Pet Food Recall - please read
 

Not the topic for a horse list, but I know many of you have loved pets, it's a weekend, and as I am a vet, I think you need to know this :-) This subject has also been on the national news this weekend.

There is a massive pet food recall in progress for some products, from many different brands of food. The reason for the recall is precautionary.

Some animals (9 cats and 1 dog) have become ill or died of renal failure, and one commonality (aside from not being able to find other, more common or obvious causes for these illnesses) is that all the animals ate "cuts and sauce" type foil-pouched or canned foods that originated at Menufoods.com during a certain time period.

The manufacturer has checked, and during that time period, for the foods in question, they were receiving wheat gluten from a new supplier.

So the manufacturer is voluntarily recalling certain products until more definitive answers regarding the food safety are known.

There is ongoing research from sources outside the manufacturer looking aggressively at this (Cornell, Antech, etc), and so far nothing has been found wrong with any of the foods in question.

However, there is a recall of all these foods, and advice is not to feed these foods until more is known. There are many, many common brands on this list. Please read the list and check product codes for your pet foods, if you feed any "cuts and gravy" type canned or foil-pouched foods to your dogs and cats.

Please see the FDA website www.FDA.gov There is a press release, a list of brands and types of foods affected, and product codes, on the front page.

Good thing my dog eats better than I do...

http://www.eaglepack.com/Pages/HS_Home.html

And for people with pets that they love...

Please use this as a sign to stop feeding your pets garbage food. This includes foods like Iams. It's just not worth it...

Here's an interesting site:

http://www.nhratterriers.com/goodfood.htm

I feed my dogs my leftovers

McDonald's? :D

Thanks Jamie, Now I know what to look for. My dog usually eats
ground chicken/beef with rice, that I make every day with vitamins
and minerals that I mix with Pro Plan. He also loves his Old Mother
Hubbard bacon and cheese biscuits. Once in awhile he gets a
nice smoked ham hock.

Shows how much people care about their pets that they've gone crazy about this recall. I found myself calling all over the place to make sure my puppy wasn't eating any of this.

He sounds pampered! :D

I've been feeding my dog the holistic food since she was a pup. We lost one of our golden retrievers to a brain aneurysm caused by an ingredient that was in Nutro Max... ever since then, I just buy the natural food. It's worth it to me. I tried the BARF diet (Ian Billinghurst), but it was a bit too much work for me, so Coal is stuck with dry dog food and Merrick meat mixed in. LOL

I love the idea of the raw diet...but since I won't even cook for myself my dog would likely starve before I got it right...I feed Innova EVO right now and she loves it...it's supposed to be the closest thing to raw diet in a pelleted dog food.

But she does get some of that Iams gravy crap to hide her Lubrisyn (cause she doesn't like it)...I'm going to have to rethink that.

http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=inn-home

Innova is an excellent food. My dad feeds his labradoodle that stuff and she really likes it. There's a food topper that he uses as well and I can't remember what it's called, but when I find out, I'll post it.

He is a siberian husky that was neglected and abuse we got him from the ASPCA at 18 months. When they ASPCA got him he weighed about 19 Lbs. and when we adopted him he was up to 32 lbs. and now he is about 47 lbs. He will never get to the normal weight for his breed because of his abuse and neglect. He wouldn't eat any dog food at the shelter so they had to make something he would eat so ground meat and rice is served everyday.

There he is Cody (avatar)

He's adorable! I bet he'd be hot down here. The summers down here are brutal. UGH. :(

Maybe people should start getting Poodles to serve as food testers.

That's awful, Scuds. :(

O.K......You are right.....Find a cat.

I checked with my vet yesterday to learn that my yorkie's food is not on this long list of affected dog foods. We were in the office for a recall.

Two weeks ago I took her in for an ear infection, or rather she had been scratching her ears. He tells me it has spread to her eyes, as well. She gets 14 days of antibiotics, ear drops, ear wash solution, eye ointment, and a special shampoo (I thought I had special shampoo, I bought it in a dog boutique). And a halo collar, which she didn't have to wear two days, because I tell her, "don't scratch or this goes back on"! So she doesn't scratch, . . . very smart dog. Anyway, the bank account was $256.00 lighter when I left.

I go back in for her recheck yesterday, and after days and days of meds, we're all better. We need her shots updated this time. She sees the needles, and shakes like a junkie. Doesn't like the shots because she's little. Only 6lbs, and they hurt. She gets one in her hind, and one in each front leg. Then, she gets a cotton ball and WRAPS on. And last of all, her year's supply of heart worm chewables.

I write another check, this time the account takes a hit for $190.00. I halter my 5 year old $500.00 claimer with front wraps, and off we go with orders to have baths twice a week for the next 3 months.

How does such a pampered dog get stuff like this????

Sure am glad her dog food wasn't on his long list of tainted ones. I'd really be busted.

I heard they found rat poison in some of the recalled food.

Where did you hear that? That's serious stuff.

Yahoo Finance...check it out...finance.yahoo.com

Thanks... that's terrible. I feel horrible for the pets that were poisoned. :(

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070323/pet_f...call.html?.v=4

IF they find who did this, they should have to eat poisoned food as well.:mad:

Pet food recall - toxic agent
 

It is suspected the toxic agent may have come in with a load of grain from China. That's unknown.

Fortunately, very few animals have been affected (the Animal Medical Center, Cornell, the big national veterinary lists, etc. have been keeping, obviously, tight tabs on suspected cases).

Here's a brief summary from the vet lists:

A press conference has announced that the toxic agent involved in the pet food recall has been identified as aminopterin. Aminopterin is used as a rodenticide in some countries, it is illegal to use in the United States. Aminopterin was used as an anti-cancer drug in the US in the 1940's, but has since been replaced by other, less toxic, chemotherapeutics.

At toxic doses aminopterin causes nephrotoxicity - it affects the kidneys, at high doses forming crystals in the urine, and causing acute renal failure.

What owners should do: check the recall list again today - it has been updated - www.fda.gov

See your veterinarian if you believe your animals have been exposed. If they have eaten the foods on the recall list within the last two months or so, their kidney function should be tested (screened) by your veterinarian.

Toxicity is treatable by aggressive fluid hydration, and diuresis to dissolve and remove the crystals from the kidneys. Treatment is similar to that used for any acute renal failure. At least partial renal recovery is anticipated in many cases. Toxicities are "dose-related", meaning animals that ingested more of the toxic substance are sicker than animals that have not. As aminopterin is a folic-acid inhibiting agent, and can suppress bone marrow function, animals should be monitored for anemia, etc. by blood tests. There are no current reports of animals suffering bone marrow suppression. Recovering animals should be monitored by your veterinarian on a regular basis.

What ingredient was that?

Riot, I couldn't tell you what the actual ingredient was. This was about 6 years ago and I was told at the time (by my veterinarian) that there had been a certain lot of Nutro Lamb and Rice that had been contaminated and there had been documented cases of this rancid ingredient causing seizures in dogs. My dog was a completely normal and healthy 6 year old retriever... I came home from work one evening, took him outside to play ball and he all of a sudden collapsed and began seizuring. We took him to the Emergency Vet Clinic and we were told that he had had a brain aneurysm. He lived for a few months, but he lost all coordination in his left side including eye sight, hearing, feeling... it was awful. :( So rather than take the chance again, I felt the need to start feeding my pets something better, so I've gone the natural route.

You're a vet... have you heard anything like this before? What is your opinion on Nutro?

My buddies high dollar Hair-less cat died of kidney failure less than two weeks ago right before this story broke. He had the cat cremated and there are no remains but the cause to put the cat down was kidney failure and the vet's bill said just that. I told him to try and get a settlement from them.