Food and Taurine/DCM

[Nicci]

Thank you to Dr. Jeff, Dr. Christina and Dr. Hofve for tonights EA!  As Dr. Hofve and Dr. Jeff mentioned, most of the major pet food brands involved in the DCM/taurine issue have been named. However, as Dr. Jeff also pointed out, dogs are being diagnosed with cardiac problems on raw diets as well.  I thought that it was interesting that that the microbiota may be playing a role in the absorption and utilization of taurine and other nutrients. I can't help but think that the overuse of antibiotics is a large factor here!

Obviously "it depends", and as Dr. Jeff said, "Bottom line really is based on the health of the individual."

 

[Dr. Jeff]

Thanks for posting Nicci.

This is such a wonderful topic for discussing the importance of individual variation.

In this case, a life or death distinction.

It will indeed depend, but there definitely are Holistic Actions! to help prevent problems.

Things like:

• Feeding a varied, fresh food diet
• Adding heart organ meat to the diet (dogs and cats)
• Treating with homeopathy to optimize utilization of nutrients to prevent heart dis-eases

Here are some reliable resources from the folks in the lab at UC Davis vet school who are doing much of the research:

Goldens and DCM

Diet and DCM

There's lots more to discuss about this, which we can do in this thread.

Nicci, would you share some of the research you have done.

If it's OK to share the paper you wrote on this topic, maybe you could even upload it.

 

[ivegrgas]

Hello -

I would like to confirm that when saying that DCM is associated with grain-free diets this is referring to commercial food that is labeled as "grain-free" by the manufacturer? Or are pets who eat home cooked grain-free diets at higher risk as well?

Thanks,

Ive

 

[Nicci]

Hi All - here is an article that I wrote on the DCM topic.

 

[Dr. Jeff]

Great question Ive!

Here's the truth of this situation.

It really doesn't matter which dry food a pet eats.

They can all be associated with nutritional deficiencies of one sort or another.

Depending on individual absorption and utilization of taurine, carnitine, etc. some pets will be predisposed to DCM.

Even if eating home-cooked or raw!

Can you tell me why?

 

[Dr. Jeff]

Fantastic, Nicci!

Thanks so much for sharing.

Your article is great.

 

[Nicci]

An interesting bit of information I learned while at the RFVS (Raw Feeding Veterinary Society) conference in Manchester UK last week:

DCM is not an issue throughout Europe. I asked veterinary teams of researchers from the DogRisk group in Finland, as well as Holland, University of Liverpool. This conference was largely integrative and homeopathic veterinarians and most were in favor of species appropriate diets.

The reason many of them felt that DCM was not a problem for them was multifactorial:

• Formulations of kibbles are often different than that of US varieties
• US sterilized raw products which at this time is not done in the EU (High pressure pasteurization)
• In general, pet parents throughout the EU feed a variety in their diet
• Pets are exposed to a more diverse environment
• Antibiotics may not be prescribed as often in the US
• Microbiota (Skin, respiratory and gut) are given more of a thought than in the US whereas many US owners and often veterinarians don't give much thought to it.
• Genetics

Thought you all may find it interesting that this is largely a US problem...

 

[RobinO]

I just watched the class about DCM and Dr Jean talked about commercial raw pet foods being low in taurine across the board. Is there any more info about this? I DO feed commercial raw to our foster cats and I rec'd it to our adopters. I will need to send out an email to our adopters about doing this if it's necessary to supplement the taurine.

I've also heard that the DCM issue is also effecting cats? Will there be another class to update folks about this? Thank you!

 

[Dr. Jeff]

Hey Robin-

Thanks for posting here.

I think Dr. Jean mentioned that<em> it depends</em> on the ingredients of the raw food.

And whether the meat "juice" (which isn't blood) is drained.

If the food includes dark meat chicken, hearts, etc., it won't be taurine deficient.

You can also just use fresh hearts or Bravo freeze-dried turkey hearts as palatable treats.

Personally, I've not heard of any cat cases or found any on online searches including AAFP (though I found this senior kitty care e-book that might be helpful).

AAFP= Am. Ass. Feline Practitioners

We'll schedule another EH! about the taurine-DCM connection as soon as useful new info is available.

Have a great evening.

 

[RobinO]

Thank you, Dr. Jeff.

I've been hearing from many associates who are freaking out about this issue in CATS. I've already started pointing them to sign up at HA! so they can learn from actual vets instead of heresay and fear-mongering online (which I feel this is turning into..not to be all conspiracy theorist about it).

We feed a wide variety of commercial raw to the fosters. I'll keep reading labels and I'll add a touch of taurine into their food and suggest our adopters do the same, but to be conservative about it until more info is available.

 

[Dr. Jeff]

Perfect!

Thanks Robin.