Grain free food

[elbrant]

@branch said in Grain free food:

recall on Formm dog food for high amounts of Vit D?

Why is Vit D an issue?

[elbrant]

@glenn-jalivay2 I do something similar.

[eeeefarm]

@elbrant said in Grain free food:

@branch said in Grain free food:

recall on Formm dog food for high amounts of Vit D?

Why is Vit D an issue?

It's toxic at high levels, can cause kidney failure/death.

[Dagodingo]

@elbrant It’s toxic in high doses. The advice was that if you had fed the dog only on the wet can food, to discontinue feeding and they returned / refunded. Over the next six months a whole bunch of foods were recalled because of high vitamin D levels.

[DonC]

I don't believe the issue was grain free per se. More that the foods contained a large proportion of peas, lentils, legume seeds or potatoes, which allowed them to be labelled "grain free". I posted this article from the NY Times which gives the best summary I've seen: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/29/us/dog-food-heart-disease-fda.html

Your food seems high quality with a a lot of good ingredients -- lamb, fish, etc.-- but it also has the potentially offending ingredients. My initial reaction would be to switch just because that's easy to do and there isn't a big downside. However, given the age and the fact he hasn't had any problems -- the heart issues were with young dogs -- if he likes the food not worrying about it would be a reasonable decision.I'd probably stick with what was working, lots of pups don't make it to twelve, but you could look for an alternative and not be wrong.

No matter what you do give him a hug!

[elbrant]

@eeeefarm said in Grain free food:

It's toxic at high levels, can cause kidney failure/death.

This article on the FDA website, Vitamin D Toxicity in Dogs seems to suggest that you need to watch for indications that your dog is sick and seek medical care. It also includes a frightening list of commercial dog foods that have been recalled for high Vit D content.

Ok, so.... what would be considered a "high dose" for the average B?
And how does natural sunlight play into this?

[eeeefarm]

@elbrant said in Grain free food:

@eeeefarm said in Grain free food:

It's toxic at high levels, can cause kidney failure/death.

This article on the FDA website, Vitamin D Toxicity in Dogs seems to suggest that you need to watch for indications that your dog is sick and seek medical care. It also includes a frightening list of commercial dog foods that have been recalled for high Vit D content.

Ok, so.... what would be considered a "high dose" for the average B?
And how does natural sunlight play into this?

"Requirements for vitamin D are dependent on dietary concentrations of calcium and phosphorus, the dietary calcium:phosphorus ratio, physiological stage of development and perhaps sex and breed........ For dogs and cats (and presumably other carnivores), vitamin D must be obtained from dietary sources due to the inability of these species to synthesize and utilize vitamin D from precursors in the skin."

article

You can read a lot more in the article, but basically it depends on the composition of the food. Higher levels are needed if calcium/phosphorus is not properly balanced.

[elbrant]

@eeeefarm said in Grain free food:

must be obtained from dietary sources due to the inability of these species to synthesize and utilize vitamin D from precursors in the skin

oh wow... I was making the assumption that they could absorb vit D through sunlight (just like us).Thank you! Learned something new!

[eeeefarm]

I learned something new, too, as I had to research it. I thought it might be the case since many/most dogs have protective fur and don't seem to sunburn like we do. Horses, OTOH, will sunburn if they have pink skin, and they do make vitamin D as we do.

[elbrant]

@prncmuhd said in Grain free food:

Top Dog Accessories 2019

Shame on you! If you had half a brain, you would have discussed legitimate issues with grain free food and then offered a link to a good option. Spam is never the way to get people to buy your products.