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[...] pet parents asking if [brand omitted] is causing any of the following:
(a) bloody diarrhea, (b) vomiting,
(c) elevated liver enzymes or
(d) pancreatitis.

The answer is:
“No.” Veterinarians frequently see these conditions in pets and the causes for each syndrome are almost always unrelated to their food.

Is this statement accurate?

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    Where did you get this from? A source might help us.
    – user53
    Commented Aug 3, 2017 at 23:04

1 Answer 1

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"Veterinarians frequently see these conditions in pets": TRUE

"The causes for each syndrome are almost always unrelated to their food": FALSE

  • Bloody diarrhea occurs due to many reasons. With relation to food it can occur due to dietary indiscretion, gastrointestinal inflammation secondary to severe food allergy, bacterial infections associated with bad food, etc.
  • Vomiting: Food commonly causes vomiting, ranging from a dog eating too much too quickly, eating bad food, eating food it is allergic to, etc.
  • Elevated liver enzymes: I might give them this one – elevated liver enzymes are usually not solely due to poor diet choices, but diet can certainly make hepatobiliary disease worse. For example, some dogs with copper-associated hepatopathies will have worsening disease if eating high copper-containing diets.
  • Pancreatitis in dogs, much less so in cats, is seen commonly due to consumption of high fat diets. Usually this occurs acutely (i.e. due to dietary indiscretion), however can occur chronically due to poor diet.

It is very difficult, if not impossible, for a pet food company to say that their foods do not ever cause these conditions. It is also difficult for anyone to prove that the food did cause these conditions, because I doubt there will ever be a controlled study testing the hypothesis. In any case, I'd steer well clear of any non-veterinary formulated pet food that makes such erroneous claims.

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