Potential Link between Certain Diets and Canine Dilated Cardiomyopathy

In July 2018 the Food and Drug Administration announced that they are officially investigating a potential link between dogs eating certain foods and development of dilated cardiomyopathy.

What is Canine Dilated Cardiomyopathy?
Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs is a disease of the heart muscle that affects the ability to move blood around the body. Symptoms may include decreased energy, cough, difficulty breathing, episodes of collapse and heart failure. There are multiple causes of dilated cardiomyopathy including dietary deficiencies and genetic predisposition.

Foods of Concern:
Foods reported typically contain a high proportion of legumes, pulses (edible seeds of legumes) and potatoes. Examples of legumes include peas, beans, lentils, chickpeas. The diets of concern list legumes, pulses and potatoes in the first ten ingredients and are often labeled as grain-free.

Foods reported typically contain a high proportion of legumes, pulses (edible seeds of legumes) and potatoes. Examples of legumes include peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas. The diets of concern list legumes, pulses and potatoes in the first ten ingredients; and are often labeled as grain-free.

Click on the following link to view the the Food & Drug Administration’s article on the topic of potential link between certain diets and canine dilated cardiomyopathy.

Foods We Recommend:
The leaders in veterinary nutrition are Purina, Royal Canin and Hill’s/Science Diet. These companies dedicate time and resources to perform feeding trials and lifelong studies to ensure their diets are nutritionally complete for pets. At this time there is not enough information available to determine if a particular diet will definitively result in dilated cardiomyopathy. This means our veterinary team is not able to confidently approve or discourage any specific formulas.

When changing your pet’s primary diet, we recommend a gradual transition over the course of two weeks to avoid digestive upset. Please request a prescription diet recommendation from our veterinary team if your pet has any medical conditions that require dietary management. You can order prescription diets through our hospital or arrange auto-ship home delivery with our online veterinary pharmacy partner, Vets First Choice.