foods that is causing the many heart disease illnesses and deaths but our existing u s. Amid an ongoing investigation by the food and drug administration into a possible link between heart disease in dogs and grain free dog food often including legumes such as peas.

In the fda s july 2019 update on diet and canine heart disease they examined labels of dog food products reported in dcm cases to determine whether the foods were grain free defined as.