Episode 188: Optimizing Canine Health Through Proper Life Stage Nutrition

RuthAnn Lobos DVM, CCRT, CVAT joins us from Purina to host an in depth discussion about proper life stage nutrition.

Watch the video recording of this presentation here.

Transcript:

Nicole Engelman  00:04

Welcome to the Good Dog Pod. Join us every other Wednesday when we discuss all things dogs, from health and veterinary care to training and behavior science, as well as the ins and outs of Good Dog and how our platform can help you successfully run your breeding program. Follow us and join Good Dog’s mission to build a better world for our dogs and the people who love them. 

Dr Lobos, I want to just quickly introduce you and share a little bit more about your background before I pass things over to you for your presentation. Purina senior veterinarian RuthAnn Lobos received a veterinary degree from Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine, and also became certified in canine physical rehabilitation and as a veterinary acupuncture therapist. Dr. Lobos, who joined Purina in 2005, has managed veterinary communications for Purina Pro Plan veterinary diets and global scientific programs, including the Signature Companion Animal Nutrition Summit for the Purina Institute. Dr. Lobos is frequently interviewed about nutrition and health for hard working sporting dogs. So if we have any sporting dog breeders here, I'm sure this is going to be full of information for you especially. She is an avid marathoner and triathlete who also enjoys upland game hunting and hiking and camping with her husband and son. Her canine companions are a hard charging yellow Labrador Retriever named Finn (I also have a dog named Finn—great name!) and her first bird dog, Wire Haired Pointing Griffon puppy named Journey, whom she's excited to train. And you can also find Dr. Lobos on Instagram. We will drop her handle in the chat for everyone to follow her there, and that's at @petvetruthann. So with that, Dr. Lobos, I will pass things over to you to get the presentation started. 

Dr. RuthAnn Lobos DVM, CCRT, CVAT  01:48

All right! Thanks so much, Nicole, and thank you to everybody who is logged on today. Your passion and commitment to the dog world is certainly contagious and so very important. We know the endless benefits that our canine companions provide for us and likewise, that we give back to them. So we're going to spend the next hour talking about the importance of nutrition and how some little tweaks here and there can actually make a huge difference at the various life stages. I will preface this with saying I'm gonna spend the majority of the time talking on the ends of the spectrum of our dogs’ lives. So talking about the importance of puppy nutrition, as well as some tweaks for the senior years. And there'll be key highlights for that adult stage in between as well. But just knowing some really, again, important impacts that we can have through nutrition on those different life periods for our dogs in that puppy and senior will be critical for their health and happiness and ours as well. So before I get started, I know Nicole gave a little bit of professional background about me. Going on 20 years at Purina this November, which is insane. So about me, as we mentioned up there in the top, I've got two pups. Journey is the Wire Haired Pointing Griffon, and she actually is now about 15 months old, and waiting for the fall so she can go find birds and do the things she was genetically born to do, and then we tapped into that with some professional training as well. Finn is my heart dog. He's the one who has changed my life in a lot of ways. He came to us at about two and a half years old. We adopted Finn from some friends who were getting a divorce, and neither one of them wanted him anymore, and I couldn't be more grateful for him having crossed my path and into my life, because he has really unlocked a passion of mine for the outdoors with upland game hunting and the importance of conservation that really, again, feeds into Purina's belief that people and pets are better together, and so offering those opportunities for us to interact and really, again, tap into those dog genetics of these specific breeds. Finn has unlocked that world for me. I'm an avid marathoner. I signed up for New York again this coming fall. I don't know–it's probably cheaper than therapy, so it's my happy place out there. I grew up in Louisiana, so that's why you'll see some bold crawfish. And I do enjoy an adult beverage, mainly because on the left side of the screen there, we often have family vacations where we all stay in one house together for multiple days, which then leads to the necessity for some adult beverages. But with that, I will transition into our agenda today. 

So I'm going to talk a little bit about life stages. Going to go through some nutrition basics, because I know there were some questions ahead of time that came in specifically about nutrients and ingredients. And so I want to make sure I cover off on that and then dial in a little bit more specifically to puppy and senior nutrition, and then I am a big fan—and this is a huge platform of mine—to give tools to help educate you, and then knowing your connection and passion in the dog world, to be able to then pass on those tools. So because, obviously I work for Purina, so I'm going to come in with a bias, my perspective, and why I love this organization is because our approaches are always based in science and have research to back why we formulate something the way that we do, but that said, it'll come with bias. So I really, again, try to offer some third party tools for you to have at your ready if you want to nerd out in the nutrition space, even more, if you want to share with some folks after you know you leave this webinar. 

So our life stages of our dogs will have that puppy or growth stage that it's less than a year of age, with the caveat that if it is a larger, giant breed dog that goes all the way up to two years of age while they're still growing and their bones and muscles are still developing as well, and then you've got that adult stage, which is going to be in that one to six year stage, and then senior. So oftentimes we don't consider, and I don't think about it, even though Finn is now 10 and a half years old, he is still my marathon running buddy. I don't consider him senior. But truly, at the age of seven, there are significant things that start to change, and that is why, as an industry, the age of seven has been recognized as the start of that senior life stage. So from a puppy standpoint and development, when we look at where they're going to actually reach their adult size, right, it's going to vary. The larger the breed, the later that they're going to reach that adulthood. One of the things I do want to make sure to call out here is that as of 2017, this was actually a change that was made by AFCO (and I'll talk about them here in a little bit but that's the Association of American Feed Control Officials that set the guidelines for development of pet food),and it was originally that anything greater than 50 pounds was considered a large breed dog. Now based on research and science, they have shifted that. And so it is any puppy that's going to reach an adult weight of 70 pounds or more is considered large breed, and so that's gonna again, play into the nutrition that we select to support that large breed puppy growth stage. So again, at the age of seven, that really is considered that senior life stage. From a veterinary perspective, I will throw out again, and I'll mention this probably several times throughout the presentation, that there is no life stage from AFCO for senior dogs. So from a nutritional standpoint, there is no “senior specific guidelines” that are developed from that nutrition standpoint, but from a veterinary standpoint, we talk about senior dogs and cats as over the age of seven. We also know that as geriatrics—so I'll take a pause for a second. The way we came up with seven to eight, it wasn't just like randomly pulled out of the air, but by definition, it is when a living being reaches the last 25% of their predicted lifespan. So that's where, again, that seven to eight year range came in. We also see, when you look at the data, the incidence of chronic diseases, things like cancer and diabetes and hypothyroidism, will also exponentially start to go up after the age of seven. I'll talk more about, kind of internally, what happens with some changes in our dogs. But that's where we came up with that target of age seven as being senior. And then we go into geriatrics, which is really, again, that's more of the 12 to 15 year range. My dog, Drake, that's pictured here. He got to live into his geriatric years as a Chocolate Lab; he made it about a month shy of his 15th birthday. And again, that range, there are some changes that start to happen in that 12 plus year range in our dogs. That, again, gives it a little bit of a finer nuance from being a senior. What I think is kind of cool is that senior pets actually make up the largest percentage of our pet population that's out there. But the unfortunate thing is that, like a lot of times, knowing the big difference that nutrition can make in dogs’ lives that you know a lot of times as “regular consumers” out there, we're not necessarily tailoring the nutritional offerings to the nutritional needs of our senior dogs. So there's a huge opportunity, both from an education standpoint as well as an acceptance standpoint, for us to have an impact on the quality of life of our senior dogs. And I think it's really another cool statistic over there that, you know, 60% of households in the United States have a senior pet, myself included. 

And there's a number of reasons for their longevity, right? So we've got improved healthcare. We've got complete and balanced diets that, still, while there's opportunity to refine our offerings to our senior pets even more, we've come a long way—even in the last like 30 years or so on how we approach nutrition. And through these new innovations—and I'll talk about a couple of ones that Purina has brought to the marketplace that's really made some big differences in our senior pets—definitely our preventative care, right? Through those vaccinations, those regular examinations—I will give a shout out or a prompt that if you do have a senior dog at home, as a veterinary industry, we do recommend at least twice annual exams on those guys. It gives us an opportunity. Even with better diagnostics and better treatment, there is no better diagnostics than the actual hands, ears, and eyes of a veterinarian. And so if we can actually see those guys more frequently, it gives us an opportunity to jump ahead in maybe catching something small before it expands into something larger or potentially catastrophic for them. And then certainly confinement, which I think is an odd way of saying, you know, most of our dogs, instead of roaming the streets or just kind of being let out, you know, either that we have a fenced backyard, or—I live in Boulder, Colorado, and oftentimes, if you're walking down the street and you see a stroller, you have to look twice to see, is it a human in there, or is it a dog in there? Because again, the variety of ways that dogs tag along with us these days and how they are treated much more as true family members never ceases to amaze me, but then it also has certainly contributed to their health and longevity. So we're gonna dive in, because really, all of this starts at the bowl. It is the single interaction that we will have with our dogs at least once a day, and so let's start and unpack with what goes into that bowl. But before we go “What's in the bowl?” we have to figure out “What do we bring home, and how do we pick the right pet food?” It is an industry that's growing exponentially, and there are new players. There were probably three pet food brands that were created while we've been on this webinar. So how do you kind of filter through all the noise of the marketing and really align that with what your pet needs and what really resonates with you from a nutritional standpoint. So these were questions that were developed; the QR code there is going to take you to WSAVA, which is the World Small Animal Veterinary Association's website, and these are guidelines. So these are questions that you could and should bring to the table of the manufacturer of the pet food that you're looking to feed your dog. So do they employ a nutritionist? Who formulates the diets? Do they do research with or on their food? And then, when you're kind of figured out from a company standpoint, then looking at the label. And there's going to be some key things, and we'll talk more on this, but just to give you some top line things that are important: one, making sure that there's a nutritional adequacy statement. So making sure you're feeding a dog food to a dog, and that it's the right life stage, whether that is growth or maintenance or all life stages. It'll tell you the calories. I'm going to talk about the importance of that coming up. And then who made the food? So who is the manufacturer of this, of the product? So AFCO again, which is the Association of American Feed Control Officials, are the ones who also set the guidelines for what needs to be on a pet food label. They collaborate with the FDA Center for Veterinary medicine as well, and reputable pet food companies also work with the USDA to make sure that the protein source that they're using in the food comes from a facility that's been inspected and up to standards of the USDA. So on the front of the bag you're certainly going to want to look for the product and the brand name, making sure it's for whatever species you are looking to feed, so whether that's a dog or a cat, and then how much it weighs. Then on the back and the sides of the labels, you'll see the other things that are listed here. I think one of the key things for me when I'm talking to clients (because I still practice, I'm in a clinic a couple of days a month) is to always look and make sure that there is a manufacturer phone number on the bag. Legally, they just have to have a name and an address, but you want to make sure there's a phone number so you can call that company and ask them the questions from the guidelines from WSAVA and get a better understanding of who's behind the pet food that you are feeding. 

And then the second piece that's so critical, first is the phone number. Second is this nutritional adequacy statement. So it's going to tell you kind of three things: one, that the food is complete and balanced, so meaning it has every macro and micronutrient that that dog needs in the correct amounts, so not over and not under. And then it's going to tell you how the company got it. So did they just do it through a formula, or did they create the pet food and then actually feed it to a certain amount of dogs for a set time period? And so that would be animal feeding tests. From a veterinary standpoint, both mechanisms have their pluses and their minuses, but what I like, if a company has gone through animal feeding tests, is it lets me know the palatability of the diet, so that the dog will actually eat it, because that's going to be critical to them getting the nutrients in, and then also that the digestibility of it, so they're actually absorbing those nutrients that are in that food, and then they're being able to use them in their bodies. It also costs money, because you have to have the dogs to feed them, for example. So for a growth claim, it's: you take a set number of puppies from eight weeks of age, and you feed it for 10 weeks. So not only are you responsible for feeding those puppies and following the protocol that AFCO has laid out, but you also have the housing and the care of those puppies. So it is a bit more of a time and financial commitment to go through the animal feeding tests, and then lastly, on that adequacy statement, it's going to tell you the life stage. So is it for growth? Is it for maintenance? So in order to get an animal feeding test, maintenance claim for dogs, it's a six month study. So it is long; it's 26 weeks that you've got to feed it to these dogs. And so, again, it gives you a really great idea how that food is going to perform in the dogs that you're feeding. And then I do want to call out all life stages. There's been a bit of, I would say, rumbling on the social media channels about how life stage is not appropriate to feed for all life stages. Right now, there's no evidence to support that, you know, if you feed a senior dog a formula that is for all life stages, that that is going to tax their organs, it's going to overload their system, that there's going to be negative effect associated with that. An all life stage claim is the hardest claim to get from a pet food company, because you have to feed it through gestation and lactation. You then have to feed it to the puppies for that 10 weeks, and then you also have to feed it to a group of adult dogs for 26 weeks. So it has been through the ringer as far as the most kind of nutritionally demanding life stages. And so from a veterinary standpoint, from a nutrition standpoint, all life stages is not just a catch-all bucket that doesn't fit in one of the other stages. It truly is, especially if they go through animal feeding tests, one of the most rigorously tested formulas to be able to get that claim on the bag. 

So here's where, kind of, I think also a breakdown happens in communication. We as human beings look oftentimes at ingredients, and really, when we tap into the true physiology of our dogs, they need actual nutrients, but the only way to get those nutrients is through the ingredients. So there's a balance. And also, dogs don't buy their own dog food. So we have to talk to consumers, whether it's us or any other pet food company out there. So we have to talk about the ingredients. We need to put in ingredients that resonate with consumers and things like that. But ultimately, when we're making that diet and really formulating it, we need to understand the nutrients that the dogs need. And so there's two kind of different buckets, and the only difference between macro and micronutrients are actually the size of the nutrient itself. So our fat, carbs, and protein all provide energy for our dogs in different ways. And then certainly water; while it does not provide energy, it is critical for life. So we'll highlight that just a little bit at the end there. With our micronutrients, it is important to keep in mind that our dogs need 23 essential vitamins and minerals, which means they can't make them themselves. It has to come from the diet. So when you look at a label deck on a bag of dog food or a can of dog food, and the ingredient list looks like an encyclopedia, it's because we have to list out all of those vitamins and minerals. So we have to include those 23 different ones, and that is part of what makes that ingredient deck so long in our pet food. 

So when we look at protein . . .  Protein is probably one of my favorite nutrients, because it has a whole host of roles in the body. Certainly, I think we automatically think about building up that muscle, that lean body mass that's there. The protein we eat turns into the proteins in our bodies. But also skin is the largest organ in the body, mostly made of protein. It's also really important in immune health, so all those antibodies that fight off viruses and bacteria are all made of protein. So we need to make sure we've got a good protein source in there for our dogs, and I'll talk about the different needs at different life stages here momentarily. I know that we're talking dogs today, but I always like to highlight our cats, our true carnivores. So their body functions most efficiently using protein as an energy source. Our dogs are omnivores, so they have evolved. They can and do digest carbohydrates very easily and readily. So they are not wolves. Axelson published a paper back in 2012 in Nature magazine showing that they have genetically modified from their wolf descendants, and do have the genes to digest carbohydrates. So I think that's just an important point to call out there, and then certainly does help them to feel full. When we look at the protein quality, there's oftentimes a little bit of a misperception that in pet food, we use kind of the leftovers that weren't “good enough” for human consumption. And really, that couldn't be more wrong. All of the pet food that goes in, at least I can speak from a Purina perspective, is from a USDA inspected plant. The only difference is that when the truck that's carrying the chicken that leaves that USDA facility heads to a Purina plant instead of to a grocery store. Now, once it heads towards, you know, a Purina plant, it is no longer under the jurisdiction of the USDA, and so it's no longer “fit for human consumption,” but has nothing to do with the quality of the chicken that is there. When our nutritionists look to develop a formula, we do it based on the content of essential amino acids that are there. So our dogs have 10 that they need to get from their food. And our cats, because they're a little bit special, they actually need 11 so they cannot make taurine themselves, and it is a required essential amino acid to come from the food that they eat. So that's how when our nutritionists are picking what proteins to put in the food, you know, that's their thought process of what protein sources have what essential amino acids, and some are going to be stronger than others in different amino acids. And there is no singular perfect protein for our dogs and cats. And so they have to kind of work to see, okay, chicken is higher in these three, but lower in these two. So I got to find one that complements chicken if I'm going to make a chicken formula. And so that's why, again, if you look at the back of a bag, you may see that there are multiple protein sources in there, and that's to make sure that we've got that on the right side, that full ladder so all of the essential amino acids that our dogs need.

And then shifting gears: so fat is also going to be, you know, a critical macronutrient for our dogs. One of the things that I think is kind of interesting and critical, especially if you're going to be doing any sort of endurance exercise with your dogs, or have a breed that needs that component to their lives for their genetics to be met. Our dogs actually use fat for endurance, so they are hardwired, instead of like us, where we, you know, if you're going to go run a marathon, you have a pasta dinner or eat a pizza or something like that, to carb load, our dogs actually thrive on a higher level of fat for their endurance. So just a little nugget to keep in mind there, if that resonates with the breeds that you're involved with, but also some really critical things that fat does. It certainly cushions and insulates the organs. I'm going to talk a little bit more about making sure we balance that correctly, but then also, I'll spend some time talking about specific fats for development of brain and vision, and then also support of our joints in our senior dogs. So stay tuned for that coming up!

And then our micronutrients. So I talked a little bit about this already, but certainly, you know, you've got those vitamins in there that are antioxidants. One of the ones that's actually a natural preservative that we use for preserving the pet food in the bag is vitamin E, and it has a terrible name. Scientific name is mixed tocopherols, which makes it sound terrible, but all that is is vitamin E, and it's not only is it antioxidant, but it also is a natural preservative for the pet food. We want to make sure both our vitamins and minerals are in the right balance, because especially like our fat soluble ones, if you have too much vitamin A or too much vitamin K, that can cause conditions that are detrimental to our dogs later. And certainly our minerals, I'm going to spend some time talking about calcium and phosphorus in our growing dogs here, coming up in just a minute. 

And then lastly, I think water is also kind of a really cool nutrient in the fact that 70% of a dog's body is made up of water and it is odorless, colorless, tasteless, has no calories, but yet is involved in almost every cellular reaction in the dog's body, and without it, in three days, both dogs (and us) would perish. So it's kind of a sneaky macronutrient, but it is extremely critical to the health and well being of our dogs. So here's my first of probably three public service announcements that are going to come through about body condition, and this is one where you know, certainly the guidelines on the back of the bag for feeding are just that. They are guidelines. And you know, every dog's metabolism is unique, just like every person's metabolism is unique, and you can certainly increase their metabolism through exercise, through strength training, you can also decrease their metabolism. So this is something I also counsel a lot of clients about, is that if we are spaying or neutering their pet, we are going to drop that metabolism by 25 to 30% so we need to adjust feeding accordingly. So this is, again, part of that kind of like adult life stage nutrition right here. So that's another thing you can talk to your potential owners of your litters; like if they do go and they spay and neuter, that is something really important to keep in mind. Also, our dogs are very similar to us as humans, where their metabolism will peak at about two years of age, so when they are skeletally mature, hormonally mature, and then slowly, as they age through their lifespan, that metabolism actually starts to slow down. So our senior dogs typically have a lower metabolism than, say, a two or three year old dog would do. So again, some things to keep in mind is feeding through adulthood, but trying always to feed to ideal body condition. And I'll talk about how we kind of came up with this random nine point scale on the right hand side of the screen there, and how we know that four to five out of nine is ideal. I'll talk about that coming up. So when we're thinking about feeding our puppies, there are some critical things that we consider. One is that their immune system is not fully developed when they're born, right? I think probably preaching to the choir on that one, where there is that immunity gap. So they get that passive immunity from their moms and being fed that colostrum, you know, in the first 48 hours. So they've got those circulating antibodies that will eventually wane off somewhere around 15 to 20 weeks. In the meantime, they are building their own antibodies that will start to get to a protective level, but there's a little bit of lag time there, and that's again, why veterinarians recommend those very specifically timed boosters for their immune system. It's also really important that we address that from a nutritional standpoint as well as a social exposure standpoint. So one of the things that a lot of people don't think about or don't know is that the GI tract is actually a huge immune organ, so 70% of the immune system cells are located in the GI tract, and so that's why, again, when we look at the importance of nutrition, if they've got solid, highly digestible nutrients coming into their bodies, that again, will fuel their immune system and get their immune system kicked off on the right paw, to make sure that, again, we are helping them to develop into their healthiest lifestyle. 

Also, you know, this is going to be a key component of our growth diets for our puppies, is these antioxidants. These are both, I would say, critical in our senior years as well, just given the amount of inflammation that can occur later in life, but then also helping to naturally support their immune response as a growing puppy. And then diving in a little bit more. This is, again, that importance we teased a little bit earlier about the importance of specific fats for the developing brain of our puppies, and this is where it comes in with DHA and also EPA—they are particularly important in helping to properly develop their brains, their nerves, their retinas, all of that to help them to be the smartest, most accurately-seeing puppies and adults that we could hope for. You know, I mentioned earlier that we base a lot of what we do at Purina on both internal as well as external research that's published. And so this was a study done by Dr. Arlie Reynolds, looking at puppies from eight to 18 weeks of age fed a variable level of a diet with DHA so that fish oil, that omega three fatty acid there, and then looked at how long it took them to complete the maze. But what we saw were that the diets that were supplemented with the DHA level that we have now in our puppy diets, you know, they were able to navigate that maze much more quickly at a significant level than the dogs that did not have that DHA in their diet. Again, helping us to understand that even though at about 12 weeks of age, their brains are developed, but they're still, from an external standpoint, they look like an adult brain, but internally, we know that there are still synapses that are being formed and nutritional demands that are much higher there until about 28 weeks of age. So again, it's super critical that we feed a puppy diet to these puppies to make sure we're doing our due diligence in helping to develop their brain and their vision. So this was another study. It was actually a longer study that was done by Steve Zucker and looking at dogs and puppies on diets with varying levels of DHA in there, and saw that they had better cognitive test results, improved EEG or brain function scores, and an improved retinal function as well. So just again, doubling down on the importance of DHA for developing brain and vision in our puppies. 

Talking about, again, the importance of protein, knowing that these guys are in a rapid growth phase, right? And so knowing that reinforcing that protein is important for developing muscles and skin and immune and all their organs. At minimum, a puppy formula should have 25% protein in there. We know that without the right level of protein, you can see here, you know, reduced resistance to parasites. Why? Because their immune system doesn't have the antibodies that it needs. It's going to have poor response if there is an injury or a wound that's there, potential more risk of toxic or infectious agents for them to wreak havoc on these puppies. And then also, lastly, about, you know, these growing bones, I think it's starting to kind of dissipate, but still, some thoughts that growing puppies need a calcium supplement; that can actually be really detrimental if they are eating a complete and balanced diet already that's appropriate for growth, because it will upset the apple cart, as I like to say of balance of calcium and phosphorus, and actually can lead to more orthopedic issues later on, because it does not translate that if you supplement with calcium, that automatically will give them stronger bones. It actually can put them at risk for other abnormalities and things like that. 

I think we all probably remember DHA is important for brain and vision development in our puppies. So to kind of sum it up, our puppies need a higher but controlled level of energy. They also need a higher level of protein, because of everything that is growing and developing, making sure that the diet is complete and balanced in calcium and phosphorus to have normal skeletal growth, those essential fatty acids, DHA and EPA from fish oil, and then those antioxidants to support their immune system. For our large breed puppies, again, with an adult weight over 70 pounds, we want to make sure that they grow in a very controlled fashion. If they grow too quickly, that can lead to orthopedic issues, can lead to reduced bone density, skeletal malformations, all of those sorts of things. So you'll oftentimes see that a large breed puppy formula is actually lower in calories per cup than a regular growth formula would be, and that's, again, to make sure that we do kind of the “slow and steady wins the race” approach to how we feed our large breed puppies there.

Dr. RuthAnn Lobos DVM, CCRT, CVAT  34:13

Also I mentioned this, but it's so important, I just want to say it again: we want to make sure we do not supplement them with calcium. That, again, can be detrimental to their bone health. Transitioning them to an adult diet that timing is going to depend on when they reach that skeletal maturity, so later in life, closer to 24 months, if we've got a giant breed, and maybe right around a year of age if you've got a small or medium breed dog. 

Also, I know that we love to give treats. Treats are important for training, treats are important for bonding, all of that, but I want to make sure that, again, only 10% of their overall calories should come from treats. Different conversation for a different day—talking about training and things like that. You can use kibble and other things of that nature. Take a portion of their kibble for the day to use as treats when you're training. But really keeping them at that 90% of their calories coming from their complete and balanced diet is going to be critical for their proper growth and development, and again, feeding them to that ideal body condition is going to be critical for their lifespan as well as their health span. So kind of looking at this, we want that energy for growth, but we want to keep them at a nice, lean body condition. “Slow and steady wins the race” is the mantra that we should really take to heart when feeding our puppies, because over-conditioning or malnutrition—both of those can have their negative effects, and we know that, because this is actually one of the reasons I fell in love with Purina. We did a study. We call it the lifespan study. It was going to be a hip dysplasia study. We had 48 Labrador Retrievers, starting at eight weeks of age, and paired litter mates. And so one group got to eat as much as they wanted, three times a day. Their paired litter mate got 25% fewer calories than their litter mate ate the day before. So it was a moderate restriction in calories that we were using on these dogs. And what we found was that if you fed them to lean body condition or ideal body condition, they lived almost two years longer—1.8 years longer than their paired litter mate did. We also found that there was a 25% reduction in chronic diseases, so things like arthritis, diabetes, hypothyroidism, all of that, if we could just feed them to ideal body condition. And so that means being able to feel their ribs on the sides of their rib cage. They should have a waistline behind their ribs. They also, if you look at them from the side, they should have an abdominal tuck that was there. And then that's the way we put it together, knowing that they're in that ideal body condition. So these guys that on average, lived 13 years, they were a body condition score of 4.6, so that's where we came up with that being ideal, again, based on science, not just a number we pulled out of the sky. So that's my public service announcement of really making sure we keep our dogs to ideal body condition. It gives them a higher quality of life and a longer life with us. 

So switching gears, I think with our senior dogs, there are, again, some really key things that we need to think about that start to change. I mentioned earlier that—age seven, we see the incidence of chronic diseases start to go up exponentially. And so there was one criteria for coming up with that landmark of seven years as senior dogs. We also know that the brain's ability to use glucose as an energy source shifts when they're at the age of seven, so they can start to have this what's depicted there on the MRI is that unhealthy aging, those black spots that are right there in the middle, those are actually chasms that are starting to form in the brain, and those neurons cannot fire across, and so that will affect their memory, their learning, their decision making, and all of that. The speed at which that happens is often individual to each dog. But there are things we can do to help to support that, so stay tuned. The other thing that starts to change: this is a nice healthy GI tract that's here on the right hand side, a nice adult dog, probably around the age of three or four. We've got these nice deep crypts of their intestines that are there. You've got this great balance of healthy bacteria supporting these villi of their intestines. You've got these nice long finger-like projections, those villi that are there that can absorb the nutrients, because that's where those carbohydrates are absorbed. That's where protein, you know, the breakdown products, are absorbed. All of that in this beautiful sea anemone of intestines for our adult dog. Then when we get to our senior dogs, you'll start to see that the villi here and the enterocytes actually get a bit more gnarled. So kind of think about like a very senior citizen with really bad arthritis, and kind of has those crinkled knuckles—that is similar to what the intestinal cells of our senior dogs will look like. They're also the bacterial balance in there, in their GI tract starts to shift a little bit, and we know the more diverse the population of healthy bacteria in the GI tract, the more rapidly they're able to respond to something that might upset the GI tract, and so as that population of bacteria starts to really shift to be more pathogenic, their ability to respond to common things actually decreases as well. So that's often why we see things like vomiting, diarrhea, gas, things like that in our senior dogs—because they don't have that resilient, healthy microflora population. We also know again, 70% of the immune system is in the GI tract. As that GI tract starts to change and age, that again, can have a pronounced effect on the ability of their immune system to respond. 

So our protein needs. We've talked about what protein does in the body, super important for our growth stage. What also happens in our senior dogs is because if we think about what that GI tract looked like on the picture on the slide before, their ability to break down and absorb protein from their food and make it into proteins in their bodies actually decreases. And so, contrary to the kind of belief of maybe 50 or 60 years ago that restricting protein in our senior dogs would help protect their kidneys, it's actually the reverse of that. They actually need more protein. They need a higher protein to calorie ratio to make sure they can maintain a healthy immune system, their muscle mass, their healthy skin and all that, because their body just doesn't absorb it as readily as it did when they were an adult dog. So when we're thinking about addressing some of these common conditions that we see: so, arthritis. It is huge in our entire pet population. I think that's also linked to when we look at the obesity epidemic that is in our pet population, those two go hand in glove, and there's certainly a genetic component to this that we know now. But as our dogs age, we know that the incidence of osteoarthritis goes up exponentially. Also there's the ultimate inducer of osteoarthritis, which is the cranial cruciate tear. If anyone has had that experience, either for their own self or for the dogs that are in their lives, you are very aware of the impact that that can have on that joint space. And once that inflammation gets going in the joint, it is a very contained space, and it will just burn and burn and burn in there. So I'll talk a little bit about what we can do to support giving those kind of anti inflammatory properties to that joint space, to help to kind of dampen that fire of arthritis. I'm going to hope that you all know that senior pets should not have lower protein in their food. So that was just a little question from Maddie. She was actually my inspiration for my love of orthopedics and rehab and all of that. She was a dog I had in veterinary school, and she was another one of those life-changing dogs. I mentioned obesity; we know it is not just a cosmetic disease. We know it shortens their lifespan. It actually is kind of like a smoldering fire that goes throughout the entire body of our dogs. So it is not that they are fat and happy. They are actually fat and on fire, and so either keeping them or getting them back to ideal body condition, we know, again, I can't say this enough. This is data from the lifespan study that we did. You know, these guys that are obese are going to have a shorter median lifespan. They're going to need earlier treatment for arthritis and earlier treatment for chronic conditions. So it is a labor of love that we can do to keep them lean, not to give them excess treats and calories. 

I'm going to talk dental disease real quick, just top line, because we see the severity of it increase exponentially again over that age of seven, but it is rampant throughout our entire dog population, and you know, you will see all kinds of things and signs of it. Sometimes it is a facial abscess that we will see because of a tooth root that is so infected. If it gets to the point where they are not eating because their mouth hurts, we are in a bad spot. As a veterinarian, I try not to judge, because I'm like, at least they're here. The client is here, seeking help, but that means that that dog is in excruciating pain, and so it can make a huge difference in their quality of life when we can get their teeth cleaned and looking like this. Because it's not only the pain and discomfort that's there. We know it is those gums and teeth are kind of a fast toll road to systemic infection, and so if there's a lot of infection in the mouth, that bacteria can hightail it to other places like the heart, liver, and kidneys. We also now know that there is a correlation between the severity of cognitive decline in our dogs and dental disease. So the worse the dental disease, we see more severe cognitive issues in our senior pets. So there's a whole host of reasons why it is important to not only keep our dog's teeth healthy, but then certainly address dental issues as they arise. 

You know, I talked earlier about brain aging, and we can see cognitive dysfunction syndrome, which is very similar to Alzheimer's or dementia in people, show up in our dogs in these various ways. Also, we can see not only because of the microbiome shift, but also because there may be changes in their activities. Maybe they have arthritis and so they're not going on their walks as long and as often as they used to, and that can result in anxiety and frustration for them. And so, you know, it is important, while AFCO does not have a specific life stage recommendation for our senior pets, there are things that we should consider. So again, no specific profile from AFCO for our senior dogs. It really is going to be having that conversation with your veterinarian. I will say this is a place where we as a pet food industry have a lot of opportunities to communicate more specifically, because this was a study that came out not too long ago, looking at owner perception of what a senior diet is and should be, and then the food that they're feeding, and seeing how when you actually kind of dug one level deeper that what they thought they were feeding is not actually what that senior product is. So the pet food industry is confusing enough, and then when you dial down into the senior world, it can get even more particular. And so that's why I do really, really recommend talking to your specific veterinarian about your specific senior dog. But here are some kind of top line recommendations. One: you're going to want to make sure that it's highly digestible. You want to make sure that it has that high quality protein in there, but a high protein to calorie ratio. So really making sure we're addressing their inherent decreased ability to absorb those nutrients. They do have a lower metabolism. So if we can get a lower fat level, that is going to be key for them. Certainly hydration. At the bottom there, the importance of omega three fatty acids. So fish oil, EPA and DHA specifically, we know are anti-inflammatory in the joint. We've got good, solid research showing how they help with arthritis and the inflammatory process. So looking for a diet that has those, or having a supplement of omega threes, you know, is again, going to help to address that arthritis issue in your senior dog. And then looking at medium chain triglycerides. So I didn't dive into this too far, but these medium chain triglycerides, which are the “good part” of coconut oil. So coconut oil has a mix of MCTs and long chain triglycerides, and it's the MCTs that the dogs can actually digest in their liver quite easily and use as an energy source in their brains. So this medium chain triglyceride brain protection blend made its way into the market in our Bright Mind diet, but it has some really solid 10 years of research behind it, looking at how it helps to enhance the mental sharpness and awareness of our senior dogs. So again, something to think about when looking at the diet specifically for your senior dog.

So in summary, making sure that you're feeding for appropriate life stage protein is super critical, both throughout life, but certainly then in our growing dogs and our senior dogs, and then keeping them lean and in ideal body condition to help to expand their health and their lifespan. I know there were some questions about feeding a home cooked diet and how to make sure that it is complete and balanced. And that's petdiets.com. It is a website that is run by several veterinary nutritionists, and so you can either consult with them, or they oftentimes will have recipes that you can download for your own specific dog. But if you are home cooking, I strongly recommend at least having one consultation with a boarded veterinary nutritionist to make sure that you're getting all of the macro and micronutrients in the right balance for your specific dog's needs. The ACVN is that American College of Veterinary Nutrition; they have great resources on there. I love the pet foodology site from Tufts Veterinary School. It's got great, consumer friendly, hot topics of information, blogs, things like that, resources that you can use and share. And it's all coming from their department of veterinary nutrition at Tufts Veterinary School. Purina Institute, Pet Nutrition Alliance, and Pet Foodology all have calorie calculators on there. So if you're not sure how much to feed or you're looking to give other folks resources to know how much to feed their dogs, this is a great one. You put in their body condition, score, their weight, all of that, you can use it to either lose weight. Or maintain weight as well, and then certainly, any of the veterinary schools that have boarded veterinary nutritionists can be a great resource for you. 

Here, if you want to nerd out and learn more about AFCO—so who's behind the regulations that are set for the pet food and pet food industry, decoding some of the myths that are out there as well—this is a great resource. And then WSAVA: this is also for all things veterinary, but how to select a pet food— they've got great tools on there to kind of help sort through all the marketing noise that's out there and really be able to dial in on what resonates with you and your pet from a nutritional aspect. And then lastly, these are some life stage nutrition tools and resources from Purina Institute. It's an area called Center Square that's on there that has a lot of shareable resources as well. It's all science published research. So even though it's a Purina website, we're not promoting Pro Plan or really pushing any of those diets. It really is an opportunity, because we truly believe that science is more powerful when shared. And so that's what this website is all about. And so with that, I will answer any questions. 

Dr. Nate Ritter  51:19

Fantastic. Thank you, Dr. Lobos, that was great. As I'm sure you can imagine, you answered some of the questions we already have. So I know we talked about if you're interested in cooking your dog's diet at home—you covered that one nicely. Can you discuss feeding raw? It's a question that I'm sure, you know, we see a lot of.

Dr. RuthAnn Lobos DVM, CCRT, CVAT  51:36

Yes, yeah. And so I'll answer it from a couple of ways. One, from a veterinary health standpoint. When we are looking at the health of the dog and how it affects the health of the human, we know often our dogs don't get sick from salmonella, E. coli, Listeria, like we do, but the kicker is it actually does survive in their GI tract. So if you are feeding raw and just knowing, again, how woven into our lifestyles that our dogs are, that live bacteria can stay viable on their backsides, on their mouths, and potentially serve as a fomite or an infectious agent out into pillows, into your household. When we look at some of the groups that train therapy dogs to go into hospitals, if you are feeding a raw food diet, you're not allowed to be a therapy dog because they are concerned about the risk of infection to the patients that you're visiting. The second part of that is it can be extremely challenging to have a diet complete and balanced in a raw format, and so that's the other piece that we worry about. Maybe you're not going to see a short term effect, but over time, that imbalance in nutrition can lead to conditions. And there's a number of papers that are published about nutritionally imbalanced raw feeding inducing disease, especially in our puppies and our senior dogs who have kind of that slight immune compromise that's there. So those are my kind of two reasons why I don't recommend feeding it. Also the third kind of piece to that bar stool is that we don't have any good data to support that feeding raw has any greater health gains than feeding a true, complete and balanced, tested diet.

Dr. Nate Ritter  53:25

Fantastic. Thank you. We have time for one more before we pass it over to Nicole. Do you have a list, or is there a resource for a list, of ingredients to avoid in your dog's diet?

Dr. RuthAnn Lobos DVM, CCRT, CVAT  53:36

I would say I honestly don't have a list. I think AAFCO is a great resource, but again, going back to “dogs need nutrients, not specific ingredients,” is going to be important. Despite a lot of internet myths, carbohydrates do not cause obesity. Grains do not cause allergies in our dogs. More times than not, if they're going to have an allergic reaction, it's to the protein source that's in the food. Chicken is the most common that dogs react to, but it's also the most common that's used in commercial pet food. So it's probably more of an incidence thing than actually that chicken is hyper allergenic. So I think it's important to understand what your nutritional philosophy is for your specific dog, and if there are ingredients that you don't like, just making sure we balance that with whatever nutrients, those ingredients we're providing that that's met through a different option in that pet food, but certainly the common toxin, things like chocolate, onions, garlic, xylitol, don't feed your dogs those!

Dr. Nate Ritter  54:40

Definitely good advice. Thank you so much. Nicole, I’ll leave it to you.

Nicole Engelman  54:43

Awesome. Thank you so much, Dr. Lobos, this was amazing. I know I'm speaking on behalf of the community, but I think everyone learned so much, including myself. I didn't know water could be considered a macronutrient. So really interesting things here that I'm sure many members of our community will be taking away. And to answer your question from much earlier in the presentation, we did have a lot of breeders join today who had dogs over seven years old, so I think it is extra beneficial for them. So again, thank you. Dr. Lobos, thank you to our community for joining us today for this webinar. Please apply to join at GoodDog.com/join and follow us on Facebook at Good Breeder Center, so you can stay up to date on all of our future events and webinars, because we do have a ton of them. Thank you all again for being here. Thank you, Purina Pro Plan for helping us bring this event to life and bring our community this opportunity. And we're really looking forward to our next webinar. So until then, bye, everyone. Thank you again. Bye. Thank you for listening to the Good Dog Pod. We'll be back in two weeks with another episode, so be sure to subscribe to the Good Dog Pod on your favorite podcast platform.