What dog food is safe for my allergic dog with DCM concerns?

If you think that the HD is the cause of the sudden severe allergic reaction, than switching foods might help. However, in my experience, sudden severe allergic reactions don't typically occur from foods. Typically they are from something else in the environment. With regards to food, another good choice for cardiac disease is the Hill's or Purina Kidney Diet. The kidney diets and heart diets have very similar ingredients due to the fact that they are both attempting to control the same things. The good news is that the majority of both dogs and cats absolutely love the way the hill's K/D diet tastes. Hope this makes sense.

A hydrolyzed therapeutic diet might be the best option for a dog with food allergies and potential heart disease. Hills makes a version called z/d, Royal Canin makes HP and Purina makes HA. Your vet would know more details however and might make a different recommendation based on Champ’s history so you should contact them before changing the diet.

It's going to be hard to notice symptoms before it's too late - but signs that would be concerning are panting at odd times, decreased exercise capacity, rapid breathing while resting, and coughing. There are prescription diets that are hydrolyzed - which means the food is mechanically or chemically broken up in to such small pieces that the immune system no longer recognizes it as chicken or pork (etc). I would recommending asking your vet if one of those diets would be appropriate. If you can't find another diet that works for Padfoot, it's important to know that the risk of heart disease is low, even though it's higher for grain-free or boutique diets than others, so you have to weigh controlling allergies that cause immediate harm with the possibility of heart disease.

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Cooper. You have several options regarding the risk of DCM from feeding the grain-free diet. In these cases, DCM results from the diet being deficient in taurine. There is a blood test that your veterinarian can submit to measure Cooper's taurine levels. He could also have an echocardiogram (an ultrasound of the heart) to ensure he does not have any structural changes. Lastly, you can change his diet. You can consider Purina Proplan Sensitive Skin and Stomach as it is a trust worthy brand and will help any underlying skin disease. I hope this information helps!

Hi there and thanks for posting. Although there isn't a food that is formulated for all three medical issues you listed, but there are separate foods for sensitive stomach/skin and cardiac disease. Prescription diets by Royal Canin or Hills such as Hill's Z/D Diet or D/D or Royal Canin's Ultamino Diet or their Cardiac Formula would be ones I would recommend. I hope this helps and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

The various sensitive skin formulas on Royal Canin's website all are listed to include grains. Royal Canin diets have not been known to correlate with the development of DCM in dogs, so I would not worry about this too much. If this diet is too expensive, consider discussing alternative options with your vet. A novel protein diet may be a reasonable option but it is hard to recommend a diet without knowing what the cause of your dog's allergies are. I recommend trying to buy larger bags as they are more cost-effective and consider price hunting on various websites.

Not only are grain free diets implicated in DCM but actual, documented grain allergies are very rare in dogs. That is all marketing hype from boutique pet food companies. I suggest you use Eukanuba large breed or Iams Proactive Adult. ( ) ( )