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Pet Food Recall - Another Update

Are you feeding her wet food shay ??


I was surprised yesterday to find my 3 cans of nutro natural choice chicken rice and oatmeal puppy have the manufacturer's recalled code. :( Faith has eaten at least 3 cans of that since coming to my house .. thank God she's not showing any signs of sickness. I think it happens pretty quickly if it's gonna happen, right?

I went shopping and found Merrick's canned food and bought a lunch box type pack *8 cans* and have been feeding her out of that for the last 3 weeks. Thank God I didn't give her any more than the original 3 cans. :d*g: :|
 
No...she only eats the dry kibble. All of this has me wanting to feed her people food. She really has done so well on RC, but it doesn't give you much confidence in pet food companies does it.

Edited to add: Did you check with your Vet about the food Faith has eaten?
 
Shay my poor vet is swamped with this stuff!! :(

It's kind of scary because I have 3 cans of this crap in my car with the recall label code on them. The good thing is she hasn't eaten any canned nutro natural choice for the past 3 weeks or so. I called the vet and she said as long as she's not showing any signs of listlesness or she's not peeing and drinking uncontrollably then she should be fine. There apparently haven't been any cases stated in Canada although that doesn't mean the problem isn't here. The food I have clearly has the recall code. I am just worried what happens later on in life if we have something wrong with the kidneys - I should take a picture of my cans just for a reference and a "just in case."

What a nightmare. :(
 
Shay said:
Oh Crap.....Should I quit feeding Lily RC??? Was this just the Canadian Food??
I looked it over again and it said there was a north american recall. Check to see what your vet knows. It has to do with elevated Vit D.
 
Thanks Debbie.......I just googled and here's what I found:

Royal Canin Dog Food Recall
Michelle Meunier - 02/10/2006
The Department of Agriculture and Markets has become aware of a recall of a ROYAL CANIN dog food. ROYAL CANIN Veterinary Diet Canine URINARY SO in gel canned product has been recalled because of excessive levels of vitamin D3. The excessive levels of vitamin D3 have resulted in 8 cases of hypercalcemia in dogs. The attached alert from the ROYAL CANIN Company contains important information concerning the recall of this product. This product is only available for purchase through veterinarians.


Apparently the class action suit was from this recall which was over a year ago, and was sold only by Vets, so I think I'm safe.

Sara.....I would definitely take a pic of the cans. I'm sure Faith is fine, but it couldn't hurt.

Thanks Joann for the link to the FDA. It doesn't say anything about RC either, so I am feeling a little better. This is just such a nightmare for pet owners. Who knows if our foods may not show up in the next few days. Especially becasue nobody know what the he!! the problem is.
 
What I just realized is the royal cain was the canned food too. Not to be an alarmist, but I am getting edgy on canned food.... Kodee wont eat unless she has a bit of merricks canned. Then again, I think when something like this happens we get paranoid. When I saw the list of recalled stuff at the FDA site I almost dropped! I never heard about half of them. You could drive yourself crazy with this stuff!
 
Taken from the Dog aware website
http://www.dogaware.com/dogfeeding.html#commercial

Information on Menu Foods Recall
Menu Foods makes only canned and pouched foods, so there is no concern about any dry foods (kibble), pre-mixes or frozen raw foods.
At this time, the cause of the problem leading to kidney failure in dogs and cats has not been positively identified. The suspected ingredient is wheat gluten, but other possibilities exist, including propylene glycol, which could possibly have been inadvertently mixed up with ethylene glycol (antifreeze), known to cause kidney failure. Foods from two Menu Foods plants, in Kansas and New Jersey, have been identified so far as causing these problems; other Menu Foods plants are not affected as far as we know.

None of the foods listed on this web site have been recalled. However, a few manufacturers do have some of their canned diets made by Menu Foods, though many are made at plants other than those affected by the recall, and often these companies supply all of the ingredients themselves. None of these foods include the ingredient that is suspected to have caused the problem (wheat gluten), nor have there been any reports of pets eating these foods becoming sick, but because the source has not yet been positively identified, there is some chance that it will turn out that other foods have been affected.

The brands not affected by the recall, but which do have some canned diets made by Menu Foods, are as follows:

Eagle Pack
Natura (Healthwise, California Natural, Innova): says their canned foods are made at a different facility (South Dakota), not at either of the two affected by the recall (Kansas and New Jersey), and they supply all of their own ingredients.
Nature's Variety
Newman's Own Organics
Performatrin
Wellness
Wysong
Again, only canned and pouched foods are affected.
Go to Menu Foods for more information on the recall.
 
My husband took the cavs for a walk around the neighborhood today, and talked to a neighbor boy whose dog died from the food. :( He said his family is going to be in the Cleveland newspaper tomorrow.
 
It seems that EVERYONE knows SOMEONE who has been affected by this, and yet the numbers that the media are putting out are such a small reflection of what is really going on. It is quite disturbing...
 
OMG, I feel a real Epic coming on, but I'll resist.

We now know, without a doubt, that we are being RIPPED OFF. The same ingredients that go into Iams and Eucanuba, go into "Old Roy" and WalMart and other generic cheap food. We are sucked in with advertising that says if we love our pets we will spend two or three times as much money to get the exact same thing as the cheap stuff.
THIS is what I think is the main thing to YELL ABOUT.

If it is true that they tested the tainted food on live animals to see how many would die...Gee sounds just like the Pharmacudical Industry, the Automobile Industry and other Industries wagering cost of lawsuits vs profit.

Regarding Royal Canin, it is not involved in this situation. And as others have pointed out, only canned food or pouch food, in other words, wet foods have been affected. Hopefully that holds true. The depth of this seems to grow deeper every day.

For once, being unemployed and pretty broke has been a good thing for me. My dogs were eating Royal Canin, but as I was unemployed for many weeks, I integrated Pedigree Small Breed with the Royal Canin and finally switched over completely.

I believe those who say that having Corn in dog or cat food is the worst thing for them, but Royal Canin and Pedigree both have corn. It didn't make me happy when I finally read the ingreds on RC and learned it had corn.

My dogs both love the Pedigree. My picky Cav, who wouldn't eat darn near anything really likes it.

I'll switch back to a non-corn food as soon as I can, but in the meantime, thank goodness Pedigree is absolutely not manufactured by Menu Foods, and my wonderful dogs are safe.

Ok, fine, it's like a mini-epic. icon_whistling
 
A family in my neighborhood lost their 15 yr old Norwegian Elkhound due to the recalled food. :(
Here is the newspaper article:
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1174639656208580.xml&coll=2
I think the way they are keeping the numbers of deaths and affected pets so low is by requiring you to have the empty food container. Most people just throw it in the trash; now they have no proof. :x

Also there are many, many veterinarians and animal hospitals in the Cleveland area, but the article only mentions 2 vet practices. :(
 
I feed California Natural.....and I gave my dogs some of the canned California Natural today....makes me nervous tho, so I am only going to feed dry from now. This is appalling!!

:yikes
 
My cousin sent me the information below from an Associated Press article:

ALBANY, N.Y. (March 23) - Rat poison was found in the pet food suspected of causing kidney failure that killed at least 16 cats and dogs, but scientists still don't know how it got there, state officials said Friday
The toxin was identified as aminopterin, which is used to kill rats in some countries, state Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker said.

Aminopterin is not registered for killing rodents in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, though it is used as a cancer drug. State officials wouldn't speculate on how the toxin got into Menu Foods' now-recalled pet food but said no criminal investigations had been launched.

Scientists at the New York State Animal Health Diagnostic Center at Cornell and at the New York State Food Laboratory tested three cat food samples provided by Menu Foods and found Aminopterin in two of them. Hooker said they would test individual components of the pet food, as well. The early test results were released to give veterinarians a better idea of how to treat sick animals.

"Any amount of this product is too much in food," Hooker said.


Signs of Trouble
Experts advise owners to call their veterinarian if a pet has eaten recalled food and shows symptoms of possible kidney failure. An animal could be in trouble if it:

· Stops eating
· Appears tired and lifeless
· Seems excessively thirsty
· Urinates much more than usual
· Vomits
· Has diarrhea
· Seems to have abdominal pain

Source: USA Today
Aminopterin, also used as a cancer drug, is highly toxic in high doses. It inhibits the growth of malignant cells and suppresses the immune system.

In dogs and cats, it can cause kidney failure, according to Donald Smith, dean of Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine.

The Food and Drug Administration has said the investigation into the pet deaths was focusing on wheat gluten in the pet food. Wheat gluten itself would not cause kidney failure, but the common ingredient could have been contaminated, the FDA said.

Bob Rosenberg, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Pest Management Association, said he had never heard of the substance before Friday.

"It would make no sense to spray a crop itself with rodenticide," Rosenberg said, though he said grain shippers typically put bait stations around the perimeter of their storage facilities.
 
Now our newspaper is reporting on two categories of kidney failure: acute and chronic. With chronic kidney failure the symptoms will be noticed gradually over a period of weeks and can be more subtle. Both types of kidney failure require immediate veterinary care. With chronic kidney failure, it is typically not an immediate danger, but lost kidney function cannot be regained and the goal of treatment is to stop any more damage.

I looked at the FDA website this morning, and their focus is on acute kidney failure only. There was no mention of watching for chronic symptoms over the next weeks.

Anyone who still has pet food containers of the recalled food they fed their pets should keep the containers and the dates fed. And keep a log of dates and symptoms noticed in addition to vet records.
 
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