Voluntary Dry Food Reports
For the latest news, including new recalls, the sources of the toxin, and others, go here.
Report your pet’s death or illness now.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated since the first posting.
Several days ago, we started reading reports of dry food possibly making pets sick, specifically Iams. We then asked our readers to provide their experience to us. Here’s what we found:
Number of pets covered: 134 (47 cats, 87 dogs)
Reported ARF (Acute Renal Failure): 24 (17%) 15 cats, 9 dogs
Cat Deaths: 20 | Cat Illnesses: 26
Dog Deaths: 9 | Dog Illnesses: 77
Since our report, one DRY food from Hills has been recalled so far.
We caution you against accepting this as the final word as these are self-reported numbers from parents who have been reading about other sick or dying pets. Given the caveats, the brands that really stood out were Iams, Nutro, and Science Diet. We expected quite a few Iams reports since the survey results from posts about sick pets who ate Iams, (read about Menu Foods’ exclusive contract with Iams) but the Nutro reports seemed to have come from nowhere. Of the 5 reported deaths parents linked to Nutro, 3 were from Acute Renal Failure. 3 ARF deaths were reportedly linked with Science Diet and 7 were linked with Iams. There may be legitimate reason why some brands are on this list, for example, Science Diet may be recommended by vets to particularly sick pets.
Recall resources: Detailed timeline & facts | Recalled Food List | Get recall alerts | More
Our numbers are not enough data to make any conclusive decision, but some correlations were highly troubling. We are highly in favor of a statistically correct and significant study of dry food-related problems. And we’d love to hear your thoughts in our comments.
Important note: If you feel that dry food is causing your pet to fall ill, please contact the FDA.
Number of Specific Cat Food Brand Reported: What to feed your cat
Iams: 17 (ARF: 5 dead, 1 sick)
Purina: 6 (ARF: 1 dead)
Science Diet: 5 (ARF: 3 dead)
Nutro: 4 (ARF: 1 dead, 1 sick)
Special Kitty: 3 (ARF: 1 dead, 2 sick)
Royal Canin: 1 (No ARF)
Number of Specific Dog Food Brand Reported: What to feed your dog
ARF reported:
Iams: 21 (ARF: 1 dead, 2 sick)
Nutro: 14 (ARF: 2 dead)
Ol’Roy: 5 (ARF: 1 dead)
Eukanuba: 2 (ARF: 1 sick)
No ARF reported:
Science Diet: 4
Pedigree: 2
Purina: 2
Authority: 1
Beneful: 1
Natural Balance: 1
Trader Joe’s: 1
(For emailed alerts about future recalls and other important news, sign up for our free Itchmo Pet Safety Alert.)Report your pet’s death or illness now.
April 9th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
My Cat got FD from eating MediCal Food. MediCal is owned by Royal Canin. She ate Preventative, Reducing and Weight Control. She got very fat, got FD and almost died last May. $500 at the emergency vet, thousands of dollars in vet bills and diabetic expenses.
When I DITCHED THE POISIONOUS DRY VET KIBBLE my cat started to regain her health. That, thanks to Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins online forum www.yourdiabeticcat.com, PZI and TR protocols.
Vets should not be allowed to prescribe or sell foods. This puts them into a vicious cycle where they are the beneficiaries — they get a commission on every sale of product, they are the shareholders of the distribution companies of this poisonous vet kibble and then they benefit from big bills when your cat gets sick.
THIS MUST STOP.. Vets WAKE UP if you really care about our pets! Stop prescribing and selling this kibble that is creating so much illness in our pets!
My cat is now on raw diet now. www.catnutrition.org. If only I had know about this years ago.
I will NEVER feed my cats ANY commercial food EVER AGAIN!!
April 10th, 2007 at 9:59 am
you guys talk alot!
April 10th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
I have read this entire forum and I say emphatically if you have any
kind of Hill Science Diet Dry throw it away. My cats have been on
“sensitive stomach” for a year and the new bag I bought in February
has made them sick since day one. After $1000.00 vet bills I switched
my cats to something else and now they are happy and fine. My two
cats were throwing up within 15 minutes of eating. Fluids, blood work,
xrays, antibiotics, overnight stays all ended with my vet saying “it must
be a virus. There is a virus going around”. Nonsense. I think Hill Science
substituted the “expensive corn gluten” with wheat gluten, didn’t change
the bag label. They will never admit to this. The bag label is their story
and they are sticking to it. They are probably the “ONE” that the FDA has hinted is not voluntarily recalling their product. Imagine, the product
producer gets to voluntarily recall a deadly product? What happens if a
money grubbing corporation –doesn’t want to….? Nothing. I am angry
that so many animals and families have suffered because of the allmighty
corporate profit. Food producers are kept honest by inspection. Sad to
say that people who are watched are forced to stay honest. This is true.
Congress mandated the FDA to watch our food and our animals food.
The FDA cries because they don’t have enough money in their budget
to do their job. Well, folks, get your Congressman to quit porking his
favorite voters and building “roads to nowhere” and FUND the FDA.
This is not only a pet food disaster but a people-government disaster.
Speak up! Get angry! But do channel that anger in the right direction.
There will always be money grubbing corporations and people..ie
Menu Foods CFO who said selling his stock before the bottom fell
out was a “horrible coincidence”. YOU ELECT your government and
hold your representatives accountable for funding, watching, and
making laws that protect you. Make it your business to know how
your government is protecting you, your pets, your family, your life. I
wish there was another way but their isn’t.
My heart goes out to all of you who have lost beloved pet-companions.
Elaine D.
April 10th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Elaine,
Don’t throw away the evidence. Save it for possible testing. I am still saving my Hill’s Prescription c/d even though our cat died in Jan. I am still hoping the FDA or some independent lab will test it. I am certain it caused his death. Our vet also thought it was a virus, but that was long before we knew about the food being poisonous.
April 10th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Beneful. Its all she eats.
Cassie, 65 lb German Shepherd/Lab mix. Two days ago the dog ate nothing. Yesterday 7am, woke up to four piles of vomit and what I thought was incredibly thin black diarrhea (blood turns out). Thinking she’s ok left for work, my wife calls to say she’s having a problem, so I come home. 11am the dog squats and a STREAM of blood come out. 1/2 - 3/4 cup at least. Went to the vet immediately. Of course, she was dehydrated. Hemocrit was way down due to bleeding and clotting was bad (12-17 normal, she’s over 100) They put her on IV fluids, and her bloodwork is improving. I’ll be taking her home this afternoon and watching like a hawk.
Vet thinks its rat poison. No idea where she could have gotten it – I don’t have anything like that around. I really hope it’s not the Beneful because its not on the list (which is why I was still feeding it to her). If it is Beneful, there’s gonna be a lot more dead pets out there.
April 10th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
My shelty service dog hs been eating nutro dry for 2 1/2 years. We gave her the foil packets occasionally. She had periods of vomiting but we didn’t connect it until she became horribly sick March 1st after eating a foil packet two days in a row. We almost lost her due to the vomiting and dehydration and developed an infection with a white blood cell count in the roof. We gave her a home cooked bland diet while on antibiotics and she began improving. We restarted the dry Nutro food and her infection returned. By then we had heard about the recall and now she only gets home cooked food. After the second round of a different antibiotic for 2 weeks she is better. I’ll never use a commercial pet food again and I am somewhat unsure about the human food supply what with all the imports.
April 10th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
JP Pritchard, there is a whole website devoted to probable Beneful related pet deaths and people trying to get them to recall it. I would make sure your pet never eats it again. I hope your baby is OK.
April 11th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Possible Nutro “LITE” contamination: I estimate this incident occurred in early February, 2007. I know it was before any of this poison story hit the news. I bought one bag of Nutro’s “Lite” dry cat food, the type in the pink bag.
The food was purchased at a pet store in Mercer County, PA. Two of my three cats refused to eat it at first, but eventually at least nibbled at it. The one who will eat anything consumed full portions, and immediately experienced vomiting and diarhea (sp?). On day 3, I decided something was wrong with that bag of food. I put them back on Nutro “Indoor” in blue bag. No problems from observed from Indoor. The cat who had eaten the Lite continued to have digestive problems for almost 7 days but seems to have recovered completely. All three cats were observed drinking more water than usual. Two males, one female, neutered/spayed, healthy, indooe cats, age 4 1/2 years.
I tried to feed the remaining Nutro Lite food to our barn cats. They are not choosy, but all refused the Lite. Presumably, it was eaten by raccoons. No raccoons have been observed on the premises lately.
April 11th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
I never posted here before, but I would like to say to all the pet owners on this post and all over the world I am highly sympathetic for all the losses and sicknesses. I constantly worrie about my dog domino who my best friend and like my daughter. I am feed ing her (bluebuffalo) now but im not to sure how safe it is either. The last food she ate before the food swithc was nutro lamb in rice dry food but she didn’t really eat it to much.
I just feel like a bad parent and now because many factors about pet food has been brought to light, feels like Im killing my dog and have been since she was a puppy. I just don’t want to lose my best friend to any kind of pet food or pet food sickness. I used to work at a doggy daycare and three different vet clinics I have never like the way vets and techs work unless its truly about the pet and not about the medicine.
MY HEART GOES OUT TO ALL OF YOU THAT HAS LOST YOUR BEST FRIENDS BECAUSE OF THIS CRAZYNESS.
April 11th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
I live in the Seattle area with a sick 6 year old cat. She hasn’t had a lick of water in 7 days. She has seen the Vet. I’ve contacted the FDA - they won’t test the cat treats (I believe it’s the cat treats that are my problem here as there is no gluten in the Iams I am feeding her) - They won’t test the cat treats unless my cat is dead! Absolutely infuriating!
I contact Washington State University’s Animal Disease Diagnostic Center and they put me right through to their Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. He told me that the university is having a large conference today with UC Davis and the FDA to come up with standardized testing procedures so the testing results were uniform for the potential lawsuits that will result and said they would have a plan in place by friday. He said they want me to save all the food and treats in plastic bags and put them in the freezer and they would contact me by Friday to pick them up for testing.
ALSO as I mentioned in an earlier post - DO NO rely on blood tests. The contamination must be at least 40% involved before it shows up in the blood. By the time the contamination levels are that high it may be too late. You must check urine and stool stamples for more accurate results.
Do not use anything with GLUTEN in it.
There are other brands available on the shelves that don’t contain Gluten to choose from - just read the lables!
April 11th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
My dog died on March 12th of acute renal failure. He was eating Nutro Natural Choice chicken rice and oatmeal wet and dry food. It has been reported to the FDA and they said it totally fit the criteria. He was only 4 1/2 and never sicke before that. It was 3 days from the time he became sick until he died.
April 11th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
I been feeding my dog science diet dry dog food. He been sick and have diarrhea. Drinking a lot of water. Reading all this on line I will no longer feed him this dog food. I think this is crazy all the recall on all this dog food. Who food can you trust anymore.
April 12th, 2007 at 5:46 am
If you are having problems with the Hill’s Science Diet or Prescription diet, please post here and let us know.
April 12th, 2007 at 10:19 am
I have been feeding my cat Nutro Max Chicken flavor dry food for nine years, and it was the only dry food she would eat when I adopted her. (I tried 12 dry foods). She also gets canned food (none recalled-YET), but no Nutro canned food (hated it 9 years ago). She has always been very healthy, but the last bag I bought (January) she started eating much less dry, throwing food out of the bowl, and generally seeming not to like the food. I thought she was bored with it. She also started throwing up, which she has never done except for very rare hairballs, and was having trouble jumping. (I attributed more frequent vomit and less strength to her age!) What she threw up was little puddles of mucus, something I have read on this blog about other Nutro-eating pets doing recently, some of whom died. My cat also was starting to get an older cat look, especially in the face. I thought it was time for senior formula, so I offerred her that. She would not TOUCH it. Mixed the senior with the adult formula, and she didln’t want either. I tried Innova senior mixed in with the Nutro adult, and she started picking the Innova out and leaving the Nutro. When I read this blog post, I removed all Nutro dry from her bowl, and now she is eating her dry Innova and acting much perkier. She is not throwing food out of the bowl or throwing up and is back to being able to jump onto a table easily. I thought the vomiting was just a hairball that wouldn’t come up! I feel awful. None of the dry Nutro was recalled, but I agree that something changed recently…something my cat could taste and was getting sick from. I fear the FDA is looking at the wrong culprit, as the Nutro dry does not contain any wheat gluten, and I keep reading reports from parents of sick pets that their pets got sick eating food that doesn’t contain wheat gluten at all. The Innova Senior cat food has been a real help!
April 12th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
My pet 6yrs old Chi/terrier died on March 11,07 before the recalls came out. She ate IAM’s dry mini chunks, dog bones, tartar treats. She started to get sick on Thurs. night, spent Fri. at vets office. Died on Sunday. She had all the symptoms of liver failure.
IAMs keeps saying the dry food is safe but at this point I don’t believe them. She didn’t want to eat the IAMs. I thought she was just being spoiled and picky. But she knew better.
I have filed a complaint with IAMs and FDA.
I have met with other local people and their pets have died around the time my pet died and they had eaten IAMs and Nutro dry dog food.
April 12th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
My cat Mittens born Feb 2001 died April 9, 2007 at 12;15 pm. I can not prove it in any kind of court . But I feed Mittens Iams, Fancy fest & Alpo w/gravy. The Alpo with gravy was for my dog. But my pets where best friends. I would put the dog food down and he would sit back and let his ” sister” have the gravy. She was a healthy cat till I started feeding treats of can food. She become weak , stop eating, got thin, stopped peeing etc. Toward the end she would not drink, we gave her water w/ a big eye dropper. She was 2 weak to even stand. I called a vet and was told that they could do very little and in the end I’d loss her. We did not wont her dieing in a vet’s office with strangers around her & tubs sticking in her. She died at home with her family and her “bother” ( my dog) near.
Like I said I could not prove this in any court but I’m 100 % sure it was the Alpo w/ gravy that caused her death. She had not been sick before eatting the gravy. Thank heaven my dog is ok.
I have now sent e mails to every one I know telling them to check the recall list. In hopes of saveing other family the lost my family dealing with this week.
I understand Alpo and the other company did not mean for loved family members to die. But when all is said & done they need 2 inspect there plants now and make it safer so this never happens again. If this was happening in humen food. Wahington would be all over this faster.
There are hurting hearts that loved pets are died
April 12th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Here’s what we know for sure. Pet food companies are only going to admit as much as they have to. Only they know the truth. The dry food could very well be contaminated. Recalling the dry food would cost them far too much money. So even as kidneys across the country are being destroyed, it is up to us consumers to avoid any brand that is linked to Menu Foods. My cat never had a health problem until she ate wet Iams in February. I only purchased it because I thought Iams was a reputable brand and it was on sale. Now I know WHY it was on sale. My cat started suffering kidney failure in March and it is unknown what her prognosis will be. Again, she had no symptoms prior to eating the Iams. I also fed her dried Iams on a regular basis. She is now on a K/B diet. But at this point, I really don’t trust any corporation. Watch Fast Food Nation to see the eerie parallels of the fast food industry to what is happening with our pets.
April 13th, 2007 at 12:20 am
We had a close call with our 12 year old. He is fed a alternating meals of human quality protein (tuna, shrimp, cooked fish, chicken, turkey, cooked lamb), his kibble bowl is fresh each day. In Jan we decided to give him a kibble change by mixing his usual Bench and Field Holistic kibble (pricey) with Science Diet dry. He ate less and less of the kibble then refused to eat either, so we went back to the Bench and Field. But he was “off” and lost weight since he had not been eating kibble, so to make up we supplemented with canned - unfortunately the new brand we tried was Science Diet adult savory seafood and chicken.
The weekend we did that (late Feb) he threw up some spongy looking red stuff (not hairballs) three times, became so weak, was walking wobbly, tinkled on the carpet (he would rather die than do that he’s so fussy about his litter box, he has different vocalizations to let us know when he’s going to the john, when he’s done #1 and #2) - that weekend he was limp, cold, wouldn’t eat, drank almost a whole bowl of water, he would never do more than a few lusty laps before then, , tinkled some stench filled tinkles, and all I could do was hold him close. I did some homeopathic remedies, put him on a different diet, and thank god he got better, still not himself, still up and down. But I have studied healing arts for a long time, few have the luxury of doing that. I couldn’t afford to take him to a vet until a month later, but his blood work is normal, his urine tests are still off. He is still lethargic, cannot get up energy to jump anymore and is scared of his food bowl. He’s not stupid, he knows, but what other choice does he have but to trust me, and eat what I give him.
I reported to the FDA. I emailed Hills that I was livid they knew for so long, and failed to report.
My kitty got lucky. I got lucky. I consider the sequence of events that helped us save him nothing short of god’s grace. That being said, I also know that for this to stop a visit to the dark side is necessary: from Menu Foods on down they ALSO got lucky. I still have the bag of Science Diet dry that I am going to get tested privately for rat poison, and if it comes back positive, I am going to seriously consider holding a new kind of Senate hearing, one where they permit having their poisoned kibble rammed down those CEO’s mouths until they vomit blood and pee all over themselves.
April 15th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
My 2 dogs were on dog chow after recalls I decided to try kibbles and bits they ate it for about 5 days then refused to eat it any more. They started drinking alot of water but still active. Then I found out the ol roy jerky treats were tainted. I was feeding those as trainging treats so they got alot of those. Then the next recall comes along ol roy biscuits were recalled the only biscuits I gave my babies. I should have know something was wrong when my felix spit the biscuit out because, he loves his treats. With the recall they said to look for wheat glutien and stay away from it. Well the treats only had wheat in them. I will never trust any of these companies again. I searched the net and found the canidae web site. No wheat no corn no soy No perservitives. I am going the natural way now. Canidae also has treats for your dogs, and they love them. The food they are still getting use to, but they are very picky eaters. I switched them over not mixing there old food in it, and no diarea. No loose stools at all. I also have a cat she was on eukanuba indoor dry cat formula she just stopped eating it. I tried nine lives dry she refused that one then I went to meow mix she refused all three dry types I tried on her. I put her on the felidae she likes this one. I gave her this one without mixing her old food in she didn’t have any problems with loose stools either. felidae dosen’t make cat treats at this timebut, I get her catswell treats all natural the ingredients are beef liver flaxseed oil vit. a and vit. E they also have a chicken one. My cat who is also a picky eater eats all of these. IF you go to canidae.com you can resaerch these for yourself. Canidae and Felidae also make canned food.
April 16th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
I own a high end pet food store. I have been dealing for weeks with the aftermath of this latest pet food recall. I have read through MOST of these posts (not all) and agree and disagree with a lot of the info.
Firstly, the use of the word “organic” is being abused when talking about high end pet foods. Most are NOT organic, but human-grade, hormone antibiotic free. There is a difference. Don’t count on all high end foods to be organic. Although, there are some - they are VERY expensive - we simply do not carry most of them because people will not pay for them.
Secondly, home made diets. GO FOR IT, but don’t trust that every jo-blow website has “balanced” diets for your pet. You must do research and ensure they are complete in everyway. Also, guess what? Those homemade diets you are serving also come from our foods sources, and they can be tainted too. Unless you grow your own everything, and don’t have any pollution in your area, everything can potentially go bad, or be handled incorrectly.
Next, raw food. I personally feed raw. Don’t think I am high and mighty for it, but to me it makes more sense. A nice side benefit of raw is that because it cannot cross border easily, the ingredients are more than likely local. Nice. There has never been a raw food recall (to my knowledge). There are great commercial diets available that are easy too - at least here in Canada.
Also, I do agree (based on the kaos I have seen in my store) that people are acting irrationally. I would LOVE to bash all the brands that I don’t carry and say YES switch to my foods (my store has been unaffected by the recall). But, the reality is that in our world of mass produced EVERYTHING this stuff happens. Why aren’t we discussing the spinach that made so many people sick recently. Are you never going to eat spinach again cause there was a bad batch? I got salmonella poisoning from bean sprouts a few years ago. I am eating them again. Do you really know what goes into YOUR food. A person commented on cerel companies having to substantiate claims made on their boxes… NOT really true. There is clever labelling that can get them aroudn stuff like this. They can say “whole grain” on a loaf of bread and only have a TINY amount in there. We are all being fooled, daily, whether it be pet food or people food. The moral is WAKE UP and pay attention.
Vaccines have been making our pets ill for many years and no one stops to think that MAYBE this can be part of the problem. Animals all eat food, so it’s easy to blame it on the food. But for the most part most of them are getting vaccinated too. What if it were a bad batch of vaccinations? I may be stretching it, but the point is that scientific evidence, how do we know for sure? I see the point about scientific proof being very important. But, also see the point of someone who’s lost a dear pet wanting answers. Belive me, my livelihood is in the pet food business. It hurts me too! We all need and care to know. No one should be put down for not knowing better. When we know better, we do better.
That being said, most of us trust “the man” about most things, but we have to really investigate for ourselves unless we all wnat to never eat out, never by commercial food (for the entire family), etc. Did you see “Supersize me?” I have my doubts that many people have stopped eating at the golden arches because of the results of that movie.
We have simply been feeding our pets “mcdonalds” for many years, and I truly believe that the majority of health problems (for us and our pets) stem from diet. But, Vets don’t know much about diet. They just don’t. I know two people who just graduated from a vet program and they said they never got a day of training. So, why are we allowing them to tell us what food to feed? Guess who tells them? You betcha. I have to keep my mouth shut day after day when trying to teach my customers about nutrition when they have been told something proposterous from their vet. I have to keep my mouth shut and what them suffer when I know better. It’s very tough.
I too agree that these pet foods have been using low quality, species inappropriate ingredients for many years. FINALLY people are paying attention! I have been preaching it for years to def ears. POOR DIET HAS BEEN MAKING OUR PETS SICK FOR DECADES!
It is very sad that science diet supports the shelters. I mean, it makes them look good and feeds the animals - GOOD. But, I know for a fact that because of the agreement they have, they will not accept donations of any other foods. I have tried in my city to donate ripped bags of higher quality foods, and they will not take them. Against their agreement, so we know they are in it for the benefit, not be be nice. I have had many customers come in and say they rescued a dog and they were on science diet so they are keeping them on it. Mission accomplished!
The thing that scares me most about this is how much of what we are hearing from the media is true. I would bet money that a major pet food company that recently got exposed like this, might start to consider making the GOOD food companies look bad. It’s a pretty corrupt business and it’s going to be very sad to see how they try to save face.
MORAL - the best thing you can do is read labels. Don’t buy anything with by product (meat or grain). These things have usually been around the bend a few times. Don’t buy anything that has a generic “meat” in it. Don’t buy anything with artificial preservatives, colours, and the like. BHA, BHT BAD. Investigate the companies stand point on nutrition. Do they put nutrition first, or advertising.
Check out this site: http://www.naturapet.com/ View their video, listen to how they feel about animals. They are not a toothpaste company selling off unusable byproducts into pet foods, they care about nutrition of companion animals. They are unaffected by this recall and are still taking steps to make their products safer. They also take measures above and beyond what they have to take (having their plants inspected by human food plant inspectors) and having them certified. Just an example. Bet you’ve never heard of them…
I would like to extend my sympathies to anyone who has lost a pet PERIOD because we all know how close and dear they are to us. This is a confusing and scary time for all of us, but please don’t let it be in vain. LEARN about pet food, learn about their health, take it into your own hands if you have to, educate yourself. And, the same goes for what you are eating.
PS. I find it odd that things like cigarettes and cars always get overlooked in these debates. have killed more people than anything else. Yet, in all this panic, we are still putting our pets and our kids in a vehicle on a daily basis.. Odd.
Jessica
April 17th, 2007 at 9:37 am
I bought her a new bag of Iams in March and she immediately got mouth ulcers and is now in complete renal failure. She is dying and the Iams corp. is not recalling this just. I’m wondering if they are just doing it to no have to pay vet fees. I don’t have the money to put my cat on an IV so she will die. If I ever see an Iams exec. they will be slapped.
April 17th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Sorry about your pet-My cat is dying. We all know how you may be feeling. We are all at a loss, grieving for our pets. My pet died after eating IAM’s mini chunks. Have called IAM’s and FDA.
IAM’s says they have done their part in recalling the wet food. In fact when I spoke to a Vet technican she was adamant and indignant that its not the dry food. That IAM’s was the first to recall the food.
Yeah, but why did they wait so long? As far as they are concerned they have done their part.
Considering all the mess with the wet food, they will not open another can of worms and all the lawsuits that will follow.
April 17th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Well it just tickles me pink to see IAM’s giving away coupons for 4lbs of dog and cat food. They said its a million pounds of free food given away or get money off on a bigger bag of food. And an IAM’s promise to go with it.
Why in the world would I ever give any pet their food?
Nothing they say or do is going to bring back my baby dog. The fact is my dog is buried in my backyard. And nothing is bringing me any peace of mind.
April 18th, 2007 at 5:37 am
Jessice, I’ve never heard anything as foolish as what you said at the end of your post. Comparing toxic food to cigarettes and cars? No, cigarettes do not kill people. People kill themseves with them. It is a choice..a conscious act. Pets have none. They have to eat what they are fed. And cars?…those are accidents. If you want to include accidents in this, then bathtubs have kiiled peole too, and so has walking, since people have fallen and hit their heads. Your logic is absurd. It’s worse than comparing apples and oranges. You’re comparisons are not even on the same planet. By all means we should be discussing vehicle accidents and smoking as much as this, huh? if you want to discuss that, then go on an accident or smoking website. We come here to discuss our pets’ safety. And excuse me, but most of us are concerned about the other things that you mentioned, and are doing our research. We don’t need a lecture from you. Some of us know just as much as you do about these things. And for your information, the spinach thing and other food related problems have been brought up several times since this started, so what in the heck are you talking about?
April 18th, 2007 at 9:04 am
We have two black russian terriers that had been eating Nutro Ultra Large Breed Holistic Adult Dry dog food. When I started on a new bag about three weeks ago they would vomit the food back up, had diarrea and just didn’t seem well, their gum color was so pale pink. Started calling the Nurto company and the 1st person informed me to stop using the dry food immediately and from what I could tell him the food was produced in January 2007. After much researching the correct way to feed we started our home made diet for them of meats, veggies, fruit and fish oils….we are so blessed to catch this in time…neither one has been sick with the new diet and both look and seem to feel great…but as I continued to call the Nutro company I either got no response or someone that was so hateful and not wanting to take the responsibilty that maybe the food was tainted. Finally after many, many days and phone calls one person took all my information and said she would send a kit for a sample of the food but as of 4/17/07 we have not received a kit. So how many pets will be sick or die with all this wasted time from a company like Nutro not wanting to take responsiblily for their actions. How can we ever trust a pet food company again? Why would we want to trust them with our family members. I have also called the number several times at the FDA and so far have receivec no response from them. Have heart goes out to everyone who has suffered from this crisis . We cannot let this go without a fight to change what is happening to our best friends and family members. We must take a stand. Thank you to Itchmo and the other sites for keeping us informed on this crisis, otherwise we would neither know what was actually going on. You can tell the pet food industry should did not want us to know.
April 18th, 2007 at 9:44 am
Please contact me if there is anymore pet food recalls. Thank you me and my family appreciates what you are doing to protect our dogs and cats. Thank you so much again!!
April 18th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Nutro’s response to my complaint about their dry cat food was that the dry food has not been recalled. I replied back that I didn’t ask that because I know it hasn’t and that I was reporting to them that their DRY food, recalled or not, made my cat sick and they should check into that. They changed something in their dry food in the last few months, which is not listed on the label. Whatever it was, my kitty could taste it, didn’t like it, and it made her sick. Her problems stopped a short time after removing the Nutro dry, and she is eating Innova Senior, loves it, had no problems with the change, and is completely herself again. She ate Nutro dry chicken flavor for nine years and has had no previous health problems, but I will never trust or feed any Nutro products again. She also gets canned food (none recalled) and I have removed all gluten of any kind from her diet. (Nutro dry has corn gluten).
April 18th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Hill’s Prescription c/d dry for felines also has corn gluten. Or at least it is supposed to have corn gluten according to the label. Our cat had eaten it for 3 years and never had a problem. After buying a new bag in Jan. he became ill in 2 or 3 days. Two weeks after 1st becoming ill and being treated at the vet’s on IV’s for 8 days, he had to be euthanized. I think either the corn gluten is contaminated or wheat gluten has been substituted. I am afraid to adopt another cat unless I raw feed.
April 18th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
This is for Jane in previous post….I met a lady at the pet store and her pet dog had died after eating Nutro and it so happened around the time frame my pet died too. But mine ate IAM’s mini chunks. March 11,07.
I also bought a bag of dog food in mid January and noticed that she didn’t want to eat it most of the time. She would go for days not touching it and I would throw it out and give her a new bowlful. And sometimes I would give her homemade chicken and rice and she would eat around it. I just thought she was being spoiled and picky.
I am so devastated that I fed it to her.
IAM’s just keeps denying anything is wrong with the dry food.
I just keep wondering who the next recall company is going to be in view of the two newest companies joining the recent list.
April 18th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
http://www.homevet.com/petcare/foodbook.html
http://www.nexusmagazine.com/a.....food1.html
These two articles will tell you what is really in that food. Don’t eat before reading them.
April 18th, 2007 at 8:57 pm
could you please tell me the website that tells about the purina beneful being bad.
our dog corky is still hanging in there. thank god!!! he is still very bloated and we had decided to put him on purina one natural blend. i haven’t heard anything about this brand, has anyone?????
thank you,
please e-mail me at bingotoni7@aol.com
April 18th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
This is for Toni, previous poster, go to www.doggybling.com This website has several posting on pet owners and their sick pets eating Beneful.
April 18th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
Goodness, I just finished up a bag of Science Diet senior for my male cat which seemed fine, and now I opened up a new bag of Iams Indoor senior and it looks to be okay but this is scaring me.
It didn’t do me any good to go and buy health food brands because I fed some of that Natural Balance venison and green pea that I just opened and now its recalled. It didn’t even have rice protein listed on the bag. And I have been feeding a bag of Castor & Pollux Indoor which has rice protein listed so I feel like not using that. They say theirs is okay but who knows.
May as well go get 9-Lives or something.
April 18th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
Just to let bloggers know, my cat died Monday evening after being fed from a bag of Iams dry food.
She was 8 years old, healthy and lively, with all her meds etc. up to date. I bought the bag of dry food Sunday and fed her from it that day.
Monday evening when I got home from work, she was obviously sick, with diarrhea, vomiting, excessive drool and she was lethargic. I took her to the emergency vet, who, because dry food is not on the recall list, said it “must be a tummy ache from something she ate” asked for thousands to run tests and for “fluids”, and because I did not have the funds, sent her home insteads with some pain medicine for her stomach and droplets to start the next day.
My cat died of Acute Renal Failure that night. She suffered very much.
I am now trying to let people know that I truly believe the Iams dry food contained poison and caused ANF in my cat.
Even if “correlation does not imply causation”, the facts seem to be connected. And, why not err on the side of caution? I would to save my beautiful Ava who should have ten more years of life.
April 19th, 2007 at 8:10 am
I am late to the party, but Adrienne, if you are still out there, THANK YOU for your posts re: stats. I am following the recall because I am employed in the human food industry, and am very interested to see how it impacts human food safety. I have to agree - I find people’s reactions to be very irrational (sorry, I am a call it as I see it guy).
According to the PFI website, There are roughly 150,000,000 pets in america.
If, say, 90% of them eat “commercial” pet foods (I don’t know what the actual number is, but am estimating), that is 135,000,000.
Menu RECALL alone was 1% of pet food. So 1,350,000 animals were eating this food. Say it was 1/2 of Menu’s total production (I have no idea what their total production is, but for argument’s sake)
That means 2,700,000 pets were eating Menu products.
Banfield animal hospital says they saw 1,000,000 pets - and only something like 284 extra cases of renal failure in the 3 month period before the recall (I read the article last week so my numbers may be sightly off) 6 animals - 5 cats, 1 dog - actually died.
1,000,000 is a smoking hot huge sample size, very good representation of the population. Based on this we can extrapolate that 6×135 million = 810 animals (675 cats, 135 dogs) are likely going to die, and about 40,000 are going to be sickened.
810 dead out of 135,000,000 = .0006% of pets eating any commercial foods may die. OF COURSE each individual is tragic, however your chances of getting struck by lightning and killed are about the same.
810 dead out of estimated 2,700,000 eating Menu (remember this is just my guesstimation, not a factual number) = .03%. So EVEN IF you were feeding Menu, there is only a .03% chance your pet would die.
But, living in a society where people actually spend $$$ on lottery tickets, it is no surprise that the perception of the risk of feeding ANY pet food has gotten so twisted out of proportion. ANY death is one too many, but it is really no surprise to me that George Bush is not running around in a panic, and I would think he is more of an idiot than I already do if he were to start.
So, as a pet owner/lover, what am I doing? Well, looking at the numbers again - my best odds are still with feeding a major “known” brand.
Purina (for example, could also use Iams) feed a HUGE HUGE HUGE percentage of the pets in U.S. For arguments sake, lets say Purina has 30% market share (I could probably find the actual # on the web, but I have to get ready for work sometime soon…)
30% would be 135,000,000 = 40,500,000 pets. Year after year after year. If they were killing animals on ANY scale, even a very small scale - would we know about it?? Of course.
Looking at current recall - say even 10% of the dead animals were fed Purina Mighty dog or Alpo.
810 * 10% = 81 animals. 81/40,500,000 = .0002%. Forget being struck by lightning, now I have to die by being landed on by a UFO or something. The chance is extremely remote.
Conversely - some little niche “holistic” brand, sprinkled with fruits and berries, could kill even 1 or 2 dogs, but if they only feed 10,000 in total, that would be much more scary… (0.02%).
Would we know about it?
Probably not - because Nestle or P&G killing animals is big news, where as “Grandma Luv’s Holistic Wellness Diet” killing animals is not. Just look at the difference in media coverage between the Diamond recall last year (Diamond killed nearly 100 dogs) and the Menu (+ P&G, + Nestle et. al.) recall this year. We now hear that Diamond is potentially killing more animals (Natural Balance is made by Diamond) - hmm, I have no idea what THEIR market share is, but sounds like my odds (although probably still very remote) are much worse feeding anything made by Diamond vs. something marketed by Iams. And Diamond probably makes LOTS of “holistic wellness wonder diets…”
Well, gotta go, I will be giving my guy his Pedigree topped with that Beneful stew stuff (you have to admit, it looks pretty tasty..) before I go!
April 19th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
To Anonymous;
So, are you saying pets make a choice to get into a car? They make a choice to eat too. YOUR logic is off buddy. You can call getting into a car and crashing an accident, so are you inferring that people intentionally fed tainted food to their pets (not being an accident?)? I would say not. If you want to discuss your pet’s safety on here, then I have. You have a higher chance of killing your pet in a car (not their choice), then feeding them commercial food. I think before you go off at the mouth you should learn firstly how to SPELL (my name – what was yours again, oh yeah you are too afraid to say which is why you are shooting off at the mouth – I see) and secondly stop contradicting yourself. If I am unwelcome to discuss MY experiences (what you call a lecture – sensitive much?) I don’t see why you can -“anonymousâ€.
To the comment about Holistic blends… I do not have any sort of loyalty to Natural Balance, but they took their foods off the shelves after only 7 complaints over a two day period. They did not test and kill a bunch of animals first to find out what the problem was then wait two weeks like your favorite grocery store brand did. Therefore, I think the comparison is pretty sad. I have cut and paste the first few ingredients of a Pedigree food:
GROUND YELLOW CORN, CHICKEN BY-PRODUCT MEAL, MEAT AND BONE MEAL, CORN GLUTEN MEAL, ANIMAL FAT (PRESERVED WITH BHA/BHT), RICE, NATURAL POULTRY FLAVOR, POTASSIUM CHLORIDE, DICALCIUM PHOSPHATE, SALT, WHEAT FLOUR, VEGETABLE OIL, WHEAT GLUTEN, CARAMEL COLOR,
On that list, I see CORN your first ingredient. A very cheap and hard to digest protein source. Meat and Bone Meal. When they don’t identify the “meat†it could be anything. Road kill, you name it. BHA and BHT have are preservatives that are toxic to kidneys and have been banned in people food. There is also artificial color in there which a lot of pets react to. SO, your logic about a tainted ingredient in a high quality pet food being better to avoid rather than 10 that will make your dog sick slowly is rather odd. I would rather my dog eat food sprinkled with blueberries thank you.
I would agree about the over reaction in general. Of all the foods on the market, I believe that it’s less than 3% that were affected.
Jessica
April 19th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
If there is any good thing to come out of all this horror, might it be that small companies that actually care what happens to our pets might get a bigger share of pet food sales, and that more pets will eat better food more safely? That more of us, like me, will suddenly learn what we have been doing wrong for our furry loved ones? That better pet food safety laws and regulations will result? Now that we’ve realized almost nothing is safe to feed our pets right now, can we support the small companies not just during this crisis, but all the time? That’s how we get safer pet food. We buy what is safe and ethical and digestible, and the pet food improves based on the demands we make with our purchasing decisions.
April 19th, 2007 at 11:48 pm
This is for Ava’s Mom, I am so sorry for your loss. I know it really hurts.
I too, lost my beloved pet dog before the recalls. Its been a nightmare, cant sleep. I miss my puppy dog. She died in my husband’s arms. She was a Chihuahua mix.
My pet also ate the IAMs mini chunks and the vet said the same thing about it not being on the recall and wouldn’t committ as to why a healthy, happy little dog would die so fast.
I should have known better that she wouldn’t eat it and I thought she was being spoiled and picky.
Dont think that its not killing me inside that I fed it to her and I should have known better. She did and now she’s gone.
Once again I am sorry for your loss.
April 20th, 2007 at 12:04 am
Heather B……Do you really think that better safety pet food laws and regulations will result after this mess?? Considering that the FDA won’t name the remaining pet food companies that bought from Wilbur-Ellis.
I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Right now people are having to play a waiting game to see who is the next company is or even if they will ever come out and admit to it.
As long as the president continues to back up big business it won’t get done or they will lag until all the hysteria and dust settles. And it will take years before anything is done. One subcommittee after another and approval after approval….blah…blah….until they do something…….its the American way of government. And I don’t mean it in a negative way…but that’s the way things are done in this country.
Just wondering…..has our president said anything since all this mess has slowly come out? Bet his pets dont eat canned or dry dog food, they probably have a chef to cook their meals.
April 20th, 2007 at 12:35 am
# Brandon Knueppel Says:
March 28th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
I haven’t reported it on this site because i honestly don’t know if its true. However i have a 5 year old cat that was in good health who was diagnosed with ARF a week before the food recall. My cats have only been eating Science Diet Dry cat food. I honestly don’t know if its related because i have 4 cats and only 1 became sick. I am suspicious though as he had the exact same symptoms that were later reported for the wet pet food recall. My cat was hospitalized for 4 days, on IVs before the vet deemed him stable enough to send him home. I am now required to administer 100ml of fluids to him through a needle every other day. The Vet tried to put him on perscription foods for renal failure, but he refuses to eat any of them. The only food i have been able to get him to eat is Fancy Feast, and i’m not sure i feel comfortable feeding it to him but he has to eat something.
**********************************************************
I also had 4 cats and only one showed symptoms but by the time we noticed them it was too late .. we took him to the vet and all they could do was put him to sleep .. RIP sherbert ….. Dec 7th 2006 …… he also was the one who ate more then the other 3 .. he was fatter then all the other 3 as well ….. also he was 10 years old .. but his brother still remines fine …..I had been feeding them Purina uerany tract sence like 2000 and didn’t have any problems till now but then i see on the recall list purina .. so does that mean all types that purina makes ???? ….
April 20th, 2007 at 10:27 am
Hi. I’m just posting this infomation because it might help someone. People on this site seem to be wondering about Natural Balance and using it. I’ve just read that it’s been recalled. Dry foods are being recalled now too.
Here is the place I found the info:
http://www.howl911.com/petfoodrecall_list.htm
Kind Regards,
Nico
April 20th, 2007 at 11:31 am
To Ruth:
No Ruth, I have no confidence that better safety laws will result, only that it is a vague possibility. I repeat, the way we get safer pet food is to refuse to buy food from any company that does not meet our personal demands, whatever type of food it is. For those making home-prepared diets, you are also speaking with your dollars by refusing to buy any pet food. The almighty dollar runs everything, so hurting pet food manufacturers in the wallet will make changes. They clearly don’t care about the safety of our pets, but they do care if their sales suddenly plummet, and they investigate whose sales are up and why.
April 20th, 2007 at 9:56 pm
Jessica, I now wonder about BHT being banned in human foods, it’s in Life cereal and a few other cereals. I never feed my dog food or treats that have BHT in them and here our own foods hve it in them!
April 21st, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Heather, your right about hitting these companies where it hurts…….their money.
Up to now they have not care how they stuff their pockets with money.
It’s going to be up to people not buying their products in general including pet food.
April 22nd, 2007 at 12:16 am
MY DOGS GOT SO SICK FROM NUTRO LITE THE FOOD,HAD A REALLY BAD NASTY SMELL.DOGS DRANK LOTS OF WATER,UPCHUCKED BILE. I TOOK THEM OFF ALL NUTRO,FOOD,AND TREATS WITH IN 24 HRS. THEY WERE THEIR OLD SHELFS AGAIN. THE FDA NEEDS TO DO A RECALL ON NUTRO TO MAMY PETS ARE SICK FROM IT. {OH,CAPS LOCK IS STUCK. }SO VERY SORRY FOR EVERYONE WHO LOST A BELOVED PET.THIS BREAKS MY HEART.
April 22nd, 2007 at 4:50 am
PLEASE READ IT WILL HELP!!!!
I wanted to share with everyone after 2 days (all day each day lol) of research- i feel very confident to feed my animals http://www.canidae.com
i just bought some today and my cats and dog loved it- (bought the kibble)
heres some more info-
Canidae (verified by company 3/28/07)
* Brands include Canidae and Felidae
* No products made by Menu Foods
* All ingredients are grown in the US and are also processed here.
* No wheat gluten is used in their products.
* All products are free of corn, wheat, soy and all grain fractions
* Canidae does not use Glutens in any form, and we do not import any ingredients from China or overseas. (from website 4/18/07)
my second choice was:
Nature’s Variety (verified by CEO 3/27/07)
* Brands include Nature’s Variety, Nature’s Variety Prairie, and Nature’s Variety Raw Instinct.
* Canned foods made by Menu Foods but not involved in the recall.
* Dry foods are outsourced, but not by Menu Foods.
* Frozen and freeze-dried raw foods are made in house.
* All grains used are of US origin, except flax seed, which they get from Canada.
* No wheat gluten is used in their products, or in the plant that manufactures their dry foods.
* There is no rice protein concentrate used in any of our Nature’s Variety diets (kibble, cans, or raw). Furthermore, rice protein concentrate is NOT used anywhere within the kibble manufacturing facility. (from website 4/18/07)
before the recall i used to buy friskies dry and wet for my cats, and pedigree,alpo and kibbles and bits to my dog…then after the recall i bought 1 bag of dry iams- but then after reading all these horror stories about iams dry- i set out to find something safer…. thank God i think i have…. anyway im so so sorry to all who have lost their precious furry babbies :(
April 22nd, 2007 at 11:05 am
Wysong makes prescription diets. I have not tried any of these but ran across it in my research. Ingredients are MUCH better than any other RX diet, so if you have a cat with health problems, it is one more thing you can investigate. They also have a phone number you can call with questions. They will help you locate a vet who will prescribe the food if you want to try it.
http://www.wysong.net/page/WOTTPWS/CTGY/RXDIET
P.S. I am having good luck getting my cat to eat Sheba, which smells like human food, but she also eats Innova dry. Sheba has no taurine or other supplements. It is chunky and a little saucy, which is what my cat loves. Zero luck getting her to eat any natural brand wet food because she likes her chunks. Nutro dry food made her sick, so I switched to Innova. She is fine now. She never ate any recalled wet food. Does anyone know of a natural wet food that is not ground up?
April 22nd, 2007 at 3:33 pm
Helen - Spots Stew is chunky like humn stew. Merrick is also a bit chunky esp. Gradma’s Chicken Pot Pie. Both brands have excellant ingredients. Neither are made by Menu Foods and neither contain rice protein, corn or wheat gluten.
April 22nd, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Has anyone tried Timberwolf organics? I read their website and it sounds impressive. Appreciate any feed back.
April 22nd, 2007 at 9:10 pm
What about Wysong? It sounds like it is a good food, it encourages you to add fresh ingredients to the kibble and to vary the food for complete nutrition.