zane Every
Well-known member
I have come across several articles about dogs on grain free dog food diets that are have heart failure.Anyone have any "professional" knowledge about DCM? I copied this story from Face Book to share. Perhaps it could help save someones dog.
I am sure many of you have seen already that my son?s 4 year and 4 day old Lab has passed. It has been a painful journey for us to watch a strong and vibrant dog slowly fade away. Jet was diagnosed with DCM a type of heart failure. His first episode was in August. Originally we thought he had epilepsy but as the days passed we knew it was something different. In October just before we left for our Annual hunting trip to North Dakota we took Jet the vet to make sure his levels for the meds he was on for epilepsy were not hurting his kidneys and also because he was just not right. They decided to do a ultra sound of his heart as we were not convinced he had epilepsy. What they found was Jets heart was enlarged. Enlarged to the point that when he exerted him self the valves in the heart would not seat and his brain would starve of oxygen thus causing him to faint. We were able to get him into a cardiologist by sheer luck as it can take up to 2 months get into one currently because of the DCM epidemic. What we found out is that Jet?s heart was damaged by the food we were feeding him. We had been feeding him a grain free diet for about the last 1 1/2 years. We did so because he had some lesions between his toes and It looked like a reaction to his diet. The grain free fixed the lesions but damaged his heart. The cardiologist was very blunt and said if we can get Jet 4 months down the line he might have a chance to make a recovery. He was started on a regiment of assorted pills that would make human cringe. About a month in we could see that the pills that had been working were not anymore and that Jets condition was getting worse. We knew the battle now was to keep him comfortable and enjoy every second we had with him. Today Jet passed. I want to thank everyone at Country Side Veterinary in Somerset MI for everything they did to help Jet. I would also like to thank Dr Brown from Veterinary Cardiology Consultants in Novi for being there for every question we had. DCM is currently what I consider an epidemic. The FDA knows there is a problem to the extent that it has published a list of Grain Free Dog foods that are suspect of causing DCM. But they have yet to have the food pulled from the shelves. There are those who think DCM and Grain Free Foods are not linked. The evidence shows otherwise. Dr Brown told us in October that his office is seeing 4-5 new patients a week that are dogs under the age of 5 with DCM. Every one of these dogs have been on a grain free diet. We also had to change one of Jets most important drugs 3 weeks ago because the demand for the drug is out pacing production in pill form. And last but not least on Friday December 13, we had taken Jet in to the Vet to have his abdomen drained of fluid that had built up due to the heart failure. While we were on the way out a gentleman walked in with his Lab and sat down. Topio had taken Jet out to the truck. As I was paying the bill I turned around and that gentleman?s dog had collapsed. Not in a way that Jet had collapsed. But in a way I could tell this was not good. They rushed this mans dog in to a room to try and revive him. I asked the man what type of food he was feeding his dog and if it had been grain free. He said he fed the dog ?a listed? dog food. The gentleman did not know it was listed or that it was Grain Free. He had felt he was giving his dog a high quality food. This man?s dog did not survive he was also 4 years old. We were lucky enough to be able to say our good byes with hugs and kisses. He was not. Many people are not aware of DCM and the connection to Grain Free pet foods. Many people do not have the means to have been able to get their dog the best chance to survive this travesty as cost of the meds alone are extreme not counting the countless vet visits. Please please if you are currently feeding your dog a grain free dog food please do your self a favor and type in ?FDA grain free dog food? in Google, a list can be found to see if the food you are feeding is suspect of causing DCM. If it is on the list contact your vet immediately. I know the Knutson Family is going to go on a crusade to get this food off the shelves and educate as many people as we can about a Grain Free Diet. We will work hard for Jet, if we can save even one family from going through what we have just gone through it will be worth it. Please share this post and thank you everyone who sent their condolences it is very heart warming and comforting to our family. If you have any questions or if you have gone through what we have please contact Topio at Topio@knutsondecoys.com. Jet was one of the special ones!!!
It has been 24 hours since I had made this post. Our family is floored by the response this post has received. Over 700 shares and 200+ comments. I am going to try and respond to each comment. We feel that by posting Jet?s story last night and these comments and stories like Jet?s that have been shared today are going to save many dogs lives. Continue to share the problems of Grain Free dog foods. Maybe just maybe someday soon it will be taken off the shelves and we will never have to post stories like this again.
Thank you again from the Knutson?s you have no idea how much this has meant to us!!!
I am sure many of you have seen already that my son?s 4 year and 4 day old Lab has passed. It has been a painful journey for us to watch a strong and vibrant dog slowly fade away. Jet was diagnosed with DCM a type of heart failure. His first episode was in August. Originally we thought he had epilepsy but as the days passed we knew it was something different. In October just before we left for our Annual hunting trip to North Dakota we took Jet the vet to make sure his levels for the meds he was on for epilepsy were not hurting his kidneys and also because he was just not right. They decided to do a ultra sound of his heart as we were not convinced he had epilepsy. What they found was Jets heart was enlarged. Enlarged to the point that when he exerted him self the valves in the heart would not seat and his brain would starve of oxygen thus causing him to faint. We were able to get him into a cardiologist by sheer luck as it can take up to 2 months get into one currently because of the DCM epidemic. What we found out is that Jet?s heart was damaged by the food we were feeding him. We had been feeding him a grain free diet for about the last 1 1/2 years. We did so because he had some lesions between his toes and It looked like a reaction to his diet. The grain free fixed the lesions but damaged his heart. The cardiologist was very blunt and said if we can get Jet 4 months down the line he might have a chance to make a recovery. He was started on a regiment of assorted pills that would make human cringe. About a month in we could see that the pills that had been working were not anymore and that Jets condition was getting worse. We knew the battle now was to keep him comfortable and enjoy every second we had with him. Today Jet passed. I want to thank everyone at Country Side Veterinary in Somerset MI for everything they did to help Jet. I would also like to thank Dr Brown from Veterinary Cardiology Consultants in Novi for being there for every question we had. DCM is currently what I consider an epidemic. The FDA knows there is a problem to the extent that it has published a list of Grain Free Dog foods that are suspect of causing DCM. But they have yet to have the food pulled from the shelves. There are those who think DCM and Grain Free Foods are not linked. The evidence shows otherwise. Dr Brown told us in October that his office is seeing 4-5 new patients a week that are dogs under the age of 5 with DCM. Every one of these dogs have been on a grain free diet. We also had to change one of Jets most important drugs 3 weeks ago because the demand for the drug is out pacing production in pill form. And last but not least on Friday December 13, we had taken Jet in to the Vet to have his abdomen drained of fluid that had built up due to the heart failure. While we were on the way out a gentleman walked in with his Lab and sat down. Topio had taken Jet out to the truck. As I was paying the bill I turned around and that gentleman?s dog had collapsed. Not in a way that Jet had collapsed. But in a way I could tell this was not good. They rushed this mans dog in to a room to try and revive him. I asked the man what type of food he was feeding his dog and if it had been grain free. He said he fed the dog ?a listed? dog food. The gentleman did not know it was listed or that it was Grain Free. He had felt he was giving his dog a high quality food. This man?s dog did not survive he was also 4 years old. We were lucky enough to be able to say our good byes with hugs and kisses. He was not. Many people are not aware of DCM and the connection to Grain Free pet foods. Many people do not have the means to have been able to get their dog the best chance to survive this travesty as cost of the meds alone are extreme not counting the countless vet visits. Please please if you are currently feeding your dog a grain free dog food please do your self a favor and type in ?FDA grain free dog food? in Google, a list can be found to see if the food you are feeding is suspect of causing DCM. If it is on the list contact your vet immediately. I know the Knutson Family is going to go on a crusade to get this food off the shelves and educate as many people as we can about a Grain Free Diet. We will work hard for Jet, if we can save even one family from going through what we have just gone through it will be worth it. Please share this post and thank you everyone who sent their condolences it is very heart warming and comforting to our family. If you have any questions or if you have gone through what we have please contact Topio at Topio@knutsondecoys.com. Jet was one of the special ones!!!
It has been 24 hours since I had made this post. Our family is floored by the response this post has received. Over 700 shares and 200+ comments. I am going to try and respond to each comment. We feel that by posting Jet?s story last night and these comments and stories like Jet?s that have been shared today are going to save many dogs lives. Continue to share the problems of Grain Free dog foods. Maybe just maybe someday soon it will be taken off the shelves and we will never have to post stories like this again.
Thank you again from the Knutson?s you have no idea how much this has meant to us!!!
