![]() In 2019, the year after the FDA alert, sales of grain-free pet foods dipped by 0.3% compared with 2018, according to Statista. Even companies such as Mars and Nestlé Purina - major players in the corn-, wheat-, barley- and rice-using commercial pet food establishment - sell grain-free options. Today, foods for dogs and cats marketed as grain-free remain abundantly available. The agency posted late last year that it "does not intend to release further public updates until there is meaningful new scientific information to share." It's apparently trying to stay out of a proverbial food fight, as pet food companies and suppliers deeply invested in the sales of suspected food formulations push back, sometimes parsing FDA statements to support their position. * As cases continue to be diagnosed, kibbles containing high proportions of the suspect ingredients remain readily available.Īlthough the matter is far from resolved, the FDA has gone mum. * Complicating matters, only some dogs appear susceptible, and typically only after prolonged consumption of such foods. An understanding of why these ingredients would damage the heart muscle is elusive. * The evidence is circumstantial, however. ![]() government alerted pet owners that certain grain-free kibbles are linked to the development in dogs of a life-threatening heart condition called dilated cardiomyopathy, evidence is mounting that legumes such as peas, chickpeas and lentils may be the culprit. Moreover, veterinarians are not required to report cases to the government. Also, the FDA didn't count reports involving early signs of heart abnormalities. ![]() At the same time, the figure could be an underestimate because some reports involved multiple dogs. And presumably, the reports were of suspected diet-associated illness, but that's uncertain. ![]() The figure could be an overestimate because it includes cases for which detailed medical records weren't submitted to the agency. 1, the FDA logged 1,382 reports of DCM diagnoses in dogs, dating from Jan. The closest thing that exists to an official tally is nowhere near that number, however. "My thought was that if I've seen two classic cases walk through the door in little ol' Courtenay, Vancouver Island, in North America, the number of dogs that have become ill from this must be thousands, if not tens of thousands," he surmised. In the years since, MacDonald heard from colleagues about cases in specialty practices but was startled to witness back-to-back occurrences in his general practice. Food and Drug Administration issued an alert in 2018. MacDonald interpreted the combination of signs and dietary history as textbook instances of canine diet-associated dilated cardiomyopathy, or DCM - a phenomenon he learned about when the U.S. Also common to both, the dogs had been fed exclusively, for four to five years, a particular brand of kibble marketed as grain-free. He suspected cardiac disease.Ī few weeks later, MacDonald saw a second golden retriever in the same shape. The doctor could barely feel a pulse in the patient's femoral artery (located inside the hind leg). The once athletic 5-year-old golden retriever appeared exhausted. David MacDonald's veterinary clinic in rural British Columbia in October seeming near death. Books & VINcyclopedia of Diseases (Formerly Associate). ![]() VINcyclopedia of Diseases (Formerly Associate). ![]()
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