Legumes, pulses and potatoes, including sweet potatoes, have been used in pet foods for many years now without any issues. Of the dogs that developed DCM, the FDA found that 91% were eating a grain-free diet and 93% of the grain-free diets contained peas and/or lentils (13,14). peas, lentils, chickpeas etc.) high in their ingredients lists, but there were still reported cases in animals eating a grain-based diet (13,14). The FDA did make the point that the reported DCM cases were possibly associated with grain-free diets where most of the non-hereditary DCM cases were eating diets containing non-soy legumes and pulses (eg. It is worth noting though that the majority of cases were likely underreported (13,14). While DCM in dogs is generally seen genetically in several larger breeds, for example golden retrievers, and some other breeds possibly due to taurine and/or carnitine (another metabolic compound involved in heart health) deficiencies, the concern grew when reports increased including a variety of different breeds of varying ages and weights developing the disease. ‍ The FDA began looking into the link between diet and development of this condition after receiving 524 reports of DCM between Januand April 30, 2019, with some of these reports involving multiple animals from the one household. Unfortunately, these cases worsen over time and are generally irreversible and fatal.

Over time the heart isn’t able to circulate blood throughout the body properly and there becomes an increase in back pressure resulting in fluid leaking into the lungs and abdomen. DCM and Grain-Free Diets What’s the Link?ĭilated Cardiomyopathy is a cardiac condition whereby there is an enlargement of the heart through weakening of its walls. It is a complex situation though as DCM can be a multifactorial disease process and taurine levels can vary greatly depending on what is included in a diet.

It appears that a lack of the amino acid taurine may play an important role in the disease process, although it is still uncertain as to whether it is a lack of dietary taurine causing this or not enough of its amino acid building blocks, methionine and cysteine (3). There has been a great deal of speculation and assumptions made off the back of this investigation and I’ll attempt to summarise these as clearly and simply as possible. This isn’t exactly quite so cut and dry and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US has attempted to find a correlation between certain ingredients in pet food and DCM, pointing at grain-free diets as the issue last year, naming 16 specific brands, but have been unable to find a direct link (13,14,15). You may have seen online, or have been told recently that dogs need to go back to a diet that contains grains so they don’t develop a specific type of heart disease called Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM). By Dr Duncan Houston, Veterinarian and Pet Nutritionist

Taurine dosage for dogs