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Pet-food recall: How many deaths?
By Gina Spadafori
March 20, 2007
The official recall list grew by one dog brand overnight, but it seem that’s because they split Priority into Priority US and Priority Canada (the same had originally been done with Ol’ Roy, and it begs the question: Is there a formulation difference? And if so, why?).
I also had to go back to the site to see when the recall was called, for the previous post on the timeline. (Yes, March 16, even though media reports now say reports of illness and death may have started coming in as early as last December.) In light of this information, I have to say this quote not doubt written for the CEO of Menu foods by a public-relation person for the recall announcement may end up to be the most haunting in the history of business PR:
“We take these complaints very seriously and, while we are still looking for a specific cause, we are acting to err on the side of caution” said Paul K. Henderson, President and CEO, Menu Foods. “We will do whatever is necessary to ensure that our products maintain the very highest quality standards.”
Emphasis mine, of course. By the way, I saved that document, and I’m saving others. My experience as a journalist suggest to me that many of the things that have been sitting around in plain site — such as this one, found by itchmo — will likely start going into hiding soon.
Also this morning, USA Today reports that the FDA expects more confirmed pet deaths. Well, that’s pretty much a given, since the FDA has already admitted those 10 deaths widely reported and as yet not much expanded on were the test animals Menu themselves used in a feeding trial last month.
We’ll be analyzing our database later today, removing those entries that don’t fit the time frame, brands or product codes. I can tell you that even a cursory look at what’s in there guarantees there are more than 10 deaths. And they keep coming in to our database.
As I’ve said before, we’re not lawyers and this is not about some kind of legal action. That’s not what we do.We just had an idea from the get-go this was a bigger story than was being reported, and we knew we needed some way to get some real numbers.
***
I had to stop posting for a few minutes because the animals were letting me know I was past time to feed them (6 a.m. PT). The implication was not lost on me. I gave my pets food from sources I trust, and put the dishes down with a loving pat and smile for each of them. And I come back to it: How many pet-lovers just like me did exactly the same thing not that long ago, and now have nothing but a hole in the heart where a pet once was?
The FDA is searching for the source of the bad wheat gluten, reports will be written, lawsuits filed, executives fired, investors disappointed in their financial returns. But this tragedy is going to last a long, long time in those broken hearts and in the memory of all pet-lovers.
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Approximately two weeks ago, my 8 month of Shih Tzu puppy, Sweetie, became gravely ill after eating Natural Choice by Nutro. Initially, there was a lot of vomiting and Sweetie refused to eat or drink anything. She eventually became very dehydrated and extremely lethargic. I took her to her primary vet and they thought that perhaps she had swallowed something that was causing her to be sick to her stomach. That night after returning from the vet, she worsened and could barely walk or lift her little head. She would cry in pain whenever she was touched in the tummy area. At 4:00 a.m. I rushed her to the animal emergency room and she was there for two days. They x-rayed her again and again and still could not find anything foreign in her stomach. Sweetie was hydrated via IV and numerous tests were conducted. The vets were extremely perplexed as to what could be wrong with Sweetie and concluded that perhaps she had an intestinal virus. They suggested having her see a specialist; however, I ended up bringing Sweetie home with me after the emergency care bill climbed close to $2,000.00. After a few days at home Sweetie slowly began to eat again but she was being fed baby food from the jar. I am happy to report that she is doing better but she has not eaten the National Choice since becoming ill. Actually, I tried giving it to her last week, prior to the recall and she refused to eat it. At that time, I had no idea why but thought that perhaps it was because she had been away from eating dog food for a while.
I have had no success with getting in touch with anyone at any of the recall numbers. Understandably, the lines are jammed but I have also sent numerous emails but have yet to hear from anyone at either of these companies. This was a traumatizing experience for me and I cried for three straight days and was unable to sleep at all. I feel especially saddened by the stories where the pets actually died. I’m pretty sure that if I didn’t rush Sweetie to the vet that she would have not made it either. She was a very sick little pup but at least now I know what was causing her to become so ill.
Comment by Marcy Jones — March 20, 2007 @ 10:24 am
Special Announcement # 207 Ok
http://www.petconnection.com/
http://www.petconnection.com/b.....ny-deaths/
The people at the website above are now documenting
what seems like common sense to me:
If contaminated food was being manufactured as far
back as Dec 2, 2006 involving 34 million packages
of dog food, it seems impossible to me that only
10 dogs would die between then and March 17, 2007
when this recall was finally announced.
I just spent about an hour looking at the
compilation of information petconnection.com has
gleaned from various news sources and it seems
like the FDA is relying much too heavily on the
information being fed to them by the perps.
This doesn’t surprise me because if you look at
the FDA website, you wouldn’t even know that pet
products are under their jurisdiction, if you
didn’t read about it in a news story and we have
already seen that in some instances they are not:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/.....ssage/1169
http://www.fda.gov/default.htm
The only mention of pets, is the new link that
has been recently added to announce the MenuFood
fiasco.
I was already feeding my dogs homemade food before
the story above broke in October, 2006. But I looked
at the FDA website at that time and was not impressed
with their interest in pet products and I have
always been
vaguely aware of this potential for disaster.
If people were dieing from contaminated food, it would
NOT take 3.5 months for the word to get out.
http://www.fda.gov/comments.html
One of the main problems is that the FDA website
is very confusing to navigate for someone visiting for
the purpose of reporting a problem.
http://www.fda.gov/comments/webform.html
I finally found the webpage above after looking
at many webpages that appeared to be leading me
around in a circle.
Given the high concentration of pet food products
into a relatively small number of suppliers, the
FDA needs to take this potential problem more
seriously in my opinion.
http://www.wreg.com/Global/story.asp?S=6250161
This story from Memphis says that IAMS is
going to reimburse people who can prove they
had extraordinary veterinary bills as a result
of feeding their pet IAMS food.
Bill Zardus
Group Moderator
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/g.....onal-News/
CC
http://www.fda.gov/comments/webform.html
Comment by Bill Zardus — March 20, 2007 @ 10:37 am
On one of the boards that I frequent online, we were noticing a high number of questions about kidney problems. I was wondering at the time if a central lab was having a processing problem, but now we know the culprit. Additionally, we have noticed a large number of issues with pancreatitis - have there been any references to pancreatitis also being associated with these foods?
Comment by JA — March 20, 2007 @ 10:52 am
I spoke with an FDA representative in Kansas (I live in Iowa). My cat died at the end of November. Had a necropsy, but don’t know why he died. Even though they say it is only pet food manufactured since December 3, I wonder if it could be food manufactured earlier too? The FDA representative asked me if I had kept any of the opened cans from November. Of course I had not. She apologized and said that all the information the FDA has now only instructs them to recognize a pet death when the
Comment by Kristy — March 20, 2007 @ 11:19 am
(sorry) …….information the FDA has now only instructs them to recognize a pet death when the owner keeps the opened can. How many of us keep the can after we open it?? Especially when our pet died maybe in December, January, or February?
Comment by Kristy — March 20, 2007 @ 11:20 am
So, my dog passed on March 8th. I went to the two vet hospitals he had visited in the month that he was sick. I had given him various foods during that month. I don’t know what to do. I don’t have the containers and got rid of all of his foods after I had to put him to sleep. Now, he’s been cremated. None of the vet hospitals have any advice other than to “check the internet”. I want an attorney NOW! They knew about this for weeks before my Marko had to be put down and didn’t notify the public. If anyone has a good lawyer, have them email me: drbakerdesign@hotmail.com
I held his little face and stared into his eyes as he was put to sleep years before his time. I’ve never been put through anything like this before.
Oh, now the only way to contact Menu Foods is via a constantly busy telephone line. I have a feeling they’re avoiding us.
Danny Baker
San Francisco
Comment by Danny Baker — March 20, 2007 @ 12:15 pm
I do not think, and hope, all the wet foods that fall into the number and date range are bad. My two cats ate two complete boxes of iams wet food with the “bad numbers” along with dry food. They have not had the wetfood for two weeks now and seem fine thus far. My two puppies ate two “bad cans” of wet food from Iams and seem fine as well.
I still have some of the opened containers and all of the opened foil pouches as well. I keep my pet trash seperate from my normal trash. I was going on my way to the corner to put the trash out when my girlfriend told me about a food recall, so i have saved everything just in case my pets get sick so I can have the pouches and such tested.
Comment by Thomas — March 20, 2007 @ 1:51 pm
Our Beautiful Abyssinian (Bene) consumed 7 cans (maybe more) of the tainted Eukanuba Cuts and Gravy food. I dug them out of recycle and kept them for future reference in case there is a class action. Luckily, Bene knows what is good for him so stopped eating it a few days before the recall information was published and we had switched his food. Unfortunately, he was in Renal Failure by that time and we had been in and out of the vet hospital or emergency 5 times in one week (since March 7th) trying to figure out what was wrong. Luckily, I have a great vet and he did a blood test based on x-rays of his kidney which was twice it’s normal size. (He was also diagnosed with Colitis and I don’t know if this may also be a bi-product of the tainted food.) We immediately started him on Sub-Coetanious fluids which we administer at home and he is getting back to normal. We are keeping our fingers crossed for a full recovery by the time he goes back for his second blood test March 26th. But, it has been an expensive, stressful week. We lost our 13 year old Wiley cat to liver failure back in July so this was a big kick in the gut for my husband and I. We have only had Bene 6 months and he is 10 years old. Too young to die from this horrible disease caused by manufacturer negligence. I would be interested in the results thus far of pets who have died or have been sickened from this food. I have contributed my information to the cause. So if you post the numbers so far, please make it obvious on this website.
Seattle, WA
Food purchased at PetSmart in Woodinville, WA March 3rd. Stopped feeding it to him March 14th.
Comment by Teri — March 20, 2007 @ 3:04 pm
Robert Abady, the founder of Abady Pet Foods, has been warning about
the dangers of feeding your pet large scale commercial pet food for
years. Take a look at his website
http://therobertabadydogfoodcoltd.com/index.html
He has been a voice in the wilderness. I read his literature, bought
into his ideas, and have been feeding my lab Abady dog food since he’s
a pup. He’s now 13, which is old for a lab, and still a happy healthy
old boy..slowed down by age but not by disease. Anyone concerned about
the food they’re giving to their pet ought to look into Abady.
Comment by rob — March 20, 2007 @ 3:52 pm
Our healthy 6 year old Boxer Tyson died suddenly Jan, 16, 2007. He was fed only Ol’Roy canned food including beef and chicken cuts in gravy. Vomitting was his only symptom. We took him to the vet and in 3 days he died. His test results were off the charts. Everything was wrong. It would be hard to convince me that there wasn’t a connection between his death and the pet food recall.
Comment by Joyce Calcutta — March 20, 2007 @ 5:03 pm
I had a 3 year old Torti Persain and was feeding her Iams, the next thing I knew she had stopped eating and was not herself, she was in pain crying and just looking really sick. She would drink alot and urinate alot. We took her to the vet and they had asked me if she had been exposed to harsh chemicals such as radiator fluid,they could not understand how such a young kitty would have such high toxin levels in her kidneys, which at that point her kidneys were failing at 70%. She seemed to be suffering alot and was not improving when we brought her home so we had to make the hard decision to put her to sleep, the vet said even if she made it she would be faced with problems for the rest of her life since more than half of her kidneys had failed. I have checked the Iams codes on the packs that I have and they are a perfect match to the ones I had left over 63394197.
Comment by Christina Johnson — March 20, 2007 @ 7:02 pm
On March 9 my 4 1/2 month old Pekinese passed away. Same story - vomiting, diarhea, lethargic. Four days! That’s it…4 days and my baby was dead! I held him in my arms and watched him slip away after being told that the doctor could not find a reason for his illness. Now I find out about the recall. We were feeding him Nutro Ultra Puppy. We checked with our local store and the UPC’s match the recalled food. We are devastated. Our other two “babies” also eat Nutro pouches, but ones that aren’t (at this point) included in the recall. Both ChiChi and Buttons seem to be fine (although missing their baby brother). We have definitely changed their food!
I consulted with our vet, he is 99% sure that his death is related to the food recall. Michigan State University is currently performing a Necropsy, as well as testing a can of the poisoned food. The pathologist was more than happy to start this investigation. I was finally able to reach Nutro after 2 solid hours of dialing and a 45 minute wait “for the next available respresentative”. They took tons of information from me as well as requested that I mail 2 cans of the tainted food (of the 10 cans in my possession) to them. I have yet to be able to get through to Menu Foods, and our local FDA (as I have read others say) all of their voice mailboxes are full!
I can’t even begin to explain what this loss means to us. We have no human children. Zipper was our baby! To lose Zipper to something so completely out of our control - -
I am sad to hear of all the stories now coming out about sick loved ones. It is absolutely shocking the number of reports from people I have read. There is no doubt in my mind that each is related to this poisonous food. I wish each of you the best. My heart cries for you, too.
In my frustration and heartache I am angry about this company’s and subsequently the Sub-companies’ (Nutro, P&G, etc.) lack of accountability, their lack of response, and their denial of a problem. It would be way too huge of a coincidence to not be related to their food. I am curious if anyone else is having a Necropsy done or if anyone is planning course of action outside of the class action suit? I am desperate to hear from other grieving owners of pets who have been poisoned. I appreciate the information everyone has already posted. I appreciate all that the journalists for this site have done to allow us to rant, mourn, and question. I am anxious and yet terrified to see the numbers from your information gathering. You are all in our prayers (and our tears).
Natalie and Lloyd Sharpes
Vermontville, MI
Comment by Natalie Sharpes — March 20, 2007 @ 8:42 pm
We suffered the loss of our cat last week. We’re convinced it was a result of eating the tainted cat food. The vet said she had complete or near complete renal failure. She suffered much the last 2 days of her life. We finally put her down last Wednesday. Two days later we read about the recall. My wife and family grieve for the senseless loss of our pet.
Comment by Joe Morin — March 20, 2007 @ 9:14 pm
PLease read because this differs from other news:
About two weeks ago (it’s 3/20/07) our two cats got very lethargic. They just had vet exams and blood test and such were fine. Now it is clear both are very sick, lethargic, not eating (and these were hungry cats!) we were alarmed to see the change, but they eat fancy feast and whiskas dry. They are not themselves at all and have never been this way before; and since its both of them I am taking them off this commercial food until more is known. Anyone else with our experience? It’s scary to see how lethargic they are (and yes, they have all shots, etc)
Comment by Bernie — March 21, 2007 @ 12:17 am
I actually received an email from nutro tonight, apparently in response to my increasingly angry and hostile emails (I admit it, I am sooooooo pissed) I was instructed to send in bills, copies of medical records, cans of contaminated food, etc. I am glad I have more than one can of food. I absolutely would not trust anyone from these companies enough to send in my only last can. I am also going to send some of the Nutro dry food my dog was getting prior to his renal failure. He stopped eating the dry first, which I think is kind of suspicious.
For those of you who are struggling to treat your dog with renal failure, I will help with any home made renal diet suggestions, etc if you need them. I have been giving IV fluids at home subcutaeously, and it’s not hard, really. I am a nurse, but haven’t had to do IVs for years prior to this. My Rupert seems to be doing better, he is much friskier and has been chasing the kitties!!!! However, he has to have his blood work repeated tomorrow due to a problem with the blood draw :>) Poor guy, he has been through so much.
Comment by joyce — March 21, 2007 @ 12:20 am
My cat is currently at the vet with renal failure. We have fed her Iams wet food as we thought Iams stood for better quality! I have read through the postings and see that the tainted food is going to be a much larger disaster than the press has even touched upon. I see many posts from the midwest, but I am in California. My cat is the first my vet had seen with the symptoms and seems extremely frustrated that she can not get info from the FDA or the manufacturers.
HOW IS THAT ACCEPTABLE?
She seemed baffled that there was not info available to vets. I can see she is not the only vet with these feelings from the blogs I have read tonight. As someone said, if this was a human tragedy it would not be handled so poorly.
I only bring the location up as I have a feeling the batches listed are not all that are effected. The pouches I currently have do not fall into the batch range, but depending on the incubation period could have been from pouches I purchased 2 weeks ago. All match the 4197 mill number though.
For those of you who have checked your food (if you still had it!!)against the manufacturer’s, is anyone else finding that your pet is sick but the batch may be different?
I am hoping for Keiki’s recovery but from the similar stories I have read tonight, am not sure that is possible.
VETS - if you have treatment info that is working or other info PLEASE POST IT.
Comment by Keiki's mom — March 21, 2007 @ 12:27 am
The batch of food that caused Tyson’s kidney failure was not part of the original recall. It has since been added to Menu’s list. There have been numerous additions to that list since it was first published on Saturday morning.
I am advising everyone I know to steer clear of all foods associated with the recall, regardless of the dates or batch numbers on the packaging- especially considering the fact that they still have yet to identify the cause of the problem. (i.e.- They’re recalling these particular foods on the assumption that the problem is the new gluten source.. but what if it’s not? Or what if there are other additional contaminants in there?) Personally, I would not use any wet foods from any company affiliated with Menu at this time. That may be a little paranoid on my part, but I figure it’s better safe than sorry.
I cringe when I see local retailers refusing to remove these products from their shelves because the lot numbers are “safe”. The truth is, at this point, I don’t think they necessarily know enough to make that determination.
Comment by Gwen — March 21, 2007 @ 1:53 am
PS- Keiki’s mom.. I’m sorry about your cat. If it’s any consolation, Tyson is hanging in there (he’s on IVs and appears normal.. not sure where his values are at this point, though- we’re going back for more bloodwork tomorrow), and I’ve read numerous accounts of pets pulling through. I don’t know what Keiki’s situation is, but there are indeed cats who are recovering from this. Hopefully ours will be among the lucky ones!
He is also the first confirmed case my vet has seen.. but one of the techs said they’ve been performing a LOT of bloodwork over the past day or so.
As far as the numbers, I just saw the PetConnection tallies in an offsite article, and I’m shocked- so many submissions from a single site over the course of a few days! When the final totals come out, I’m thinking this is going to be unprecedented.
Comment by Gwen — March 21, 2007 @ 2:01 am
My dog Lainey has always eaten this food - X-mas she was so sick I had to carry her to the tub to wash her up from puke & diarrhea and lethargic - couldn’t take her to the vet due to Holidays and work. Gave her rice and pedialyte to help. After that I obviously fed her less of the Iams with rice and Pedialyte each day but she was never right after that. She kept being sick having diarrhea and threw up until February when I finally had her put to sleep. At the time I assumed it was because of her age. Now I know it wasn’t her fault or her age. It’s only been about 4 weeks since I had her put to sleep, it was the most devastating thing I’ve ever had to do. She was old and had hip issues but in December she started getting real sick and had diarrhea so bad she couldn’t even get up to walk around she just laid there on the floor and couldn’t even make it out of the house to throw up or go to the bathroom - it was the most horrible experience I’ve ever had with her. I stopped feeding her the dog food and gave her chopped up banana’s rice and pedialyte. For weeks after New Years I fed her less food mixed with rice and Pedialyte but she was so lethargic and was constanly having diarrhea that I figured she must be dying from something being wrong with her stomach so I took her to the vet finally and stopped her suffering. I never realized that it was the food I was giving her and that I was poisoning my own dog. I am totally devastated and horrified now on how she must’ve been feeling. She was my whole life.
Comment by Elaine Rommel — March 21, 2007 @ 3:12 am
ATTENTION!
DID YOU VET PRESCRIBE HILL K/D LOW PROTEIN PET FOOD FOR YOUR SURVIVING PET?
IT’S MADE BY MENU FOODS!!!
We should all INSIST that our vets return all food on their shelves made by Menu Foods. Not to do so IS A CONFLICT OF INTEREST! Are we going to allow them to continue to sell and prescribe food made by the very people who killed and sickened our pets? My vet kept telling me, “But it’s not on the list.” Many brands that weren’t on the original list are on it NOW. I’ll be getting a new vet.
Comment by Lesia Valentine — March 21, 2007 @ 4:22 am
I am very, very sorry you went through this experience. You did everything you could at the time - who would ever think it was the food making their beloved pet sick. One of my neighbors I recently met told me her dog died of kidney failure - I had thought she was talking about something from a long time ago -but perhaps it was just a few months -and maybe that was the food.
Comment by Barb Townsend — March 21, 2007 @ 6:01 am
My 10 yr old Dachshund died suddenly the end of August 2006. Vet said it was kidney failure. I couldn’t understand how it happened so quickly nor why. While at the Vet’s I saw where the number one killer of dogs today is kidney failure. I wonder first if my dog got sick from his dog food and second if the dog food isn’t the reason that kidney failure is the number one killer of dogs.
My new dog, SChnoolde, got really sick in Jan.2007, i.e. vomiting yellow stuff, diahrrea, lethargy. Vet thought it was food poisoning. Initially, I thought he ate something he shouldn’t have. Now I am sure it was the dog food. He barely pulled thru but has not been the same, he’s not very playful and sleeps most all the time. I am going to switch to home made dog food.
Comment by E. McElroy — March 21, 2007 @ 7:20 am
My 2 yr old Australian Shepard/Border Collie mix male dog Dewey became really ill during mid-January to last week after eating Ol’Roy. But stupid me didn’t really connect it with his dog food he has consumed all of those prior months. Dewey vomited and gagged often with yellowish to clear fluid and phlem, plus he acted lethargic and that wasn’t normal for him at all. I’m really concerned so now we’re going to do a followup with a visit to our vet. Thanks much for PetConnection.com/blog.
Comment by Badams — March 21, 2007 @ 7:42 am
We came home from a day long shopping trip to find our cat, Carly, very ill. She was fine in the morning when we left and at 5 PM that evening, she acted like she couldn’t move. I sat up with her all night, seperated her from our other cats and watched her. She couldn’t urinate, she wouldn’t eat or drink. I began force feeding her low sodium chicken broth and rushed her to the vet first thing in the morning. After three hours of tests to rule out everything else, he told me her white cell count had dropped to almost non-existent and he was thinking kidney failure. He gave me antibiotics and sent us home. Carly couldn’t keep the medication down. I sat up with her all night again, force feeding her chicken broth and back to the vet we went. I insisted the vet keep her, put her on an IV and begin administering medication via IV.. She stayed with the vet for two days. I picked her up on Friday morning, March 16th and have been force feeding her since bringing her home. Today, for the first time she is walking around and has actually looked out a window. At least she is alive. I have checked every recall list and don’t see the food we feed listed. All of our cats (we have five other than Carly) have been throwing up, but none of the others have gotten as sick as she did. We feed Pro-Plan Adult Chicken wet food and a combination of dry foods. We also feed pet treats in pouches and I think perhaps the treats were the cause of our problem. I don’t believe in coincidence and feel even though I can’t prove beyond a shadow of a doubt pet food contamination is the culprit, if it walks like a duck?!?…. Menu foods should be run out of business for the way they have handled this situation. They are heartless, cruel and irresponsible people who certainly are only pretending to LOVE animals. Actions speak louder than words and they have shown us nothing.
Comment by Darcy Matlock — March 21, 2007 @ 8:13 am
“removing those entries that don’t fit the time frame, brands or product codes”
I hope that you are keeping those entries in a separate database. It seems to me that if lots of people are reporting the same symptoms from foods that do not fit the current recall it is likely that those foods should be added to the recall.
Comment by Penny Roberts — March 21, 2007 @ 8:36 am
My cat, Simba had to be put to sleep on Feb. 15, 2007 (he would have been 12 years old next month). His entire life, the bulk of his diet had consisted of wet food. Ever since he was a kitten, he had never really cared for dry food. He’d only eat it as a last resort.
Two years ago, I switched him to IAMS. I had previously been feeding him Fancy Feast, but I had heard that IAMS would be healthier for him. I normally fed him two packets a day, sometimes three. About a week before he died, he had stopped eating and became weak and started urinating on the floor in front of the litter box, except it was just water. I first noticed the latter 2 days before I took him to the veterinarian on February 13, 2007, and they informed me his kidneys were only working at approximately 25-30 %. Not two weeks before he had been eating and acting normally. His health declined so rapidly, it was alarming. They kept him for two days and tried to hydrate him and give him antibiotics, but his kidney functions never improved.
I went home last night and found that I still had about 4 packets left from the last box he had eaten from when he was alive. They did in fact have the affected date and plant codes on them (6339 4197; I still have them.) I purchased this box from my local Wal-mart. And my normal routine was to buy two boxes at a time, so I am sure that the box he consumed prior to that one came from the same batch.
This has deeply affected me. The fact that I unknowingly killed my cat is hard for me to handle. My real fear now is that my other two cats could be affected. They normally eat dry food so they did not consume as much as Simba did. But I am sure they had some as they would frequently eat the small amount that Simba would leave in the bowl. And thank goodness, I stopped putting out the IAMS wet food after Simba’s death. So far they are not exhibiting any symptoms. They are both younger (ages 5 and 1) so I hope and pray that fact, coupled with their low consumption, they will be ok. I could not handle losing one of them in the same manner.
So for those of you who have cats that have consumed the tainted food and are not getting sick, be thankful. As with anything else, I think animals can react differently to things they are fed, due to their body chemistry. I hope that is the case with my 2 babies that are still living. My heart goes out to everyone affected by this.
Comment by Lori B — March 21, 2007 @ 9:15 am
I have a 10 year old Labrador Retriever whom weighs 113 lbs. 12Mar2007 he was taken to the vet where he was placed on insulin and antibiotics. Just prior to the recall which , to my knowledge was not announced until the 17Mar2007. His symptoms were Rapid loss of weight, drinking alot..i mean alot. Kidneys were swollen 3x and genitals were infected also suspected pancreatitus. Lathargic as well. I feed him IAMS Dry dog food for weight control but had recently switched him to IAMS dry Lamb with Rice. As well as 1/2 can of ALPO Prime Cuts in Gravy (wet food). None of which is listed on the recall list to date. My concern is that there is going to be more added to the list. Anyone with the same food that may have had similar symptoms? Good news is that he seems to be doing well, but insulin shots for the remainder of his life is going to get costly. Hope this helps someone.
Comment by Mike Hamilton — March 21, 2007 @ 5:42 pm
I fed my dog 2 days in a row nutro ,and I am now panicking, The food we gave her was on the list,same serial number and date. My vet says not to worry unless there are symptoms. How long would any symptoms appear and is that too late.
Comment by meryl cittadino — March 21, 2007 @ 10:48 pm
Fortunately, my cats seem well despite eating some of the Sophisticat on the recall. However, I took those pouches and cans on the list to my office to check with my E/M resonance device, as I have extracts of many organisms to test against. There was no evidence for common chemicals nor heavy metals nor bacteria. One item finally turned up: a mold which produces mycotoxins and can kill in parts per billion, which has reportedly been used with deadly effect in a recent war, according to the Pentagon, and is not destroyed by heating. Since this mold may grow and produce on grain if stored incorrectly, this should be tested by the company and FDA using available methodology.
Comment by Ronald Wempen — March 22, 2007 @ 1:26 am
ALL PET OWNERS WHO THREW AWAY THE PACKAGES —
I am an attorney, so here is my free legal advise. First, look for the receipt from the store. Second, look in your check book or your credit card states, etc. Save the documentation regarding which store where you purchaed the food. If you have the recipt the UPC code should be on that receipt.
At this point you will need either some documentation that you purchased the food. Or you will sign an affidavit that this is the food you purchased. Having a sick animal will serve as circumstantial evidence that the animal ate the contanimated food.
Personally, I am saving my packages of recalled food. I will forgo my vet bills if the executives of Menu foods agree to eat the food they were all to happy to have my cat eat.
Thank God, that my cat will survive. I thank my aunt for giving me the heads up on the recall. I am thankful that I only started feeding her this food. I am thankful that she turned her nose up at the meat chunks and just ate the gravy.
Comment by Judy T — March 22, 2007 @ 4:02 pm