My vet did a CBC blood test since the cats had no symptoms. So if there is a silver lining here, I now have baseline blood tests for my young cats that we can refer back to if they ever get sick in the future.

I also now feel pretty comfortable with the new food they have been eating since March 16. I have been researching different brands and will be going to the “Pet Health Food Store” this weekend to try a couple other brands so I can give them some variety. I have also been giving them cheese & cooked meat for treats. I also got some freeze-dried 100% chicken treats at a cat show last week, they really love it, but it’s tooexpensive.

It’s also interesting that your kitten ate bad food for 3 weeks, and survived. This is great news! This certainly contradicts what the Nutro guy told me last night, he said if my cats had eaten any of their bad cans, they would have gotten very sick immediately within 2 days, after only a meal or so.

I am encouraged to hear the stories of pets surviving this ordeal, while saddened by the stories of those whose pets did not make it.

Gwen: This could be applicable in your case. Contact laboratories to find one who is capable of doing this kind of testing. If you don’t seem to have much luck on your own finding a laboratory that is capable of this kind of testing, then I would contact the police and the military to ask what laboratories they use for this kind of testing.

If it were me, I would have the urinalysis done now, by a competent laboratory who can look for both the right crystals and the melamine. You’ll need to call your Vet and ask if their Lab has the analytical capacity to test for the melamine. If not, then ask your Vet to identify an appropriate lab and make sure that sample shipping and chain-of-custody are completed appropriately.

I don’t know the retention time of melamine in the system. I agree with you that it’s unlikely that it would still be present in your cat’s system, but you certainly won’t know unless you test for it, right? I don’t know if anyone knows the retention time of melamine in the feline system. Perhaps you could call some of the researchers who are working on this and ask if they know. But my point is that NOT running a urinalysis means you will never stand a chance of proving there are crystals and/or melamine in the urine. But if you run the test, you MIGHT find something, right?

You also need to ask your Vet why he didn’t do a urinalysis the first time around. And ask your Vet if he will write you a statement saying that he believes your cat’s ARF was caused by the recalled food.

Lastly, just because your cat won’t be included in the NUMBERS doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be able to be compensated. A numbers-tracking database isn’t necessarily related in any way to the results of a class-action lawsuit. Write up (document) everything you have written here, including detailed info about your cats’ reactions to the food, how that differs from their normal reactions, etc., including dates and times, and obtain your sales receipts for the food, all your Vet records, any phone calls you have made to report your case(s), to whom, what time, who you spoke with, what you spoke about, etc. If you don’t have sales receipts, see if the store can print out an itemized receipt from their computer if you paid with a credit card, etc. Your documentation should read like a scientific diary of sorts, in chronological order of what happened and when. Keep a copy of it all. And contact one of the class-action attorneys and join the class-action suit.

Don’t get caught up in whether or not your cat will be “counted” on the database or official numbers. Does it really matter? Thousands will be counted, so they’ll know it’s a big problem. Isn’t the main concern that (a) they know the problem is big, and (b) that you get compensated for your Vet bills? Does it really matter if they record 7000 cases or 7001 ? No, it really doesn’t. There will NEVER be an accurate count. Period. We all have to just accept that.

THERE IS A NATIONWIDE MARCH PLANNED THAT THIS SITE TELLS ALL ABOUT…ANOTHER GREAT TOOL IN OUR INFO. ARSENAL!!!

So, if the cat was elderly and perhaps had other chronic problems, the owner hadn’t recently had the pet to the vet’s for a urine and blood exam ($160 for one of these just done on my other cat) because either the pet was healthy or the owner couldn’t afford the cost, the owner can’t remember the precise flavor of the food but knows it was the gravy and hunks type and of a recalled brand, the owner doesn’t have leftover food to be analyzed, the animal was put down months ago or even recently without an autopsy having been done, then the poor owner has to grieve privately for a much-loved cat who was poisoned without having that cat even being given the “honor” of being counted as “a casualty statistic.”

I want Luck and Misty to be counted. However, I have not even registered the death of these pets on Pet Connection because the data base requires the information from the veterinarian, and I don’t want the vets called under these circumstances. We still need to work with these vets.

Two of my other cats were also offered the food. One was excited when I opened the pouches, but after inspecting the food, refused to have anything to do with it, and yowled until the bowl was out of sight. The other happily ate it the first night, threw it up almost immediately, then refused to touch it again.. instead dumping the bowl and attempting to bury its contents. (This cat is not one to turn down food, particularly when said food happens to come in a can.) He exhibited no symptoms, and precautionary bloodwork came back normal. These cats knew something was amiss with that food.

I purchased a few pouches of tainted food approx. 36 hours before the recall broke. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 24 hours after I started feeding him the stuff, he began exhibiting signs of renal failure (vomiting, lethargy, anorexia, increased urine output, etc.)

Bloodwork was done (significant elevation of both BUN and creatinine).. multiple times.. but no urinalysis. Not sure why it wasn’t performed.

It’s been nearly a month since he last ate the recalled food, and he’s been asymptomatic since we started him on fluid therapy 3/17. Would there be any benefit to performing a urinalysis at this point?

I could be wrong, but I would assume any residual melamine would have been flushed out by now, seeing as he’s spent the past four weeks receiving a combination of IV and SQ fluids. Additionally, if his kidneys are functioning within the normal range now (fingers crossed- going in for more bloodwork tomorrow), would anything show up on the urinalysis?

Just wondering.. I’ll see what the vet has to say about it tomorrow.

Gwen:

Is your cat dead? If not, then have a urinalysis completed right away. Have them check for both crystals and melamine, then you’ll qualify for #3 and #4 if both are found.

Is your cat sick? If your cat saw a Vet, why didn’t they do a urinalysis? If they didn’t do a urinalysis, how did they decide it was a kidney issue?

If your cat isn’t either sick or dead, then why would it need to qualify?