Just days after I was annoyed to find an advertisement for vegan dog food on my Facebook news feed, I received an email from Ohio State University with this subject line: “Vets warn against trendy diets for your pet.”
The list from the OSU College of Veterinary Medicine included these diets: vegetarian, vegan, grain-free, raw and homemade. Pet food issues are complicated and contentious. People come to figurative blows on social media and in conversations in the real world.
Lets start with my pet peeve (pun intended): the people who make and market vegetarian or vegan food for cats and dogs and the people who feed it to their pets.
People who embrace vegetarian and vegan lifestyles generally say they are doing it to improve their own health, to save animals from slaughter and to save the planet. My objection is they are imposing their own beliefs on animals whose teeth, claws and evolutionary background mark them as hunters and meat-eaters.
Cats are carnivores and dogs are omnivores, said Valerie J. Parker, an OSU veterinarian who is a specialist in internal medicine and veterinary nutrition. She been a practicing veterinarian for 13 years.
Carnivores need meat and omnivores need both meat and plant-based foods, including grains. “Dogs and cats get taurine and other essential amino acids, vitamins and minerals from meat,” Dr. Parker said.
Those ingredients aren’t often found n plants. “Technically, supplements could probably be added, but I would not take the risk.”
Feeding grain-free pet food “can cause deficiencies in fiber and carbohydrates,” she said.
“Food allergies are rare in dogs and cats, and allergies to gluten or grain are even more rare,” Dr. Fisher said.
Irish setters are the exception; that breed is somewhat prone to gluten intolerance.
Grain free diets are actually associated with dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs. Dr. Fisher said. That’s a serious heart disease.
“Pet food marketing has outpaced the science, and owners are not always making healthy, science-based decisions,” says a Dec. 2018 article from the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.
“Although there appears to be an association” between DCM and feeding grain-free, vegetarian, vegan or home made diets, a cause and effect relationship has not been proven,” the article concludes.
Veterinary researchers and the FDA are studying the issue.
Last July the FDA alerted pet owners and vets “about reports of DCM in dogs eating pet foods containing peas, lentils, other legume seeds or potatoes as main ingredients,” the article said.
Proponents of raw diets note that’s the way wild wolves eat, and they are the ancestors of dogs.
However, pet dogs “have evolved significantly,” Dr. Fisher said. A diet of raw meat and bones “is not complete and balanced nutrition,” and there is risk of spreading infectious diseases, including salmonella and E. coli, to pets and the people who live with them.
Raw bones could fracture teeth and tear the esophagus, stomach or intestines, says some of the anti-raw literature.
Most veterinarians don’t expect the average pet owner to be able to produced balanced homemade meals for dogs and cats. There are veterinary nutritionists who provide recipes, but they’re complicated and many of the ingredients are not generally found in the average kitchen.
So how do we pick the right pet food for our dogs and cats? I’d start with your veterinarian. I don’t know why some people value the dietary advice of an internet troll over a highly trained scientist. If you are lucky enough to have a puppy or a dog from a responsible breeder who has been breeding for many decades, ask them what they feed.
If you got your dog or cat from a shelter or rescue, ask them which pet foods they like. They feed a lot of animals, and many of them came into their care in very poor condition, but leave with good skin, healthy coats and clear eyes.
The World Small Animal Veterinary Association (wsava.org) has a lot of information, including tips for surfing the internet.
Note the website address, they say. If it ends with .com that’s a commercial site, including dog food companies trying to sell their product. If the address ends with .edu, that’s an educational institution which include veterinary schools. A .org denotes a nonprofit organization.
Check out the date on articles you read. “Things change quickly in veterinary medicine and especially in the field of nutrition,” says the WSAVA. One of the pet vegan articles I found online was from 2009, which is way too old.
“Watch out for rating websites,” WSAVA advises.
I frequently see lists of “the top 10 best pet foods” that contain products I’ve never heard of, and which fail to mention my dog’s brand.
Those rating lists can be based on opinion, rather that science, quality control and “more objective criteria,” the WSAVA site says.
Linda Wilson Fuoco: lfuoco@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1953 or on PG Pets on Facebook.
First Published: October 25, 2019, 1:54 p.m.