Taurine Deficiency

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Saw this in Doodle Family on FB and wanted the experts opinion.

Grain-Free Feeders - PLEASE READ:

We all know how difficult it is to make decisions regarding diet for our pets. I am sharing this information not to add additional worry or concern but to educate. I came across this yesterday when it was shared by a vet dermatologist in another group. I have been trying to get additional information since then and joined the Facebook page linked to the taurine deficiency research being conducted by Dr. Joshua Stern (vet cardiologist) at UC Davis. Here is what I know so far:

* DCM (dilated cardiomyopathy) is a serious medical condition that impacts the muscles of the heart and reduces its ability to pump blood.
* Symptoms include lethargy, weakness, weight loss, collapse, coughing, increased respiratory rate, abdominal distention, irregular heart rhythm.
* Some breeds seem to have a genetic predisposition including Cocker Spaniels and large breed dogs particularly Golden Retrievers, Labradors, St. Bernards and Newfoundlands.
* Current research (not yet published) has identified a link between grain-free dogs foods that include peas and legumes and taurine deficiency that can lead to DCM. On the Taurine Deficiency page, the most commonly reported foods from owners of dogs with DCM are: Nutrisource, Acana (particularly pork and butternut squash), 4Health, Zignature, Taste of the Wild, Earthborn Holistic.
* It is believed that the peas/legumes may inhibit some dogs ability to produce or absorb taurine.
* The current recommendation is that if a food heavy in peas and legumes is being fed, consider a whole blood taurine test before any dietary changes are made. If the blood results indicate taurine is low, echocardiography is recommended.

I know that many of us use these foods and some of us have limited options in what to feed our dogs. I just wanted to bring this information forward and encourage you to discuss with your vet/IMS to decide whether this could be a concern for your pup.

https://www.facebook.com/julie.carter.37266/posts/10215672525987711

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

I came here twice yesterday to look up this post and share it to FB as this topic seems to be making its rounds again.  There are people out there spending crazy money on blood tests and changing food etc because of this article.  It frustrates me that they are doing this unnecessarily, but every time I go to post I just decide they aren't going to listen anyway so I don't post.

[Melissa]

I am also concerned about my Goldendoodle.  I have a hard time when I read that something like Diamond contains four times the amount of taurine when compared to some of the Acana Singles, Lamb and Apple being one of them.  What that difference might mean, I don't know, but I always thought Champion was superior and now I'm left with questions.  We will be talking to the vet.

I am on one of the FB pages you mention, and no one there is recommending changing foods, they recommend the opposite actually.  There are warnings about the unknown results in supplementation of taurine, and researchers aren't recommending anything outside of food sources unless advised by your vet.  They are following a system of compiling lab result, medical histories, and food sources in a scientific manner for the FDA, while the table is for the public to view and is anecdotal evidence of dogs eating various foods, both with and without abnormal taurine levels, and with and without DCM.

I do think that there is much misinformation on the internet, and a variety of articles are being written that are reaching, or putting forth an individuals bias on the issue.  I tend to go directly to scientific studies and journals rather than articles.  There is just to much that we do not know.  

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

You know, it occurs to me that every food or type of diet I'm hearing mentioned in connection with taurine deficiencies is a limited ingredient diet. Lamb and apple, pork and squash, grain-free, exotic proteins, Zignature. That tells me that the dogs in question either have digestive issues or allergies, or possibly both, as was the case with my Jack. Why else would anyone be feeding one of the Acana Singles  formulas when they could be feeding one of the Acana Regionals? 
So apparently, these dogs already have health problems, and if they have digestive issues, they already have problems with nutrient absorption. Especially if those digestive issues are IBD, which by its very nature causes nutritional deficiencies. And of course, allergies and IBD are immune-mediated, serious diseases.
Have any of these geniuses considered that rather than the diets causing the taurine the deficiencies and DCM, that it's the health issues that the dogs eating these diets already have that is causing the problem?

[Marie + Marshall]

I’m ready to start cooking for Marshall food full time. Which he does get boiled skinless chicken, sweet potatoes, Carrots, green beans etc quite often. But I don’t consider him a sickly dog at all.  I started with the Acana grain free because he did have loose stools and eventually went to the lamb and apple just because in my mind, I thought it had less ingredients and that might be easier to digest never thinking, I could be putting him in harms way. This food journey has been stressful from the beginning. We started  with wellness core (he came home from breeder on costco food) and I switched Acana to try to give him the highest quality of kibble.  Now thinking of transitioning back maybe to one of the regionals. Ugh :)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Marie, I don't think you were putting Marshall in harm's way at all by switching him to an LID food. I honestly think when the smoke clears, they are going to find this whole thing with the foods no more valid than their old statements about lamb and rice diets causing taurine deficient cardiomyopathy. I truly believe that the dogs who really have it have something in their genetic make-up or some other kind of health issue that is causing this, and that the average, healthy dog is not at risk at all from any of these foods. And I know for a fact that some of the people in that FB group are not being honest about their dogs health and/or what they feed. 

[Marie + Marshall]

Agree

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

My point is just that usually, people put their dogs on LID foods for health reasons. A dog who has chronic loose stool/diarrhea is already not processing or absorbing nutrients properly. So why are they not looking at that angle, that these dogs who really are affected are predisposed, rather than making it seem as if a perfectly healthy dog can develop taurine deficient DCM out of the blue, just from eating certain kinds of food? 

[Melissa]

I believe they are, at least at the level of UC Davis.  This is already Champions response to the taurine issue.  They make food for the general population of dogs, and dogs with a taurine deficiency must have "special needs".  

[Stella]

Even the vets are jumping on this bandwagon :(

My Chase was recently having investigations for another problem and the X-rays showed an enlarged heart.  Because of the heart enlargement she told me I should change his food or put him on a taurine supplement - he has been fed Acana almost his whole life. 

....... I like to think he's like the racehorse Secretariat, post mortem on that horse showed he had a huge heart for his size. They figured that's why he was so successful, his big heart was able to get blood around his body faster / more efficiently. 

[Marie + Marshall]

That’s scary.  But what food did the vet recommend? I just have trouble when our Vet recommends changing food it’s always to the food she sells in her office , science diet 

[Stella]

She just said change to a food with grains instead of legumes, or add a taurine supplement. 

I'm happy feeding Acana (unless they sell out to Purina) so I'm not planning on changing anything about his diet. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The thing about this that makes absolutely no sense is that taurine is an amino acid that dogs (and humans) synthesize from other amino acids. The only foods that contain all of the essential amino acids which are needed to make taurine are animal proteins. Not grains, not legumes, not any plant food. Adding grains to a diet isn't going to do a thing to help make more taurine. 

And why grains instead or legumes? Why not potatoes instead of legumes, if they think legumes are the problem? 

I believe that the theory may be that because legumes do contain more protein than any other kind of plant food, that dog food companies are adding legumes to dog food formulas so that they can reduce the actual amount of animal proteins in the food and still have high protein percentages listed on the label, because those protein percentages reflect all protein, not just complete protein. But we know that foods like Orijen and Acana contain tons of animal proteins, and that this is not true of foods of their quality. 
So I keep coming back to Big Dog Food (Purina, Royal Canin, Hill's) being behind all this to try to eliminate the competition. And the corn lobby, (which is about as powerful as it gets- think about all the high fructose corn syrup being used in human food instead of sugar) might just be doing some of the funding, too.