Hello Danes

Category: DCM

  • Heart Murmurs In Dogs 101

    Heart Murmurs In Dogs 101

    Imagine this: you’re at the veterinarian for a routine checkup when they mention that your pet has a heart murmur. While this condition may seem daunting, it’s important to note that heart murmurs in dogs are not always catastrophic. Unfortunately, at times, they are indicative of a bigger problem.

    If your veterinarian has diagnosed your dog with a heart murmur, you must rule out more serious conditions. Start here for more information on causes and treatments!

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    Heart Murmur Levels in Dogs

    Veterinarians diagnose heart murmurs in dogs based on their intensity and characteristics, which are typically graded on a scale from I to VI.

    Here’s an overview of the different levels of heart murmurs in dogs:

    Grade I:

    • Grade I murmurs are the softest and often difficult to detect.
    • They may only be audible during careful auscultation in a quiet environment.

    Grade II:

    • Grade II murmurs are still relatively soft but can be heard more clearly with a stethoscope.
    • They may occur intermittently.
    • Monitoring and periodic reevaluation by a veterinarian are usually recommended.

    Grade III:

    • Grade III murmurs are moderate in intensity and can be heard readily with a stethoscope placed on the chest wall.
    • They may indicate underlying heart disease, such as valve abnormalities or congenital defects.
    • Further diagnostic tests, such as echocardiography, may be recommended to determine the cause and severity of the murmur.

    Grade IV:

    • Grade IV murmurs are loud and can be heard with the stethoscope barely touching the chest.
    • They often indicate significant heart abnormalities and may be associated with clinical signs such as coughing, exercise intolerance, or fainting.
    • Prompt evaluation by a veterinarian and initiation of treatment is typically necessary.

    Grade V:

    • Grade V murmurs are very loud and may be accompanied by palpable vibrations (thrills) over the chest wall.
    • They may indicate severe heart disease, such as advanced valve dysfunction or cardiomyopathy.
    • Immediate veterinary attention and aggressive management are crucial to stabilize the dog’s condition and improve its prognosis.

    Grade VI:

    • Grade VI murmurs are the loudest and most intense.
    • They are often associated with life-threatening conditions such as congestive heart failure or ruptured chordae tendineae.
    • Emergency veterinary care is required, and treatment options may be limited depending on the underlying cause and overall health status of the dog.

    Understanding the grading system for heart murmurs allows veterinarians to assess the severity of the condition and tailor appropriate treatment plans to manage the dog’s cardiac health.

    If your pet has been diagnosed with a heart murmur of any type, don’t panic. Your veterinarian will guide you on the next steps.

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    What Causes Heart Murmurs in Dogs?

    Heart murmurs in dogs can have various underlying causes, ranging from benign conditions to serious cardiac abnormalities. Some common causes include:

    Valve Abnormalities:

    • Degenerative valve disease: This is the most common cause of heart murmurs in older dogs. It involves progressive deterioration of the heart valves, particularly the mitral valve.
    • Congenital valve defects: Dogs may be born with malformed or abnormal heart valves, leading to turbulent blood flow and murmurs from an early age.

    Structural Heart Defects:

    • Ventricular septal defect (VSD): A hole in the septum (wall) between the heart’s ventricles, allowing blood to flow abnormally between the chambers.
    • Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA): Failure of the fetal ductus arteriosus to close after birth, resulting in abnormal blood flow between the aorta and pulmonary artery.

    Cardiomyopathy:

    • Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM): Characterized by weakened and enlarged heart muscles, leading to impaired pumping function and murmurs due to turbulent blood flow.
    • Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM): Thickening of the heart muscles, particularly the walls of the left ventricle, leading to abnormal blood flow and murmurs.

    Anemia:

    • Low red blood cell count or inadequate hemoglobin levels can cause turbulent blood flow through the heart chambers, resulting in murmurs.
    • Anemia may be caused by various factors, including nutritional deficiencies, blood loss, or underlying health conditions.

    Hyperthyroidism:

    • An overactive thyroid gland (hyperthyroidism) can lead to increased heart rate (tachycardia) and potentially murmurs due to altered blood flow dynamics.
    • Thyroid hormone imbalances can affect cardiovascular function and contribute to the development of murmurs.

    Other Causes of Heart Murmurs in Dogs

    • Heartworm disease: Infestation with heartworms can lead to pulmonary hypertension and murmurs due to increased pressure in the pulmonary artery.
    • Infections (e.g., endocarditis): Bacterial or fungal infections affecting the heart valves or lining can cause murmurs and other cardiac abnormalities.

    It’s important for veterinarians to thoroughly evaluate dogs with heart murmurs to determine the underlying cause and appropriate management strategy. Treatment may vary depending on the specific diagnosis and severity of the condition.

    You can read more about heart murmurs from Cornell University, HERE.

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    What are the Signs of Heart Problems in Dogs?

    Signs of heart problems in dogs can vary depending on the specific condition and its severity. However, some common signs to watch for include:

    1. Coughing: Persistent coughing, especially at night or during physical activity, can be a sign of heart disease in dogs.
    2. Difficulty Breathing: Labored or rapid breathing, especially at rest, can indicate heart-related respiratory distress.
    3. Exercise Intolerance: Reluctance to engage in physical activity or tiring quickly during exercise may be a sign of reduced cardiac function.
    4. Fainting or Weakness: Episodes of fainting or weakness, particularly during exertion or excitement, can be indicative of poor circulation or cardiac arrhythmias.
    5. Reduced Appetite or Weight Loss: Loss of appetite or unexplained weight loss may occur in dogs with advanced heart disease.
    6. Abdominal Distension: Swollen or distended abdomen (ascites) due to fluid accumulation may occur in dogs with congestive heart failure.
    7. Bluish Discoloration of Gums: Cyanosis, or bluish discoloration of the gums or tongue, may indicate inadequate oxygenation of the blood.
    8. Restlessness or Anxiety: Dogs may exhibit restlessness, pacing, or anxiety, particularly if they are experiencing discomfort or difficulty breathing.
    9. Reduced Stamina: Decreased energy levels or reluctance to engage in normal activities may be a sign of underlying cardiac issues.
    10. Syncope (Fainting): Sudden loss of consciousness or fainting episodes can occur in dogs with severe heart disease, often triggered by exertion or excitement.

    It’s important to note that these signs can be nonspecific and may also be indicative of other health conditions. If you notice any of these signs in your dog, especially if they are persistent or worsening over time, it’s essential to seek prompt veterinary attention for a thorough evaluation and appropriate diagnosis and treatment. Early detection and intervention can help improve outcomes and quality of life for dogs with heart problems.

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    When To See a Veterinary Cardiologist

    A board-certified veterinary cardiologist is a specialized veterinarian who has undergone advanced training and obtained certification in veterinary cardiology. To become board-certified, they must pass comprehensive examinations administered by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) in the subspecialty of cardiology.

    Board-certified veterinary cardiologists possess extensive knowledge and expertise in interpreting diagnostic tests such as echocardiography, electrocardiography, and cardiac imaging, allowing them to provide specialized care for pets with heart conditions.

    A veterinary cardiologist should be consulted when a dog is diagnosed with a heart condition or exhibits symptoms suggestive of cardiac disease, including heart murmurs.

    A veterinary cardiologist will assess your dog’s cardiac health through diagnostic tests, including echocardiography, electrocardiography (ECG), and chest X-rays.

    Armed with that information, they will devise a personalized treatment plan, which may involve medications, surgical interventions, diet changes, or other therapeutic measures. They also guide you on long-term management and monitoring, while collaborating closely with your dog’s primary care veterinarian to ensure comprehensive care.

    If you visit with a Veterinary Cardiologist, it’s important to take their advice and adhere to the prescribed treatment protocol.

    While alluring “holistic” treatments such as homemade food and herbal remedies may be presented to you by influencers and other pet owners, they aren’t based on science and may do more harm than good.

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    Should I Get a Puppy With a Heart Murmur?

    Deciding whether to adopt or purchase a puppy with a heart murmur requires careful consideration and consultation with a veterinarian.

    While a heart murmur in a puppy may raise concerns, it’s important to understand that not all murmurs indicate serious underlying heart disease.

    In many cases, puppies may outgrow innocent or benign murmurs as they mature. However, if a murmur persists or is associated with other symptoms such as coughing, exercise intolerance, or fainting, further evaluation by a veterinarian, potentially including referral to a veterinary cardiologist, is necessary to determine the cause and severity of the murmur.

    Some puppies have heart murmurs because they were born with congenital defects. These defects are often preventable with ethical breeding practices. Tread cautiously when working with breeders who do not do OFA Cardiac testing on breeds that are prone to heart disease.

    Depending on the diagnosis and prognosis provided by the veterinarian, adopting a puppy with a heart murmur may still be feasible with proper management and care. Only you can determine if this situation is right for you and your family.

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    Do Grain-Free Foods Cause Heart Murmurs?

    The link between grain-free diets and heart murmurs in dogs has been a topic of concern in recent years. While grain-free diets themselves do not directly cause heart murmurs, there is growing evidence suggesting a potential association between certain types of boutique or grain-free diets and an increased risk of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs.

    DCM is a serious heart condition characterized by weakened and enlarged heart muscles, leading to impaired pumping function. Historically, DCM has been more commonly associated with specific breeds or genetic predispositions. However, in recent years, an apparent increase in DCM cases, particularly in breeds not typically predisposed to the disease, has raised questions about potential dietary factors.

    Some research suggests that certain grain-free diets, especially those high in legumes (such as peas, lentils, and chickpeas) or potatoes, may be linked to an increased risk of DCM in susceptible dogs.

    These diets often rely on non-traditional protein sources and may have imbalanced nutrient profiles, which could contribute to the development of cardiac issues over time.

    However, it’s essential to note that the exact mechanisms and causative factors of diet-related DCM are still not fully understood, and ongoing research is needed to elucidate the relationship between diet and cardiac health in dogs.

    In light of these concerns, pet owners are advised to consult with their veterinarians to ensure that their dog’s diet is nutritionally balanced and appropriate for their individual needs.

    If a dog is diagnosed with DCM or exhibits symptoms of cardiac disease, including heart murmurs, dietary adjustments may be recommended as part of the overall treatment plan. Additionally, regular veterinary check-ups and monitoring are crucial for early detection and management of potential heart issues in dogs, regardless of their diet.

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    How are Heart Murmurs Treated?

    Treatment for heart murmurs in dogs depends on the underlying cause and severity of the condition. Here are some common approaches:

    Medications for Heart Murmurs in Dogs:

    • Diuretics: These medications help remove excess fluid from the body, reducing pressure on the heart and alleviating symptoms of congestive heart failure.
    • ACE Inhibitors: These drugs dilate blood vessels, improving blood flow and reducing the workload on the heart.
    • Positive Inotropes: These medications strengthen the heart muscle’s contractions, improving its pumping ability.
    • Antiarrhythmics: These drugs help regulate abnormal heart rhythms, reducing the risk of arrhythmia-related complications.

    Dietary Management:

    • Prescription Diets: Specialized diets formulated for heart health may contain specific nutrients or ingredients to support cardiac function.
    • WSAVA-Compliant Diets: For dogs with less serious heart conditions, a WSAVA-compliant age and size-appropriate diet (such as Purina, Hill’s Science Diet, or Royal Canin) is the safest choice.
    71 3TAGbjTL. AC SL1500

    Hill’s Science Diet Heart Care Dog Food

    This food is clinically proven to help dogs with heart conditions maintain health.

    Requires veterinary recommendation.

    Buy on Amazon
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    Lifestyle Modifications:

    • Exercise Restriction: Limiting strenuous activity helps reduce the workload on the heart and prevents the worsening of symptoms.
    • Weight Management: Maintaining a healthy weight reduces strain on the heart and can improve overall cardiac function.

    Monitoring and Follow-Up:

    • Regular Veterinary Check-ups: Monitoring heart murmurs and assessing the dog’s response to treatment is essential for adjusting medications and managing the condition effectively.
    • Diagnostic Tests: Periodic echocardiograms, electrocardiograms, and chest X-rays may be recommended to monitor the progression of heart disease and assess treatment efficacy.

    Interventional Procedures:

    • Surgery: In some cases, surgical interventions such as valve repair, pacemaker implantation, or correction of congenital heart defects may be necessary to improve cardiac function and alleviate symptoms.

    Pet owners should work closely with their veterinarians to develop a comprehensive treatment plan that addresses their dog’s specific condition and optimizes their cardiac health and quality of life.

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  • Keto Natural Pet Foods vs. Hill’s Science Diet Lawsuit

    Keto Natural Pet Foods vs. Hill’s Science Diet Lawsuit

    Another day, another round of pet food lawsuits, recalls, misinformation, and drama. I suspect this is going to be a big one! On February 6th, 2024, Keto Natural Pet Foods filed a massive class action lawsuit against Hill’s Science Diet. Keto Natural Pet Foods vs. Hill’s Pet Nutrition is a hot topic, with a controversial argument.

    They claim that Hill’s Science Diet and a handful of top veterinary specialists “participated in an egregious, wide-ranging, and damaging campaign of coordinated, for-profit, faux-scientific misinformation.”

    Here is the list of Defendants listed in the lawsuit:

    • Hill’s Science Diet
    • Morris Animal Foundation – Mark Morris Institute
    • Dr. Lisa M. Freeman – Board Certified Veterinary Nutritionist
    • Dr. Darcy B. Adin – Board Certified Veterinary Cardiologist
    • Dr. Joshua A. Stern – Board Certified Veterinary Cardiologist
    • Dr. Ryan C. Fries – Board Certified Veterinary Cardiologist
    • Dr. John E. Rush – Board Certified Veterinary Cardiologist

    To put this in simple terms, Keto Naturals pet food is alleging that Hill’s Science Diet and the above list of highly-educated veterinary specialists fabricated the entire grain-free DCM heart disease debate to gain back lost market share from boutique and small food brands.

    What is the “Grain-Free DCM Heart Disease Debate?

    This issue in pet food revolves around concerns that certain grain-free diets may be linked to an increased incidence of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs. While some believe that grain-free and boutique diets can contribute to DCM, others argue that insufficient evidence exists to establish a direct causal relationship, prompting ongoing discussions and research in the pet food industry. You can learn more about this HERE.

    I have so many thoughts. As always, our blog relies on published evidence, common sense, and cited research. We do not resort to fear-mongering or insincere sensationalism! This blog post is your one-stop place to learn more about this issue. Please like, share, and follow. Read on, friends.

    Keto natural pet foods vs. Hill's Science Diet Lawsuit

    Keto Naturals Ketona Pet Food

    To better understand the source of this lawsuit, I did some digging into the company behind it.

    Keto Naturals is a boutique pet food company in the truest sense of the word. According to Grips Intelligence, their yearly sales revenue is below $1 Million U.S.D.

    Compare that to Hill’s Science Diet, whose 2023 revenue sits at $4 Billion U.S.D.

    If they wanted to, Hill’s could buy Keto Naturals and stuff it in a closet. Their measly revenue is not, and has never been, a threat to Hill’s Science Diet.

    Keto Naturals markets their pet food as a low-carb Keto and “natural” diet option for pets.

    The ketogenic diet trend in humans has led to the emergence of low-carb, high-protein, high-fat pet foods marketed as “keto” options for dogs and cats. (Learn more about diet trends, toxic diet culture, and white supremacy, here1)

    However, while some pet owners are drawn to these products due to their alignment with human dietary fads, there is an ongoing debate among experts about the suitability and safety of ketogenic diets for animals. There is minimal research supporting the use of Ketogenic diets, while a considerable body of evidence suggests various potential problems associated with them.

    Numerous specialists emphasize that Ketogenic diets may not be suitable for most humans either2, due to the connection with yo-yo dieting, disordered eating, and potential risks to internal heart, liver, and kidney health.

    Some dogs may have underlying health conditions that could be exacerbated by a ketogenic diet, such as pancreatitis (which is implicated here).3

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    The Keto Naturals Brand & Founder

    Here are some other things we know about Keto Naturals / Ketona Pet Food and its founder:

    • Their food is co-packed by big factories that make many other brands for other companies.
    • There is no qualified nutritionist on staff.
    • It is unclear where the recipes are from, and if a qualified nutritionist consultant was used in their creation.
    • Keto Naturals does not participate in or publish peer-reviewed research or feeding trials.
    • They have a “science” page on their website pointing to a belief that carbs are fattening for humans and dogs. That is a theory that has remained unsubstantiated and is often refuted in published research.
    • A lot of their marketing is centered around bashing competitors (Such as the Farmer’s Dog) and other food types (including raw and fresh), as well as AAFCO regulations and standard practices for food nutrient testing.
    • Their website states that their foods have never been associated with a single case of nutritional DCM. However, their market share is abysmal. Some of the revenue comes from supplements they sell, not complete diets. The company has only been around since 2018, and very few dogs eat their food.
    • Keto Naturals’ outspoken founder and CEO Daniel Schulof is a lawyer. He is not an animal scientist, biologist, qualified nutritionist, or veterinarian.

    Despite having no formal education in animal nutrition, biology, or veterinary science, Daniel Schulof has positioned himself as an expert authority on this topic and even published a book that he says has been critically acclaimed.

    He does have a $200 certificate in pet nutrition from a RACE-approved veterinary CE online course. He openly declares his readiness to challenge anyone with superior credentials, firmly believing that his knowledge exceeds theirs.

    This information is easy to find via a quick Google search, where his LinkedIn profile is publicly visible.

    He is boldly challenging a group of veterinary researchers and specialists who possess significantly more education and expertise than he does.

    I’m going to say something controversial about Keto Natural Pet Foods vs. Hill’s, but hear me out.

    I believe that the Keto Natural vs. Hill’s Science Diet Lawsuit is a brilliant marketing move.

    This news has spread rapidly across social media, leading to increased interest in Keto Naturals and higher engagement with their content.

    By submitting a controversial and potentially frivolous lawsuit, costing around $400 U.S.D., the brand has garnered significant attention in the pet community. Holistic veterinarians and “consumer advocates” are buzzing, selectively promoting information that supports the arguments presented in the lawsuit.

    How ironic.

    Keto Naturals History & the DCM Debate

    Daniel Schulof (founder of Keto Naturals) is no stranger to engaging in this controversy. He practically invented it.

    In the lawsuit document, he references an article that was published in the JAMVA on December 1st, 2018.4 This article was, at the time of his dispute with it in 2019, the most widely read article on the JAVMA website.

    He wanted that article removed, so he created a website called “Veterinary Integrity” and collected the signatures of veterinarians, scientists, human medical providers, representatives of grain-free pet food companies, and individual pet owners. His petition demanded the removal of the above editorial commentary piece from the JAMVA. (Read his demand letter HERE). 5

    Despite the submission of the petition to JAVMA, the article was not retracted.

    Certainly, the signatures he amassed predominantly reflected the views of a minority subset consisting of “holistic” veterinarians, pet food companies, and individuals inclined towards extreme “wellness” ideologies that often overlook scientific evidence. These signatures did not align with the sentiments of the majority of veterinarians and pet owners.

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    Keto Natural Pet Foods vs. Hill’s Lawsuit & Arguments

    Determining whether Keto Naturals has a case against Hill’s Science Diet would depend on various factors, including the evidence presented, legal arguments, and the interpretation of relevant laws and regulations.

    Author’s Note: Hello Danes does not necessarily agree with the following statements and arguments made in the Keto Naturals vs. Hill’s Science Diet lawsuit filing. This is being provided for informational purposes only:

    In the text of the lawsuit (which can be found here)6, the company implies and believes that:

    1. Hill’s Science Diet collaborated with several veterinary specialists to falsely claim that all “non-traditional” dog foods raise the risk of canine DCM.
    2. They deceitfully encouraged the FDA to investigate DCM cases by cherry-picking data.
    3. Studies have not proven definitive causation.
    4. They popularized the term “BEG” diets (Boutique, Exotic, Grain-Free) to implicate competitors and used blogs, websites, and social media to shape the narrative.
    5. This led to significant losses for “BEG” pet food companies like Keto Naturals, which alleges its reputation was unfairly damaged.
    6. Veterinarians who spread information about grain-free diets received it from Hill’s Science Diet and the Veterinary Defendants, raising concerns about funding and influence.
    7. The Veterinary Defendants also have a conflict of interest due to their involvement in research funded by Hill’s Science Diet.

    In this specific case, it seems like a class action is being pursued. This means that other small pet food companies could potentially join the case and seek compensation from any eventual judgment or settlement (if there is one, and that is a big if).


    As a journalist, I typically strive to remain impartial while supporting my argument with published research and science.

    It’s worth pointing out that the founder of Keto Naturals seems quite upset by what he feels is a loss of consumer trust in his brand (and thus, revenue), and he wants somewhere to place the blame.

    Conveniently, his argument also happens to stand on a very controversial platform.

    Controversy sells.

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    Grain-Free Diets and DCM Heart Disease in Dogs

    In 2014, Veterinary Cardiologists initiated communication with the FDA regarding an alarming trend they had been noticing of atypical heart disease. This led the FDA to begin collecting data from Veterinary Specialists (some of whom are defendants in this lawsuit).

    An announcement from the FDA in 20187 (four years later) aimed to gather more information from affected pet owners, sparking a prolonged debate that continues into 2024. Coincidentally, Keto Naturals Pet Food was started in 2018. The discussion had already been happening, and they were late to the party.

    Despite the implication made in the lawsuit that “no research has proven a link between grain-free foods and heart disease in dogs”, there is a lot more to that story.

    The FDA has a helpful Q&A page8 that beautifully explains a lot of the information available to us regarding DCM and Nutritional Factors.

    A study published in December 20229 showed that dogs fed non-traditional diets showed lower cardiac function and higher ventricular volume than dogs fed diets without potatoes or pulses. This study, like others, underscores the necessity for ongoing research and exploration into the matter.10

    Veterinarians nationwide consistently observe a rise in atypical heart disease cases among patients fed non-traditional, BEG, or grain-free diets. Many instances reportedly show improvement or reversal with diet change.

    While it’s very possible that most dogs can eat BEG-style diets their whole lives without issue, some cannot. It may take years to sort out why.

    The Keto Natural Pet Foods Inc. lawsuit against Hill’s Science Diet is adding fuel to the flames. To deny the hundreds of pet parents, whose pets were diagnosed with nutritional DCM and were harmed by boutique pet foods, is disingenuous.

    Moreover, nutrition science is a highly complex and expanding area of research. It’s concerning that the owner of a small company, who is a lawyer and not a veterinary scientist, feels confident in arguing so egregiously against something about which he has limited knowledge and personal experience.

    Given his background as a lawyer, one would anticipate his understanding of the peer-review process in research and science. However, it is troubling that he dismisses any critical studies and discussion on this topic, attributing it all to perceived financial influence and conflict of interest.

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    Does Keto Naturals Have a Case Against Hill’s Nutrition?

    I’m not a legal professional, so I can’t provide a definitive answer. However, I’m open to sharing my thoughts and speculations on the matter.

    Frivolous lawsuits are often considered baseless, lacking in legal reasoning or evidence to support the claims made. They may be filed for reasons such as harassment, intimidation, or to exploit the legal system for personal gain (see above, this is exceptionally good marketing for Keto Naturals brand).

    Frivolous lawsuits can waste time and resources for both parties involved and can clog up the court system.

    I observe a fledgling brand (Keto Naturals/Ketona) investing its limited time and resources into challenging top veterinary specialists and a large company (Hill’s Pet Nutrition) that is backed by extensive volumes of peer-reviewed scientific research.

    At its core, that is frivolous.

    The suggestion that multiple veterinary researchers have colluded with a single company to deliberately undermine small brands like Keto Naturals (whose revenue, even when combined with several other smaller brands, poses no threat to Hill’s bottom line) is far-fetched.

    To prevail in this case, they’ll need to provide substantial evidence that these events occurred and were intentional. Many statements in the legal filing appear akin to a toddler’s tantrum, which may not be taken seriously by a judge.

    Keto Natural Pet Food attributes its stagnant growth to the DCM “scheme” allegedly orchestrated by Hill’s Pet Nutrition and its purported co-conspirators, overlooking the simple fact that there may just not be much interest in Keto Dog Food among consumers.

    The popularity of the human Keto diet trend is waning as people become more aware of the health risks associated with extreme and restrictive diets. It’s logical to assume that a boutique pet food company attempting to capitalize on this trend would face challenges, regardless of external factors.

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    With many things in the world of pet food, there are two sides.

    On one side, there’s the often anti-science “holistic” faction, advocating for what they view as a more “natural” approach. Unfortunately, many adherents to this philosophy regularly undermine the credibility of experts and engage in the propagation of conspiracy theories. This side stands firmly with Keto Naturals, as for years they have shared the same unsubstantiated arguments that he does.

    On the other side, there’s the pro-veterinary research faction, committed to uncovering the truth through scientific methods, diligent peer-reviewed research, and evidence-based practices.

    It will be interesting to see how this shakes out, but for now, I’m choosing to continue standing with science.

    Disclaimer: The information provided regarding the KetoNatural Pet Foods Inc. vs. Hill’s Pet Nutrition Inc. lawsuit is for informational purposes only. We are not legal professionals, and any information presented is a journalistic interpretation and should not be construed as legal advice. Additionally, our site is not affiliated with, or funded by the FDA, Hill’s Science Diet, or Veterinary Researchers.

    Footnotes

    1. Diet culture is rooted in racism, white supremacy, and colonialism, Marisa Crane
      BS       ↩︎
    2. Ketogenic diet: What are the risks? U.C. Davis. Natalie Helms ↩︎
    3. Cridge H, Lim SY, Algül H, Steiner JM. New insights into the etiology, risk factors, and pathogenesis of pancreatitis in dogs: Potential impacts on clinical practice. J Vet Intern Med. 2022 May;36(3):847-864. doi: 10.1111/jvim.16437. Epub 2022 May 12. PMID: 35546513; PMCID: PMC9151489. ↩︎
    4. Freeman, L. M., Stern, J. A., Fries, R., Adin, D. B., & Rush, J. E. (2018). Diet-associated dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs: what do we know?. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 253(11), 1390-1394. Retrieved Feb 13, 2024, from https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.253.11.1390 ↩︎
    5. Daniel Schulof Demand Letter to the AVMA, January 26th, 2019 ↩︎
    6. Keto Naturals Inc. vs. Hill’s Science Diet Inc. Class Action Lawsuit Document ↩︎
    7. FDA Investigating Potential Connection Between Diet and Cases of Canine Heart Disease ↩︎
    8. Questions & Answers: FDA’s Work on Potential Causes of Non-Hereditary DCM in Dogs ↩︎
    9. Owens EJ, LeBlanc NL, Freeman LM, Scollan KF. Comparison of echocardiographic measurements and cardiac biomarkers in healthy dogs eating nontraditional or traditional diets. J Vet Intern Med. 2023; 37(1): 37-46. doi:10.1111/jvim.16606 ↩︎
    10. All Trades DVM DCM Timeline ↩︎
  • Dog Food DCM in Great Danes

    Dog Food DCM in Great Danes

    We’ve already written a few posts about dog food & DCM in Great Danes, but haven’t yet compiled a list of helpful topics, links, and science on it. This dog food DCM article will be ongoing and updated often. If you are concerned about nutritional DCM, or if your Great Dane was diagnosed with DCM (dilated cardiomyopathy) or heart disease, this blog should serve as a resource for you.

    If you would like to click open some of our most popular nutritional DCM resources, start here (they will open in a new tab for you). Many other links are posted in the blog text below as well.

    Should I feed Grain-Free Dog Food?

    DCM Update, 2022

    Judy Morgan, the FDA, and Pseudoscience

    What is DCM in Dogs?

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    What is Nutritional DCM in Dogs?

    Nutritional DCM, or “dog food DCM” is when a dog develops dilated cardiomyopathy (heart problems) because of unbalanced or poorly formulated nutrition. While some people believe this is a hoax, the relationship between bad nutrition and health problems in animals is well documented.

    In other words, this is a well-known and studied phenomenon. For example, in the not-so-distant past, cats were turning up with dilated cardiomyopathy. Pet food manufacturers responded to this by researching the problem and learning that for cats, it was related to nutritional deficiencies.

    Cat foods were adjusted and from that point forward, the problem went away. Here is an article from 1987 that covers this event: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-08-14-mn-805-story.html

    For cats, who have a limited ability to make their own taurine, it was a simple solution. Adding taurine to the diet solved the problem. For dogs (who are much more able to synthesize their own taurine from other amino acids), it’s a lot more complicated.

    Below I’m sharing some nutritional DCM facts, as well as scientific research and links. In the interest of keeping this article clean and free of bias, we will not be using any affiliate links in the text of the post.

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    Nutritional DCM Facts

    Here are some facts about nutritional DCM Dilated Cardiomyopathy that you may not know.

    Nutritional Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs is a serious heart condition that has been associated with certain dietary factors. Here are some key facts about nutritional DCM:

    1. Definition: Nutritional DCM is a heart disease that affects the heart muscle, leading to its enlargement and weakened contractions.
    2. Link to Diet: Research has suggested a potential link between certain grain-free and boutique diets and an increased risk of DCM in dogs. Diets high in peas, lentils, and potatoes are specifically under scrutiny. Adding grains to the diet does NOT solve this problem!
    3. Taurine Deficiency: Taurine is an amino acid essential for heart health in dogs. Some cases of DCM have been associated with taurine deficiency, though not all affected dogs are deficient, and not all taurine-deficient dogs develop DCM. Adding taurine to the diet does not necessarily solve this problem.
    4. Affected Breeds: While initially observed more in breeds predisposed to DCM, such as Doberman Pinschers and Boxers, nutritional DCM has been reported across various breeds, including those not historically prone to the disease.
    5. FDA Investigation: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began investigating the potential link between certain diets and DCM in dogs in 2018. The investigation is ongoing, and updates are periodically released.
    6. Importance of Balanced Nutrition: While the investigation continues, it is crucial for dog owners to provide a well-balanced and nutritionally complete diet. Consultation with a veterinarian is advisable to determine the most appropriate diet for an individual dog based on its breed, age, and health status.
    7. Diagnostics and Monitoring: Diagnosis of DCM involves a thorough veterinary examination, including imaging techniques like echocardiography. Regular veterinary check-ups and monitoring are essential for early detection and management.
    8. Treatment: Treatment may involve dietary adjustments, taurine supplementation, and medications to manage heart function. However, outcomes vary, and some cases may be challenging to manage.
    9. Prevention: Until more is known about the specific dietary factors contributing to DCM, prevention involves choosing dog foods with complete and balanced nutrition, and consulting with a veterinarian to tailor the diet to the individual needs of the dog.
    10. Ongoing Research: The understanding of nutritional DCM in dogs is evolving, and ongoing research is essential to uncover the precise factors contributing to this condition. Veterinarians play a crucial role in staying informed and guiding dog owners in making informed dietary choices.
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    DCM & Dog Food Research

    It’s important to keep in mind that many sources of information on nutritional DCM are extremely biased. “Holistic” veterinarians don’t like this discussion because it directly implicates dog food diets that they promote as healthier (for example, grain-free diets from small dog food companies).

    A great example of this can be seen here, by influencer Judy Morgan and her inflammatory take on the FDA statements about DCM research.

    We recommend looking at scientific sources and links, and listening to professionals who have obtained board certifications in their speciality (cardiology, nutrition, internal medicine) when it comes to forming beliefs about nutritional DCM.

    Contrary to popular belief, the FDA has not ‘debunked’ anything, and dedicated research into the mechanisms behind dilated cardiomyopathy is ongoing.

    Like many blogs, Hello Danes is a profit-driven resource. However, we make it a point to share information and form opinions based on boarded professionals, veterinary research, and legitimate science; not anecdotes. We encourage you to click on the research articles we share and form your own opinion, too!

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    Dog Food & DCM Science & Links

    All Trades DVM DCM Timeline – this is incredibly comprehensive and loaded with direct links to scientific studies on the topic:

    https://www.alltradesdvm.com/topics/diet-associated-dcm/dcm-timeline

    The most recent study, shows yet again that pulse ingredients can cause changes to the heart muscle:

    December 2022 DCM Study

    The Diet-Associated Dilated Cardiomyopathy DCM in Dogs group on Facebook is eye-opening. They document confirmed cases of nutritional DCM, including the dog’s age, breed, and foods that the dog had been eating at the time of their diagnosis.

    Diet-Associated Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) in Dogs

    A team of veterinary specialists and professionals runs the DCM Dog Food website. It has a wealth of information, FAQ’s, and research:

    https://dcmdogfood.com/taurine-dcm-faq/
    https://dcmdogfood.com

    This UC DAVIS Study is seeking participants. If your dog has been eating a commercial diet (grain-free or grain-inclusive) for the last 6 months and does not have congenital heart disease, they may be eligible to participate:

    UC DAVIS DCM Research Study Information

    The Great Dane Club of America posted a 2002 research update into genetic (congenital) DCM in Great Danes. This is unrelated to nutritional DCM, however, has important information for Dane owners on what to look for:

    https://gdca.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Great-Dane-102.pdf

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    Nutritional DCM in Great Danes

    I did a quick search in the Diet-Associated Dilated Cardiomyopathy group for ‘Great Dane’ and the results were heart-wrenching.

    Within minutes I found story after story of Great Danes that had been fed boutique foods and grain-free diets who suffered from an enlarged heart.

    These cases were all well documented and had been diagnosed and confirmed by veterinary cardiologists.

    Many of them were reversed by switching to Purina Pro Plan Large Breed. For some, it was too late. In a quick search, the food I saw repeated most often as a culprit was Taste of the Wild.

    That’s just one brand of many formulas that are popular among Great Dane owners.

    If you want my personal opinion, you could not pay me to feed Taste of the Wild or any other label manufactured by its co-packing company, Diamond Pet Foods. This includes Diamond Naturals, Nutra Nuggets, Costco/Kirkland, and Solid Gold.

    Even if many dogs seem fine on the grain-inclusive versions of these foods, this company is perfectly willing to ignore DCM research and keep foods, such as Taste of the Wild (TOTW) grain-free on the shelves.

    Honestly? The Great Dane community should be much more alarmed about this than they currently are.

    It’s not just about grain-free foods. It’s about formulation. At minimum, dog food companies should be employing people who are qualified to design pet foods. Unfortunately, many do not. They can make plenty of money by investing instead in fancy packaging and marketing claims.

    I searched two brands at the Pet Nutrition Alliance. One of them was Purina (the company with the largest market share by miles, and no verified nutritional DCM cases), and one of them was Diamond Pet Foods (the makers of Taste of the Wild, who has a very small market share and many verified DCM cases).

    Can you guess which is which on the infographic below?

    3
    Note: An “ACVN Diplomate” is a board-certified veterinary nutritionist. They have received the highest credentials available when it comes to pet nutrition.

    Here are other popular brands in the Great Dane community that do not have qualified staff to formulate the diets:

    Fromm Family Foods – Formulated by a chemical engineer. In 2023 they promoted a PhD in Animal Nutrition on their staff, and we hope to see positive changes.

    Victor – Formulated by somebody with an M.S. in animal science (not nutrition) and a simple online “nutrition certification”. See also their questionable quality control history, here.

    Holistic Select, Wellness Core, Eagle Pack – Information is not available from any source, indicating that they do not have qualified people formulating the diets that they sell under different brand names, and do not wish that information to be public

    Diamond: Diamond Naturals, Taste of the Wild, 4Health, Nutra-Nuggets, Costco/Kirkland, Solid Gold – “Consults with an M.S. in Animal Nutrition”. This means that across multiple labels, nobody is on staff to formulate the diets, and their off-site consultant is only marginally qualified

    Study after study shows that when it comes to giant breed dogs, and in particular giant breed puppies, choosing a well-balanced and professionally formulated, highly-researched food that has been subjected to feeding trials is incredibly important.

    20

    Nutritional DCM & Our Recommendations for Great Dane Owners

    We’ve dug into the links, science, and research so that you don’t have to.

    We’re making every effort to present factual, science-backed information that the solid majority of veterinarians and veterinary specialists would support, and we are open to being challenged by reputable sources.

    Knowing this, here are the recommendations that we unapologetically make:

    • Choose a dry food from a well-known brand that is committed to research and that has at least one AVCN Diplomate (Board Certified Veterinary Nutritionist) on staff
    • Feed a grain-inclusive diet
    • Avoid kibbles that have a lot of peas, potatoes, lentils, or legumes in the first 10 ingredients
    • Consider getting an echocardiogram for your dog if you’ve been feeding a grain-free or boutique food brand (some dogs will be just fine, but if they aren’t? Catching it early and switching diets is key)
    • Report health issues that may be related to diet (including heart disease, illness, or otherwise) to the FDA. Their food reporting form can be found HERE: https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/report-problem/how-report-pet-food-complaint
    • If your dog is suffering from chronic loose stools, skin conditions, muscle wasting, low energy, or allergies, see your veterinarian, take their advice, and don’t be afraid to consider a therapeutic (“prescription” diet) or a consultation with a specialist (dermatology, cardiology, internal medicine, etc.)
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    Recommended Dog Food Brands That Don’t Cause DCM

    The following food brands are NOT associated with cases of preventable nutritional DCM, and are highly recommended by this blog, veterinary professionals, veterinary nutritionists, and top breeders. This is the only paragraph in this post containing Chewy affiliate links – which we could pull for ANY number of brands and formulas.

    These are the only ones we are comfortable recommending to Great Dane owners. We will not recommend brands that we feel are unsafe to feed, and for that reason, this is all you will find on our list:

    Check out THE GIANT DOG FOOD PROJECT to compare brands and values.

  • Dr. Judy Morgan, DCM and the FDA

    Dr. Judy Morgan, DCM and the FDA

    Those of you heavily invested in dogs (as we are) have probably heard about the FDA and DCM as it relates to grain-free dog foods and boutique (BEG) diets causing heart disease. You may also have heard a lot about Dr. Judy Morgan and want to know if she is a legitimate, trustworthy source of information.

    This topic is a HOT one and we’re coming in with all the tea. What prompted this post?

    Oh, just Dr. Judy Morgan (an influencer) posting something that was blatantly anti-science and having thousands of followers blindly follow her without any critical thinking.

    It’s been months since I wrote this post, and now Dr. Morgan has launched a profitable smear campaign against all dog kibble.

    Dr. Morgan is a controversial figure in the world of veterinary medicine, and if you follow her, or want to know if she’s a reliable source of information, this post is for you.

    10 1

    Is Dr. Judy Morgan a Legitimate Veterinarian?

    Dr. Judy Morgan is a licensed veterinarian in at least one state. From what we understand she no longer practices medicine the traditional way.

    U.S. law prohibits her from diagnosing and treating disease via telehealth or online consultations in most cases, so she generally sticks to ‘nutritional consultations’.

    On her website, Dr. Morgan highlights her certifications of unknown origin in chiropractic care, acupuncture, and food therapy, which are all offered with a “holistic” mindset.

    Dr. Morgan makes her money through affiliate links and speaking engagements, as well as by selling “holistic” supplements, food, recipes, books, and online nutrition courses.

    Despite claiming to be a nutrition expert, Dr. Morgan is NOT actually boarded in nutrition. That title is reserved for a select few veterinarians who complete a nutrition residency, pass rigorous exams and present legitimate nutrition research. She has done none of these things.

    www.acvn.org

    This wouldn’t normally be an issue, except that she promotes herself as a nutrition expert and goes on to actively denounce the opinions, studies, research, and mentoring provided by veterinary professionals with much more advanced credentials in nutrition than she has.

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    Dr. Morgan, Dr. Becker, and Holistic Pet Care

    You may have heard a few big names in the “holistic pet care” community. Dr. Morgan, Dr. Karen Becker, and Dr. Marty come to mind.

    What does the word “holistic” mean?

    “It is characterized by the treatment of the whole person, taking into account mental and social factors, rather than just the symptoms of an illness.”

    Holistic pet care, an approach that evaluates the animal’s whole body health, absolutely has a place. Most people use many “holistic” and whole-food approaches in their own home!

    For example, we address exhaustion by eating a healthier diet and nailing down the reasons for the anxiety that keeps us up at night. Or we might choose ibuprofen to tackle a severe headache, and chase it with lemon water to aid in digestive upset.

    We give our dogs Olewo carrots to help with loose stools and fish oil to help with coat and skin health.

    The idea of holistic pet care is a good one, actually a great one.
    The word “holistic”, however, has been bastardized.

    Through marketing, people have come to believe that something labeled as “holistic” is higher quality, better, healthier, and more natural.

    Where “holistic” fails is that it’s become associated with a lot of pseudoscience and misinformation.

    Being more “natural” isn’t necessarily a good thing. Arsenic is perfectly natural, for example.

    The “appeal to nature fallacy” is a great discussion on this very thing. (Read more about this topic HERE).

    Unfortunately, “holistic” is an unregulated term. There is no legal definition and therefore, any food brand, veterinarian, practice, or supplement can claim to be “holistic”, no matter what. This term is being abused.

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    Pseudoscience & Cherry Picking in Holistic Pet Care

    Here is where my concerns with celebrity Veterinarians such as Dr. Judy Morgan (and her “holistic” colleagues) come into play:

    They often denounce evidence-based medicine and nutrition information, discredit their peers, and re-frame official statements from the FDA.

    Doing so is VERY profitable for celebrity veterinarians! Click-bait style headlines drive engagement, traffic, and sales.

    Keep in mind that Dr. Judy Morgan’s end goal is profits: she wants followers to purchase her supplements, books, and recipes.

    That’s completely fair. We all want to make money by sharing our talents with the world. It is not to say that Dr. Morgan has never contributed valuable information and content. She has! I’m sure many people have learned valuable things that helped them with their pets.

    I believe it’s essential for us to scrutinize prominent influencers, however. When their views are perceived as controversial or deviate from the mainstream, it’s crucial to dig deeper and ask additional questions. Especially if their platform relies heavily on discrediting peers who hold a more popular, or science-backed opinion on something.

    9 1

    How are Pseudoscience and the FDA Reports on DCM Connected?

    To put this simply, Judy Morgan is a master at interpreting and presenting research, science, and official statements to suit her needs and the desires of her followers. This is a great talent to have, but also, a really good thing to keep in mind when assessing how media and content can be used to engage, mislead, inspire, or even manipulate us.

    Let’s explore this further. Grain-free diets and their potential link to Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) have become a contentious issue, sparking a debate between scientists and researchers on one side and the ‘holistic’ pet community on the other.

    In December 2022 the FDA released an updated statement on its page about dietary DCM in dogs.

    Dietary DCM is a complex issue, with multiple research studies having been developed to address concerns related to dogs developing heart disease on certain diets.

    Because researchers have yet to pin down the reasons why it happens, many people in the holistic pet community have promoted that it’s a hoax made up by big pet food companies.

    You can see the FDA DCM announcement page HERE.

    The statement reads:

    December 23, 2022: 

    “FDA does not intend to release further public updates until there is meaningful new scientific information to share. A count of reports of DCM in dogs submitted to FDA as of November 1, 2022, has been added to Questions & Answers: FDA’s Work on Potential Causes of Non-Hereditary DCM in Dogs. FDA has followed up on a subset of these reports, but is unable to investigate every report to verify or confirm the reported information. While adverse event numbers can be a potential signal of an issue with an FDA regulated product, by themselves, they do not supply sufficient data to establish a causal relationship with reported product(s). FDA continues to encourage research and collaboration by academia, veterinarians, and industry.“

    Let’s dig in, shall we?

    The scientific and critically curated summary of the FDA statement on DCM is as follows:

    • The FDA was unable to thoroughly investigate every report (of which there were many) submitted to them
    • Adverse event numbers such as the reports submitted above could signal a problem, however, that factor alone isn’t enough to definitively create a correlation between grain-free foods and DCM
    • The research related to this topic has been passed off to researchers to continue investigating (they are more qualified than the FDA)
    • Finally, the FDA will withhold further public updates until additional scientific information is available (further updates may be incoming in the future)

    On the flip side, Dr. Judy Morgan has interpreted the statement to say (paraphrased) that “the FDA called bullshit on the DCM/Grain-Free link, it doesn’t exist, it’s made up by “big dog food” to generate profits, and the discussion is over”.

    These deliberate wording choices are made to trigger emotions that breed suspicion, anxiety, conspiracy theories, and distrust. The resulting emotions and beliefs can be used to manipulate and leverage entire groups of people into believing something that has absolutely no scientific backing.

    She even goes on to say that “millions of pets were switched to poor quality pet food brands because big pet food companies used their influence on the FDA to make more money!“, a statement that has absolutely no proof behind it.

    (Have you heard about the wellness to QAnon pipeline? It fits into this discussion. If you want some more tea, dig in HERE)

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    DCM & Grain-Free Dog Food

    Now, if you aren’t up-and-up on the whole grain-free heart disease thing, this entire conversation may be a little confusing to you. So here is a summary:

    Around 2014, board-certified veterinary cardiologists (heart doctors) noticed an alarming trend. Dogs with no genetic link to DCM were turning up with heart disease. Since then, 100’s more reports have been filed, with new ones coming weekly.

    When they looked into this, most of the dogs with this disease (confirmed) had been eating boutique grain-free foods (which at the time were trending alongside boutique and “holistic” food options that were marketed as higher quality).

    In 2019 the FDA released a statement citing that a handful of brands were highly associated with this correlation. Those brands included foods by Fromm, Acana, Zignature, and 4Health.

    None of the implicated brands have a qualified person on staff to formulate the food they are selling.

    Following the release of that statement, pulse & legume growers (whose profits largely came from dog food brands like the ones listed in the report) went to bat. Financial motivations from these farmers (note, not big dog food!) began to complicate things.

    Despite this, multiple studies continued to show a correlation between nutrition and heart disease. However, the correlation, as it turns out, had little to do with a lack of grains or low taurine.

    It appeared to be related to pulse ingredients (peas, potatoes, legumes, chickpeas) and their use in formulation as a whole.

    In other words, it’s NOT grain-free that is the issue. Just as the FDA has said.

    If a dog food brand uses a lot of peas, potatoes, beans, and chickpeas in their food, whether the food has grain or not, they often effectively replace a lot of actual meat (and certain amino acids, which are necessary for heart health) with plants.

    Anybody who doesn’t think that’s a problem is fooling themselves.

    12 1

    Holistic Veterinarians and Ignoring the Science

    To date, multiple studies have shown that there is a link between poorly formulated foods and dogs developing heart disease. Veterinary Cardiologists also report positive outcomes for dogs with nutritional DCM, when they are switched to a properly formulated (and often grain-inclusive) diet.

    The most recent study (December, 2022), indicated that every single one of 23 dogs who were fed non-traditional diets (foods with a lot of peas, potatoes, or legumes) had changes to their heart muscle.

    Why is the holistic community, and influencers like Dr. Morgan ignoring the published research on this topic?

    We have questions about how the “holistic” community reconciles their deep concern about a potential conspiracy within “big dog food” while overlooking the fact that many of their favored “holistic” foods lack formulation oversight from individuals with veterinary or nutrition credentials.

    Those “better foods” are often co-packed in factories handling multiple brands. They aren’t better.

    What leads her to dismiss the existence or significance of the nutrition-DCM link, despite numerous confirmed diagnoses, while concurrently promoting the view that veterinary flea and tick preventatives are harmful and always toxic because a handful of dogs had a negative reaction?

    It’s confusing and alarming.

    This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 8-1-1024x745.jpg

    One Simple Answer – Marketing Rules

    Dr. Judy Morgan operates by keeping people suspicious and full of anxiety about anything mainstream or evidence-based. Vaccines, flea and tick prevention, and pet food are all targets.

    It’s one thing to promote sea kelp (brown algae) for dental health (heck, my veterinarian promotes this and we use it in our home). This is a legitimate “holistic” whole food remedy that has science behind it.

    It’s another to cherry pick science and studies to intentionally drive mistrust for veterinary medicine and pet foods that are backed by dedicated teams of highly educated and experienced researchers and boarded nutritionists.

    If only Dr. Morgan could stick to selling science-backed supplements (including sea kelp) and balanced home dog food recipes.

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    More Information on DCM, Nutrition & Science-Backed Research

    Are you with us? Would you like to get away from pseudoscience?
    I will add to this list as more information becomes available:

    All Trades DVM Famous DCM Timeline

    Is the DCM Debate Over?

    Report Nutritional DCM to the FDA (yes, they are still accepting reports!)

    Comparison of Echocardiograms Between Dogs Fed Traditional vs. Non-Traditional Diets

    Veterinary Science and the FDA

    Tufts University Petfoodology

    https://skeptvet.com/Blog/

    https://nutritionrvn.com/

    Balance It (Balanced Home Cooked Diets Calculator)

    Holistic Veterinarians and Therapeutic Diets

    5 4

    Should I Feed My Dog Grain Free?

    Only you can decide.

    It makes no sense to feed dogs a diet that is comprised mostly of peas, potatoes, and legumes in place of meat.

    Unfortunately, most grain-free foods are loaded with those ingredients. If they aren’t loaded, they are also often from companies that don’t employ qualified staff to formulate the diet.

    We recommend feeding a large or giant breed dry diet from an established brand with a large market share such as Purina, Royal Canin, Hill’s, Iams, or Eukanuba and thoughtfully supplementing the diet with balanced fresh or canned foods to reduce the risk of bloat.

    Some extremely dedicated, educated owners who are working with veterinary nutritionists may also be interested in looking into fully home-cooked diets.

    6 1 20231129 211404 jpg

    Dr. Judy Morgan and the Purina Panic

    This paragraph is a new update to this post, as of January 2024.

    A now-debunked viral post on Facebook (December 2023) speculating that “toxic levels of metal” in Purina Pro Plan killed a dog became the kindling for what I call the “Purina Panic”.

    People who read that viral post shared it with commentary such as “See, I keep telling you Purina is bad, when will you listen?”

    The fire grew. As people read it, they began to be concerned that their pet’s health problems were caused by Purina, so they shared their story.

    Vomiting? Purina.

    Diarrhea? Purina.

    Bad dreams? Purina

    Weakness? Purina

    You get the idea. A Facebook group, with Dr. Judy Morgan as an administrator and “veterinary expert” became a hub for this activity. The group exploded almost overnight, with thousands of people joining to blame their pet’s random health problems on Purina.

    Some dogs had died of Parvo. Their deaths were blamed on Purina, and Dr. Morgan and her loyal advocates were there to swoop in and provide the solution. Seizures are a common genetic disorder, but Purina is taking the blame.

    Conveniently, all members need to do is visit Dr. Morgans’s website for courses and supplements to detox their pets.

    The group is convinced that a “recall is coming” and claims that thousands of dogs have definitively been harmed or killed by Purina pet foods. Meanwhile, the group leadership is discouraging people from sharing their pet’s medical records with the FDA or with Purina and has told them not to get the food tested, either.

    I’m going to make a controversial statement here. This anti-Purina rhetoric is nothing more than profit-driven fear-mongering, and the activity of the group promoting the panic is scarily suspicious of cult behavior.

    I have many thoughts on the topics of social panic and cult-like behavior, which I cover more in-depth in our new blog post “Is Purina Making Sogs Sick”. You can read that HERE.

    I suppose I haven’t truly summarized why Dr. Morgan is so concerning to the pet community, but if you’ve made it this far into my post, please leave a comment! We’d love to hear from you, no matter which side of the fence you stand on. Unlike the Purina Panic group, we don’t shut down our critics. All we ask is that you bring critical thinking and an open mind to the table.

    Cheers!

  • Dietary DCM in Dogs Update

    Dietary DCM in Dogs Update

    We’ve been closely watching and monitoring information and studies in regard to dietary DCM in dogs. DCM is a deadly heart condition that often results in the sudden and unexplained death of otherwise ‘healthy’ looking dogs. This condition is often seen in relation to feeding grain-free or boutique dog kibbles.

    A new DCM dog food study came out this week (December 2022) and the results are unfortunately concerning.

    We are now several studies on nutritional DCM, and every single one has shown this same correlation: certain diets are causing heart disease in dogs.

    If you have a dog and are trying to find the healthiest and safest dog food to feed them, you need to read this update.

    Before we dig into the nitty gritty of this study, I will summarize the results with a quote directly from the abstract:

    “Healthy dogs eating nontraditional diets had lower indices of systolic function and larger left ventricular volumes compared to dogs eating traditional diets. Screening of apparently healthy dogs eating nontraditional diets might allow for early detection of diet-associated DCM.”

    In other words; dogs fed certain diets had alarming changes to their heart muscle. Whether we want to hear it or not, there are dog foods on the market that are causing heart disease in dogs, and you may be feeding one of them!

    The results of this study were published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine and can be viewed HERE.

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    Defining the ‘Non-Traditional’ Dog Food Diet

    To better understand this study, we have to define what a non-traditional dog food diet is.

    “Nontraditional diets were defined as those that contained pulse ingredients as main ingredients”

    Pulse ingredients may include:

    • Peas
    • Garbanzo beans/chickpeas
    • Lentils
    • Potatoes
    • Sweet potatoes
    • Beans

    Here is an example of an ingredient list with a lot of non-traditional ingredients, including lentils, pinto beans, peas, navy beans, and chickpeas.

    Screen Shot 2022 12 16 at 9.54.21 AM
    hand putting dog treats on bowl Dietary DCM in dogs update

    Dietary DCM in Dogs Study Details

    For this study, they recruited 46 healthy adult dogs over the age of 3.

    They did not use dogs with a known genetic link to DCM such as Great Danes, Boxers, Doberman Pinschers, Irish Wolfhounds, Newfoundlands, or Portuguese Water Dogs.

    All 46 dogs chosen were determined to be healthy at the onset of the study. Dogs that were not chosen were excluded for a number of reasons, including existing heart issues and other health conditions. Those receiving medications or taurine supplements were also excluded.

    This means that at the beginning of the study, all 46 dogs had normal, healthy hearts.

    They tried to match breeds between the two groups.

    For example, if a Viszla was in the non-traditional diet group, they tried to place a Viszla in the traditional diet group as well.

    90% of the food that the dogs ate had to be provided by a single dry-extruded food, and the dog’s diets and the ingredients in them were well documented.

    This study shows that many efforts were made to ensure a clean, accurate, fair, and informational result. It’s important to note that there are ethical dilemmas associated with studying something that, based on current knowledge, could potentially harm one of the groups in the study.

    That makes dietary DCM difficult to study, because more and more evidence is showing an alarming correlation (note: likely causation). We also have to take note of the fact that studying something like this takes years! Each study can really only look at one small factor.

    At least 12 studies to date have shown that this is happening; nutritional DCM is real. It is not a scam cooked up by large dog food companies.

    If we are to think logically, feeding dogs diets that are heavy in peas, legumes, pulses, or potatoes isn’t going to be good for them…no matter how we spin it.

    smiling black lady training dog in green park

    DCM Study Results: Changes in Heart Function

    None of us here are veterinarians, but we can all agree that the following statement from the DCM study is alarming:

    “In this study of apparently healthy dogs, those eating nontraditional diets had lower systolic function compared to those eating traditional diets using 2D and 3D echocardiographic measurements of EF, as well as GLS.”

    In other words, 23 dogs who began the study with healthy, normal hearts in the “non-traditional diets” group ended the study with signs that their heart muscle and function had changed for the worse.

    Many Veterinary Cardiologists and veterinarians have been alarmed and concerned about a potential link between certain dog food diets and dilated cardiomyopathy. This study along with many others (which can be seen here) are collectively building a strong and concerning case that not all dog foods are created equal.

    So what makes a diet safe or not safe for your dog? Let’s dig in.

    greyhound dog watching elderly owner reading book

    Non-Traditional Dog Food Examples

    Here are some examples of the kind of non-traditional dog food brands that are similar to or identical to the foods fed in the study. Please note, that these are just a handful of examples in a dog food market with literally thousands of choices.

    This is not to say that these diets below are going to hurt your dog’s heart, but we highly suggest avoiding foods like this until additional information comes out regarding dog food and nutritional DCM.

    Please note that some companies use ingredient splitting to move pulse and non-traditional ingredients lower on the list. A food with peas lower on the list could still actually be very high in peas.

    In general, basing your dog food choice solely on the ingredients list is not the best way to make a decision, however, in this case, the ingredients list will provide valuable information.

    Note how the examples below:

    • May include multiple non-traditional or pulse ingredients, not just one
    • Might have ‘split’ ingredients into multiple forms (peas + pea protein + pea fiber + pea flour + pea starch)
    • May or may not include added taurine. Taurine does NOT prevent nutritional DCM.
    • Often present their food as “high-quality”, “holistic”, “natural”, and “free of fillers and by-products”
    • Are often sold at a premium price point

    NOTE: by intentionally splitting single ingredients into 2 or more parts (peas + pea protein + pea fiber + pea flour) or using multiple different pulse ingredients (lentils, peas, potatoes), food companies can make the recipe appear to be meat-focused.

    Add those ingredients up, however. If you put them all together in a bowl, it’s likely they actually outweigh the meat that was included in the formula.

    69179 MAIN. AC SL1200 V1605743533 1

    Ingredients in Wellness Core Large Breed Dog Food:

    Deboned Chicken, Chicken Meal (source of Glucosamine), Turkey Meal (source of Chondroitin Sulfate), Lentils, Peas, Dried Ground Potatoes, Tomato Pomace, Ground Flaxseed, Pea Fiber, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Natural Chicken Flavor, Potassium Chloride, Taurine, Vitamin E Supplement, Spinach, Broccoli, Carrots, Parsley, Apples, Blueberries, Kale, Choline Chloride, L-Carnitine, Zinc Proteinate, Mixed Tocopherols added to preserve freshness, Zinc Sulfate, Calcium Carbonate, Niacin, Iron Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Vitamin A Supplement, Copper Sulfate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Copper Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Manganese Sulfate, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Sodium Selenite, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Biotin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Chicory Root Extract, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Calcium Iodate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Folic Acid, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Dried Lactobacillus plantarum Fermentation Product, Dried Enterococcus faecium Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus casei Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus acidophilus Fermentation Product, Rosemary Extract, Green Tea Extract, Spearmint Extract. This is a naturally preserved product.

    64387 MAIN. AC SL1200 V1669946237 1 1

    Ingredients in Blue Buffalo Large Breed Rocky Mountain Recipe

    Deboned Beef, Fish Meal, Peas, Pea Starch, Tapioca Starch, Pea Protein, Beef Meal, Dried Tomato Pomace, Potatoes, Flaxseed (Source Of Omega 6 Fatty Acids), Natural Flavor, Canola Oil (Source Of Omega 3 Fatty Acids), Dried Egg Product, Fish Oil (Source Of Epa-Eicosapentaenoic Acid), Dehydrated Alfalfa Meal, Deboned Lamb, Deboned Venison, Calcium Carbonate, Dried Chicory Root, Dl-Methionine, Choline Chloride, Pea Fiber, Alfalfa Nutrient Concentrate, Taurine, Preserved With Mixed Tocopherols, Vitamin E Supplement, Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Chondroitin Sulfate, L-Carnitine, Zinc Amino Acid Chelate, Zinc Sulfate, Potassium Chloride, Salt, Vegetable Juice For Color, Ferrous Sulfate, Iron Amino Acid Chelate, Blueberries, Cranberries, Barley Grass, Parsley, Turmeric, Dried Kelp, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Niacin (Vitamin B3), Calcium Pantothenate (Vitamin B5), L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (Source Of Vitamin C), L-Lysine, Copper Sulfate, Biotin (Vitamin B7), Vitamin A Supplement, Copper Amino Acid Chelate, Manganese Sulfate, Manganese Amino Acid Chelate, Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Calcium Iodate, Dried Yeast, Dried Enterococcus Faecium Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Aspergillus Niger Fermentation Extract, Dried Trichoderma Longibrachiatum Fermentation Extract, Dried Bacillus Subtilis Fermentation Extract, Folic Acid (Vitamin B9), Sodium Selenite, Oil Of Rosemary.

    75677 MAIN. AC SL1200 V1646272965 1

    Ingredients in Blue Buffalo Basics Large Breed

    Deboned Lamb, Potatoes, Pea Starch, Peas, Lamb Meal, Pea Protein, Tapioca Starch, Pea Fiber, Canola Oil (source of Omega 6 Fatty Acids), Natural Flavor, Potato Starch, Fish Oil (source of EPA-Eicosapentaenoic Acid), Direct Dehydrated Alfalfa Pellets, Choline Chloride, Pumpkin, Dried Chicory Root, Flaxseed (source of Omega 3 Fatty Acids), Alfalfa Nutrient Concentrate, DL-Methionine, Calcium Carbonate, Potassium Chloride, Taurine, Vitamin E Supplement, Salt, Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), Chondroitin Sulfate, L-Carnitine, Zinc Amino Acid Chelate, Zinc Sulfate, Vegetable juice for color, Ferrous Sulfate, Iron Amino Acid Chelate, Blueberries, Cranberries, Barley Grass, Parsley, Turmeric, Dried Kelp, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Niacin (Vitamin B3), Calcium Pantothenate (Vitamin B5), Copper Sulfate, L-Lysine, Biotin (Vitamin B7), Vitamin A Supplement, Copper Amino Acid Chelate, Manganese Sulfate, Manganese Amino Acid Chelate, Dried Yeast, Dried Enterococcus faecium fermentation product, Dried Lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation product, Dried Aspergillus niger fermentation extract, Dried Trichoderma longibrachiatum fermentation extract, Dried Bacillus subtilis fermentation extract, Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Calcium Iodate, Folic Acid (Vitamin B9), Sodium Selenite, Oil of Rosemary.

    154549 MAIN. AC SL1200 V1657655675 1

    Ingredients in Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream

    Salmon, Ocean Fish Meal, Sweet Potatoes, Potatoes, Peas, Canola Oil (Preserved With Mixed Tocopherols), Lentils, Salmon Meal, Smoke-Flavored Salmon, Tomato Pomace, Natural Flavor, Salt, Choline Chloride, Taurine, Dried Chicory Root, Tomatoes, Blueberries, Raspberries, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Dried Lactobacillus Plantarum Fermentation Product, Dried Bacillus Subtilis Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Enterococcus Faecium Fermentation Product, Dried Bifidobacterium Animalis Fermentation Product, Vitamin E Supplement, Iron Proteinate, Zinc Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Potassium Iodide, Thiamine Mononitrate, Manganese Proteinate, Ascorbic Acid, Vitamin A Supplement, Biotin, Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Sodium Selenite, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid.

    a person with long wavy hair hugging a dog

    Grain-Free Foods and DCM

    Unfortunately, a large percentage of studies show a correlation between DCM and grain-free foods. This is because many grain-free diets have replaced grains with suspect ingredients such as peas, potatoes, and legumes.

    However, dogs fed grain-inclusive foods are also turning up with nutritional DCM. While it’s more commonly seen in dogs fed grain-free foods, the lack of grains itself is not necessarily to blame.

    This is 100% a formulation issue that is complex and likely has many factors.

    This information can be scary for pet owners who, understandably, aren’t sure how to choose safe and healthy dog food for their pets!

    Here is what we do know:

    • A shiny coat and good stools are nice, but, it’s not an indication that the food is healthy or safe.
    • Many dogs with nutritional DCM show few signs at all until one day, they have a “heart attack” and die. They may even have been ‘healthy’ just moments before their death.
    • Some dogs with nutrition DCM do show signs. We’ve shared the signs of DCM in dogs below.
    • IMPORTANT: adding grains or taurine to a poorly formulated diet does not prevent or treat nutritional DCM.
    • Many common signs of nutritional DCM are easy to write off as ‘aging’ or ‘laziness’.
    • Dogs with nutritional DCM typically have normal taurine levels.

    If you have been feeding a suspect diet, in particular a diet with a lot of pulse ingredients or legumes including peas, potatoes, sweet potatoes, chickpeas, garbanzo beans, or lentils, it may be smart to see the veterinarian and request an echocardiogram. We also recommend changing your dogs diet.

    papillon licking face of woman stroking labrador retriever in nature

    What are the Signs of DCM in Dogs?

    DCM is primarily a genetic disorder, and yes, Great Danes are prone to it.

    That makes the nutritional aspect of DCM even more alarming: for dogs with a genetic risk, choosing the wrong diet effectively increases the chance that they may suffer from heart problems.

    While many dogs with DCM (especially secondary DCM, caused by nutrition) will show no signs at all (and may even appear healthy and shiny), many others will show symptoms. These symptoms can be subtle and mistaken for other things.

    Symptoms of Dilated Cardiomyopathy in Dogs

    • Low energy (including being “lazy” or the assumption that it’s normal because they are “getting older”)
    • Poor muscle tone, including a loss of muscle tone or even atrophy
    • Anorexia and weight loss
    • Intolerance to heat or exercise
    • Panting
    • Pale gums
    • Coughing
    • Irregular heart rhythm
    • Weak pulse
    • Distended abdomen
    • Collapse

    As a whole, nutritional DCM is considered “rare”. However it’s important to note that many cases of it are never officially diagnosed and documented. If an otherwise “healthy” dog dies randomly, it is most often considered to be caused by a heart attack.

    These cases are not often included in nutritional DCM statistics. Most people understandably do not pay to have advanced diagnostics done on their deceased pet. Documented, verified cases of nutritional DCM have to meet certain guidelines.

    (To see cases of nutritional DCM being documented in real time, as well as information regarding brands that were being fed at the time of diagnosis, visit the Diet Associated Dilated Cardiomyopathy page HERE: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1952593284998859)

    photography of three dogs looking up

    What Dog Foods Do Not Cause DCM?

    Because we don’t entirely yet understand why some foods cause DCM and not others (though, the picture is becoming more clear, as we’ve seen in the recent DCM study), it’s hard to say definitively whether one particular food will cause or not cause DCM.

    There is one common factor that is worth noting, however.

    Dogs being fed well-researched brands that have board-certified Veterinary Nutritionists formulating the diet are not turning up with Nutritional DCM.

    As a matter of fact, time and time again, dogs with nutritional DCM are recovering when they are switched to a properly-formulated grain-inclusive diet.

    Catching the disease early is a key element to treating N-DCM with a diet change.

    What is a properly formulated, grain-inclusive diet?

    It will meet the following guidelines:

    • They will have at least one Board-certified veterinary nutritionist formulating the diets (ideally several of them) and they should be employed by the company – not working as consultants
    • Those companies should also employ qualified staff focused on food science, toxicology, microbiology, and quality control
    • Have a commitment to peer-reviewed science and research, indicating that they are advancing our understanding of veterinary medicine, nutrition, disease, growth, and health; all knowledge that can be applied to nutritional formulations
    • Will do feeding trials, proving formulations and bioavailability in “real life”, not just on paper (which is the bare minimum)
    • Owned facilities, not co-packed
    • Strict quality-control procedures and guidelines
    • Traditional formulation containing meat meal, meat by-product meal, and traditional (well-researched) grains such as rice, oats, or corn

    The primary brands that check all of these boxes include:
    Purina, Hill’s Science Diet, Royal Canin, Eukanuba, and Iam’s.

    If you are unsure if your pet food meets these basic ethical guidelines, send them an email! Be a saavy consumer, watch for signs that they are intentionally misleading you.

    For example:

    • “We have a team of nutrition professionals” (Note the avoidance of the word ‘we employ’, implying that their team is likely made up of consultants who may do nothing more than check a box)
    • “Our food is packed in a USDA facility” (Making a co-packing situation sound good; this company doesn’t own their facilities and has less control over the final product)
    • “We do our research and feeding trials in-house” (This often means that they aren’t willing or able to have their research peer-reviewed and critiqued and thus, anything goes…including the ‘results’)

      You can also check some of the stats on your food brand at the Pet Nutrition Alliance.

    Additionally, here is a great video on how to choose a pet food for your dog:

  • Is a Grain-Free Diet for Dogs Healthier?

    Is a Grain-Free Diet for Dogs Healthier?

    Grain-free options are all the rage at natural pet food stores. Is a grain-free diet for dogs healthier than something with rice, corn, oats, or wheat? Should you feed your dog grain-free? Does grain-free food resolve allergy symptoms such as itching, ear infections, and hot spots?

    Feeding grain-free foods to dogs has gained significant popularity in recent years, driven by human diet trends of eliminating grains from the diet. Many pet owners are drawn to this trend, thinking it aligns with a more natural and ancestral canine diet. However, the decision to go grain-free should be made with careful consideration and an understanding of the potential implications.

    DCM (a form of deadly heart disease) is one such problem associated with feeding grain free kibble to dogs.

    In this article, we will dig into the concept of grain-free diets for dogs, exploring the reasons behind this dietary choice (including going grain-free for allergies), the pros and cons, and the essential factors to keep in mind when deciding if it’s the right choice for your pet.

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    Is Grain Free Dog Food Lower Carb?

    Contrary to common belief, grain-free dog food is not necessarily low in carbohydrates.

    While the term “grain-free” suggests the absence of grains like wheat, corn, or rice, it doesn’t guarantee a reduction in carbohydrate content. In many cases, grain-free dry dog foods replace grains (and often some of the meat, too) with alternative carbohydrate sources such as peas, lentils, or potatoes. These ingredients can be just as, if not more so, carbohydrate-rich.

    What’s more, the carbohydrate replacements seen in grain free dry foods (including lentils, peas, and potatoes) continue to be associated with an alarming trend of nutritional DCM. In other words, grain free diets may be contributing to deadly heart disease!

    (Authors note: we realize the DCM “debate” is a controversial one. We are a science-backed blog and cite resources, not propaganda on this topic).

    This means that a grain-free diet might not be the solution for pet owners seeking to provide a low-carb or “keto” option for their dogs.

    Not only that, but there is this misguided belief out there that grain free dog foods, in removing the grains, have more meat. This is a myth that could not be farther from the truth! Grain free dog foods have the same, or less meat content than kibbles that contain grains.

    Understanding the ingredients and nutritional content of grain-free dog food, as well as how pet food formulation works, is essential to make informed choices that align with science, research, and your dog’s dietary needs.

    Grain-Free Diet for Dogs 101

    Grain-free dog food can come in many forms, and won’t contain common grains such as corn, oats, wheat, or rice:

    • Grain-free kibble
    • Freeze-dried raw
    • Grain-free canned food
    • Raw-coated grain-free kibble
    • Air-dried dog food
    • “Fresh” dog food
    • Home-cooked pet recipes
    • Prey-model raw

    Grain-free kibble dog food diets became popular in the early 2000s. At that time, there was a lot of debate surrounding the benefits and drawbacks of grains for both animals and for people.

    Canine health and dog food trends tend to closely follow human diet trends! For example, in 2022 we are seeing a huge rise in the popularity of “fresh”, “keto”, “paleo”, “vegan”, “cricket-based”, and “whole foods” dog food diets.

    Oftentimes, our scientific understanding of these trends is way behind our actual use of them; which can be dangerous and devastating for a dog’s diet.

    Remember when eggs and avocados were considered ‘unhealthy foods’? That’s a trend we now know was wildly incorrect and damaging. Just take a look at human diet trends and toxic diet culture in general!

    Tread cautiously with trends.

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    What are common grains in dog food?

    Common grains in dog food include:

    • Rice, brewers rice, brown rice
    • Corn
    • Wheat
    • Oats
    • Barley
    • Sorghum
    • Quinoa
    • Other “ancient grains” such as amaranth, millet, and rye

    Grain-free foods will not contain those items. All kibbles require a starch of some kind to bind the ingredients together, whether the starch is grain-based (rice), or not (lentils). All dry kibbles contain carbohydrates, in other words.

    It is a myth that ingredients such as corn or rice are “fillers”. This unfortunately misunderstanding is driven by profit driven social influencers, pet stores, and small food brands that make their money by generating fear and anxiety about pet food through misinformation.

    Corn, often a subject of debate in pet food ingredients, is actually be a quality component in many pet food formulations. First and foremost, it is a highly digestible source of carbohydrates, which can provide a steady supply of energy for dogs and cats. It is more digestible than beef (truth!) and is a good source of essential nutrients such as protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals.

    To respond to the “grain-free” trend, pet food manufacturers figured out how to replace common grains with grain-free carbohydrates such as lentils, garbanzo beans, peas, and potatoes. Many grain-free kibbles are literally loaded with these ingredients.

    Unfortunately, the carbs included in grain free kibbles have much less data, research, and studies associated with them. On paper they seem to work from a ‘nutritional’ standpoint, but in practice there seems to be problems.

    Biovailability and the complex interplay of nutrients in dog food make a big difference on whether or not a food is truly healthy for your pet.

    Do dogs need grain in their diet?

    There is a lot of conflicting information about whether or not dogs need grains in their diet at all.

    If a dog is offered a whole prey animal to eat, it will rip into the meat, bone, cartilage, and organs (yes, the by-products!) and consume everything, including the contents of the stomach.

    Dogs by nature are scavengers and opportunists: they can and will eat just about anything offered to them. Modern pets are FAR removed from their wild ancestors; their digestive system has actually evolved and changed to process foods more commonly seen in the human diet (grains, for example).

    Grains provide energy in the form of carbohydrates, not to mention they fulfill important dietary needs such as omegas, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids.

    Because kibble MUST contain some kind of starch or carbohydrate for binding, grains are a solid and nutritious choice.

    https://vetnutrition.tufts.edu/2021/07/the-role-of-carbohydrate-in-pet-foods/

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    Grains and dog food allergies

    Some people believe that their dog has grain or chicken allergies, however, this is rarely true.

    Most of the time there are other factors at play and veterinary advice is recommend. In reality, true grain allergies in dogs are quite rare. Allergies in dogs are more commonly associated with proteins, such as those found in meat or poultry (though, chicken allergies are also a bit of a wild social media driven myth).

    It’s essential to differentiate between true allergies and food sensitivities, where certain ingredients may cause gastrointestinal discomfort but are not true allergies involving the immune system. If you suspect your dog has a food allergy, it’s crucial to consult with a veterinarian to accurately diagnose the issue. While some grain-free diets may have their place for specific dogs with dietary sensitivities, it’s important to base feeding choices on individual dietary needs rather than assuming that grains are the primary culprit behind canine allergies.

    It’s important to note that only a veterinarian-monitored food elimination diet can definitively diagnose food allergies in dogs. Scientific study shows that blood and saliva allergy tests are wildly inconsistent and inaccurate. Save your money.

    For pets that have been scientifically diagnosed with a legitimate grain allergy, choosing a well-researched food or working with a board-certified veterinary nutritionist will be key.

    FACT: Less than 1% of dogs have a true sensitivity to grains, according to scientists.

    a close up shot of a bernese mountain dog
    Photo by David Floyd on Pexels.com

    Is grain an inflammatory ingredient in pet food?

    I did a google search with two different search terms. Each one gave me WILDLY different results.

    The first one was “Is grain-free dog food bad for dogs”. This phrase produced a slew of scientific articles and information from reliable sources, including articles and studies written by highly educated people in veterinary medicine.

    Every single one stated that “grain-free kibbles can be dangerous for dogs to eat” and that dogs can digest grains without any problems at all.

    Read THIS excellent article from TUFTS University

    So, because I like to look at science and evaluate both sides of the coin, I searched again.

    The second term I tried was “Is grain an inflammatory ingredient in dog food”. This produced a bunch of inflammatory (catch my drift here?) and alarmist blog posts written by bloggers with no credentials, including ‘nutritionists’ who obtained their “certification” from online correspondence courses.

    They all said grains are bad, of course. But does their unscientific opinion have merit?

    I think not.

    As above, grain allergies are exceptionally rare. It’s been scientifically proven that dogs are easily able to digest and obtain nutrients from grains.

    The idea that “grains are inflammatory” comes largely from toxic diet culture in humans. Toxic diet culture is elitist, classist, and often racist too! Read here for more history about this problematic trend.

    My Great Dane is not eating, now what?

    shallow focus photography of adult yellow labrador retriever sitting on roadside during day
    Photo by Isaiah Stilwell on Pexels.com

    Is grain-free food carb free?

    This is one that confuses a LOT of dog owners! I’ve even seen self-proclaimed nutrition experts have absolutely no understanding regarding this topic.

    So here it is: just because a food is labeled as ‘grain-free’ does NOT mean that it is low in carbohydrates.

    Grain-free dog foods are, in theory gluten free, but they are not carb free! Gluten contamination is possible unless you choose a veterinary prescription diet.

    Fact: many dog foods manufactured without grains are high in legumes, peas, beans, and potatoes; all of these things are high in carbs!

    Dog food manufacturers want you to believe that grains are bad, because it allows them to produce cheap, pea-filled food and sell it at a premium ‘health food nut’ price.

    If a “nutritionist” or other “expert” is telling you that “dogs don’t need carbs, choose a holistic grain-free dog food”, RUN far away.

    I said what I said.

    How Grain-Free Dog Food is Made

    As you may have noticed above, I mentioned how kibbles must be manufactured with some kind of carbohydrate. This is how the the final kibbles are held together. Without it, the food would just turn to dust.

    Certain diets such as air-dried and ‘fresh’ foods can be made without grain or carbohydrate sources, but these diets aren’t well-researched and may lack the full spectrum of nutrients and amino acids that pets need.

    Ingredients in grain-free dog food

    In grain-free kibble foods, rice, oats, wheat, or corn is replaced by peas, potatoes, garbanzo beans, lentils, and other similar plant-based proteins and carbohydrates.

    Legumes, peas, and potatoes have very different amino acid and digestibility profiles than other more researched carbohydrates such as rice, corn, and oats. It’s not a cup-for-cup replacement.

    Here are some examples of common inclusions in ‘fancy’, ’boutique’, grain-free or grain-inclusive dog foods:

    Deboned meat. This can include things such as ‘fresh deboned chicken’, ‘roasted deboned lamb’, or ‘deboned fish’, which appeal to American dietary tastes. While these ingredients are not harmful and sound healthy, it’s important to keep in mind that dogs need bone, organ and cartilage in their diet.

    Not just muscle meat, which contains only a small percentage of the actual nutrition dogs get from other parts of the animal (the ‘by-products’).

    But wait, there is more!

    Deboned fresh meats are 70% water. By law, companies must list ingredients by weight before extrusion.

    So if you see that “fresh chicken is the first ingredient” on the label, you are likely being fooled. Especially when it comes to grain-free diets that use a lot of starchy carbs!

    After extrusion, how much fresh deboned meat is really there? Around 70% less than you think.

    PRO TIP: You want to see meat meals and meat by-product meals in the first ingredients. This dry, rendered product is heavy before and after extrusion, not to mention chock full of protein, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids.

    What about veggies?

    Pumpkin, Squash, Blueberries, etc. Ingredients like this are often considered to be nothing more than ‘fairy dust’ by board-certified veterinary nutritionists.

    Like fresh meat, these ingredients are mostly water. By the time they are extruded there isn’t much left. Plus, they may displace room in the composition of the kibble for vitamins, minerals, and amino acids from better sources.

    4 1

    Why grain-free dog foods are not healthy

    Because so many grain-free dog diets have replaced a significant amount of meat with peas, potatoes, lentils, and other pulses, the diet may be lacking in the correct balance of trace nutrients and amino acids.

    These starchy ingredients contain protein and as a result can, in some ways, replace meat. The final kibble will still meet AAFCO nutrient profile minimums on paper.

    Unfortunately, the pet food industry is a sketchy place, and not for the reasons that you think.

    What is ingredient splitting?

    Ingredient splitting is a common practice, for example!

    This is when companies will take an ingredient such as peas and split it up on the ingredients list.

    Peas, pea protein, pea fiber, pea flour, and pea starch are things you may notice. Or green lentils, red lentils, yellow peas, green peas.

    This splitting allows manufacturers to trick you into believing the food has more meat in it than it actually does, and is a COMMON practice of boutique and grain-free dog food brands.

    Read more about ingredient splitting HERE.

    bunch of different breed dogs outdoors
    Photo by Aysun Kahraman Ă–ktem on Pexels.com

    The dirty truth about grain-free dog food

    Some people believe that grain-free dog diets contain more meat than what is seen in grain-inclusive diets.

    They believe this because of marketing, and because of the assumption that the grains taken out of the food are replaced with meat.

    Oops! Grain free diets are actually quite often loaded with pulses and legumes to replace the grains, not meat.

    Dogs need meat, bone, organ, tissue, fat, skin, and cartilage in their diet. Many of these things are considered ‘by-products’. By-products are great in a dog’s diet, but marketing has made them into a dirty word.

    Grain-free dog foods are not, in fact, higher in meat nor are they necessarily healthier for your dog.

    We believe that correctly balanced kibbles will have meat meal and meat by-product meal as a primary protein source, paired with well-researched healthy grains such as rice, corn, and oats for energy and nutrients.

    Here is our list of grain-inclusive foods for large breed dogs:

    Is it good for dogs to have grain-free dog food?

    We believe that many grain-free dry dog foods and marketing-based food brands are harming pets.

    This belief is backed by science coming from board-certified veterinary nutritionists and the top veterinary institutes and organizations in the Country.

    Heart disease is just one proven complication of feeding a poorly formulated diet. You may have heard this from people and veterinarians who tell you to stay away from grain-free foods because of the risk of DCM!

    DCM (or dilated cardiomyopathy DCM in dogs) has a genetic component, but also a nutritional one. The two are unrelated.

    The nutritional relationship to DCM is well documented. Many pet food manufacturers have had to adjust their formulas in the past.

    For example, once veterinary nutritionists learned that cats couldn’t reliably synthesize their own taurine, an essential amino acid, it was added to food and the problem was solved.

    Taurine deficiency causes heart disease in dogs and cats. However, the veterinary community does not currently see taurine deficiency as the primary cause of the current nutrition-DCM speculations.

    Read on!

    close up shot of black and white siberian husky
    Photo by Anna Tarazevich on Pexels.com

    DCM in Dogs Eating Grain Free Dog Food

    Dilated cardiomyopathy is when the heart muscle becomes enlarged. DCM is primarily a genetic condition, passed on from parents to puppies.

    Dog breeds genetically prone to canine dilated cardiomyopathy include Great Danes, Doberman Pinschers, Boxers, and Cocker Spaniels.

    Secondary DCM can be caused by unbalanced nutrition, and as above, it is well documented.

    Several board-certified veterinary cardiologists have reported an alarming increase in dogs with no known genetic predisposition to DCM showing up with the disease.

    Many of these dogs diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy dcm presented with very few symptoms!

    Dilated cardiomyopathy is often a silent killer and will take the lives of dogs who had been playing, eating and enjoying life normally just minutes before.

    Adding grains or taurine does not fix this problem; as they say, you cannot supplement your way out of a bad diet!

    It is believed that the consequences of feeding poorly balanced diets are grossly under-represented, and that many more dogs would have been diagnosed with heart disease had they lived long enough or had a post-mortem autopsy completed.

    90% of the dogs reported with DCM, following scientific observation and diagnosis by a board certified veterinary cardiologist, were eating grain-free dog food, indicating a strong potential dietary link.

    It doesn’t matter what you hear and from whom, there absolutely is a problem here. Heart disease is terrifying, and we believe that dog owners should be cautious and base their opinions here on the most up to date science.

    An FDA investigation was launched, and since then the discussion has become hotbed of misinformation.

    The FDA actually released a statement citing that grain-free diets may not specifically be the issue. People misinterpreted this statement as a resolution of what they believed to have been financially biased, corporate-driven data and ran with it.

    This happened despite the fact that 1000’s of reports submitted by veterinarians and dog owners around the Country indicate that BEG diets (boutique, exotic, grain free) foods are causing health problems and heart failure.

    Naysayers often cite that the “original studies were bonk” and that “grain free and BEG diets are safe and healthy” as a result, furthering the divide with statements that are not backed by facts or science.

    That doesn’t mean there is no problem, however.

    The correlation is now believed to be within dog foods where no on-staff board-certified veterinary nutritionists formulate the diet, and/or where a significant nutrient source includes peas, legumes, potatoes, beans, or pulses.

    Both grain-free AND grain-inclusive diets are to blame, in other words!

    Commonly implicated brands include:

    • Fromm
    • Victor
    • Orijen/Acana
    • Diamond (including Costco and Nutra-Nuggets)
    • Earthborn and Unrefined
    • 4 Health
    • Taste of the Wild
    • Solid Gold
    • Rachel Ray
    • Nutrisource
    • Nutro
    • and many others

    FACT: None of those brands have a qualified individual formulating, testing, and researching their diets.

    Fromm, for example, has a chemical engineer creating recipes. Victor uses a guy with an online certification in dairy cattle nutrition. Diamond uses proprietary software to spit out a formula, and has the results checked off by a team of consultants.

    That is where the problem ultimately lies.

    Nutritional DCM is the direct result of ‘health’ food marketing and pet food shaming, which was designed to turn people away from the big-5 science-backed brands and promote the sales of poorly balanced, untested, and grossly under-researched boutique diets.

    Think about this for a moment. We’ve all be scammed by the dog food industry.

    https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/outbreaks-and-advisories/fda-investigation-potential-link-between-certain-diets-and-canine-dilated-cardiomyopathy

    woman kissing her dog
    Photo by Anna Tarazevich on Pexels.com

    What food do dog nutritionists recommend?

    Keep in mind that there is a difference between a ‘nutritionist’ and a ‘board certified veterinary nutritionist’.

    The former are generally people who obtained certifications from online nutrition courses and smaller pet food manufacturers.

    The later are veterinarians who obtained several years of additional study and then a board certification in small animal nutrition. Personally, I trust science and people who are highly educated.

    Veterinary nutritionists recommend a grain-inclusive diet from a company that has a full-time veterinary nutritionist on staff to formulate, test, and research the diets, participate in peer-reviewed research, and prove their formulas in feeding trials.

    As of this writing, only five manufacturers meet this standard.

    • Purina
    • Royal Canin
    • Hill’s Science Diet
    • Eukanuba
    • Iam’s

    Here is a great scientific source of information on diets and health issues related to diet, including canine dilated cardiomyopathy.

    https://avmajournals.avma.org/view/journals/javma/253/11/javma.253.11.1390.xml

    woman petting dog
    Photo by Gantas VaiÄŤiulÄ—nas on Pexels.com

    What is the best food to prevent DCM in Dogs?

    We believe that the best food to prevent nutritional DCM based congestive heart failure is a grain-inclusive diet from an established, science-backed company. These foods have been proven to reduce and at times eliminate heart disease in dogs that had been diagnosed with nutritional DCM!

    Here is our list of the best foods for giant breeds, including Great Danes.

    Check out THE GIANT DOG FOOD PROJECT to compare brands and values.

  • How to Stop Overfeeding Your Dog: 5 Tips & Tricks

    How to Stop Overfeeding Your Dog: 5 Tips & Tricks

    Do you have a hard time knowing how much food to give your dog? Are you afraid of overfeeding them and making them obese? Or are you in the dark about how much food you really should be feeding your dog?

    We are here to help. Chances are, you may actually be OVERFEEDING your dog!

    Is your Great Dane struggling with pickiness and loose stools? Yeah, about that. We’ll cover it, too.

    In this blog post, we will discuss how to use a scale to measure your dog’s food and make sure they are getting the right amount. This is an important step in ensuring their health and wellbeing.

    Using a scale to measure your dog food can also save you money, resolve chronic loose stools, and put pickiness to bed, once and for all.

    Read on, friends!

    Stop Overfeeding Your Dog

    Here is our table of contents. The headings are clickable for navigation!

    Are you overfeeding your dog?

    Step One: Read the Kibble Bag…

    Responsible dog food companies will give you grams per cup and kilocalories per cup measurements right on the bag.

    Every food company will be different!

    BrandKCALS/CUPGrams Per Cup
    Royal Canin Giant Breed Adult337108
    Pro Plan Large Breed Shredded Chicken35396

    As you can see here, the actual weight of the food and the nutrition per cup can vary!

    A cup of dog food is not the same as a cup of dog food from a different bag, in other words.

    Pro Tip: this is a good reason to use the food chart on the back of the bag for reference, not necessarily generic Great Dane feeding charts!

    a person putting food on a dog bowl

    Using a Scale to Measure Dog Food

    As an avid baker and home cook, I know that weighing flour, sugar, and butter is the only way to create truly consistent and reliable results.

    My famous chocolate chip cookie recipe (I wish I could share them with you through the screen, they are amazing) is all done on a kitchen scale.

    170g of flour

    150g of brown sugar

    50g of white sugar

    and so on.

    Last week I was scooping massive amounts of kibble into bowls for my Danes and got an idea to weigh it out, instead.

    What I found, shocked me.

    Both my eyeball measurement and my cup-by-cup measurements resulted in significantly more food in the bowl for my dog than when I measured the food on a scale.

    As in, I have been way overfeeding my dogs…and you probably are too!

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    The Experiment

    I used two popular types of large/giant breed kibble for this.

    Royal Canin Giant Breed Adult

    Purina Pro Plan Large Breed Adult Shredded Chicken

    For each one, I documented the information from the food bag regarding how many grams were in a cup of the food, and how many kilocalories were in a cup as well.

    I took two measurements of each food:

    First: I scooped out a cup using a 1 cup measure, as most of us do, and I weighed it on a food scale.

    Second: I used the scale to measure out exactly one cup of food by weight/grams (according to the data from the bag).

    Then I compared the two results.

    IMG 4253

    Royal Canin Giant Breed

    This kibble has LARGE pieces!

    According to the feeding chart on the bag, my 2-year-old moderately active Great Dane should have 5.5 cups of food each day.

    IMG 4259
    The measuring cup with dog food shown above is measured out the way most of us tend to do it.
    Scooped out and slightly full to make up for the airy space between kibbles.

    Royal Canin says (on the bag) that the Giant Breed Adult food contains:

    108G per 1 Cup. (Thus, 5.5 cups = 594g of food/day)

    I scooped up a single cup of the nuggets the way that most of us tend to do it: a loose scoop with some pieces sticking out (because they are huge and left lots of air between pieces). I weighed them in an empty bowl on the scale.

    The result? 130 grams. Not 108 grams, as a true cup of this should weigh.

    IMG 4261

    Meaning that my single sloppy cup measure was adding 22 EXTRA grams of the food.

    That was just one cup, not all 5. Now, it stands to reason that this is going to ADD UP quickly. ?

    For a dog that should be eating 5.5 cups, that could mean roughly 120 extra grams of food PER DAY!

    120 grams is a whole bonus extra cup of food, in other words. Which, considering that a cup is around 1/5th of the dog’s daily intake requirement, that’s a LOT.

    Not only that, but over the course of the week, my dog would be receiving 7-8 additional cups of calorie-dense food that they likely don’t even need.

    That is more than an entire day’s worth of nutrition added to their weekly diet.

    8 days of food in 7 days. ??

    Have you ever wondered why there are so many obese dogs? We’ve just found a major clue…

    Is My Great Dane Fat?

    The Best Foods For Great Danes

    7 Deadly Health Risks for Overweight Dogs

    30
    An overweight Great Dane

    Purina Pro Plan Large Breed Shredded Chicken

    For fun, I did this with a second food.

    1 cup of Pro Plan Large Breed Shredded Chicken kibble should weigh 96 grams.

    I used a measuring cup to pull a scoop out of the bag, taking care to not overfill it.

    Then I weighed it on the scale and…don’t be surprised here, folks:

    110 grams!

    IMG 4257

    This means that every cup I scoop is receiving (average) 14 additional grams of the food.

    For a dog that should receive 6 cups of Pro Plan, that could mean that they are being overfed by 84 grams each day.

    Just like the Royal Canin, an 84-gram daily overage (almost a full cup of food) amounts to roughly 6-7 additional cups of food each week that the dog likely doesn’t actually need.

    IMG 4258

    The Problems with Overfeeding Dogs

    When we overfeed our dogs, we are not loving them. We are slowly killing them.

    We are shortening their life spans, and making them more likely to suffer from a myriad of health problems, including:

    Cancer

    Heart Disease

    High Blood Pressure

    Arthritis & Joint Issues

    Diabetes Mellitus & Pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas)

    ‘Allergies’ and ongoing loose stools

    I’ve outlined some common ones below!

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    Chronic Loose Stools

    Chronic loose stools are a common symptom of overfeeding in Great Danes! When you provide too much nutrition or unbalanced nutrition, it literally goes straight through them.

    A lot of people misdiagnose chronic loose stools as ‘food allergies’ or ‘chicken intolerance’, however, most of the time these are actually related to poor gut health, too much food switching, unbalanced boutique dog foods and you guessed it, overfeeding!

    Veterinarians across the Country cite a massive increase in health problems in dogs, including loose stools, heart problems, and low energy that they attribute to the popularity of untested, poorly formulated boutique dog foods.

    Choose a well-balanced large or giant breed kibble instead, measure the food, and stick with it.

    I recommend the following formulas, which are heavily researched and thoroughly tested, for large and giant breed dogs:

    Check out THE GIANT DOG FOOD PROJECT to compare brands and values.

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    Should I Feed My Great Dane Puppy or Adult Food?

    Obesity in Dogs

    Weight gain is common, especially following spay or neuter surgery (which causes your dog’s metabolism to decrease).

    Allowing your dog to pack on the pounds can shorten its lifespan, on average, by about 2 years!

    Being a stocky, oversized ‘Euro’ Great Dane is no excuse for being overweight and heavy, either.

    Great Danes are a lean, muscular, athletic breed and it’s important, for their health and well-being, that we honor that.

    We’ve included some dog weight loss tips below, as well as the following resources:

    Is my Dog Filling Out or Getting Fat?

    Should I feed Grain-Free Food?

    The Health Risks of Obesity in Dogs

    16
    An active, healthy-weight dog

    Over-nutrition and Growth Disorders

    Growth disorders such as Pano (aka growing pains), HOD, flat feet, and knuckling are a direct result of over-nutrition, especially when feeding incorrect, unbalanced foods that have too much calcium or missing nutrients.

    Great Dane puppies, especially young ones, require a LOT of food and for many reasons, we recommend feeding young dogs on a loose free-feeding schedule so that they aren’t underfed. However, as they mature, you should transition to a 2-3x/day feeding schedule.

    You can learn more about this in our Ultimate Great Dane Feeding Chart post!

    Feeding too much of the wrong thing can and will harm them.

    We’ve included a list below of the only appropriate foods to feed a large or giant breed puppy, as well as some resources for understanding why those foods are highly recommended!

    What are WSAVA Guidelines for Dog Food, and Do They Matter?

    What is Ingredient Splitting in Dog Food?

    Is Life’s Abundance a Good Food For My Dog?

    Check out THE GIANT DOG FOOD PROJECT to compare brands and values.

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    THE HELLO DANES GREAT DANE PUPPY RESOURCE PAGE

    Everything you need to know! ↗

    Pickiness

    Many Great Dane owners believe that their dogs have become picky because they are turning their noses up at their food.

    These dogs are most often actually just FULL!

    In the interest of getting them to eat more, people tend to switch foods and start adding toppers and other forms of nutritional bribery.

    The dog learns that if they ignore their food, interesting and fun things come to them.

    “Picky eating” is a bit of a popular myth that is literally caused by humans! It’s ok for a dog to not eat their entire meal.

    Picky dogs are not usually picky, they are literally just training you to give them treats. Many picky dogs are actually overweight and need less food, not more!

    A healthy dog will not let itself starve to death, and if it does? Switching foods isn’t going to help. That’s a dog that needs medical attention.

    Bloat and Gut Health in Dogs

    Is Gentle Giants a Good Dog Food?

    black and brown miniature schnauzer lying on green grass field

    ‘Allergies’

    Once a dog has been sent down the path of ‘picky eating’ where different kibble brands are changed often and treats and toppers are added to encourage eating, their gut health suffers.

    Poor gut health also means being intolerant to the environment and yes, symptoms may then show up indicating that the dog has allergies.

    These symptoms include loose stools, a dry coat, and itching.

    Dogs with lighter coats may be more prone, and some dogs will continue to suffer from environmental allergies no matter what (just like humans). It’s important to set all dogs up for success!

    Some allergies are legitimate and life-threatening to dogs. The ONLY way to diagnose these types of allergies in dogs is to complete a food-trial elimination diet with veterinary supervision.

    Legitimately diagnosed food protein and grain allergies are extremely rare. It’s important to note that blood and saliva tests are inaccurate and often a waste of money.

    Most dogs suffering from allergies are actually experiencing intolerance to environmental allergens, not food!

    PRO TIP: Use a wet towel to gently wipe dander and pollen off your pup daily, and wash their feet to remove irritants.

    Many health issues like this are made worse by constant food switching and the use of untested, poorly formulated boutique diets that lack the correct balance of micro-nutrients and amino acids.

    Stop food switching to “find something that works”, measure the food, and let your dog’s gut health heal!

    We highly recommend Olewo Carrots and Olewo Beets for added fiber and to soothe the tummy, in addition to Fortiflora or Probios Probiotics.

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    OLEWO CARROTS. See them on Amazon HERE.

    Weight Loss Tips for Great Danes

    If your dog needs to lose weight, there are things you can do!

    Vet check? Check!

    If you are concerned about your dog’s weight, it’s important to ask your veterinarian for advice!

    Some dogs have weight problems because of thyroid issues or other medical conditions that can be easily managed with medication or a change in diet.

    Be sure to rule out any possible underlying health issues, including heart problems and thyroid disease, before starting a weight loss plan for your dog.

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    1201680655684152 Big Barker 4032x3024 MQ 1.02 2 1600x
    Romp n Roll Red
    Get a FREE Jolly Ball with the purchase of a Big Barker bed.

    Change the diet

    The one time we DO recommend a diet change is when you are not feeding quality food, and when your dog needs to lose weight. The following weight loss formula is recommended for at-home use:

    Pro Plan Adult Weight Management Large Breed Chicken & Rice Formula

    Your veterinarian may also be able to prescribe a diet from Hill’s or Royal Canin that will help your pooch cut the calories. Royal Canin has put together an amazing healthy-weight resource page for dog owners:

    https://www.royalcanin.com/us/dogs/products/weight

    Measure the food on a scale so that you don’t overfeed!

    Be aware of the fact that many boutique foods use ingredient splitting to make you believe their food is ‘meat first’, when the truth is you may be feeding your dog an expensive bag of ‘human grade peas’.

    It’s no wonder so many dogs are overweight and struggling with low energy!

    What is Ingredient Splitting?

    DCM in Dogs: What You Need to Know

    17 1

    Tread cautiously with toppers

    Toppers and treats can help your dog or they can hurt them.

    Too many can lead to over-nutrition (and thus, obesity).

    Some people say to add green beans or pumpkin to your dog’s bowl to offset some calories; while this can help your dog feel more full, it’s important to keep these toppers to 10% or less of the diet.

    We recommend well-balanced raw food as a healthy, fresh-foods topper.

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    Raw Grass-Fed Beef
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    Surf & Turf
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    Turkey

    Olewo Carrots, Olewo Beets, and Dr. Harvey’s are also fantastic choices for adding wholesome fibers to your dog’s diet; as above, keep these to 5-10% or less of the diet.

    Pro Tip: A little goes a long way! If you are helping your dog lose weight, take it easy on the Dr. Harvey’s.

    1 canine health 1
    453 raw vibrance
    450 paradigm

    Get ready to move…naturally

    An off-leash dog can burn up to 300 calories in an hour!

    That’s a significant amount! We recommend off-leash training for all large and giant breed dogs, including Great Danes.

    This will allow them to zip, zoom, run, spin, explore and gain enrichment and physical movement that they are not receiving on a leash, long-line, or in a harness.

    With this kind of activity, your dog will be building muscle, shedding fat, and working its brain!

    Many dogs will benefit greatly from receiving their exercise and enrichment this way, however, you must be smart about it.

    Dogs that are extremely aggressive, fearful, timid, or wild need professional help with this, and you should never let your dog off-leash unless you can fully rely on them not to approach people and dogs uninvited.

    E-Collar training and educated ownership is the best way to give your dog this freedom of movement outside of your fenced yard.

    If this isn’t for you, it’s still important to get your dog moving! Talk to your veterinarian about physical therapy, including the use of water treadmills and pools to help your dog burn calories.

    READ MORE:

    Off-Color & ‘Designer Color’ Great Danes

    Find a Great Dane Rescue

  • DCM in Great Danes: What you need to know

    DCM in Great Danes: What you need to know

    If you are the owner of a Great Dane, then you need to be aware of DCM in Great Danes. Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a common and serious heart condition that affects this breed. It often results in sudden death. If your dog has a recent diagnosis of DCM, this post is for you!

    In this blog post, we will discuss what DCM is (including primary and secondary DCM), the symptoms to watch for, and information about how heart problems are treated in dogs. I’m also going to deep dive into OFA heart health testing protocols AND the controversial grain-free foods and nutritional DCM debate.

    We will also provide information on how you can help keep your Great Dane healthy and prevent DCM from developing!

    17 1

    What is DCM in Great Danes?

    DCM, aka Dilated Cardiomyopathy, is a heart condition that is characterized by an enlarged heart. This enlargement makes it difficult for the heart to pump blood effectively, and as a result, the dog’s body does not get enough oxygen. As you can imagine, this is a dangerous and often devastating condition for any Great Dane.

    Sudden cardiac death is a common and devastating complication of DCM.

    There are two types of DCM in dogs: primary and secondary.

    Primary DCM is thought to be genetic. Only a small handful of breeds are prone to genetic DCM, and Great Danes are one of them.

    Secondary DCM is caused by unbalanced nutrition, or may also be the result of an infection or other underlying health condition.

    We will dig further into both forms of dilated cardiomyopathy DCM in dogs, as well as prevention and treatment protocols below!

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    What are the symptoms of DCM in dogs?

    The unfortunate reality is that many dogs who have DCM, especially secondary DCM (more below) present with little to no symptoms at all until it’s too late.

    Sudden death is a common complication associated with this disease, and will often take the lives of young dogs who appear otherwise healthy. Sudden congestive heart failure is devastating.

    In dogs that do present with symptoms associated with DCM, exercise intolerance is often one of the first signs.

    Many people mistake this lowered energy with aging or laziness.

    Exercise intolerance means that your dog will tire easily during activities that he used to be able to do with ease.

    You may also notice that your dog coughs, has difficulty breathing, or has a lower tolerance for heat.

    Other DCM symptoms include:

    • Loss of appetite, including anorexia
    • Weight Loss
    • Abdominal Swelling
    • Weakness & exhaustion
    • Poor circulation and capillary refill, including pale gums
    • Blue tongue
    • Pulse deficits
    • Lethargy
    • Fainting or collapsing

    These signs can be easy to overlook because they are often gradual and not specific to heart disease.

    However, if you notice any of these changes in your dog it’s important to contact your veterinarian right away.

    A basic ‘vet check’ or wellness check does NOT rule out serious heart conditions; echocardiograms are one of the only ways to verify changes to the cardiac muscle that point to canine cardiomyopathy.

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    How long can a Great Dane live with DCM?

    Because Canine Dilated Cardiomyopathy symptoms are often overlooked, many affected dogs may be receiving treatment too late.

    It’s important to remember that there is no cure for primary (genetic) DCM and it is a progressive disease. This means that even with treatment, the condition may continue to worsen over time.

    Dogs with genetic DCM have a guarded prognosis and often do not live more than a year or two after diagnosis, even with treatment.

    Secondary DCM, however, is often treatable and may even be reversible if the underlying cause can be identified and corrected.

    For example, if your dog has secondary DCM caused by an infection, successfully treating the infection and the underlying cause of it will often improve heart function.

    Or if you are feeding a boutique food diet, home cooked diet, or a diet with a lot of pulse ingredients or potatoes, and your dog is diagnosed with secondary nutritional DCM, switching to a different food from a heavily researched brand (such as Purina or Royal Canin) has been shown time and time again to help or even reverse the disease.

    Read HERE for information about how peas, potatoes, lentils, and legumes have been linked yet again to heart disease in dogs.

    It’s important to work closely with your veterinarian and your veterinary cardiologist to create the best treatment plan, based on the underlying reasons for it.

    There is no one-size-fits-all approach to treating canine Dilated Cardiomyopathy, and depending on the cause and severity, the course of treatment will often need to be adjusted as the disease progresses.

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    What dogs are prone to DCM?

    Some dogs are more prone to this condition than others, however, all dogs are at risk (especially when it comes to secondary nutritional DCM).

    Dog breeds that are especially prone to canine dilated cardiomyopathy include:

    • Great Danes
    • Boxers
    • Newfoundlands
    • Doberman Pinschers
    • Cocker Spaniels
    • Irish Wolfhounds

    Of these breeds, Great Danes have some of the highest rate of DCM.

    Because Great Danes already have a major genetic component to consider, it’s even more important to be educated about the role that nutrition might play in dramatically increasing our dog’s risk of developing this disease.

    Does Grain-Free Food Cause DCM in Dogs?

    What are the Best Foods to Feed a Great Dane?

    How do I Keep my Great Dane Healthy?

    15

    Diagnosing Dilated Cardiomyopathy DCM

    As before, many affected dogs are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms that are easily mistaken for other more mild health issues.

    Exercise intolerance, or an abnormal heart rhythm or breathing pattern will often be among the first (easily missed) clinical signs that a dog is in the early stages of dilated cardiomyopathy.

    Affected individuals may also tire easily during exercise, may have a blue tongue (a possible sign of low oxygen supply resulting from poor heart function), or may cough after physical activity.

    As the heart disease progresses, dogs may experience an increased heart rate, irregular heart rhythm, fluid retention (often manifested as weight gain with no change in diet), weight loss, and fainting episodes.

    In its final stages, DCM can cause congestive heart failure, which leads to sudden death.

    An ultrasound examination of the heart contractions, heart muscle, and blood flowing through the heart can provide a veterinary cardiologist with important clues about the heart disease your dog is facing.

    Should I Feed Puppy or Adult Food?

    The Ultimate Great Dane Feeding Chart

    Everything You Need to Know about Great Dane Puppies →

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    Primary Dilated Cardiomyopathy (Genetic)

    Severe congestive heart failure is an early killer of young dogs who have a genetic predisposition to DCM. Great Danes are PRONE to genetic DCM. This means that they receive their bad hearts from their parents.

    Like bloat, dilated cardiomyopathy heart disease is directly related to the shorter overall life expectancy of Great Danes.

    Every dog that dies suddenly from this devastating disease lowers the average as a whole.

    OFA Cardiac Health Testing

    OFA (the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals) cardiac health testing is important for all dogs, but it’s especially important for breeds, such as Danes and Doberman Pinschers that are extremely prone to primary DCM.

    Ethical breeders will have an echocardiogram performed on each parent dog prior to breeding. This necessary health test can rule out changes to the heart muscle that indicate a possible genetic predisposition to the disease.

    They will also do a thorough pedigree analysis to look for genetic factors related to family history.

    If a pedigree analysis suggested that the puppies may be predisposed to inheriting canine idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, ethical breeders will not breed those dogs.

    All of this should be done prior to breeding. Unfortunately, many ‘friendly’ breeders with cute, clean, healthy-looking puppies skip this step. By the time you fall in love with those adorable puppy feet and eyes, it’s too late.

    The genetics have been passed on and your puppy may be one of the not-so-lucky ones.

    It is important that we hold Great Dane breeders to a high standard. Make it socially unacceptable to breed dogs without full health testing. Do not buy dogs from breeders who are not proving their dogs and fully-health testing the parents before breeding.

    Verify that echocardiograms were done by your breeder by searching the OFA database. Your breeder should have the parent listed, as well as the tests that were performed in addition to information about the results.

    www.ofa.org

    If your breeder has skipped this test or not registered it with the OFA, you’ve found a backyard breeder.

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    Responsible Dog Breeding

    Because Great Danes are a breed prone to a number of devastating health issues, including dilated cardiomyopathy, it’s even more important to be sure that you are working with a responsible breeder.

    A responsible breeder will:

    Thoroughly health test all breeding stock: heart, hips, eyes, and thyroid results should be available for you to view at www.ofa.org

    Have detailed knowledge of the Great Dane breed and how their dogs are excellent examples of the Great Dane breed standard.

    Be able to answer any questions you have about Great Danes and Great Dane puppies.

    Be invested in the health and well-being of the puppies, and are willing to support them for life.

    Choosing responsible breeders means that we are choosing to improve the health of the Great Dane breed as a whole.

    When we buy our puppies from breeders who cut corners, we are not only risking the health of our own dogs, but we are also perpetuating the cycle of poor breeding practices that produce sickly dogs and the seemingly endless stream of dogs filling up our rescues.

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    Secondary Dilated Cardiomyopathy (Nutritional)

    Nutritional canine Dilated Cardiomyopathy is also a preventable disease. This one is controversial, however, it’s important to discuss.

    Clinical findings in multiple studies show that improperly formulated foods, especially those that have a lot of peas, legumes, and potatoes are a suspicious culprit when it comes to N-DCM. While studies are ongoing, new evidence is being collected.

    300-400 new boutique dog foods hit the market every year in the U.S. It stands to reason that not all of them are created equal.

    Researchers, including board-certified veterinary cardiologists, are currently investigating a link between diets that have a lot of peas, potato, lentils, and legumes and DCM. They are collecting data and encouraging pet owners and veterinarians to report cases of DCM in dogs that are eating suspect diets.

    The most recent study from December 2022 showed yet another correlation between peas/potato/legumes and changes to the heart muscle.

    Suspect diets include:

    Boutique foods of all kinds (including those with or without grain) that do not have qualified staff formulating the diets they sell

    Foods that contain a lot of pulse ingredients or potatoes, including peas, lentils, chickpeas, and beans

    Foods that utilize a lot of ingredient splitting to push lentils, peas, or potatoes further down on the ingredients list (including multiple forms of one ingredient such as: whole lentils, green lentils, red lentils, lentil fiber or whole peas, pea flour, pea fiber, yellow peas for example)

    Most grain-free foods, which often contain a lot of pulse ingredients as above

    Home-cooked or raw diets that are not correctly balanced

    Many young giant breed dogs who appear otherwise healthy, have excellent veterinary wellness checks, and show no outward clinical signs will suddenly pass away while playing or in their sleep.

    Because these instances are sudden and extremely emotional for dog owners, post-mortem testing by a board-certified Veterinary Pathologist is rarely completed.

    It is believed that nutritional DCM is presenting at rates much higher than currently documented. Just look around any DCM topic in the Great Dane community; so many people have experienced this issue with their dog.

    It is important to note that many dogs are symptom free until they die suddenly. Many others however, DO have symptoms. Every case is different.

    DCM UPDATE – December 2022
    Dr. Judy Morgan, DCM, and the FDA Statements (a MUST READ if you want to learn how to spot pseudoscience!)

    3

    Dog Foods and DCM in Dogs

    Many dog food brands fail to meet certain ethical criteria for the production of dog foods.

    • They rarely if ever employ full-time, on-staff, board-certified Veterinary Nutritionists. This means that the food is often put together by people who have little to no appropriate credentials to do so.
    • Feeding trials and ongoing testing of the formula used are minimal, if used at all. Boutique foods aren’t subjected to the same research and controls; they only meet nutritional minimums on paper.
    • Boutique foods often use 3rd party co-packing facilities. This means that they have less oversight of quality control, consistency, and production.
    • Ingredient splitting is a common practice of boutique food companies. This sneaky trick makes the ingredients list look ‘healthy’ and meat-focused when the bag is full of nothing more than meat-flavored peas. Read more about this HERE.
    • Unregulated, emotional marketing terms and wild claims are used. These terms are used to intentionally mislead pet parents so they will spend more money to feel good about what they feed their pets.

    “Holistic”, “human-grade”, and “super-premium” are just some that you may have heard.

    • They rarely, if ever, participate in legitimate AAFCO feeding trials, nor do they contribute to or benefit from the global veterinary science and research communities. This means that YOUR dog is the guinea pig.

    You can compare over 600 brands head to head based on this value and others at The Giant Dog Food Project.

    https://www.facebook.com/timberlandvet/posts/447032694095912
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    How to choose a dog food that doesn’t cause DCM

    The best way to reduce your dog’s risk of nutritional DCM is to feed a high-quality diet from a heavily researched brand with a qualified nutritionist on staff.

    Not all dogs fed an unbalanced, boutique, or ‘grain-free’ diet will get DCM! It is being theorized that there are specific mechanisms at play for some dogs and not others.

    The problem is, you won’t know if your dog is one of the ‘at risk’ ones until it’s too late.

    A good diet will provide your dog with all the nutrients they need to stay healthy. Marketing may have taught you that “these “big” brands are full of ‘fillers’ and junk, but that’s simply not true.

    Look for brands that are highly researched and that invest millions of dollars every year into veterinary internal medicine organizations and learning more through science.

    The contributions that the ‘Big 5’ food brands (Purina, Royal Canin, Hill’s, Eukanuba, Iams) have made to veterinary research have helped us learn more about not only heart issues but bloat, cancer, wobblers, lifespan, and more. These brands are literally writing the book on companion animal health. Read PURINA research updates from the Great Dane Club of America HERE.

    Good food brands will do comprehensive feeding trials so that they can continuously improve their products, and they employ entire teams of dedicated professionals with advanced degrees in veterinary science, food science, quality control, and veterinary nutrition.

    16 1

    Ingredients in Pet Food

    The ingredients that food brands use are there for nutritional reasons, including scary-sounding things such as ‘By-Product Meal’ and ‘corn’.

    There is no such thing as ‘fillers’. Even dangerous ingredients such as peas and lentils (used in large amounts) are not ‘fillers’, as they do provide fiber and nutrients.

    A legitimate filler would be something like styrofoam, with no nutritional value, that would also result in nutritional deficiencies. The word “fillers” is a marketing term, meant to scare you, but has no legal definition.

    So let’s talk about scary ingredients in dog food.

    Both by-products and corn are extremely nutrient-dense.

    We cannot say the same about ‘fresh farm-raised deboned chicken’, which is literally 70% water.

    If you’ve ever given a dog a whole dead chicken, know this: they will eat the WHOLE THING. Eyes, bones, feet, beak, stomach, stomach contents (including grains and yes, corn), liver, and more. The most nutritious part for them is not the watery muscle meat. It’s the ‘guts, bones, and junk’.

    By-Products and meat meals are nothing more than the parts of the animal that many humans are often uninterested in eating, that dogs desperately need in their diets!

    By-products are not actually waste. They are a secondary product that results from the production of other products.

    For example, Cream of Tartar is a by-product of wine making. If you have ever eat Snickerdoodles, which get their flavor from cream of tartar, you’re eating a “by-product”.

    Using by-products from the meat industry is better for the environment, too. Why waste food and nutrition if we don’t have to?

    If you give your dog a bully stick to chew on, you are giving your dog a by-product.

    Boutique companies tend to choose ingredients such as “ancient grains” or “fresh deboned turkey” that look and feel pretty to you (so we buy the food), but not necessarily the ingredients that have been scientifically proven to make your dog look and feel its best.

    Don’t believe us? Read our article about ingredient splitting in dog food. This dirty trick is what gives boutique food companies leverage to make you believe their formulas have ‘meat first’.

    When it comes to your dog’s health, don’t be fooled by unregulated marketing terms, pretty packaging, “nice” sounding ingredients, or higher price points.

    Common small food brands include Victor, Fromm, 4Health, Diamond (also Costco), Instinct, Earthborn Holistic, Acana, Orijen, Solid Gold, Farmina, Nulo, Nutro, and Nutrisource.

    None of these brands have a veterinary nutritionist on their side or on their staff.

    • Fromm foods are formulated by a chemical engineer
    • Victor foods are formulated by a guy with an M.S. in science and an online certificate in nutrition – better, but still not great
    • Diamond/Costco/Taste of the Wild/Nutra-Nuggets/Solid Gold are formulated by an unknown person, and checked by an off-site consultant who has an M.S. in Animal Nutrition (underqualified)

    What is Ingredient Splitting in Dog Food?

    How do I choose the Best Food for my Great Dane Puppy?

    What is Hip Dysplasia?

    14 1

    Can nutritional DCM be reversed?

    When caught early, nutritional dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs can be managed and is often reversed through an immediate diet change and certain cardiac medications if warranted. This has been proven time and time again.

    Many dogs have shown almost complete recoveries from DCM when their owners switched them away from grain-free and boutique dog foods (aka “BEG” diets).

    This means that dogs with heart disease should be choosing a brand that is formulated, tested, and researched by on-staff board-certified veterinary nutritionists, and that meets the highest standards for formulation, ethics, and manufacturing practices outlined by the World Small Veterinary Association’s common-sense guidelines for choosing pet foods.

    9 1

    Matilda’s Story

    There was a time, long before I wrote this blog post when I was a die-hard boutique dog foods snob.

    Over the course of 5 years, I tried Fromm, Nutrisource, Nutro, Farmina, Earthborn, Nature’s Logic, and Nutro.

    Those brands told me that my dog would be healthier on their diet, and yet, we switched often trying to find the ‘right food’ because they were not actually healthier! I read ingredients lists until I was blue in the face.

    In that time, between my three dogs (two are Danes) I saw:

    • Low energy
    • Dull coat
    • Itching
    • Chronic ear and paw infections
    • A massive lung infection that resulted in a $3500 vet bill
    • Allergies & paw swelling
    • Pink skin
    • Malnutrition and lack of muscle tone
    • Chronic loose stools and ‘sensitivities’
    • Acid reflux
    • Bed wedding
    • Screaming during sleep and becoming unresponsive
    • Low heat tolerance
    • Blue tongue indicating a lack of properly oxygenated blood

    My female Dane Matilda was taking the brunt of the worst of them: reflux, bed wedding, low energy, and strange breathing patterns.

    She began screaming in her sleep and would often be unresponsive to waking when I would jump out of bed to see what was wrong.

    My veterinarian did a blood test, prescribed supplements and medications, talked about referring us to specialists, and also implored me to immediately put her on one of the “evil Big 5 Brands: Purina, Royal Canin, Eukanuba, Hill’s, Iam’s”.

    She also told us to follow up and retest once our dog had been put on more appropriate food.

    I had no interest in feeding my dog Hill’s or Purina and was appalled that she would suggest it. My dog was sick, why would I feed her garbage!?

    So, I marched myself into a natural boutique pet food store and asked a sales rep for nutrition advice.

    Think about this for a moment.

    I had a very sick dog and went first to a sales rep on an hourly salary for nutrition advice. Somebody that, for some reason, I trusted more than my veterinarian.

    Marketing taught me to trust the opinion of a sales-driven employee with no legitimate credentials, in a sales-driven store, over the opinion of somebody with 8+ years of high-level education followed by years of practice in actual veterinary medicine.

    This is terrifying and I want people to be aware of the misguided bias and opinions that boutique food companies have used marketing to lead us to!

    I consider myself a well-researched, educated, intelligent dog owner. All of us are susceptible to marketing.

    Low energy is often misdiagnosed as ‘aging’ or ‘laziness’. That’s heartbreaking.

    How is DCM Treated in Dogs?

    The treatment of dilated cardiomyopathy depends on the presentation, symptoms, and severity of the disease.

    In addition to recommendations to choose a diet that was formulated by a board-certified veterinary nutritionist and subjected to rigorous research and testing, a cardiologist will often also prescribe medications and supplements that can help with missing nutrients, blood flow, chamber dilation, vascular dilation, and blood pressure.

    Veterinary Cardiology is a specialized field comprised of individuals who first completed their veterinary schooling and went on to specialize and become board-certified.

    Many of them are investing a lot of research, resources, and science into the study of nutritional and primary dilated cardiomyopathy DCM.

    Their contribution to veterinary medicine, and the opinions that they have about the progression of this disease and its causes are valuable and important. You can find information about peer-reviewed research from them below.

    https://vetnutrition.tufts.edu/2018/11/dcm-update/

    Share Your Story

    Did you have a dog die suddenly from unknown causes or from a confirmed case of nutritional dilated cardiomyopathy?

    If you have lost a dog suddenly and are struggling to understand why, I am so sorry for your loss. Please share your story below, we want to hear it! Others need to hear it, too. Please use our platform for this.

    If you are worried that your dog may be developing clinical signs of illness that may point to dilated cardiomyopathy DCM, seek veterinary care and a thorough physical examination immediately.

    We also recommend that if you have been feeding a suspect BEG or boutique foods diet (with or without grains and with or without taurine supplementation) that you seek an echocardiogram as a means to catch any changes to the heart muscle at an early stage.

    This is recommended even if you are not seeing any other clinical signs of impending congestive heart failure. Early diagnosis of changes to the heart muscle is key.

    Resources:

    Dilated Cardiomyopathy on Facebook (join this group to see ongoing reports in real-time and read personal stories of veterinary confirmed nutritional DCM cases)

    All Trades DVM DCM Timeline (a common sense look at all of the reports, research, and FDA statements surrounding nutritional DCM)

    How to Choose a Pet Food – Tufts University (information from veterinary nutritionists with no financial motivations, affiliate links, sales, or ads)

    Great Dane Club of America Health Research (Purina Update articles about Great Danes with research on bloat, HOD, wobblers, nutrition, and more)

    Health And Research
    https://vetnutrition.tufts.edu/2021/09/diet-associated-dcm-research-update/
    https://vetnutrition.tufts.edu/2016/12/questions-you-should-be-asking-about-your-pets-food/
    https://www.medvetforpets.com/beg-diets-and-dcm-in-dogs-recommendations-regarding-diagnosis-and-management/
  • Should Great Danes have Grain Free Food?

    Should Great Danes have Grain Free Food?

    For Centuries, humans have continually adjusted and tailored dietary guidelines to align with the latest trends, science, and research. The current fad of excluding grains, carbs, and processed foods from human diets has extended to pet foods, with grain-free options gaining popularity. However, the decision is more complex when it comes to whether Great Danes should have grain free food or not.

    You may have heard from your veterinarian, a friend, or on social media that grain-free or boutique (“BEG”) foods are bad for Great Danes. Alternatively, you may have heard that grain-free kibbles are “higher quality”, have “more meat”, and can help resolve allergies.

    It’s hard to know what to do when you hear so many conflicting opinions, so here at Hello Danes we’re going to run with science.

    In the interest of saving you some time here, I will cut to the chase. Of course, we’re going to deep dive into this below, but here is the low down: most, if not all, grain-free kibbles are a bad choice to feed your Great Dane.

    The information in this blog post is important and may save your dogs life!

    12

    The Problem with Grain-Free Dog Food

    All extruded kibbles require some kind of starch to bind the meat together. Without it, the food would be dust.

    In grain-inclusive dog foods, this starch is often some form of rice or oats.

    In grain-free dog foods, grains are replaced most often with ingredients such as peas, lentils, and potatoes. These are starchy carbohydrates that may also be used to replace meat-based protein.

    (A benefit of ingredients such as rice, oats, or lentils is that they add fiber to your dog’s diet, which may decrease the risk of bloat. )

    Grain-free foods are NOT carb-free! Lentils, peas, and potatoes have lots of carbohydrates.

    Now it’s also important to understand that ‘Fresh meat’ is roughly 70% water and doesn’t have the same robust nutritional profile that bone, organ meat, and cartilage has.

    Compare that to a concentrated meat meal or meat by-product meal (which sounds gross, but is made of bone, organ, tissue, and cartilage), and is packed with protein and amino acids. Meat meals are only 10% water.

    Many grain-free kibbles after extrusion, especially those with ‘fresh meat’ and multiple starch sources, are nothing more than meat-flavored peas or lentils.

    Even if you personally see no correlation between grain-free dog food and DCM (more on this below), you have to admit this is a huge problem.

    3 2

    What is DCM in Dogs?

    Now for the fun part.

    Grain-free and improperly balanced or pulse (legume) heavy boutique brand foods are implicated in a notable increase of deadly DCM (heart problems) in pet dogs.

    By implicated, we mean that there is a strong correlation that is actively being studied. Check out any veterinary or breed-specific group and you will see stories of dogs dying this way. Lots of them.

    DCM (aka ‘Dilated Cardiomyopathy) is a devastating disease that results in an enlarged heart. The larger heart has to work harder to pump blood and as a result, the valves can leak.

    Over time, the heart cannot keep up.

    Fluid builds up in the chest and abdomen and eventually, the heart will give out.

    Left untreated, many dogs eventually suffer from congestive heart failure and will die, often suddenly.

    Unfortunately, DCM is often a ‘silent killer’, often undetected until it is too late.

    Great Danes are genetically prone to DCM (deadly heart problems), especially if the breeder isn’t fully health-testing the parents. So their risk of developing DCM is even higher than it is for other dogs.

    Many people have what they think are ‘perfectly healthy’ young Great Danes with shiny coats and perfect stools. These dogs die suddenly while sleeping or playing.

    Some of them have genetic DCM.

    Many of them have secondary DCM, however. This is caused by unbalanced, poorly formulated food and nutrient deficiency.

    Read on…

    A Tasty Top: The Top 11 Foods to Feed a Great Dane

    Great Dane Not Eating- What to Do

    How Much Do Great Danes Eat?

    13

    Signs of DCM Heart Disease in Dogs

    DCM often presents with no symptoms, especially secondary DCM.

    Secondary DCM is seen in dogs who are fed incorrect and unbalanced nutrition.

    An echocardiogram is needed to diagnose DCM/Dilated Cardiomyopathy.

    To be clear, a regular ‘vet check’ does not rule out nutrition and diet-related heart problems.

    If you are feeding a boutique or grain-free diet, it is recommended that you get an echocardiogram for your dog.

    Symptoms of more advanced stage DCM in dogs include:

    • Coughing
    • Lethargy
    • Anorexia
    • Labored Breathing
    • Rapid breathing when resting or sleeping
    • Distended belly
    • Weight loss
    • Depression
    • Lowered activity
    • Sudden death

    https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/dilated-cardiomyopathy-dcm-in-dogs–indepth

    How is DCM Treated?

    Once a dog is diagnosed with primary (genetic) or secondary (nutrition-related) DCM, or the early signs of it, things must happen quickly.

    The veterinarian will typically:

    • Recommend that the diet is immediately changed to food that meets WSAVA guidelines
    • Prescribe medications and supplements if needed
    • Encourage certain restrictions to exercise
    • Give you a list of signs and symptoms to watch for that indicate worsening Dilated Cardiomyopathy or congestive heart failure

    4-6 months later, the dog will be checked again via echocardiogram.

    For dogs with primary DCM (genetic), the condition may not improve.

    With secondary DCM (nutrition-based), assuming that the condition was caught soon enough and the dog was switched to a properly formulated science-backed food, improvement is often noted. Some dogs go on to live full, normal lives.

    Great Dane Nutrition: Puppy vs. Adult Food

    How do I Fix my Dog’s Upset Stomach?

    Our List of the Best Foods for Great Danes, 2022

    20

    Why do vets not recommend grain-free food?

    A large majority of food-related DCM cases go undocumented.

    Many dogs pass suddenly of a ‘heart attack’, during anesthesia, or in their sleep. Expensive (and often heartbreaking) post-mortem testing for it isn’t always done.

    Great Danes do have a genetic predisposition to primary DCM that may be at play here.

    This makes it even more important to be informed about the roll that diet may play, and to ensure that all breeders are thoroughly testing their dogs (OFA Heart / Echocardiograms, etc.) prior to breeding.

    If you feed grain-free, are thinking about feeding grain-free OR are ‘on the fence’ about this debate, read on.

    4 1

    Should Great Danes eat Grain-Free food?

    The potential link between grain-free foods and DCM was brought to the attention of the FDA when Veterinary Cardiologists were noticing an increase of suspicious heart problems in dogs.

    Secondary DCM was showing up at an alarming rate; higher than the typical genetic incidence, and they were growing concerned.

    Their investigation revealed (and still reveals to date) that an alarming majority (90%) of the dogs experiencing secondary DCM were being fed boutique dog foods.

    Kibbles from small dog food companies such as Fromm’s, Orijen, Diamond, Victor, Nutrisource, 4Health, and Acana are taking the brunt of this potential correlation, primarily because among ’boutique’ and smaller food brands they have the largest market share.

    More fed dogs = more sick dogs.

    But there are 1000’s of brands and formulas on the market. Not being on that list doesn’t magically make a diet “safe”, and consider this:

    Purina, Royal Canin and Hill’s feed more dogs than any other brands. Purina alone leads the market with over 16 billion in revenue (2021, and growing).

    That’s a lot of dogs. Many more than are fed Fromm, Victor, or otherwise and yet…the millions of Purina-fed dogs are not turning up with nutritional-DCM.

    The fact that any are turning up at all in smaller brands is alarming.

    Since the time of the original DCM reports, the grain-free DCM debate has become a hotbed of opinions, frustration, and concern between professionals, credentialed nutritionists, raw feeding enthusiasts, and dog owners.

    At Hello Danes, we believe that a grain-free food from a small company, that has a lot of peas, lentils, legumes, or potatoes in the ingredients list is dangerous to feed.

    People don’t want to hear that the food they believed to be ‘holistic’ and ‘high quality’ may actually be killing their beloved pet. It’s easy to want to believe that something more ‘natural’ is best, but it’s not always the case, unfortunately.

    DCM Groups to Join on Facebook:

    The following groups have tons of information from real dog owners and veterinarians:

    Pet Vet Corner: https://www.facebook.com/groups/337421456457048

    Canine: Nutrition and Dog Food Discussion: https://www.facebook.com/groups/551782614843296

    Diet Associated DCM in Dogs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1952593284998859

    10 1

    Does adding taurine to Grain-Free food prevent DCM?

    In response to the FDA warnings about DCM and grain-free dog food, people began to believe that adding taurine or grains to a dog’s diet would solve the problem.

    This concept doesn’t actually have science to back it up; it was only a theory that as of this writing still has no merit.

    Regardless, many boutique manufacturers responded by adding taurine to their formulation. They then took the opportunity to market their brand as being ‘scientific and thoughtful’.

    Of the DCM cases being studied by the FDA, many of the dogs suffering from DCM had normal taurine levels.

    If there is any merit or science behind a taurine-DCM link, current research is indicating that it’s likely related to formulation problems in the food that may be blocking the synthesis and bioavailability of taurine.

    In other words; adding taurine isn’t likely to solve a problem that originated with a poorly-formulated diet to begin with.

    You can’t supplement your way out of a bad diet.

    Dr. Jennifer Larson, Veterinary Nutritionist U.C. Davis

    Does adding grains to dog food prevent DCM?

    Adding grains (such as rice or oats) at home to a grain-free kibble only serves to further unbalance the food and load the dog up on carbs.

    This too has been done with no scientific backing. Doing so is not safe, effective or healthy.

    Do not add rice, millet, oats, or other grains to your Danes boutique diet to ‘prevent DCM’. There is no science behind that theory at all, and it may do more harm than good.

    Additionally, choosing the ‘grain-inclusive’ version of a boutique dog food brand does not make it magically ‘safe’.

    Nutritional DCM has been seen in dogs on boutique diets of all kinds, both grain-inclusive and grain-free.

    Read here about how my own Great Dane Matilda nearly died from nutritional imbalance related to a boutique ‘holistic’ dog food.

    20

    Is a Grain-Free Diet ok for dogs?

    While ‘grain-free’ foods and boutique brands specifically have been implicated, it is believed that the problem may actually originate with boutique kibbles that are formulated with a lot of pulse, legumes, peas and potatoes.

    Remember, many Grain-free kibbles heavily utilize peas, pulses, lentils, garbanzo beans and potatoes in their formulation.

    In other words, just as the FDA stated (see below) that it’s not necessarily grain-free that is the problem, it’s boutique foods that are:

    • Heavy in pulses, peas, potatoes, and legumes
    • Not formulated by an on-staff board-certified Veterinary Nutritionist
    • Manufactured by brands that don’t participate in peer-reviewed science, research and feeding trials

    Many of these types of diets tend to be grain-free.

    So can Great Danes have grain-free foods? Sure, but should they? Probably NOT.

    When you read something that says ‘the FDA finds no evidence that grain-free diets cause heart disease‘, don’t immediately jump to the conclusion that your ‘grain-free boutique kibble’ is safe.

    Read that statement for what it is. It’s not the lack of grains that is the problem.

    It’s the replacement of essential meat-based amino acids and proteins with pulses, peas, potatoes, legumes, and other plant-based carbohydrates, often done by boutique brands with no board-certified veterinary nutritionist on staff to formulate, research and test the food.

    Research is ongoing and all of us should be alarmed, not defensive.

    Read the Label on your Dog Food Bag

    Read the ingredients list on the back of your grain-free kibble, ‘fresh’ or ‘human-grade’ dog food bag. Do you notice a lot of the following? It may be worth changing your dog’s diet as a precaution, especially if you noticed multiple forms of the same ingredient (aka, Ingredient Splitting).

    • Peas, Pea protein, Pea Starch, Pea Fiber, Pea Flour
    • Potatoes, Potato Protein, Potato Starch, Potato Fiber, Potato Flour
    • Sweet Potatoes
    • Lentils, Green Lentils, Red Lentils, Dried Lentils, Fresh Lentils, Whole Lentils
    • Garbanzo Beans, Chickpeas, Chickpea Flour, Chickpea Fiber
    • Other similar non-grain ingredients including pulses and legumes

    We also recommend avoiding the following dog food brands altogether (this list is not exhaustive).

    Despite making up only a small market share of dog food sold, these brands (and brands like them) are responsible for 100% of nutrition-related DCM cases (and likely many, many more health conditions including chronic loose stools, itching, hyper or hypocalcemia, growth disorders and more):

    • Fromm
    • Victor
    • 4Health
    • Diamond Naturals
    • Costco
    • Nulo
    • Nutro
    • Nutrisource
    • Earthborn Holistic
    • Acana
    • Orijen
    • Zignature
    • Solid Gold

    As pet owners, we don’t have enough professional knowledge to evaluate ingredients list pros and cons.

    Here is a great article on why judging food by the ingredients list is an amateur mistake!

    We tend to default to what ‘feels right’ or ‘seems healthy’, especially when boutique food companies use catchy, unregulated words such as ‘holistic’ and ‘super-premium’.

    14

    What are ’boutique dog food diets’?

    Boutique food diets for dogs come from small companies that use catchy terms in their marketing.

    New research (in 2022) indicates that the DCM and Grain-Free foods issue correlates STRONGLY to boutique food brands where no board-certified veterinary nutritionist is on staff to formulate the foods.

    Hallmark traits of boutique dog food diets:

    • Offers very little if any contribution to canine nutrition, health and veterinary research
    • Does not support veterinary nutrition, health and research organizations (such as WSAVA)
    • Does not participate in full, legitimate AAFCO feeding trials to prove formulations
    • Only formulates their food to ‘meet the nutritional requirements’ on paper
    • Does not employ a board-certified Veterinary Nutritionist to formulate the food; may ‘contract’ with a professional that has lesser degrees
    • May or may not own and operate their own manufacturing facilities
    • May use ‘exotic’ ingredients with very little research behind them, including kangaroo, bison and unusual carbohydrates such as millet.

    https://www.docofalltrades.net/2022/04/randomized-feeding-trial-in-labradors

    Here are some catchy terms meant to make you feel ‘good’ about the food:

    • Holistic
    • Human Grade
    • Added Taurine
    • All Natural
    • Guaranteed Health
    • Family-owned
    • Super-Premium
    • ‘No Recalls’
    • ‘No Fillers’
    • ‘Fresh’
    • ‘Ancient Grains’

    Here is a great article about boutique dog foods from the Burlington Vet Center: https://burlingtonvetctr.com/boutique-exotic-and-grain-free-pet-foods-and-their-link-to-heart-disease

    CURIOUS ABOUT HOW YOUR DOG FOOD BRAND ACTUALLY STACKS UP?
    READ THE MANUFACTURER REPORT HERE!

    Boutique dog foods

    The following brands are just some of the popular boutique dog foods. Check these brands against the manufacturer report above and see how they rate.

    • Victor
    • Nulo
    • Diamond
    • Costco/Kirkland
    • Fromm
    • Nutro
    • 4 Health
    • Roosevelt
    • Life’s Abundance
    • Nutrisource
    • Olly
    • The Farmer’s Dog
    • Earthborn Holistic
    • Ketona
    • Spot and Tango

    The problem with boutique dog food marketing

    When you start looking into it, you may be surprised to find that MANY boutique kibble brands do not employ a legitimate, board-certified veterinary nutritionist to formulate, research, test and update their foods.

    As a matter of fact, a lot of ‘natural’ kibble brands only appear healthier because of their impressive dedication to packaging and marketing.

    FROMM, for example, is a brand that has been implicated many times in DCM. There have been many Fromm-related cases where dogs had their secondary DCM symptoms reversed by switching to a more professionally formulated diet.

    FROMM family foods are formulated by a chemical engineer; not somebody with a credible background in actual nutrition and current research. But their marketing makes you belief in their ‘family owned’ mission of ‘healthy’ nutrition.

    There are more dogs, more dogs eating kibble and more veterinary resources at our disposal now; so it stands to reason that this has always been a problem, but we are just now starting to really see it.

    DCM is often a silent killer. MANY dogs will die suddenly of a ‘heart attack’ without warning. In this case, owners rarely seek answers (a post-mortem autopsy is expensive) and as a result, DCM is never diagnosed or tied to the food that had been fed.

    5

    Is the Dog Food Advisor Blog a good place to learn about dog food?

    Many people reference the dog food advisor blog for nutrition information for their pets.

    The owner of that blog is a human dentist with no background in veterinary nutrition.

    The rating system is made up.

    We can do so much better than this when choosing large breed dry dog food for our beloved dogs, right?

    What is the best dog food for Great Danes 2021-2022?

    After much research into this ourselves, we believe that if you are going to feed kibble you should choose a brand that is fully backed by top-level research and veterinary nutritionists.

    The best dry food for Great Dane dogs is going to be backed by research and science, not opinions and marketing.

    When choosing a dry dog food diet for your Great Dane, of course, you will want to choose something that you feel good feeding!

    Look past the ingredients list and research the company itself.

    • Do they employ a dedicated, on-staff board certified veterinary nutritionist (ACVN or DACVN)?
    • Do they manufacture the food in-house, from carefully sourced, chosen, and tested ingredients?
    • Do they participate in university-level research and nutrition study for the advancement of companion animal health?
    • Do their foods undergo AAFCO feeding trials, or are they just formulated to meet minimums on paper?
    • Do they support the non-profit World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) or give you reasons why they don’t?

    Marketing has unfortunately taught us that the heavily researched, professionally formulated science-backed dog food brands such as Purina, Royal Canin, and Eukanuba are ‘full of fillers and cancer-causing junk‘. ,

    That couldn’t be farther from the truth.

    Take note of the people you tend to hear that kind of misinformation from; none of them have any credible, boarded, science-backed veterinary background in canine nutrition. None. Most stand to gain, financially, from making you believe these things, too. Follow the money!

    Millions of dollars of actual health and nutrition-based research are done by the ‘Big 5’ brands, who use that information to formulate and then fully test the foods that they sell.

    Millions of dogs are eating these brands every single day and living long, healthy lives too! As a matter of fact, Pro Plan and Royal Canin are the foods of choice for a large majority of top breeders and dog sports competitors, not to mention veterinarians and millions of dog owners.

    We recommend Purina Pro Plan, however, a large or giant breed formula (puppy or adult, depending on your dog) from any of the following brands is an acceptable choice: Purina, Eukanuba, Iams, Hills, Royal Canin.

    The best dog foods for Great Danes:

    Check out THE GIANT DOG FOOD PROJECT to compare brands and values.

    9 1

    Vet recommended dog food for Great Danes

    The majority of veterinarians in the U.S. are going to recommend one of the following brands of food:

    • Purina
    • Royal Canin
    • Eukanuba
    • Iams
    • Hill’s Science Diet

    Some people will argue that veterinarians have very little nutrition education and that their education comes from companies that incentivize them to take the class and promote their food.

    Then it is believed that the veterinarians stand to profit from the sale of foods in their office and are making tons of money marketing these ‘billion-dollar cancer nuggets’.

    LISTEN TO THE DOWN WITH DOGS DCM DOG FOOD PODCAST
    Feat. Dr. Sherry Sanderson Board-Certified Veterinary Nutritionist

    Let’s dig deeper into that!

    a. The companies sponsoring nutrition classes at the top veterinary schools are the same companies that spend millions on nutrition research and canine health science. They know a lot more about canine nutrition than boutique food brands, so if our vets are going to learn about nutrition, it should probably be from them right?

    b. A veterinarian that has taken a few nutrition classes during the course of their study has still learned a lot more about canine nutrition than somebody who sells pet food at a boutique pet store. For some reason, people are more willing to listen to a sales rep with 7 days of training or a dog trainer than to somebody with a studied, professional veterinary background!

    c. Some veterinarians go on to obtain additional certifications in canine nutrition. Every single one of these highly-studied veterinarians will still recommend the science-backed and heavily researched food brands listed above and no, they often don’t make a dime on those recommendations. Kickbacks are actually ILLEGAL in the U.S.

    d. Veterinarians are often approached by companies to market food brands and make brand recommendations. There is a reason we don’t see veterinarians promoting boutique brands for affiliate income (even though they totally could); they simply don’t believe in those foods.

    e. If a veterinarian profits from the sale of science-backed, professionally formulated dog food, why is that so bad? The boutique pet store profits too from selling you ‘healthy and holistic’ pet food diets made by companies with no nutrition research backing their food.

    There are plenty of opportunities for veterinarians to use affiliate links to promote ’boutique’ food brands. They don’t, though. Ever think about why that is?

    You’ll notice that we use affiliate links in our promotion of certain food brands. We could choose any brand to promote!

    Do we make a few pennies if you purchase through our affiliate link? Sure. Anytime you buy food, somebody will profit no matter what.

    Question if the people you are listening to are promoting that food because it’s backed by actual science, or because it’s backed by opinion and boutique marketing.

    The truth here is that boutique food brands earn millions by using marketing, fancy words, and pretty packaging to make you believe that the unproven, untested food they make is healthier.

    The food-profit incentive is not isolated to veterinarians who make pennies on the sale of a bag of food. Stop blaming that. Everybody profits somewhere. Put your money where the science is.

    (Your breeder may profit from the promotion of certain foods, such as Life’s Abundance, an MLM pyramid scheme food with no science behind it!)

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    Homemade dog food for Great Danes

    Regarding Home Cooked Diets:

    Pinterest and a crock pot full of overcooked meat, veggies and rice is NOT balanced nor is it magically healthier for your pet.

    If you are planning to home cook meals for your dog, work with a credentialed, studied veterinary nutritionist to develop a recipe specifically for your pet.

    You can search for a veterinary nutritionist HERE: https://acvn.org/directory/

    You may hear from dog trainers or ‘holistic’ pet care professionals that cooking food at home is the healthiest choice, however these people don’t have expertise in canine nutrition.

    Below we’ve linked our favorite resources for learning more about homemade feeding.

    HOME COOKED FEEDING RESOURCES

    Balance It

    Pet Diets

    Note that anybody can pick up the ‘nutritionist’ title. Being a dog or ‘nutrition’ enthusiast, or working in a pet store as a brand rep or salesperson does not make somebody an expert.

    Look for University level degrees & certifications in canine nutrition, not non-degree ‘certifications’ from small unaffiliated organizations.

    6

    OUR RECOMMENDATIONS FOR GREAT DANES


    Science does show us that adding fresh foods to our Danes diet may help reduce the risk of bloat.

    An appropriate Great Dane kibble offers meat meals in the first ingredients and offers appropriate protein and calcium/phosphorus ratios for the life stage of the dog.

    Examples of fresh-food toppers that can be used for up to 10% of the total diet include:

    • Hydrated Dr. Harvey’s (one scoop)
    • Rehydrated Olewo Carrots (great for dogs that suffer from chronic loose stools)
    • Rehydrated Olewo Beets
    • Fresh fruits such as blueberries, bananas or apples
    • Fresh veggies such as carrots, zucchini, cauliflower and even lettuce (a head of lettuce makes a great enrichment activity! Dogs love to shred them)
    • Unsalted sardines packed in water or frozen/whole
    • Unsalted bone broth (make it at home!)

    The following foods for Great Danes are heavily researched, backed by legitimate nutrition science, and are fed to millions of robust, healthy dogs worldwide.

    For Puppies:

    Check out THE GIANT DOG FOOD PROJECT to compare brands and values.

    For Adults:

    How to choose a kibble for a Great Dane Dog

    When choosing a kibble, you should ideally choose a company that follows the guidelines recommended by the non-profit World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) regarding manufacturer standards.

    These are nothing more than recommendations and the WSAVA does not ‘certify’, ‘approve’ or profit directly from the sale of brands that meet these standards. If you are unsure whether your kibble is meeting these guidelines, call the company and ask them directly to answer these questions without giving you the run-around:

    • The company should fully employ at least one dedicated nutritionist with a Ph.D in nutrition or a veterinarian boarded in nutrition (DACVN). If they simply consult with these professionals in lieu of employing them, they don’t likely have complete oversight of the formulation, formula changes or otherwise.
    • All formulas should be formulated by the above person; somebody who is truly qualified to create foods that are balanced not only nutritionally, but functionally as well. Being a general practice veterinarian, pet expert, dog lover or having a background working in ‘pet nutrition’ isn’t necessarily a qualification that meets this recommendation.
    • All diets should undergo extensive feeding trials and then meet or exceed AAFCO standards. Foods should exceed these standards both in formulation and following a rigorous analysis. Meeting these guidelines ‘on paper’ by formulation or anecdotal evidence only is not enough.
    • The company/manufacturer should own and operate their own facilities and laboratories and thus, maintain full oversight and control of the production process including control and diligent monitoring.
    • They should be transparent and open about their testing, process and recall history. (Note that recalls are a positive sign that a company is making ethical choices; not a sign of poor quality control. A company with no recalls is actually a red flag.)
    • The company should be involved in transparent and rigorous peer-reviewed and published testing and research. Ideally, this dedication to nutrition would not just be of their foods, but of canine nutrition in general. This is especially true if they make health claims or create unusual formulations that are outside of the industry standards. Claiming to have a ‘proprietary’ formula is a red flag.

    Having ‘no recalls’ is a RED FLAG
    If a company is relying on the ‘no recalls’ tactic for marketing purposes, they are unlikely to recall a food for minor reasons; reasons that could ultimately be devastating for a percentage of dogs fed that food.

    Recalls show that a company is diligent about avoiding mistakes and willing to hold itself accountable for problems with formulation or its supply chain. Be worried when a company says they have had ‘no recalls.

    SHOULD I FEED LIFE’S ABUNDANCE FOOD TO MY GREAT DANE?

    Secondary (nutrition-related) DCM is not being seen in foods formulated by Purina, Hills, Royal Canin, Iams or Eukanuba.

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    JOIN THE FOLLOWING GROUPS ON FACEBOOK

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/CanineNutrition

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/TaurineDCM/

    ADDITIONAL DCM & GRAIN FREE RESOURCES AND INFORMATION

    https://www.docofalltrades.net/2020/12/diet-associated-non-hereditary-dcm-q.html?fbclid=IwAR14kE472FQwnU3_5Byek0nk1o6EXkbd7Lt5b0SrUrxEQ1bimY4t_bjp9ks

    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jvim.16397?fbclid=IwAR1XOoB-1hEISt3bqazqAR8K7MtHpCopr-gBdWjyXEv-7nCbWlzdtv6X25I

    https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/outbreaks-and-advisories/fda-investigation-potential-link-between-certain-diets-and-canine-dilated-cardiomyopathy

    https://www.docofalltrades.net/2022/04/randomized-feeding-trial-in-labradors

    https://vetnutrition.tufts.edu/2016/06/why-you-shouldnt-judge-a-pet-food-by-its-ingredient-list
    Online Animal Nutrition Courses & Certificates

    READ MORE:

    Gentle Giants Dog Food Review