Comments on: Pet-food recall: How many deaths?

By: Judy T

Judy T — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 22:02:55 +0000

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.

By: Ronald Wempen

Ronald Wempen — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 07:26:09 +0000

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.

By: meryl cittadino

meryl cittadino — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 04:48:59 +0000

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.

By: Mike Hamilton

Mike Hamilton — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 23:42:02 +0000

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.

By: Lori B

Lori B — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 15:15:26 +0000

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.

By: Penny Roberts

Penny Roberts — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 14:36:32 +0000

“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.

By: Darcy Matlock

Darcy Matlock — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 14:13:35 +0000

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.

By: Badams

Badams — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 13:42:12 +0000

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.

By: E. McElroy

E. McElroy — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 13:20:52 +0000

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.

By: Barb Townsend

Barb Townsend — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 12:01:04 +0000

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.