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NATURAL BALANCE ....... Urgent!!

Zippy

Well-known member
Natural Balance has a notice on their website, to STOP feeding pets any of their VENISON products.

Dogs are having kidney problems and vomiting.

Please google Natural Balance to get their warnings.....if I could make a link, I would. Sorry.
 
I think this link should work:

http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/

Really does not tell much though :(

My sister's dog is on this food. :mad: So annoying ... what can we do right for them? He's allergic to Chicken too - so he has such limited choices. Did you ever try to withhold chicken for a dog? It's not easy ...
 
I just called our vets' office to ask what they suggest......they've been suggesting that people feed home-cooked meals to their pets.

They have recipes and will supply vitamin and mineral supplements to their clients for free.

Mary Alice better like my cooking! :)

She seemed to like her mashed potatoes and mince with veggies. ;D
 
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Hmm isnt that fancy.. oh and gues what?! There's no wheat gluten in NB! So what's causing the problem now?? :bang::bang::bang:

It seems like they still know nothing! :mad:
 
No, it's not from Menu Foods....they have no idea what's wrong.

So far, they've only noted the Venison and Brown Rice.....but if they don't know what's wrong....hmmm.

We're now cooking for Mary Alice on the advice of our vets' office.

They are suggesting that ALL pets eat human grade food only. :)
 
I may switch Faith to 100% NV Raw while this is going on - right now she's on organic (USDA human grade) chicken .. it's a bit more expensive but it's at least pure .. .. ..

Kos is on Evo and will eat nothing else (scary.)

I really hope they find out the problem soon. . . :xfngr:
 
DAMN IT!!! I am scared even to go get the premade raw food stuff now. I am just so nervous about cooking for 4 dogs because what if I don't get their nutritional balance right?? UGH!!! I couldn't be more frustrated!! If it was just limited to Menu Foods, I would feel a lot better but now nothing is safe.

Not to mention the fact that feeding NV Raw to 4 dogs would cost more than my mortgage payment.
 
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Oh my goodness, this is what I feed Cupcake. :( :( :( I haven't noticed any health issues yet, thank goodness, but I'm going to call the vet just in case.

This makes me so angry; I purchased this brand of food because it claimed to be high quality. Looks like I'm going to have to do home cooked meals for her from now on, I just don't trust the pet food industry anymore.
 
I merged the threads. (another nice feature of the board -- couldn't merge threads on the old board, only split them).
 
It is being reported that the dogs are going into acute renal failure, exhibiting urinary crystals, having no symptoms but large outputs of urine and dying. We feed NB chicken w/rice. Is that next? Other than home cooking, what is safe and who do you believe.
 
I'm crossposting something i just read on cavaliersnaturally mail list, very sad and frightening.

Forwarded with permission. Please forward to anyone you think may be
feeding this food:

Dear Cavalier Friends, Breeders, Family and Acquaintances,

Last week our dogs began getting sick. We first thought that they had
somehow contracted a stomach virus from our family, because we had
been sick with a stomach virus earlier in the week. I took two of my
dogs to my local vet and she said to withhold food for 12-24 hours
until their vomiting stopped. We did this and then slowly started
adding in cooked chicken breast and white rice to their diet. At
first it appeared as though they were all improving. Then by late
Friday night my oldest girl, Katy, Roweland Tequilla Sunrise began to
go down hill quickly. I took her back to my vet early Saturday
morning and my vet said that she appeared to be in Acute Renal
Failure?by 6:00 p.m. Saturday, we very sadly lost our precious Katy
girl.

By late Saturday night, Abby our 10 month old little girl from
Germany, Rosebury Royal Queen began showing signs of decline. Sunday
morning, we loaded up 3 of our dogs and started on our way to Texas
A& M University's Small Animal Emergency Clinic. We took Abby and our
Champion Proudfox Timothy Tinsel (Timmy), and Rivermead Lady Letitia
(Tia). All but Abby, still had a good appetite at this point, the
only signs we were seeing was large amounts of urine output. We made
the 3-hour trip and once arriving, we quickly learned that all three
dogs were in Acute Renal Failure.

The doctors at A&M were almost certain that it was from some sort of
Toxic Exposure and being that we recently moved to a new house about
7 weeks ago, we were exploring all possibilities, such as our water,
our soil, etc. We came back home very late Sunday night. Monday
morning, we quickly began calling Environmental Specialists?both
municipal and private agencies.

Monday morning, we learned that Abby had taken a rapid decline at the
hospital overnight and that her chances were very slim at best. The
doctors requested that we let her go and have them perform an autopsy
in order to perhaps figure this out and save the other dogs. By
Monday afternoon, we loaded up again with our remaining dogs and took
them to A&M University Hospital.

Regalcourt Peach Bellini, Peaches, is in severe acute renal failure
with her numbers being off the chart.

We will see this morning if she has made any improvement overnight.
Regalcourt Joyous Holly our 6 month old girl, has one number off the
chart, but another number close to normal range. There is good hope
for her. And Regalcourt Zoe Girl, is fairing the best, mostly because
she has always been a very particular eater, never eating real dog
food unless she had to, more often she was fed cottage cheese and
turkey breast from the refrigerator.

With several college professors and doctors, fortunately for us,
verifiably some of the best in the nation, working on our case,
around 9:00 p.m. last night (4-16-07), the doctors met with us and
confirmed that it was the Natural Balance Venison and Brown Rice Dog
food that is the cause. The autopsy on Abby confirmed the crystal
formation that is seen in all the renal failure cases concerning the
recent dog food recalls. The college staff shared with us that notice
had just been provided by the FDA that Dick Van Patten's Natural
Balance Venison and Brown Rice was added to the list late yesterday
evening.

At this point we are prayerful and hopeful that some of our Cavaliers
will recover with the intensive 24 hr. top notch care that A&M
University is giving. We are however, completely devastated to say
the least. It feels as though our world has been turned upside down.
Please keep us in your prayers. We have phoned a few people that we
know that are also feeding Natural Balance?if you know anyone please
feel free to forward this email and cross post. When we asked, with
the list of "bad" foods so long, what is safe to feed? The doctors
response was paused ?you might say reluctant?to say anything that
might later be discovered to be misleading...or wrong. The doctors
said their best answer is "We just don't know for sure what food is
safe?what food will be added to the list next."

For those of you that do not know us, we are active within our clubs.
The Kennel Club of Greater Victoria, where I serve as Treasurer, and
also The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club of Greater Houston, I
publish the newsletter.

We pray you and your beloved companions are all well and safe,

Dave and Jennifer Snell
 
holy cow Judy that's really frightening. Thanks for posting that. I don't know anybody that feeds NB but I have samples (of the venison and rice) at home.. I will be throwing those out the window.

Prayers and *hugz* :hug::hug::hug::hug: for that family and everybody else affected by this. :(

It's started to get really frightening as maybe it's NOT the wheat gluten causing the problem?

Are these cavaliers the only ones who have had trouble on the NB?
 
No, it's not from Menu Foods....they have no idea what's wrong.

So far, they've only noted the Venison and Brown Rice.....but if they don't know what's wrong....hmmm.

We're now cooking for Mary Alice on the advice of our vets' office.

They are suggesting that ALL pets eat human grade food only. :)
I think opting to cook home food is a good alternative for those that want to but not necessary. However, I dont think a vet should be stating all pets should be on a home cooked meal. It takes quite a bit of knowledge to balance the proteins/fats etc.. As mentioned in other posts, there is no regulation in vitamen production human or other - alot of problems exist there on its own. Panic is going to cause even more problems when some owners take homecooked (not you I am generalizing) to mean sharing your meat and veggies plate with your pet.

There is not so much a mysterious problem so much as Menu Foods produced all food of recent issues and two other have surfaced. Normally, its not unusal for a recall of one or two but they go silently under the media radar - now with Menu's huge product recall - all eyes are on the food industry. If you visit the FDA website it amazes me just how many products are recalled daily we never knew about and continued ingesting.
 
Even if they are seperate instances, it doesn't make me feel any better about feeding commercial food/treats to my dogs.

I am really glad that the media is picking up on this because for how long have we been giving toxins to our dogs and not knowing it? How many other salmonella outbreaks in treats have there been with no one taking responsiblity for it? How many other dogs/cats have died of renal failure without knowing the cause when some CEO knew of the problem, and just didn't say a word. The pet food industry is a billion dollar industry with no regulations for quality. That doesn't seem right or fair to the consumer who is padding the big wigs pockets and blowing money on vet bills to find the source of the illness in their pets.

This isn't directed at you Kodee, I am just enfuriated with this entire process.
 
Even if they are seperate instances, it doesn't make me feel any better about feeding commercial food/treats to my dogs.

I am really glad that the media is picking up on this because for how long have we been giving toxins to our dogs and not knowing it? How many other salmonella outbreaks in treats have there been with no one taking responsiblity for it? How many other dogs/cats have died of renal failure without knowing the cause when some CEO knew of the problem, and just didn't say a word. The pet food industry is a billion dollar industry with no regulations for quality. That doesn't seem right or fair to the consumer who is padding the big wigs pockets and blowing money on vet bills to find the source of the illness in their pets.

This isn't directed at you Kodee, I am just enfuriated with this entire process.

That's ok, I totally agree! I am in no way standing up for the pet food industry! I am just saying no one panic and throw all their manufactured food away when they drive home. Pet owners need to spend a fair amt of time understanding how to mix it, ensure allergies dont develop and above all, realize vitamen suppliments - (re seakelp, recent canadian children vitamen recall on NUMEROUS multi products ect...) exist as JUST a potential health hazzard. To throw out kibble and rely on homecooked not properly balanced and to boot loaded with manufacturered vitamens is not exactly solving the problem.

I am simple saying dont panic, think it through, consult your vet and do your best.
 
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