An Update on whether Grain-Free Dog Food causes DCM
For all of you dog food enthusiasts out there, buckle up for this one from High Desert Family Doodles!
You heard that right; the FDA does not think there is a connection between grain-free dog food and DCM.
There FDA’s exact words are that “they do not supply sufficient data to establish a causal relationship with reported product(s)”, meaning that our current studies and data analysis show no causal relationship with grain-free dog food diets and a potentially troubling heart condition in dogs.
This is quite the development in a story that has been unfolding over the past decade. The FDA and others began to sound the alarm that feeding your dog a grain-free diet could lead to them developing DCM, especially in susceptible breeds. This suspicion quickly spread, and many vets - including ones that we’ve talked to - have advised against a grain-free diet because of this connection.
However, there have also been a chorus of voices - vets, dog trainers, breeders, dog owners, professionals in the pet food industry - calling this connection into question. They’ve pointed to a variety of things, ranging from anecdotal experience, to inconsistencies in the studies used to support this supposed connection.
This recent FDA press release creates another further development, and it will be interesting to see how the various camps of people respond to it.
The FDA also addresses some particular questions surrounding grain-free diets and DCM in a different release. Some of these questions are helpful. IT is also cautiously worded, and this leads to modest conclusions. In the release, the FDA still believes that these DCM cases can have a higher correlation with greater amount of PULSE ingredients (peas, legumes, etc). However, these have been common ingredients in dog food, so they do not think PULSE ingredients are dangerous.
This should send some intriguing ripples throughout the industry. As with anything surrounding the health of your dog, we recommend discussing this with your verinarian to figure out if this changes anything regarding your dog’s diet and care.
We will be doing the same thing to see if this impacts our philosophy on how we feed our goldendoodles and bernedoodles. Up until now, we’ve diversified our dog’s diets, blending both grain-free and grain-containing dog food. We wanted to consider the many perspectives we’ve heard regarding feeding our bernedoodles and goldendoodles grain-free. This could reshape how we see things, and I think it would also be good for you to revisit this conversation with your vet.
As always, let us know if you have any thoughts or questions on this, as we’re striving to learn and grow just as much as the next person.
Grace and Peace,
Erin and Jay
