This time last year, I was a final year veterinary student on urgent care service at Colorado State University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital. I held an ultrasound probe to the chest of a one-year-old Golden Retriever that came in for difficulty breathing, and everyone’s stomach dropped with what was seen on the monitor. An abnormal heart, chambers so filled and muscular walls stretched so thin. Diet and history put nutritional dilated cardiomyopathy as the top differential diagnosis. My last rotation before graduation was cardiology service. I recognized the name of a case presented in rounds. My urgent care pup had irreversible changes despite aggressive treatment the moment of presentation, and I learned they had succumbed to congestive heart failure not long after. It was hard to stifle my tears, and noticed my faculty and resident were trying the same.
Before I even started higher education as a scientist, I was told by a teacher that correlation does not equal causation. Between my bachelor’s and doctorate, I was taught by a favorite professor to “question everything.” What I learned from that was much more than simply being a skeptic, but rather a realization that jarred me to my core. The more I built my knowledge base, the more I discovered how much I didn’t know, and really, no one could know. It was such a relief to get to know my veterinary cohort – together we banded well to fill in those knowledge gaps for each other. Bottom line: there is always something to be learned, but it is more important to understand what has been learned changes over time due to discoveries and developing science. I don’t have to know everything because I have great toolboxes I can refer to, experts on the frontier of their field.
I have come to find out how hard it is to be a consumer. Greater so when my decisions impact more than just me. Like any owner, I want to provide the best for my pets. Since I am a trained veterinary medical professional, I use science-based evidence to guide my recommendations for clients, friends, family, and myself. Until more is known about the relationship between BEG (boutique, exotic, grain-free) diets and dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs, why chance losing your beloved pet to a fatal disease? To summarize: many of these diets are keenly marketed to us (consumers that have emotion, paychecks, and opposable thumbs), which cater to very rare cases of actual medical indication, and do not follow Global Nutrition Guidelines published by WSAVA (World Small Animal Veterinary Association). Without further ado, the following is a collection I refer to with what has been discovered and discussed (thus far). https://www.dropbox.com/sh/daladutnkpxi8li/AABZoR8Hn8YIHzYz7hDoHaE3a?dl=0