Itchmo: News For Dogs & Cats

Expertox, a Texas lab, tested an unopened, original package of Eagle Pack Holistic Select Senior Care Formula for Senior Dogs. The lab reported that the sample of dog food tested positive for acetaminophen.

The sealed bag of Eagle Pack Holistic Select Senior Care Formula for Senior Dogs had the best if fed by date of: 0549 P2 10 JUL 08.

A pet owner and a small pet store owner sent the bag of Eagle Pack dog food to Expertox after her dogs experienced symptoms when eating Eagle Pack, and she also received complaints from customers using Eagle Pack. Symptoms from both her dogs and customers’ dogs included vomiting, diarrhea, itching, eyes swelling, hives, conjunctivitis, tremors, and some unexplained aggression.

She then contacted Eagle Pack and said they told her that problems with Eagle Pack were only coming from her store. They said the itching was probably caused by the dogs going into the ocean and not getting the salt/sand out of their coats or that people were not rinsing their dogs completely after a bath.

Eagle Pack came by her store to obtain samples in mid-August, and she said she has still not received test results from them. She then contacted the FDA, and an agent come by three times to obtain samples and unopened bags of dog food. She said she hasn’t hear anything back from the FDA either.

Getting tired of waiting for answers, the pet owner sent a bag to Expertox. She sent them an unopened bag with the same date code of the bag that her dogs were eating from. After receiving the test result, she forwarded the document to Eagle Pack.

She said when she switched her dogs off of Eagle Pack, they got better and the symptoms subsided. She also said that she has had complaints from customers on every formula of Eagle Pack, including cat food. She mentioned that she did this testing for the safety and well-being of pets and has nothing against Eagle Pack.

Itchmo spoke to an Eagle Pack spokesman today. The company was aware of Expertox’s results. The spokesman first said that Expertox has been completely discredited by the FDA. He stated that the FDA has not been able to find acetaminophen in any of the samples that Expertox has tested and get any of the same test results that Expertox has been reporting.

Also, he mentioned that after they found out about the positive test results, they tested samples of their food in their independent labs and they all tested negative for acetaminophen. In addition, he stated that the amount of acetaminophen that Expertox found would have to be 3600 times more to cause symptoms in pets. He added that the company has not received any other complaints about their food.

UPDATE: Eagle Pack posted a response on their website to Itchmo’s post about Expertox’s findings:

There is a report circulating on the Internet that one bag of Holistic Select Senior Care dog food tested positive for trace amounts of Acetaminophen. ExperTox laboratories performed the test. This is the same lab that claimed to have found Acetaminophen in 5 other brands of dry premium and holistic brands. Yet in their own testing of these brands, the FDA and 2 leading Universities could not detect Acetaminophen in these foods and could not verify results claimed by ExperTox. It appears their findings cannot be considered valid or reliable.

Members of our Breeder Advisory Council have not reported any ill effects of their pets. This writer has 8 champion Brittanys of varying ages and has not experienced any issues. Two recent litters of 7 and 11 puppies are all in good health.

As noted in the Internet report, FDA took samples of our food in August 2007. There have been no adverse reports received from the FDA and our foods have not been recalled and remain safe.

We have our own in-house test lab that conducts ongoing tests on incoming ingredients and finished food. When major issues like the March 2007 melamine recall occurred, and now the Acetaminophen issue, we use independent labs for testing. Our foods have always tested negative and were never part of the recall.

(Thanks Eric)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 2:18 pm and is filed under Pet Food Recalls & Safety, Cats, Dogs, National Dog, Cat & Pet Info, News for Cats, Dogs & Owners. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.