Itchmo: News For Dogs & Cats

UPDATE on 4/17: Natural Balance recall expands. 

ORIGINAL POST: Itchmo has confirmed an email from Natural Balance that they are removing two products from sale:

• Venison and Brown Rice Dry Dog Formula
• Venison and Green Pea Dry Dog Cat Formula

These products do not contain wheat gluten. No deaths or serious illnesses have been reported and no recall warning has been issued. The warning applies only to products sold in the last week, according to Natural Balance.

Please know that at this time we are removing this product from the shelves, as we have had some phone calls indicating gastric upset after eating this formula. At this time, we are unsure if this could just be a particular batch problem, or simply customers switching diets too fast. However, in the meantime while we are looking further into this matter, we are not recommending to feed this formula, and are suggesting to feed our Potato and Duck or Sweet Potato and Fish Dry Dog Formula.

(Thanks Joan)

UPDATE: Why is this not on the FDA or the Natural Balance site? We don’t know. What we do know is that this information was sent to Itchmo and that we confirmed by calling the original author of the email at Natural Balance.

We think that quick product removals are a good move. But how many other product removals happen each year without notice to customers?

UPDATE 2: Natural Balance is increasing the severity of the reported cases to include kidney problems. Natural Balance and the FDA finally posted a notice on their homepage. The first report regarding the product failures arrived at Itchmo on Saturday.

Full release after the link.

From Natural Balance’s Web site:

NOTICE:
We are receiving consumer complaints regarding the Venison & Brown Rice Dry Dog Food, and Venison & Green Pea Dry Cat Foods. We do not know what is wrong with the food at this time, but we have heard that animals are vomiting and experiencing kidney problems. Although the problems seem to be focused on one particular lot, as a precautionary measure, we are pulling all dates of Venison & Brown Rice Dry Dog Food and Venison & Green Pea Dry Cat Food from the shelves.

Please discontinue feeding all Venison and Brown Rice Dry Dog Food, and Venison and Green Pea Dry Cat Food.

We are working closely with the FDA.
We will update this website today, as more information comes available.

NO OTHER NATURAL BALANCE PRODUCTS ARE AFFECTED.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 15th, 2007 at 7:00 pm and is filed under Cats, Pet Food Recalls & Safety, Dogs, National Dog, Cat & Pet Info, Products & Services for Cats & Dogs, Veterinary/Medical. 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.