Blue Buffalo

[rnor1120]

It was requested in another thread that I shed a little light on Blue Buffalo dog food. I want to throw out a disclaimer before I insert any opinions - I am a vet STUDENT, and not a doctor (yet), so anything I say can't be used as medical advice. If there are any questions about your dog's diet and nutrition, please get ahold of a good vet.

I am personally not a fan AT ALL with the Blue Buffalo foods. Their advertising is very attractive, claiming that they use "all natural" and "organic" ingredients (by the way, nearly impossible to do with commercial dog foods). Their big catch is that their food is best because meat is listed as the first ingredient. This always kills me - ingredients on any food label are listed in order of weight before preparation, so wet, juicy chicken is of course going to weight more than the dry corn or wheat ingredients. As a matter of fact, a lot of (much better) dog foods list meat as their first ingredient.

Anyways, the problems with this particular food caught my attention during my small animal nutrition block. A vet who has been a board certified companion animal nutritionist for who-knows-how-long had nothing but bad things to say about Blue. Not just nutritional issues, but their secretiveness. Most pet food companies are perfectly fine releasing information about ingredients, preparation, etc to vets. This particular professor had called, emailed, left messages, and never heard back from the company, which in my opinion is just a little scary. For the record, Blue Buffalo food is NOT veterinary recommended, certified, ANYTHING.

So, I did a little independent research and came upon a long list of consumer complaints. According to these consumers, veterinarians proved that Blue was directly responsible for causing severe illness. Among the listed issues were severe gastroenteritis (inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract) with accompanying diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration, electrolyte imbalances, and liver enzyme abnormalities. One of the more troubling things I saw were diseases caused by excess vitamins/minerals. Excess vitamin D was mentioned (and in fact the food was recalled in 2010 because of it). For those without any medical/nutritional background, vitamin D promotes calcium uptake. Too much vitamin D = too much calcium. Excess calcium causes "metastatic calcification of soft tissues," meaning that calcium is being deposited in certain tissues like blood vessels, the heart, kidneys, and intestine and causing hardening. Most problems in these dogs were clear once Blue was switched out of the diet.

I'm not saying that every dog who eats Blue Buffalo will get sick, in fact majority probably don't. I'm not sure what Blue has done since the recall, but honestly, if you're looking for "natural" foods, you can find a much better, safer brand. I said it at the beginning, but I'll say it one more time - if you have any questions about your dog's diet, please schedule an appointment with your vet. Any changes you do to your dog's diet needs to be done gradually.

I've listed a few links below about the recalls, consumer complaints, etc. I know that most of these are from 2010 and may be a little old, but just a few weeks ago a friend of my roommate's was having diarrheal issues with her Golden-Doodle. Roommate found that her friend was feeding Blue. Friend switched from Blue. Dog got better. So my guess is that Blue still has some kinks to work out.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/blue_buffalo.html
http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/news/2010101 ... d-recalled
http://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/articl ... cerns.html

[Sarah83]

you have any questions about your dog's diet, please schedule an appointment with your vet.

Sorry but every vet I've been to in the UK (and it's been a few!) has recommended Science Diet. No way on earth I'm feeding that crap to my dog. Tell them you feed raw and boy do they hit the roof. I'd say do your own research, not rely on your vet who quite likely isn't an nutritionist.

I've never heard of any problems with Blue Buffalo until now but then I don't think it's one of the foods easily available in the UK, I know I've never seen it anywhere.

[Nettle]

Vets here (UK) have no idea about nutrition unless they have studied it independently - in which case I have found them 100% for raw feeding.

Was Blue Buffalo caught up in the melamine scandal?

[abbyneo]

I agonized and agonized over food ... our girl Abby was not on decent food when we got her, and it showed. We eventually have made the switch to the Blue Buffalo grain free line, and so far, it's working well for us. I definitely lost sleep over what to feed our dogs, and from my experience, you can read something bad about almost every brand out there if you look for it..which I did..to an extent that I felt like I was obsessed with what I was feeding and I felt like if I made a mistake, it would surely kill my dogs. Long story short, eventually, I do want to switch our dogs onto something that is more natural for them-real meat, etc, but for right now we are going to stick with Blue.

Our vets "recommend" science diet as well, because they provide the office with free stuff, samples, etc...everyone is in bed together basically.

But, truly, thank you for the info.

[rnor1120]

Unfortunately, yes, nutrition is not highlighted as much as it should be in the veterinary world, unless you choose to specialize with large animals. And so I've found that even the vets I've worked with are not as well versed with good brands of food. I can tell you that the reason most vets don't like raw diets is because majority of the general public does it wrong. Before anyone gets upset, I'm in no way pointing fingers and saying that nobody on here knows what they're doing, because majority of the raw diet threads make it apparent that you've all done your research (bravo!). As I'm sure you all know raw diets have to be very carefully balanced to make sure all of the essential nutrients are included without any of the harmful (and zoonotic) pathogens that can be found in raw meat/eggs/dairy (E. coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter, etc). It's because majority (but not all) of the public doesn't properly research or gets hung up on some crazy diet fad and nearly kills their dogs that general practitioner vets are turned off to raw diets. Fortunately, it seems that the newer crop of vets (IE me) are doing more and more research into good small animal nutrition. We actually now have the option in practice to subscribe to companies that specializes in raw diets, and if a client requests a diet we can provide it to them. Honestly, I see nothing wrong with raw diets, but I wish more people (again, not pointing fingers) would do GOOD research before starting it.

Was Blue Buffalo caught up in the melamine scandal?

Yes it was. Blue has thus far had two pet food recalls (2007, 2010).

[Nettle]

I suspect if you pressed for actual facts, you'd find the reason so many vets are are anti-raw is chiefly because they can't then sell something that will bring money into the surgery, and because they imagine people would get it wrong. There isn't much wrong to get it, but most of all, people who choose to feed raw do it for their dog's health and therefore tend to do MORE study and research than anyone who ever opened a sack and scooped out dry pellets. It is not difficult for Joe Public to balance a diet, and it IS difficult to see how they could get it fatally wrong. If you asked for actual cases, I don't think many vets would be able to produce even one each.

Campylobactor, E.coli, salmonella are all found in commercial foods, but I bet not one of the vets you asked mentioned that .

[Sarah83]

As someone said to me when I was worrying over feeding raw, you don't need to be a nutritionist to eat a balanced diet for yourself so why would it be so difficult to create a balanced diet for a dog? It's just a matter of researching it, asking questions of those more knowledgeable and finding out what suits your individual dog.

And most people I speak to are horrified at the thought of feeding raw meat to a dog anyway, apparently it'll "give them a taste for blood!" or something along those lines

[rnor1120]

you'd find the reason so many vets are are anti-raw is chiefly because they can't then sell something that will bring money into the surgery

This is incredibly offensive. Believe it or not, we actually DO care about the welfare and wellbeing of the animals brought into our clinics, and not about turning up a profit. I've wanted to be a vet for longer than I can remember, not because I want to be a millionaire, but because I want to help animals. We're not out to screw you and your pets over. And vets don't imagine things, they see septic and malformed animals brought in because owners fed contaminated meat or excess/deficient calcium/vitamin D/phosphorus/protein/etc. They see studies that say majority of published recipes of home-prepared dog meals are lacking in at least one nutrient (note I said published, and not self put together - it's all about doing the research).

Campylobactor, E.coli, salmonella are all found in commercial foods, but I bet not one of the vets you asked mentioned that

Actually yes, they did, citing studies about Iams and Eukanuba. But you're more likely to find it in raw animal products than in a commercially prepared food.

Assuming these things about vets is a great way to ruin a relationship with a good one. Don't ever walk into a clinic assuming we don't know anything and we're only trying to get your money.

[Wes]

I've fed grain free Blue for four years now, and have had wonderful results. My vet recommended Royal Canin, which is not much better than Science Diet and my old APBT Rosie had horrible reactions to it. I'll stick with what works. If I recall, only the Basics formula and some of the regular suffered the 2010 recall, not the grain free.

[Nettle]

I can understand you being upset rnor, but - you will learn once you have been in practice for a while that what we say occurs in many many surgeries. Over-vaccination, promotion of inferior food, pushing for unnecessary neutering, neutering too early, vaccinating dogs that are unhealthy, vaccinating worming and flea-treating at the same appointment, are NORMAL abuses at many surgeries.

And equally there are many many ethical vets who are comcerned about the animal before profit and would not do any of those things. So don't be offended - this was not personal to you. Neither is it imagination and hearsay - it is, sadly, vast experience. There are some wonderful inspirational vets out there, and I am fortunate to be working with one now. One of the reasons I appreciate him and his ethics so much is over-exposure to the other sort.

[rnor1120]

Listen, everyone is entitled to their opinions. I'm not here to argue, nor am I here to make a fool out of myself by getting angry on an online forum. I didn't mean to get snippy and I know you didn't mean anything personally, but I took it as such. I don't have any experience with vets in the UK, but every vet I've shadowed or taken a class with in the US/St. Kitts (technically a US based school) has adamantly advised against all things that you've listed vets doing, including the old farts that have been around the block a few hundred times.

The vet I shadowed for 2 years actually had the same baggies of Science Diet treats sitting on his shelf behind the register for the duration of my experience, and never tried pushing any food on any client (he actually advised against Science Diet, Bil Jak, Iams, Blue Buffalo, all that crap). I'll admit that he never advised and/or was uninformed about raw/home-cooked meals, but he also didn't push crap or unhealthy practices on his clients.

I mean, if you look into it close enough, you can probably find bad things about all dog foods. If it works for you, then by all means stick with it. All the experiences I've had with Blue have been negative, and as I said in the original message I started this thread on the request of someone else looking for more info on a possibly connected GI illness.

[jacksdad]

rnor1120, first I want to thank you (as the one requesting this thread) for sharing the information you had on blue buffalo. Jack has only been off it for a few months and off commercial food in general for even less. He had an ultra sound a few months ago that showed hardening of tissue in the bowls. I am going to share this with Jacks new vet.

rno1120, it sounds like you have been associated with some really good vets. While Nettle's comments weren't very flattering to the profession as a whole, please understand she isn't anti vet, she is pro knowledge. unfortunately there is truth in what she says about some vets. Even though they may absolutely LOVE and CARE about the animals under their care, they may also take short cuts, or allow profit or lack of continuing education, or an assumption that their customers are to dumb to learn about caring for their pet to impact their quality of service. One of the "straw that broke the camels back" reasons that caused me to go looking for a new vet is when I mentioned that I was giving my dog milk thistle, the very first response was to try and sell me the vet prescription version. The primary, they wouldn't listen when I was saying there is a problem with Jack dosage level of phenobarbital and potassium bromide. They weren't listing to the point I was about to start working on taking him off/reducing dosage all on my own. I had found the general steps, but had yet to workout some of the details when they finally redid the blood work which backed up what I had been saying. it was a scary frustrating time.

It sounds like you don't want to be "that guy/gal" so to speak and I would strongly encourage you to stay focused on your ideals for being a vet, we NEED good vets.

Anyway, thanks again for sharing what you learned about Blue Buffalo. In the case of Jack, it may be something, maybe nothing but since we don't 100% know root cause at this time for his issues, it's worth throwing into the mix for consideration. particularly if there was issues in 2010, this is when he was on it exclusively.