Wilton-based Blue Buffalo Pet Products Inc. is one of 16 dog food brands cited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as being a probable contributing cause of canine congestive heart failure.
Blue Buffalo, which was bought by General Mills in February 2018 for $8 billion, did not issue a public response to the FDA’s report.
The FDA did not call for any of the dog foods to be recalled, nor did it warn dog owners to avoid the brands, but instead asked dog owners to “work with their veterinarians, who have the ability to consult a board-certified veterinary nutritionist, to obtain the most appropriate dietary advice.”
In July 2018, the FDA began to investigate whether canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) could be linked to dogs eating certain pet foods, including many that were labeled as “grain-free” and whose main ingredients contained high proportions of peas, lentils, other legume seeds and/or potatoes.
While the FDA acknowledged in a statement that “the potential association between diet and DCM in dogs is a complex scientific issue that may involve multiple factors,” it nonetheless noted that many of the 524 cases of DCM reported to the agency included the dog food brands that contained this ingredient formulation.
The FDA said it received 31 reports of DCM involving dogs that were fed the Blue Buffalo brand, which was the sixth highest number of DCM-related deaths among the 16 brands under investigation.
In addition to Blue Buffalo, the brands cited by the FDA are Acana, California Natural, Earthborn Holistic, 4Health, Fromm, Merrick, Nature’s Domain, Nature’s Variety, Natural Balance, NutriSource, Nutro, Orijen, Rachael Ray Nutrish, Taste of the Wild and Zignature.
What about Pure Balance Pro is that on the dog list?
I just read that the Pure Balance brand is the 2nd highest rated dog food by vets. That’s all I feed my 13 yr old chihuahua.
My dog was diagnosed with congestive heart failure while eating Blue Buffalo. Is there a class action lawsuit?
there probably will be, keep an eye on topclassactions.com or other sites like that. i’m going back to hills science
I was feeding my dog hills science and she has developed DCM and congestive heart failure. I read where if peas are listed in the first 5 ingredients that is not good and the sensitive stomach and skin is. Just a heads up.
My dog also passed of congestive heart failure while on Blue Buffalo, but it was the grain free. Were you using grain free also?
Yes….the correlation is with grain free foods and heart failure
I’ve learned to stick to a balanced diet with grains and anything that’s less than 30% protein… and to switch food often. Like don’t stick to the same food, switch it all of the time to give variety.
i bought sensitive stomach blue buffalo cat food for my cat and only had it for 2 days i notice him puking more , lethargic, breathing faster and hardly moving and when he did it was very slow and he would flop down and my almost 1year old kitten ate some and was puking everywhere from it. i went and bought science diet yesterday and within hrs he was looking better and by the night he was playing and running around and today he is his normal self and so is my kitten. i will never use BLUE BUFFALO AGAIN it almost killed my cat…