Your vet will decide if your dog needs a taurine supplement by running a blood test to check for taurine deficiency. It’s important your dog’s diet is well balanced and contains all the necessary vitamins and minerals that a dog needs to live a healthy lifestyle.” Does your dog need a taurine supplement? If it comes back elevated, then this suggests that heart disease is present and is affecting the function of the heart. Michelle Diener, DVM shares, “This test checks heart function. However, if pet owners are reluctant to change their dog’s diet and are concerned about DCM, consult with your local veterinarian about running a blood test called proBNP. Top dog food brands include Royal Canin, Science Diet, and Purina. Also, it’s advised to feed dogs a diet that has been formulated by a boarded veterinary nutritionist, made by a reputable company, and on the market for a long period of time. Until more is known, boarded veterinary cardiologists are recommending that dogs be fed a diet that contains grain, especially if peas or legumes are within the top five ingredients. The FDA and many other researchers are still actively studying this issue so they can give pet parents and veterinarians a more definitive answer. Diet-associated DCM could also be due to an ingredient in the food that is toxic to the heart. For dogs that have normal taurine levels, however, other nutritional deficiencies may be present.”Įxperts from Tufts Veterinary School also note, “Some nutritional deficiencies can affect the heart’s normal function, so an insufficient amount of these nutrients (or reduced bioavailability) in the diet could cause heart disease. There are definitely some dogs with DCM that have low taurine levels, many of which will improve with taurine supplementation and change of diet. What the experts are sayingĪccording to the Tufts Veterinary School, “For the vast majority of dogs, we do not yet know what is causing this disease. We’ll update this article as research develops on the topic. There’s also discussion that these diets contain a moderate amount of peas and legumes which may be a factor in the development of DCM. Yet, most dogs with DCM don’t have a taurine deficiency when their blood is tested. So taurine isn’t likely the cause of several grain-free diets causing DCM in dogs. So it’s possible that a taurine deficiency may have been the cause of the heart disease. Some of these diets didn’t contain taurine. There’s still research being done on these various diets to determine what’s causing heart disease in certain dogs. Were found to cause some dogs to develop DCM as well. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Government agency. Recently, certain grain-free diets Trusted Source U.S. A few other dogs on a vegan or vegetarian diet developed a taurine deficiency which led to heart disease. Some dog breeds like Newfoundlands developed taurine deficiency when they were fed a commercial diet containing lamb and rice. We felt it was important to include the most recent research and explain why taurine is mentioned. Taurine is a word that frequently pops up in the ongoing research about grain-free diets and DCM in dogs.

Pet taurine supplements