Help - Just noticed menadione in IVD Royal Canin

    • Silver

    Help - Just noticed menadione in IVD Royal Canin

    I've had my Epi dog on Royal Canin Venison/Potato - all food needs to be Wheat, Soy, Caesin Free  - following Dogtor J's diet and just noticed Menadione sodium bisulfite complex in both canned and kibble.    Is this truly bad???
     
    Blake
    • Gold Top Dog
    It's really up to your personal opinion....there are no studies proving that it definitively causes "X" problems in dogs, etc etc.  It has been in pet foods for MANY years and there have never been any dogs to die of a disorder caused by synthetic vitamin K.  I honestly don't have a problem with it because there is no proof regarding it's toxicity.
    • Silver
    Thanks for your input!   I could not believe my eyes this morning as the holistic vet wanted me to switch over to a fish/potato from venison as she considered venison a hot food  and I just noticed that all RC products include menadione.
     
    I emailed Dr. J and ask about Natural Balance vs IVD fish/potato as he said he was fine with IVD, I so trust him.   So you would feed your dog this or would you find one without??    Any suggestions would be most appreciated!
     
    Blake
     
    • Gold Top Dog
    It is synthetic, and some people feel that if something is synthetic it is bad and if it is natural it is good. There are some indications that that vitamin k3 may be an anti-carcinogen, but usually both sides of the story are not told.
    • Silver
    I personally stay clear of menadione as it's synthetic. What I find interesting is that over the past few months, quite a few dog food companies have announced that they are in the process of removing menadione from their formulas.

    A bit off topic, but why do some of the vet formulas use synthetic ingredients? Eukanuba vet formulas have Ethoxyquin ([linkhttp://www.eukanuba.com/en_US/jhtmls/nutrition/sw_NutritionQuestions_qanswer.jhtml?li=en_US&sc=C&bc=E&pti=PN&qi=7071]http://www.eukanuba.com/en_US/jhtmls/nutrition/sw_NutritionQuestions_qanswer.jhtml?li=en_US&sc=C&bc=E&pti=PN&qi=7071[/link]) but I don't think their regular formulas do.
    • Gold Top Dog
    I had reps from two different companies (Chicken Soup and Eagle Pack) say that most dog food manufacturers are removing it simply as a way to please their customers.  Whether there is proof of it being bad or not, these companies are listening to their consumers demands.
    • Silver
    So you guys would purchase the Natural Balance over the IVD - even though Dogtor J recommends IVD??
     
    Blake
    • Silver
    Does the type of fish matter? I took a look at the ingredients and the main thing I noticed is that the Natural Balance Sweet Potato and Fish has salmon while the Royal Canin Potato and Whitefish vet formula - I'm assuming this is the IVD formula you are referring to - uses whitefish. I'm just wondering because there is a health supplement for pets called Seacure that specifically uses whitefish ([linkhttp://www.propernutrition.com/Fullarticle_WDJ.pdf]http://www.propernutrition.com/Fullarticle_WDJ.pdf[/link]).

    If you need to feed whitefish, could Timberwolf Organics' Ocean Blue ([linkhttp://www.timberwolforganics.com/cgi-bin/cp-app.cgi?usr=51F136991&rnd=8143446&rrc=N&affl=&cip=192.169.41.45&act=&aff=&pg=ste_nolay_prod&ref=oceanblue]http://www.timberwolforganics.com/cgi-bin/cp-app.cgi?usr=51F136991&rnd=8143446&rrc=N&affl=&cip=192.169.41.45&act=&aff=&pg=ste_nolay_prod&ref=oceanblue[/link]) be an option?

    For me, I would try to avoid feeding menadione if possible.
    • Silver
    I'm just looking for a food that needs to be free of Glutamate & Aspartate, such as:
     
    Soy, Wheat, Rice, Egg or Dairy
     
    I had them on the RC IVD ven/p and just noticed that it has menadione when my holistic vet recommended I switch to a fish based product for a month - I found Natural Balance which seems to be free of G/Aspartate and not include the menadione.   I will have to read up on Timberwolf O and see if it excludes all the stuff he can't have.      Thanks for your response!
     
    ~Blake 
     
    • Silver
    Royal Canin actually bought/aquired IVD recently (now Royal Canin Limited Ingredient Diets). It seems IVD has changed hands several times in the last few years and each time the ingredient list gets a little less desirable, it now contains by-products. IVD was a very decent food about five or six years ago, the vet who consulted on my dog's treatment created it and my own vet was selling it too. Dr. Plechner created it as he said many of his clients were unable to do a homecooked diet even though he preferred that over a commercial one for his patients. So originally the ingredients were quite nice.
    It still seems to be the best of the ones offered though by vets, not sure if that's saying much though. The site www.prescriptiondiets.com/rc has info.
    • Gold Top Dog
    Honestly? I'd rather not feed the IVD, due to the by-products. NB has recently removed menadione from it's ingredients list. NB does do ingredients splitting, and has made their food less meat, in recent years....

    Neither company is my favorite (actually, I really like Solid Gold as a company, they have a grain free high protein, called Barking at the Moon), but I'd pick NB (and have used it quite successfully for my epi dog) over IVD.
    • Silver
    Thanks, but I have to have Gluten, Soy, Casien, Rice free diet due to epi dog, following Dogtor J diet!    I found out today that RC IVD has Menadione in it and the only other decent food I found was NB, but the bag still show that it has Vit. K supplement in it, so I'm assuming that it still has Menadione??
     
    Blake 
    • Silver
    Ok, that response didn't make sense - guess it's time for me to get off the computer.    So you've been treating your furbaby with NB and switched over the Sold Gold with no problems??   I've used Flint, Innova, Cal. Natural, alot of the premium before I ran into Dr. J site and decided to give it a try.   Then after meeting w/my Holistic Vet (new) she wants me to switch to a fish based diet and the closest thing I could find to his diet was NB.    The vet recommended Pinnacle which I've used in the past, but it list Oats and Oatmeal and I was afraid, since Dr. J states to stay away from these things?    I'm really thinking about paying someone nut. to put together a diet or just start feeding raw - I'm exhaused!
     
    Thanks~Blake
    • Gold Top Dog
    Solid Gold's Barkin at the Moon is fine for epi dogs. I have a four pound bag of it, now (well, it's in baggies, in the freezer, and the actual bag is gone) that I'm using for training treats.

    For some reason, I though NB had removed menadione....

    BTW, you also can't use peanut butter, or any seeds, nuts, or grains, if you want to go totally glutamate free.
    • Silver
    Thanks, I've cut out all treats.   He his now just getting the food kibble/canned and snacks which are apples, pears, peaches, bananas, celery, carrotts or green beans.    Everyonce in a while a Dogwell dried chicken breast, dried duck breast treat.
     
    B