Comments on: Pet-food recall: With crisis, confusion

By: frances

frances — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 16:58:44 +0000

i’m worried i tried my cat on whiska’s pouch mixed flavors ,she was not trilled alway ate ckic-a-doodle by ? and alway’s fine.wal-mart here didn’t have room and down sized and of course the chik-a-doodle had to go so ,itried old roy can’s and pouches on both my dog and cat ,then caught the recall and mighty dog pouchs , now friskies purina friskies fine cuts with chicken in gravy,,now he is not himself not acting right or the same ,worried heard about a friskies recall pouches ??? now what ,is he being poisened by this food ? my dog has pedigree little champions master foods out of california both have wheat gluten in them,dog nestle purina pet care co. st.louis heard there was a update on recall new foods as of april 11,2007 help is there?

By: Linda

Linda — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 17:30:26 +0000

Gloria can a canine nutritionist help? With this kind of a problem I would go to an expert –do you have a large vet hospital near you that might work with you on this?

One of my dogs chews her feet and gets sores and she is allergic to everything - she gets shots for it and I give her allergy medicine, I work closely with my vet.

I also home cook for her too. Sometimes she gets a shot of predizone (sp?) when her skin and legs get really bad.

Best of luck but it sounds like you need help from a pro here.

By: gloria

gloria — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 17:22:45 +0000

need a nutrional diet for a yorkie that has a yeast allergy. ALso is itchy especially on her paws. I homecook for her, however she has gained weight on this diet. I will not give her any dry or wet commercial food. I now homecook ground medium minced meat with frozen vegetables, however the brocolli and brussel sprouts seem to make her burp. I have spent thousands on her because of this condition abd am still in the same place with her. Help is anyone out there that can help me.

By: SusanMarie

SusanMarie — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 19:45:06 +0000

I’ll try to keep this short. My 9 year old very healthy cat died on March 14, 2007. He had all of the symptoms : vomiting, lethargy, loss of appetite. Alway having been a great eater, I realized quickly that he wasn’t eating.
On March 14 I took him to the vet who did xrays but noticed no obvious problems and sent us home to wait for blood test results. Sammy was now beginning to show signs of weakness.Within the hour the Vet called and said that Sammy was in renal failure and should be rushed to the nearest hospital.
Short story : he wouldn’t have made it no matter what we did. It was too late for him.
OK … here is the thing : Sammy was a strictly dry food eater. I called the FDA on the 16 or 17th of March (whatever day it was that the story broke) and spoke with a rep who was very interested in the fact that he’d had dry food only and took down all of the pertinent information. They said they were getting many calls regarding dry foods as well.
Look, these things do happen sometimes with cats (sniff, sniff) but in this case, the timing is just too darn coincidental. Is there an investigation into the dry foods? Is there a central reporting place for those of us who use dry foods to report it and therefore monitor the stats? I’ve searched and searched the internet for someone who is taking stats on this. Can anyone tell me … is there a place to report this ???
Thank you for taking the time to read this … short story .

By: Ronald Wempen

Ronald Wempen — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:05:12 +0000

To Georgeann Heckman, Julie K. and others who still have samples of recalled food which appear to have caused severe illness or death of their pets, I would appreciate a small amount to test, using a very sensitive method. Please email me at:
HEALTHENERGY@NETZERO.NET

There are various nasty scenarios about what actually has happened. I am most impressed by Banfield’s statistic of hundreds of excess deaths from kidney failure over the past three months, over what was expected. That would take into account accidental poisonings and other causes than what initially happened at Menu Foods. There may even be found more than one culprit, done deliberately to confuse investigations; that is an old “red herring” trick.

If any vets have autopsied material in formalin from organs of deceased pets who had substantial contact with these foods, I would like to know about it, as this can be the “smoking gun” if it gets into the right hands for histological analysis, i.e. an experienced toxicologic pathologist.

I am glad to see some attorneys leaping into this disaster. I just hope that most are honest and do due diligence.

By: Bonnie

Bonnie — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 04:51:48 +0000

Karen, So sorry to hear about your loss. I just lost my 17 year old tortie to the same thing. It was strange. The other cats wouldn’t touch the wet stuff, but K.C. lapped up all the gravy from the Iams and within a day, I had to take her to the emergency vet to have her put down. Like you, I thought it was maybe just her time. I felt bad for the others, what were the odds that I had a tainted can? If anything, I want the petfood manufacturers to be responsible for this. Something needs to be changed. I still have 4 others that I need to feed and I don’t feel confident even with the dry kibble.

Sorry for the loss of your old lady. (that’s what I called my old girl) I think the older ones were a little more likely to get sick from this. But those fools took the last few years I had with my baby.

All I want is the truth to get out. It’s not 16. Probably in the thousands. Something needs to change so this never happens again.

By: Karen

Karen — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 18:30:53 +0000

I apologize if what I am asking is a repeat of prior posts. I just came across this site and haven’t had time to read everything yet. We lost Callie, our beloved 17 year old calico cat, on January 28, 2007. She began vomiting on 1/26/07, was very lethargic, and seemed to dehydrate right before our eyes. We got her into our vet the next morning, they checked her over thoroughly, did blood work, then told us she was very sick and they wanted to keep her overnight. We were also told to prepare for the worst. The vet called later that day and said her kidneys were failing. He had her on IV antibiotics, etc. and early the next day, he called again and said she was doing much better. We were pretty hopeful until he called that night and told us she had had a seizure. Then the next morning, we got the call saying she hadn’t made it through the night. We were heartbroken but figured since she was an older cat, it was just her time to go. We didn’t think any more about her death until the news about Menufoods broke, and even then, since it had been over 6 weeks since Callie’s death, I didn’t give it a lot of thought, other than feeling sorry for all the pet owners who might be affected. Callie’s diet was predominantly dry food; however, as a treat we occasionally gave her wet food, but since it wasn’t IAMS or one of the other brand names, I again didn’t think anymore about it until I heard that certain store brands were also affected, including the Meijer Main Choice beef/gravy and chicken/gravy, which is what we had given her. Then I got worried. We still had a can in the pantry, so I checked. Although it doesn’t have the same due date as what is listed on the menufoods website, I’m wondering if what we gave her back in January was what is now being recalled. Naturally, we don’t have those empty cans, so there’s no way to check. However, I now will never be convinced her death is not related to this. She had been extremely healthy, just a slight allergy/cold in 2004, other than that, no vet visits except for check-ups. Are there others out there who have had a similar experience - pets who died of the same symptoms, but much earlier than the deaths initially reported, and who may have eaten the bad dog/cat food? One other thing is I remember my husband commenting sometime between the first of the year and before Callie got sick that she didn’t seem to want the wet food anymore. My sympathies to all who have lost a loved pet. I know there are worse things going on in the world but this is all so very needless and sad.

By: Phyllis

Phyllis — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 17:57:35 +0000

Here is some interesting info I just discovered via phone contact with customer service reps from Wellness, Innova and Canidae/Felidae pet foods:
1. None of the above named comapanie’s foods are on the recall list.
2. WELLNESS - food is processed at MENU FOODS using separate production lines and the ingredients are different…wellness does not use wheat.
3. INNOVA - dry food is processed at their own plant in Nebraska. Innova canned food is processed at…you guessed it…MENU FOODS.
4. CANIDAE/FELIDAE - NO foods processed at Menu Foods. USES A SMALL, INDEPENDENT, FAMILY OWNED MANUFACTURING PLANT IN ILLINOIS.

…guess which pet food manufacturer will be getting my kitty food bucks?

Hope this info is helpful.

By: Barb P.

Barb P. — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 15:20:06 +0000

At the suggestion of this site I called our regional FDA office and left a message about our dog who, like Julie and Bonnie’s pets, died before the recall was announced. We also no longer have the containers or remaining food to test, so can’t prove a thing.

The FDA called early this morning - the guy said they’ve received a great many calls and have the entire staff in returning calls and gathering data. I didn’t truly believe they would follow up, so I’m pleased they’re making the effort. He took my vet’s name and number, got the details of our Sport’s death and what he was eating, where we purchased it, etc.

While kidney failure seems to be the main focus in this story, our dog presented with symptoms more like straightforward poisoning - vomiting and diarrhea, malaise, rapid coma and death. I’m wondering if there’s more than the rat-poison involved?

By: Eileen Verbeke

Eileen Verbeke — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 13:34:18 +0000

Both of my cats ate some of the IAMS pouches in the last couple of months, and before February, also ate the “gravy” type of IAMS in cans. We took them to the vet last week for blood tests, and both were fine, no problem. What I do recall is the reason we stopped feeding them what had been their “favorite” food, the NON-gravy lamb and rice, was that for no apparent reason, they just refused to eat it and would walk away from the dish. Next it was the beef…then the chicken and turkey….so we had switched to Friskies (NOT on recall…and it’s produced “in house”)and only used IAMS pouches of salmon once a day, a pouch split between the two cats as their “fill in snack” that the spoiled little duo is used to having. As of now, they are eating the food from the vet made by Purina (same company produces Friskie). I’m overjoyed that they had normal blood results, but I still wonder why BOTH cats suddenly refused to eat the canned IAMS, especially the one that had been their total favorite. You can check out the facts on Friskies at the website for Purina, or Nestles. As to the possibility of the culprit being wheat glutin….I’d love to know if we are importing wheat clutin from outside the United States for HUMAN foods. Just looking at various boxed, canned and frozen food in our home, it boggles the mind to see how many products/foods contain wheat glutin in the contents! And…why would a country like the USA have IMPORTED wheat and wheat by-products when WE export a huge amount overseas, and I believe in quite large quantities to the Far East countries, and China? All things considered and laying aside health questions for just a second….would not the importation only add to the cost of the product? I find it hard to believe that the wheat is cheaper that way, unless someone, somewhere has a good deal going with the import/export issue. I’m so paranoid, I have a copy of Dr. Pitcairn’s book coming special delivery from Amazon.