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- Oct 25, 2018
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Some of you may know that the FDA is investigating links between boutique, exotic, and grain-free diets and dilated cardiomyopathy, particularly in dogs. It's not so much the fact that the diets contain exotic proteins or that they have no grains... it's more about the fact that many of these diets substitute grains with pulses (peas, lentils, chickpeas, and dry beans) and potatoes (including potatoes) and also use plant-based proteins to boost the appearance of protein content of the foods. The current thought is that these particular ingredients may decrease the bioavailability of taurine. They also avoid animal by-products, which are higher in taurine than human-grade animal protein. (Here's a good article with more details: Special topic: The association between pulse ingredients and canine dilated cardiomyopathy: addressing the knowledge gaps before establishing causation 1)
The FDA has hundreds of reports from dogs, and only a handful from cats (see: FDA Provides Update on Investigation into Potential Connection Between Certain Diets and Cases of Canine Heart Disease). Because of this, many people are concerned with this only being a dog problem. Here's my question for you: Despite the lack of reports for cats, why should this be of concern only for dogs? Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Cats with DCM potentially associated with BEG diets could very well be underreported. Cats behave very differently than dogs. Cats are prey for larger animals, and as such tend to hide their illnesses very well (at least better than dogs). Many cats that have heart problems do not show it until it has reached a critical point, and sad to say but many cats suddenly drop dead from their heart problems before the owner even realizes that they have a problem. Even if they do get rushed to a vet when they reach a critical point, just being at a vet clinic adds significant stress for cats, which worsens their prognosis and the chance that they will survive the initial heart failure episode. I would be surprised if the majority of cats with heart problems ever got a specific diagnosis, and with HCM being more common than DCM, I think most unexpected deaths of cats are chalked up to HCM without a necropsy to back it.
The other reason for fewer cat reports could be related to culture surrounding cats. It's generally deemed acceptable to have an outdoor or indoor/outdoor cat. Most of the time, free roaming cats hunt wild prey (birds, reptiles & amphibians, rodents). These cats, even if they are fed a BEG diet indoors, are supplementing their taurine with wild-caught prey, free of any ingredients that would reduce the bioavailability of taurine.
My cats were indoor only cats, who I had since they were 5 weeks old. They were on a grain-free diet their entire lives, until diagnosis of DCM (2 weeks apart from one another) last September/October. One passed in October, the other in January. Sad to say that peas or pea protein was high in the ingredient list on all of the foods that I fed them.
My veterinarian discouraged testing taurine for my cats, and I bought into it. They insisted that because the cat was fed a commercial diet, and all commercial diets are supplemented with taurine, that my cats' DCM was not diet related. It's possible that it may have been unrelated. But given the current information on dogs, I can't say that it was not diet related. Even if I had taurine plasma levels measured, dogs with DCM are reporting normal taurine levels, and just because the plasma level is normal doesn't mean that the heart is not taurine deficient.
I encourage all of you to think critically about the food you feed. Don't think of it in terms of grain-free or grain inclusive. We know cats don't need grains. But think about what they are substituting for grains. Think about whether or not that might inflate the protein content, despite plant proteins not being bioavailable for cats, so that your apparently high protein food might actually be significantly lower in bioavailable protein than you think. Think about whether or not those ingredients could decrease the bioavailability of other important nutrients in the food.
And don't take absence of evidence as evidence of absence. I'm not saying that BEG diets are bad for cats. I'm saying that you can't judge whether or not it's bad for cats based on a sample size of 6; soon to be 8, as I am in the process of submitting medical records for my cats to the FDA so that they have more data available to look at, to hopefully be able to draw clearer conclusions in the future. I also encourage anyone who has had any cats with confirmed diagnosed DCM fed a BEG diet to report it to the FDA so that they have more data to look at (message me if you need info on how to report).
Would love to have a discussion on everyone's thoughts on the matter.
The FDA has hundreds of reports from dogs, and only a handful from cats (see: FDA Provides Update on Investigation into Potential Connection Between Certain Diets and Cases of Canine Heart Disease). Because of this, many people are concerned with this only being a dog problem. Here's my question for you: Despite the lack of reports for cats, why should this be of concern only for dogs? Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Cats with DCM potentially associated with BEG diets could very well be underreported. Cats behave very differently than dogs. Cats are prey for larger animals, and as such tend to hide their illnesses very well (at least better than dogs). Many cats that have heart problems do not show it until it has reached a critical point, and sad to say but many cats suddenly drop dead from their heart problems before the owner even realizes that they have a problem. Even if they do get rushed to a vet when they reach a critical point, just being at a vet clinic adds significant stress for cats, which worsens their prognosis and the chance that they will survive the initial heart failure episode. I would be surprised if the majority of cats with heart problems ever got a specific diagnosis, and with HCM being more common than DCM, I think most unexpected deaths of cats are chalked up to HCM without a necropsy to back it.
The other reason for fewer cat reports could be related to culture surrounding cats. It's generally deemed acceptable to have an outdoor or indoor/outdoor cat. Most of the time, free roaming cats hunt wild prey (birds, reptiles & amphibians, rodents). These cats, even if they are fed a BEG diet indoors, are supplementing their taurine with wild-caught prey, free of any ingredients that would reduce the bioavailability of taurine.
My cats were indoor only cats, who I had since they were 5 weeks old. They were on a grain-free diet their entire lives, until diagnosis of DCM (2 weeks apart from one another) last September/October. One passed in October, the other in January. Sad to say that peas or pea protein was high in the ingredient list on all of the foods that I fed them.
My veterinarian discouraged testing taurine for my cats, and I bought into it. They insisted that because the cat was fed a commercial diet, and all commercial diets are supplemented with taurine, that my cats' DCM was not diet related. It's possible that it may have been unrelated. But given the current information on dogs, I can't say that it was not diet related. Even if I had taurine plasma levels measured, dogs with DCM are reporting normal taurine levels, and just because the plasma level is normal doesn't mean that the heart is not taurine deficient.
I encourage all of you to think critically about the food you feed. Don't think of it in terms of grain-free or grain inclusive. We know cats don't need grains. But think about what they are substituting for grains. Think about whether or not that might inflate the protein content, despite plant proteins not being bioavailable for cats, so that your apparently high protein food might actually be significantly lower in bioavailable protein than you think. Think about whether or not those ingredients could decrease the bioavailability of other important nutrients in the food.
And don't take absence of evidence as evidence of absence. I'm not saying that BEG diets are bad for cats. I'm saying that you can't judge whether or not it's bad for cats based on a sample size of 6; soon to be 8, as I am in the process of submitting medical records for my cats to the FDA so that they have more data available to look at, to hopefully be able to draw clearer conclusions in the future. I also encourage anyone who has had any cats with confirmed diagnosed DCM fed a BEG diet to report it to the FDA so that they have more data to look at (message me if you need info on how to report).
Would love to have a discussion on everyone's thoughts on the matter.