Grain Free Concerns

[Mrspepper]

Hi,

I did a lot of research over many weeks to improve my dogs diet as he had previously been on a very low scoring Science Diet kibble.

He has been switched to Tribal TLC which is a grain free diet in an effort to help his arthritis as my research had found that grains can create inflammation in the joints.

Basil has been on the TLC food for about 6 weeks and it totally agrees with him BUT i've recently read concerning news regarding a grain free diet leading to heart disease canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM)  and am now worried that I haven't done the right thing by him.

This research had been led in the US so there isn't much information around on UK based research I just wondered if anyone else had done their own research and able to share any conclusions?

Thanks so much

Tina & Basil

[Petmum]

You may find this thread useful:-

https://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/forum/dog-news/11/report-from-fda-usa-re-dilated-cardiomyopathy/1716/

My understanding is that there is still a limited amount known about the validity of linking a grain free diet with DCM but it is thought to be possibly connected to too little taurine in the diet.

I feed my dog TLC alongside Butternut Box. TLC contains no legumes but does contain sweet potato-which is preferable to white potato. Also it is cooked at below 95c-in the thread posted above there was an explanation I got from Butternut Box about the Maillard cooking reaction which is thought to affect taurine levels in foods cooked at over 140c -which Tribal is not.

My thought would be that if Tribal is suiting your dog, stick with it but you could also add a taurine containing food (such as sardines) as a topper once a week. TLC is a good food containing fresh meat and cooked at low temperatures, my dog loves it too so I have continued to feed it to her.

[Tintin]

After losing our last dog to what we thought was poisoning, I chanced upon canine DCM and asked my vet, who didn't know about it, but the next time we met, he had oviously read up on it and agreed that the symptoms were the same (including enlarged heart). It's something that I am concerned about when trying to choose a food for Bertie, our new Cockerdile.
I recently came across this page:
dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-news/fda-investigating-potential-link-between-diet-and-heart-disease-in-dogs/
which offers sensible, non-hysterical advice. Worth a read.