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Adopted kitten dies from contaminated food
By Gina Spadafori
June 13, 2007
All through the waves of recalls, we’ve jumped all over those companies — not all certainly, but most — that did their best to downplay their recall notices, and all over the FDA for often waiting until the “next business day” to update their lists – even if that meant waiting until everyone had finished their weekend shopping.
Fortunately, our pet bloggers — including PetFoodTracker, the Pet Food List and Itchmo – kept on top of recalls immediately — but not everyone knew where to look. (And then there were those opportunistic sites that took the information from these sites to get eyeballs and ad revenues, but didn’t keep them updated. Shame on you!)
All this confusion led to a mess that meant many people didn’t get the word on all the recalls. And that means we’re still seeing pets dying, even as pet-food companies sound the “all clear” with new products moving into the retail supply.
And yet, there is still bad food lurking out there, and pet-lovers need to keep checking. From the Hillsboro (Ore.) Argus, this sad story, the second of the week of a pet eating a recalled product:
The Oregon Humane Society confirmed Monday the first known death of an animal adopted from the OHS shelter by pet food contaminated with melamine.
The 6-month-old kitten, named Sushi, left the shelter a healthy animal on April 16, but about a month later began to show signs of kidney failure. The pet’s owner brought her new kitten to a private veterinarian, but doctors were unable to pinpoint the cause of kidney failure because contaminated pet food was not suspected at the time.
It was later discovered the pet’s owner purchased Spa Select Kitten dry food manufactured by the Blue Buffalo Company. This food was subject to an April 19 recall because it contained a rice protein ingredient that had tested positive for melamine.
Here’s the rest of the story. As the delighted owner of a 13-week-old kitten, this one really hit home. If I’d fed my little one something I later learned killed her, it would break my heart twice-over.
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This one hit home for me too. We lost our 11 year old Hemingway cat to the pet food recall, March 9, 2007.
When a lady with the spay and neuter alliance asked if we would foster two 4 week old kittens whose Mother had been poisoned we agreed. As you can imagine they captured our hearts and we adopted them. They are 13 weeks old now and I live in terror of feeding them and our surviving 8 year old cat the “wrong” pet food. I check the recall list continuously, but I am so afraid that there is something out there that hasn’t been put on a list yet.
Comment by Alasandra — June 13, 2007 @ 8:46 am
Sitting in my vets office last night at 9:00 pm with my little ill Angie girl dog, the vet told me his cat had cancer and was doing fine after Chemo but the “Special Kitty” food killed her.
He’s been so patient with me and my fears of feeding the wrong food to my dogs - now I understand why.
Comment by Linda — June 13, 2007 @ 8:48 am
Just another horror story in this whole ordeal. I wonder if this will ever end. I can report that my cat who was almost dead because of Special Kitty just had his most recent check-up and is doing wonderful with just a tad bit of elevation in his BUN and creatinine. He was 7 months old when the recall hit and was only weighing 5 pounds when I got him to the vet. At Friday’s visit with the vet, he is up to 10.5 pounds. I can only hope that this nightmare will come to an end for all of us but there is not a day that goes by that I am not hovering over every one of my cats making sure they are all okay. I am still very paranoid. After losing two and dealing with my Poo, I don’t think I could take any more.
Thanks again to those of you at Pet Connection, Itchmo, etc. for keeping this story alive. If it weren’t for you all, I fear the number of dead pets would have been drastically higher.
Comment by Adrienne — June 13, 2007 @ 8:56 am
If it weren’t so serious this frequently has the makings of a Monty Python script…
I just don’t think there really is anything we can do in cases where the pet-parent chooses not to stay on the ball. I am not sure I would like a pedantic nanny state, but sometimes it just might be worthwhile…
Nontheless, our Vet has me almost convinced that our cats kidney problems are coincidental and unrelated to the recalled pet food…
There are no other vets in our vicinity with a recall related case. This could be dimwitted vets or a perfectly valid statistic. It would explain why 1 cat is sick and 1 is not, though the one that is sick would get all the gravy… And the slight anemia which was apparent from the first tests is not typical of the majority of pet food problems.
When this all started coming out, we had 3 brands and flavors that we had used that were recalled. It all made sense, and gave us a potential reason why our furry child was sick.
I am beginning to feel good about not really having anyone to blame for this. There’s still a few things that conflict in my mind, but if I were on a jury looking at this case I could not vote either way with confidence yet. Still, I am leaning toward coincidence at this point, for what it is worth.
Even so, I have learned a great deal, and have found these websites invaluable for finding out what is really going on.
It may not help everyone, but I have to agree that these sites have saved lots of people from real grief, thank you all.
Comment by steve a — June 13, 2007 @ 11:11 am
I realize that this poor kitten was inadvertently poisoned AFTER she left the shelter, but just want to remind everyone that many shelters are still facing a crisis because the recall has greatly diminished their available food supplies.
From Itchmo:
http://www.itchmo.com/read/ani.....d_20070611
Comment by Ticocats — June 13, 2007 @ 11:23 am
Comment by steve a — June 13, 2007 @ 11:11 am
Steve, is your cat recovered? And was there any other reason given for why your cats has kidney problems? Infection detected perhaps?
Remember, a continual feeding of trace or slightly tainted food could possibly do damage (depending on what toxin(s) are in the food), so something showing up as CFR, may be food related. In reading some of the posts about how the food batches could be stronger at the begining of the run and lighter at the end, and then thinking about distribution, your area could not have a lot of cases. But the vets should still consider it when seeing kidney issues, imo. And just because a a lot of anemia was not there (or perhaps thought to be expected), doesn’t mean one of the other toxins might not have caused it, or it could be something that rarely presents, but in certain pets, could perhaps as a secondary. once a pet’s body starts fighting.
Not trying to change the way of your thinking, but it may be something to file in the back of your mind in case (doG forbid!) health issues continue. And some of these brands of food, untainted, may not have been the best for kitties to start with in regards to long term kidney health.
Hopefully your kitty has bounced back to full health and continue to stay that way! :)
‘from a former optimist’
Comment by straybaby — June 13, 2007 @ 12:11 pm
My heart goes out to the family of this kitten and to everyone else whose pet has become ill or passed away due to the (now-criminal) negligence of the government, pet food companies, and stores still selling recalled foods.
It’s becoming harder and harder to find the words to express my rage and utter frustration in large part because most of the people who have the power and the money don’t care and won’t listen.
Comment by Sandy — June 13, 2007 @ 1:06 pm
Comment by steve a — June 13, 2007 @ 11:11 am
Steve a, I have to chime in with Straybaby. What reason did they give for the CRF? Did they test the urine also because if they didnt, they REALLY need to. In many pets, the labs are normal, but it is the urine that is showing the crystals. And it was my understanding that slight anemia can be a sign of kidney problems (or also other things too) but why couldnt it be related to the pet food unless they have another reason for the kidney issues…..? Im sure you have read up enough on all of this as Ive seen you before on the sites but have they tested their urine, both cats, not just the one with symptoms?
I hope they arent victims of the pet food also, but its better to be safe than sorry.
Comment by Sandi K — June 13, 2007 @ 1:44 pm
steve, anemia is very common with crf cats. that’s not something you would see with the acute renal failure many people’s pets experienced. i also have a crf guy, and thought that it was coincidental to the food… until about 8 weeks into the whole debacle his food popped up in one of these “cross-contamination” recalls. the fact is that there’s no clear reason why my little guy, a young and otherwise very healthy boy, should have this condition. i think he was slow poisoned and we just never realized it until he had lost a lot of kidney function.
Comment by explodinghed — June 13, 2007 @ 2:31 pm
Maybe someone should contact the OHS & tell them their first mistake is telling pet owners to check the FDA site for recalled foods. I haven’t been over there in ages but I’d be willing to bet it’s not up to date. They should be sending them to Pet Connection, Itchmo, PetList or PetFoodTracker….those that are up to date. I shudder to think that these people are relying on the FDA site to keep informed. Don’t mean to be snarky but I believe that to be the truth. The FDA site SHOULD be the one kept most current but we all know how that goes.
Steve a…..I go along with everyone else. You should check whatever food you’re giving your pets to be sure it wasn’t on a later recall due to “cross contamination”. Or even if it isn’t on any recall list….I’m willing to bet there is still contaminated food on the shelves that has not been recalled. I’d say switch their food ASAP. I would suspect any illness right now, especially something that may have to do with RF.
Comment by JanC — June 13, 2007 @ 2:45 pm
Comment by straybaby — June 13, 2007 @ 12:11 pm
Comment by Sandi K — June 13, 2007 @ 1:44 pm
Comment by explodinghed — June 13, 2007 @ 2:31 pm
Comment by JanC — June 13, 2007 @ 2:45 pm
Thanks much, all
We have changed foods and are finding a new set of selections that are liked, and still primarily on the KD diet… The new selections avoid the suspect additives as thickeners or as protein augmentations…
In the test last week all levels were down from the test 8-weeks earlier, which were then down from the first test in early February. She’s still out of spec, but somewhat better.
The initial test checked urine. This was before the recall, but no crystals were observed, at all. As an engineer it seems to me that a week after last exposure to (possibly) contaminated food there would be no crystals because the free floating cyrstals have flushed out and the remaining ones are lodged in the kidney tubules. This is a key point of contention between me and our vet because the vet insists that there should have been crystals if it was food related, and is undaunted with my logic that without recent exposure there is no melamine to form free floating crystals - I guess she does’t buy dilution, either… ;)
Down is not recovered. As explodinghed pointed out, the anemia is not typical of the food related ARF symptoms due to the food contamination. This indicates a longer term problem we just happened to notice at a suspicious time. Since we only fed occasionally from recalled products it could still have been a slow exposure over time.
We are going to call vets in the area ourselves to directly verify that part of the issue.
It was pointed out that batch distribution and varying contamination due to cross contamination will probably cause local hot spots and not uniform ‘it’s everywhere’ distributions.
I also said I am mostly convinced. We are certainly being careful with food anyway, now. There is conflicting evidence for both possible causes (natural or food related) which is not unexpected, living systems are rarely text-book clear.
I expect the only possible proof is recovery over time, as no normal kidney failure repairs itself.
Comment by steve a — June 14, 2007 @ 3:47 pm
Well….this was the proverbial straw that made my moral compass explode. I had drawn a line in the sand and this was it. “First do no harm”…. The fact that it was a shelter kitten only adds insult to injury.
Comment by Amara — June 16, 2007 @ 7:05 am