Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs Wife’s dog nearly dies of heart failure - grain free food !!

If you guys haven’t seen it yet they are finding a high amount of dogs getting congestive heart failure from Grain free dog food.

SPECIFICALLY those with peas and potatoes.
My wife’s terrier mix damn near bought the farm, but they figured it out we changed the food and have him on med’s to fix it...

If you have a dog that is wheezing when it sleeps that’s the first couple of stages of heart failure, if they faint when they run hard... well you are in stage 3/4.. NOT GOOD.
Our little [bleep] was having problems breathing because he heart enlarged, after chasing a rabbit he collapsed and I thought he was done because he couldn’t stand.

SO... if you mutt is on grain free peas and potatoes - Get them off it now.

the link for those who haven’t heard it yet. My vet says they are seeing this everywhere.

https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterina...-diets-and-canine-dilated-cardiomyopathy

Thanks for the info. I work with a lot of animals, will make the owners aware. Hope your guy is okay.

Spotshooter what brand of food were you feeding? What brand did you switch to? Thanks

I was feeding freedom brand (blue buffalo) Lamb potatoes & peas...

It’s on the list of suspected grain free food makers most of which have peas and potatoes as main ingredients.
Somehow the ingredients or the chemicals they use on them weaken the heart muscles of dogs... and even dog’s not prone to heart failure.

The doc gave my dog something to slow his heart down (he was at 180 beats per minute), and then had us give the dog 2 supplements that they found was lacking the blood of dogs on those foods (we have a dam good vet)... Apparently some pure bred dogs had it and they spent huge amounts of money trying to figure out what was killing them, and found out these were missing.

Taurine (500 mg)
Carnitine (1 gram)

Once a day to help counter the issue.

He heart and lung swelling is down, and he seems almost back to normal, but there is no way his life is going to be the same.

Hope he does ok. Thanks for the information. One of mine is on Taste of the wild high prairie. He is old, but I am going to work him off it. I had heard this before, but this is more informative.

The first thing I noticed was his gut moving when he was breathing (labored breathing from a swollen heart & water in the lungs)...

It seemed to settle down, but then when we went for a walk he chased a Rabbit, and when he stopped he stumbled over and collapsed and couldn’t get up.
I put him on my lap and tried to calm him down / comfort him and in 5 minutes he seemed out of breath but OK... basically he fainted because it’s “left side” congestive heart failure and they can’t pump blood and get enough O2 to the brain.

This happened more and more, he fell over and collapsed more frequently, we took him in, they gave meds, but not the kind to slow the heart down.
Within a week he as so bad that just running outside and he’d fall over and collapse.

The second time my Vet (the good one) was there, and he put him on that medicine to slow his heart down and let it work better, and he doubled the meds to remove liquid from his lungs... then had me pull the grain free, and give the supplements.

I’m still amazed how quick he stabilized, the little [bleep] probably only has a year or so to live with heart damage, but what was happening is not the way for a dog to go.

Yep. Lost our 6 year old husky in march to this.

It might not only have to do with being 'grain-free', but could be new additives. I rarely feed my dogs 'dog food' because of the low quality ingredients, seriously... I eat fast food more often than my dogs eat 'dog food', and I hate fast food. Learn to feed your dogs real food if you really care for them.

Blue Buffalo has had so many recalls in the last two years that we won't even carry it in our store.

And everything else we have on the shelf is grain free.

I feed the beagle Blue Buffalo Chicken and Brown Rice Recipe. Contains brown rice, barley and oatmeal (listed 3rd, 4th and 5th on ingredients list). She’s 9 1/2 years old, loves it and thrives on it.

Here is some additional info/reading:
https://vetnutrition.tufts.edu/2018/11/dcm-update/
https://www.cvcavets.com/grain-free-dog-food-qa/
https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/truth-grain-free-dog-foods-dcm/

Diamond and purina have the best records... I moved the Mongrels over to Diamond and he’s doing much better.

Hard to believe a food could kill a dog but they do.

Which Purina food do you guys like?

The Purina I hear recommended is the Pro Plan.

I will be switching my GWP from grain-free to this Wellness dry food. https://www.wellnesspetfood.com/natural-dog-food/product-catalog/core-wholesome-grains-original.

Beagle pup coming our way and looking for suggestions. Thanks guys.

Have fun with the beagle pup.
If I had known about the grain-free dangers, I would have gone with this puppy food. There are likely some other good puppy foods others can suggest too.
https://www.wellnesspetfood.com/natural-dog-food/product-catalog/core-wholesome-grains-puppy-puppy

Wellness is also considered as grain free because it doesn't have corn wheat or soy.

Certainly not their entire line. Their grain-free formulations are labeled as such.

I had my old hunting dog on Taste of the Wild almost his entire life. He passed from an aggressive cancer about a year ago. He was very healthy until that terrible disease. I had switched hi over to ProPlan after researching what all the breeders and dog trial and hunt test guys feed their high drive labradors. My young hunting dog has done well on it, super coat and super muscle. My old dog had gotten over crud in his ears as well, which must have been caused by the Taste of the Wild through some sort of allergy. Been very happy with Pro-Plan.

Thanks, we're excited for the big adventure ahead. That looks like a good good diet I could use myself...

So why don't wild canines die from "grain free" diets?

Also, pretty sure Alaskan Huskies live for months off of fish.