Exciting News! A new study by Professor Andrew Knight and colleagues at the University of Winchester in England found that vegan dogs are healthier than meat-fed dogs.
In the largest dog health study to date, researchers collected data on 2,536 dogs fed a conventional meat (1,370 = 54%), raw meat (830 = 33%) or vegan (336 = 13%) diet for at least one year. The authors examined seven general indicators of ill health: 1) unusual numbers of veterinary visits, 2) medication use, 3) progression onto a therapeutic diet after initial maintenance on a vegan or meat-based diet, 4) guardian opinion of health status, 5) predicted veterinary assessment of health status, 6) percentage of unwell dogs and 7) number of health disorders per unwell dog.
They also considered the prevalence of 22 of the most common canine health disorders.
The percentages of each dietary group reported to have suffered from health disorders were 49% (conventional meat), 43% (raw meat) and 36% (vegan). Based on the results of this and other studies, the authors concluded that:
Accordingly, when considering health outcomes in conjunction with dietary hazards, the pooled evidence to date from our study, and others in this field, indicates that the healthiest and least hazardous dietary choices for dogs, among conventional, raw meat and vegan diets, are nutritionally sound vegan diets (Knight et al., 2022, pp. 29).
So there you have it! Vegan dogs are seemingly healthier and the research lends evidence towards that conclusion!