Hi Everyone,

Just looking for a little anecdotal feedback here! I have 1 of my dobes still on a grain-free diet, Natural Balance Duck and Potato, after a LOT of trial and error it was the first non-prescription diet I found that he was able to tolerate. (the rest of the kid's eat Pro Plan Large Breed Shredded Blend). My vet recently suggested that I start looking for an alternative because while the verdict is still out on the DCM link, she'd rather I err on the side of caution, plus since he's a little older we also wanted to find something with a lower sodium.

Anyway, short of rambling, I finally settled on VēRUS Advanced Opticoat Menhaden Fish Meal and Potato but I don't really know many people who use this diet and would like some opinions/feedback on it!

Thanks!

Hello and welcome to our forum from Florida.
We use Purina Pro Plan Chicken ..........my regular vet had no opinion on grain or no grain........
Then when I visited a cardiologist for Hoss (well check) .........the doctor encouraged use of Pro Plan ......he advised me all the media about
dog food can leave a person very confused ......
He advised this: Purina provides him facts backed by up science and research............at this time the grain free products do not.......so I opted for Purina .
Others will chime in soon............some of them proclaim to be working !!!! Ba ha ha ha .........
Anyway...welcome......hope to hear more from you soon.

Have you tried Purina Proplan Focus Sensitive Skin and Stomach Salmon and Rice? Reading between the lines and seeing you feed another Proplan to your other furbabies, I'm guessing you have?
Anyway, that's what mine were always on, and I know it's recommended here a lot.

Eventually with my highly allergic dog we went to a kangaroo and oat based prescription food--it was originally Hill's science diet, but they stopped making it, I think, and then we used Royal Canin-Canine Selected Protein Adult KO Dry Dog Food

Hey Kisha, your Menhaden Fish Meal food must smell wonderful!
I'm retired from working on ships for 40 years and everytime we passed a Menhaden processing plant in various US port ship channels, it could be smelled for miles away!

While transiting Chesapeake bay, many Menhaden boats used light planes to spot the schools to be surrounded with the purse seine nets from the smaller boats. Interesting operation...


Interesting Wiki Article on Menhaden fishing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menhaden


Beaufort, NC Menhaden Plant Article from 2001:
https://ncseagrant.ncsu.edu/coastwat...ertain-future/

After our sweet Dobe Zuri passed away in September with what was most likely Hemangiosarcoma, we became more proactive in searching for an acceptable diet for our other dog, Rascal.(Yes, we know the food wasn't the cause of her death) He is a mixed breed, large dog as well. We fed both of them TOTW most of their lives. I reached out to a veterinarian nutritionist, Sherry Sanderson out of the UGA. She has written out a homemade food plan for him at our request. Honestly, no different than the food we eat with the exception of the supplement. So, for us, it is a no brainer. What she also told me about is a Facebook Group to join called Taurine Deficient (Nutritional) Dilated Cardiomyopathy. Anyone can join and it is full of scientific, researched evidence and discussion by those in the field providing information and experiences with grain free foods and food companies. There are also listed in that forum, 5 brands of foods that get a thumbs up from the WSAVA. Purina Pro, Royal Canin, Eukanuba, Iams and Science Diet. It is worth joining. We are getting an ECHO tomorrow to check for any damage to his cardiac function.

I very rarely make corrections on Melbrod's information but the Kangaroo and Oat prescription food was originally part of the Iams/Eukanumba prescription food. Iams sold the entire prescription line to Royal Canine who now manufacturers and carries it and the other canine prescription diets that used to be part of the Iams/Eukanuba line.

The Hill's prescription diets that are food related are either DD (limited protein) or ZD fully hydrolyzed in the canine version.

Our clinic had several allergy dogs who were on the kangaroo and oat formula by Iams and they nearly had coronaries when that sale was announced until Royal Canin announced their acquisition of the line. That particular formula was a very effective one for a good many allergy dogs.

dobebug

Iams, really?? Hmmm......well, I can't claim my memory is infallible.

I mostly remember a reaction sorta like what your vets had. Now where do I go to get a KO diet?

And it seems like the price went up at least $5 when Royal Canin started marketing it. But maybe my memory is wrong there too.

Thanks all! I appreciate all the advice, I was really looking for feedback from anyone who actually uses Verus haha. We thus far, know he's intolerant to beef, chicken and lamb as well as brown and white rice. Most of these just give us horrible stools after a week supplementing it in. The lamb he actually develops a skin reactive too.

I've always been a big fan of Pro Plan because of the exact reason your cardiologist mentioned!.... they have studies and scientific basis for their claims. I find it endlessly frustrating to hear the claims for a lot of the newer grain-free companies that barely have studies if any at all. We did try the Salmon Sensitive Skin and Stomach and we thought we were solid....we made it 4 weeks before he had a severe allergy flare up...rashes all over, chewing/licking and digestive issues too. We went back to his Purina HA at that point for a couple months until he was completely stable again. It's been an arduous process.

Anyway, YES the food smells TERRIBLE. Every time I open the container it's a fresh wave of stink. BUT he's been on it 50/50 for nearly a month as has been doing well. Once I finally run out of the NB we'll go 100% and say a hail mary ha..

Thanks again!