Milk Thistle – The Herb to Add to Every Bowl – Herbsmith (herbsmithinc.com)
PRO TIP: Milk Thistle is also supremely important for any pet who has been taking corticosteroids and antihistamines or really any pharmaceutical on a daily basis for extended periods of time. Milk Thistle can protect the liver from future damage and repair existing damage by flushing out harsh and harmful toxins that accompany pharmaceuticals.
Ever heard of Leaky Gut? It’s when your pet’s intestinal lining is damaged, letting toxins and allergens sneak into their bloodstream. Not good, right? It can lead to:
You can purchase your Mars owned pet food, (Royal Canin, Nutro, Iams, Eukanuba, Whiskas, etc)
then take your pet to the Mars owned vet hospital (Banfield, VSH, VCA, etc)
then have diagnostic testing done at a Mars owned lab. (Antech)
The concern with one company having so much money and power over the pet industry is that this could force prices to increase and quality of veterinary care and services to decrease.
Someone could mass produce poor quality food, oversell vaccines and flea/tick/hw chemicals, and keep our pets on a constant wheel of disease while profiting from each link in the chain...
In a brief and less than public announcement, the FDA finally took a stance regarding the potential link of grain-free pet food to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) cases in dogs. The agency stated based on the reports of DCM cases received, “they do not supply sufficient data to establish a causal relationship with reported product(s).” In other words, the FDA does not believe grain-free pet foods are/were the cause of DCM in dogs. The FDA also stated they do not intend to release any further notices about the issue “until there is meaningful new scientific information to share.”
This brief update was not issued as a press release as the agency had done with the previous grain-free pet food/DCM updates. Instead, this brief notice was simply (and quietly) added to the top of a 3 year old press release. No new press release, no mainstream media coverage.
Pet owners deserve much more from FDA regarding this issue. This issue caused panic in millions of pet owners, in part directly due to FDA’s previous press releases about their investigation.
Personal opinion: It is good that FDA has taken a position on their investigation into DCM and grain-free pet food. However, pet owners and veterinarians need a complete statement from FDA issued as a new press release. Not a softly worded paragraph quietly added to a 3 year old press release. We deserve better.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Agreeing ,from us:
Honestly it’s hard to know what to believe now that the FDA has more or less walked back their statements from the last 3 years on grain free diets and the link to DCM on 12/23/22. Conveniently, the FDA did this one month after Mars (the largest pet care brand) purchased two grain free brands, Orijen and Acana. Mars said they have no plans to change anything with either brand. Keep in mind Mars owns the largest chain of veterinary clinics and hospitals (Banfield, VCA, BluePearl) along with Antech Diagnostic and many other pet food brands such as Royal Canin, Eukanuba and Iams…
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