Grain free dog food (FDA earnings)

[Socalx09]

Back in August, the vet mentioned to stop grain free dog food for my dogs. I didn’t realize there was a investigation already about it. But I listened to the vet. There is something about the first 10 ingredients that cause heart disease for dogs. FDA just updated this warning featuring the top brands that caused early heart disease. Use to use Fromm grain free, and I switched over to their regular selection. Fromm made the list for their grain free selection. I still need to check the back of the dog food bag to make sure that it still doesn’t have peas, lentils, other legume seeds and potatoes as the main ingredients.

Just passing this on for anyone who doesn’t know.

When I went to the small pet store last year and told the owner I was switching. The guy had a tantrum saying this was the vets way of making more money so they shut small businesses down. I was like I’m still buying Fromm, just not their grain free selection.

https://ktla.com/2019/06/28/fda-war...s-with-possible-link-to-canine-heart-disease/

 

[gqchris]

When I had my boston terrier, i fed him the BARF diet. Best thing I ever did. Raw meats, chicken backs, eggs. The coat on this guy shined once he started it! And his crapping started to turn regular.

People would freak out when I tossed him an egg and he would know what to do. They are like, OMG he is gonna choke. Ummmm. What the hell you think they eat in the wild!? We feed them processed crap just like we eat and it isn’t natural.

 

[FishSniper]

Back in August, the vet mentioned to stop grain free dog food for my dogs. I didn’t realize there was a investigation already about it. But I listened to the vet. There is something about the first 10 ingredients that cause heart disease for dogs. FDA just updated this warning featuring the top brands that caused early heart disease. Use to use Fromm grain free, and I switched over to their regular selection. Fromm made the list for their grain free selection. I still need to check the back of the dog food bag to make sure that it still doesn’t have peas, lentils, other legume seeds and potatoes as the main ingredients.

Just passing this on for anyone who doesn’t know.

When I went to the small pet store last year and told the owner I was switching. The guy had a tantrum saying this was the vets way of making more money so they shut small businesses down. I was like I’m still buying Fromm, just not their grain free selection.

https://ktla.com/2019/06/28/fda-war...s-with-possible-link-to-canine-heart-disease/

I just asked the vet the other day about grain free cause my dog has allergies and all the stuff online said grain free helps etc. He said it's a bunch of hype and do not switch the food.

 

[mjc]

Mine is on Instinct raw food now and has lost weight and looks better.

 

[Jonas Grumby]

My Weiner eats wellness core, seems to be ok.

 

[ElAzul]

View attachment 769611 My Weiner eats wellness core, seems to be ok.

Was gonna say something about how much we like the weiners but I'm not walking into that one . Last one passed earlier this year almost made it to 20. I told people he goes so far back he was in Jesus's yearbook. He ate grain, grain free, meat bones whatever

 

[nordic454]

We were told the same thing by our vet when we took our new Frenchie in a few weeks ago. We did however feed our Mastiff only grain free for years when we had him.

 

[Icky]

My 17 year corgi/mutt had been eating blue buffalo for the last 8 years? .....he still thinks he's a puppy.

 

[Ziggy]

It's called DCM.
Lots of young dogs dying inexplicably. I recently brought this up in the Current Situation thread.
Google some info and monitor your dog, it's crazy stuff.
Certain brands of food have a higher occurrence rate which of course were the "better for them" choices we had made originally.
Our dog developed an unexplainable cough, heart murmur, head shakes.
Now after switching food to Royal Canin she has improved back to pretty much normal.

 

[DrunkenSailor]

Our vet told us the same thing about a year ago.

 

[DaytonaBabe]

We switched from Orijen Regional Red (grain free) to Skoki (also FirstMate) until all of this shakes out... Can't be too cautious.






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[Nordie]

Pro-Plan is what all my dogs eat...Tons of breeders reccomend it. Cash my doberman was getting really fat, and my gf made me switch to proplan and he has a good weight on him now and a lot more active.

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[RitcheyRch]

we feed our wiener Hills Science Diet for dachshunds. Is for weight management since a heavy wiener is not good.

View attachment 769611 My Weiner eats wellness core, seems to be ok.

 

[Socalx09]

It's called DCM.
Lots of young dogs dying inexplicably. I recently brought this up in the Current Situation thread.
Google some info and monitor your dog, it's crazy stuff.
Certain brands of food have a higher occurrence rate which of course were the "better for them" choices we had made originally.
Our dog developed an unexplainable cough, heart murmur, head shakes.
Now after switching food to Royal Canin she has improved back to pretty much normal.

So sorry to read, but happy she recovered!
This is exactly it. DCM- it’s scary.
My dogs have been on grain free almost their whole lives. Once I switched to Fromm regular- the maltipoo actually had more energy. But, they had no prior symptoms of DCM, so relieved that didn’t happen.


I’d rather be cautious as well, and just go back to regular food. The results don’t look good for the grain free diet

 

[Socalx09]

I just asked the vet the other day about grain free cause my dog has allergies and all the stuff online said grain free helps etc. He said it's a bunch of hype and do not switch the food.

Has your vet recommended Cytopoint for allergies? My maltipoo use to lick his feet and his pair hair was brown. Just always licked all day long. Tried cytopoint, and he stopped licking and itching. His paw hairs are white again. He just needs it every 11 weeks since that’s when it appears to stop working. It costs $52 for the 10lb dog injection.

 

[FishSniper]

Has your vet recommended Cytopoint for allergies? My maltipoo use to lick his feet and his pair hair was brown. Just always licked all day long. Tried cytopoint, and he stopped licking and itching. His paw hairs are white again. He just needs it every 11 weeks since that’s when it appears to stop working. It costs $52 for the 10lb dog injection.

Yes the same day I asked about the food he got a cytopoint injection for the first time. Seems to be working so far which it better for 125 bucks since the dog is 95 pounds. Hoping it lasts 8 weeks but we'll see.

 

[BajaMike]

My old guy (he’s 11 or 12) eats only Royal Canin Gasto Intestinal dry and 1/4 can per meal. Expensive but he is doing great. He’s diabetic also, I have to shoot him with insulin twice a day and monitor his blood sugar.

Food and drugs are about $250 a month....but we don’t want to loose him.

 

[Backlash]

We tried every brand of dog food for our English bulldog over the years. Tried the most expensive healthy crap and the least expensive "Unhealthy" dry food. She snubbed her nose at the expensive stuff and wouldn't eat it (Wet or dry). We put a bowl of Purina dry food in front of her, and she didn't take a breath eating it. Boom, gone! We feed her a lot of chicken too but we arent all that picky with what she eats. She's happy, life is good.

I spoiled her this morning with a few bites of oatmeal. She loves it!

 

[Nordie]

The expensive stuff is not always better honestly. My brother always fed his Doberman the most expensive shit. She would eat it here and there, as soon as he would bring her over to my house she would slam a dog dish around, she wanted to fucking eat.

The other day my brother called me and he took Raney to my GF's work she would not eat and she was not breathing normal.

As far as we know she is riddled with cancer, and my brother is getting ready to put her down soon, but he stopped by the house and got some pro-plan so she will eat. The Vet thinks its leukemia

FUCK CANCER

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[Gelcoater]

Sharing this post from the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study group (a lifetime study on 3,000 golden retrievers to learn more about canine cancer, Abbey is in this study) on FB:



"I would like to alert my fellow study participants and golden lovers re: grain free diets. I may have missed dialogue here, but grain free foods seem to be resulting in low taurine levels and serious cardiac complications. Taurine is an amino acid from meat. Canine's are not able to utilize vegetable protein. Goldens, in particular, may be a breed at higher risk of taurine deficiency and developing Dilated Cardiac Myopathy. It is also seen in cocker spaniels historically. At this time, it isn't known.

Dogs eating Foods that were thought to be top shelf are just as at risk as those who are on lesser quality kibble.

The only way to know if there is a problem is to do the following:

1. Get a whole blood taurine draw (do NOT supplement taurine prior to the draw)
2. If taurine levels are low, the dog will need an ECHO performed by a vet cardiologist to determine heart function and if DCM is present.

My 3 yo golden has been eating a highly rated gf food for 2.5 years due to colitis. Her heart is asymptomatic. Fortunately, she hasn't yet developed DCM, BUT she has poor left ventricular contractility. The hope is that this can be reversed with taurine and omega fish oil supplementation. University of MN and UC Davis are starting to look into this closely as it is believed that this is the tip of the iceberg."




__________________

I posted this from another dog (not golden) website.
@Ziggy touched on DCM.
There are subsequent studies linking DCM and Taurine deficiency with potato and sweet potato.

I can tell you first hand the devistation of DCM.
It was a life changing event for me in 2016, when my almost 8 year old Doberman went from a great day...to dead. In my back yard.
Like flipping a light switch.
The quickness of it all is my only source of comfort. It was fast. She didn’t suffer.



More research needs to be done.
There is indication that potato products in particular make some sort of taurine block, their bodies can’t absorb it properly.

I’ve cut my male Dobe off of potato. It’s on the list with chocolate, onions, grapes and raisins.

 

[GRADS]

All I know is I feed my dog this with a couple tablespoons of chicken broth. She stills walks/runs a mile with me EVERY DAY and she will be 17 in a couple months.

 

[Gelcoater]

All I know is I feed my dog this with a couple tablespoons of chicken broth. She stills walks/runs a mile with me EVERY DAY and she will be 17 in a couple months.

View attachment 769792

That’s awesome!
17 years!
Don’t take one second for granted!
You’re a dickhead. But I’d never hold that against your dog

This DCM, Dilated Cardio Myopathy seems to (and from my anecdotal reading) seems to be isolated mostly in deep chested, large(ish) working breed dogs.
Goldens, Boxers, Rottie, Dobermans, etc.
Not to say it couldn’t crop up in others.
In the Doberman breed (my breed) it’s interesting to note DCM is almost non existent in lines bred in Europe.
Not non existent, but no where close to US numbers.
My personal opinion, is (in part, Consider it the tin foil hat segment of this post) because GMO based grains are not allowed in European feed.
Do your own research, look at the numbers, draw your own conclusions.

 

[HPBoats83]

I had a Cane Corso from a very high end breeder that died unexpectedly on a walk about 2 years ago and I’ve always wondered if it had anything to do with this as she was on a grain free high end dog food her entire life. I’m going to be switching my current Cane Corso to a food that has grain in it I think.


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[Havalife]

Total BS on the DCM scare. If you feed a good food to your pet along with good treats no issue.
Lets look at Taste of the wild, in 5 years of a study 53 dogs eating this had DCM.. You do know they make over a 1,000,000 lbs a month of food and have 4 plants.

 

[CoolCruzin]

I feed my dog table food from day one. And a bit of dog food mixed as well.
Our Beagle is 12 yr old .
Healthy for sure .
Damn dog food has a lot of Preservatives

 

[Gelcoater]

Total BS on the DCM scare. If you feed a good food to your pet along with good treats no issue.
Lets look at Taste of the wild, in 5 years of a study 53 dogs eating this had DCM.. You do know they make over a 1,000,000 lbs a month of food and have 4 plants.

Where do you get these numbers?

I’d assume here?
One source of information.

 

[Backlash]

Don't see Purina on that list! Probably cause it isn't considered a high-end kibble.

 

[BHC Vic]

I just asked the vet the other day about grain free cause my dog has allergies and all the stuff online said grain free helps etc. He said it's a bunch of hype and do not switch the food.

Wife said the same thing. Said it’s ok for her, petco is going out of business and he numbers are going up

 

[BHC Vic]

Also Smokey our first dog lived to be over 18 and ate nothing but pedigree, human food, and beer. That dog had the most amazing life. I miss him everyday. He raised 3 boys. Non stop activity kept that dog alive. He got sick once all 3 boys had moved out. Maybe he figured his work was done

 

[Get415]

Vets say grain free is bad but the k9 nutrition people have a totally opposite opinion. Who really knows.
I will say I had my mastiff (8 yrs old) on grain free from day one and about six months ago, one day out of nowhere she did the hack/ cough. Long story short, she went from the cough, not eating, wouldn't want to go outside...and she was gone about 4 weeks later. During that time vet gave meds for something he thought it might be and it wasn't till after the fact I found out about the grain-free drama on an old thread right here on RDP. She displayed all the symptoms of DCM...
It was very sad and frustrating to watch, especially since I had no clue what was going on

 

[Uncle Dave]

I think its a little more complicated than simply grain free or not.
Constant irritation from grain allergies, excessive gas and diarrhea, and other issues in the dog's life are all complications you have to balance.

I've got three rescues all fed the exact same diet - mostly but not all grain free fromm (good stuff)

These are all small breed dogs and one has developed DCM and is close to end of life. Shes on a regimen of diuretics to keep the water out of the cavity.

The DCM dog had a history of skin issues that the vets handled with steroid shots, It's my belief that these shots, not food enlarged her little heart.



UD

 

[RVR SWPR]

Dogs are living longer than ever because of excellent care.We are taking our pets to their Genetic limit because of the excellent care.We cannot change Genetics.Changing dog food is not going to change the genetic life our pets.

 

[Gelcoater]

Don't see Purina on that list! Probably cause it isn't considered a high-end kibble.

While I’m not a big Purina fan, I will say this.
Their Pro Plan Sport delivers as promised. Increased energy and stamina. Rocky was on it for almost a year.
It was like feeding him crack or something. Total spaz.

 

[FishSniper]

I think its a little more complicated than simply grain free or not.
Constant irritation from grain allergies, excessive gas and diarrhea, and other issues in the dog's life are all complications you have to balance.

I've got three rescues all fed the exact same diet - mostly but not all grain free fromm (good stuff)

These are all small breed dogs and one has developed DCM and is close to end of life. Shes on a diest of diuretics to keep the water out of the cavity.

The DCM dog had a history of skin issues that the vets handled with steroid shots, It's my belief that these shots, not food enlarged her little heart.



UD

I agree with the steroid shot comment. My old vet was trying to treat allergy stuff with steroid shot and pills and I switched vets cause of it.

 

[nameisbond]

My dog doesn't like high end kibble. He'll only eat crap like Pedigree. Instead I've been feeding him raw dog food. Turkey and beef. For treats he gets raw beef liver. He loves his raw food...…………….

 

[Havalife]

I don't see Science Diet on the list. I know someone who had to switch off of Science Diet after testing for DCM, they switched and retested after 6 months and now no issue.