More Pet Food recalled

[Dot Matrix]

We have had cats and dogs die and get very sick at the animal hospital where I am employed.

Started off with the (menu foods) company or the news reporting 12 brands, then 42 then 95 brands of food were bad. They swore the dry was okay --

The grocery store up the street pulled its dry food even though it was not listed --- do they know something? I dunno

But....

On Saturday Hill's came and pulled M/D dry food. It is a perscription diet food.

Looking for Advice:

Last week, I called the emergency room and they are telling people to use junior baby food (make sure there are no onions) and cut up bolied skinless chicken and add cooked rice -- until the dust settles. (no seasonings, no salt, no onions just chicken and rice)

Paul Newman's and other organics had nothing to do with the manufacturing plant(s) that caused the problems, so they are a good thing to try.

The bad food: The kidneys present as if they have anti-freeze posioning, odd crystals in the urine and then death. If you have used the food (the recalled) get to your vet for a blood test and some fluids to flush the kidneys.

Edited April 2, 2007 by Dot Matrix

[excathedra]

what is M/D dry food ? the M/D part ?

the same as all the wet food ?

[Dot Matrix]

Good luck. This is awful. People are in a panic

Solid Gold and Canidae still okay from I have read.

M/D is a DRY food made by Hill's (the people who make the Science Diet) for kidney problems.

To be safe, the emergency room is suggesting what I wrote above until the dust settles.

M/D

http://www.hillspet.com/menu_foods/Menu_Fo...02007_en_US.htm

I would not buy any commercial stuff right now to be safe.

Make your own, use an organic brand -- not Nutro as one of the pet marts push that as natural and it was listed

The companies keep saying things are being pulled in a volunteer manner.

I am listening to the emergency room, everyone can do whatever they want

IMHO

[excathedra]

thanks

[dmiller]

What about Purina Dog Chow?

(No pets here at my place,

but this is what I used to feed the Husky I once had.

Just curious).

A friend of mine swears by Iams for their dogs.

[Dot Matrix]

I called Purina and none of their food is on the recall list. But like I said, I am just saying what the emergency room is saying to do until the dust settles

[Dot Matrix]

Iams is on the list and the grocery store I went to, pulled even their dry food. I am not sure why as only the wet was listed.

Iams had a great recipee and about 4 years ago it was bought by another company and changed the recipee I heard. Dogs started itching and scratching the same way they did on the cheaper foods. Investigate it if you like

[Dot Matrix]

Plus read the site I have posted at the bottom -- people's pets are dying on dry food.example of what someone said about I@ms:

Cheap ingredients that actually make your cat gain weight, October 30, 2006

Reviewer: J. Kasper "Crazy cat woman" (PA) - See all my reviews

I fed my cat Iams Weight Control for 3 years before she died of stomach cancer. In that time she only lost weight when the cancer started. Her coat was dull and rough.

That experience led me to research feline nutrition both online and by talking to animal nutritionists. If you read the ingredient list in Iams Weight Control, you'll see that most of the first few ingredients are corn and other grains. Cats are carnivores and need a high-protein diet, not a high-carb diet. The extra carbs are stored as fat. If you have an overweight cat, steer clear of Iams and go with a high-protein, low-carb, grain free premium food.

My two young cats eat a variety of high quality food. I feed them 3-4 times a day and they are at a perfect weight. Their coats are shiny and soft. Iams used to be a good food until they were bought out by a mega company who only cares about profits. You can feed your cats a lot better food than this.

http://www.amazon.com/Iams-Active-Weight-C...a/dp/B000633X4Q

LOOK at this site:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1809204/posts

My eight-yr-old cat suddenely died three weeks ago after eating dry dog food (Nutro). This was before the recall was announced. The our first thought was, "he must have eaten something, but all he ever ate was dry food - so how could that happen?" He was simply lying on his side under the porch, no signs of trauma, no visible signs of ANYTHING. Just dead...

Now we're really wondering. He died so suddenly we didn't have any warning.

I'm calling my vet today to ask if it was possible for him to die from eating tainted dry food. Like you, I wonder how they know the tainted product was only in the wet food if they don't know what the tainted product IS (they said they didn't know how the amnopterin got in there). It would certainly be prudent to test all the food to make sure that the poison in question is NOT in the dry foods as well. I have never sued anyone for any reason, so this is purely out of interest for the safety of the food supply - for ALL of us.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: devane617

My dog died Wed night. He was 2 years old and healthy. He vomited once during day Wed, but showed no other signs of illness, running, playing, we woke up Thursday am and he was dead. We only fed him dry food, Gravy Train. I wanted to get autopsy, but my hubby didn't. We were sure it wasn't the food because we never feed him canned.

We are all unsure but until the dust settles..... Chicken rice and Junior baby food!

[Watered Garden]

Re: Iams - Sophie's allergic to Iams for seniors, so I quit getting it right away. Been getting natural choice or something like that, or Beneful, which I don't think is the best. But it was inexpensive at CostCo..

[washingtonweather]

Eukaneuba was also bought out bout 11 years ago and is not what it was either.

[Belle]

Wheat gluten is used in a majority of human processed foods as well and this wheat gluten was sold as "food grade", not "feed grade" meaning it was deemed acceptable for human foods as well. You'd be surprised at how much "human" food also has wheat gluten in it.

They cannot guarantee that contaminated gluten was not used in any "human" food and I wouldn't take their word for it, either based on how much this recall continues to expand. <_<

"Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine said the FDA is not aware of any contaminated gluten that went into human food but said he could not confirm this "with 100 percent certainty." Wheat gluten is a common food additive used as a thickener, dough conditioner, and meat substitute. It is widely used as an additive in commercial bakery items and special purpose flours." (source)

Humans vary our diet on a daily basis and our systems are much larger and much more durable in the face of contamination than a small dog or cat who eats the same thing every day, so it *could* just be a matter of time before there's even more bad news to come down the pike.

There are at least 17 companies in China who supply wheat gluten to the US. BUT Menu Foods got this gluten from a US DISTRIBUTOR who bought the gluten from the Chinese distributor:

"The head of Menu Foods, the manufacturer of the recalled pet food, said today it had dropped

the U.S. supplier of the imported ingredient

. Paul Henderson also suggested his company would sue the unnamed supplier."

Source

"The FDA announced today that it has traced the contaminated wheat gluten to a single processor, Xuzhou Anying Biological Technology of Peixian, China, but

has not released the name of the U.S. distributor who supplied the product

to Del Monte, Menu Foods, Nestle Purina, and Hills Nutritional."

Source

Who else does this US DISTRIBUTOR ship the wheat gluten to? This wheat gluten is used in everything from human food and pharmaceuticals to cosmetics.

Here is a sampling of things that contain gluten.

I use Bil Jac and recommend it. (WW, I switched from Eukanuba after they sold out.) Frankly, right now, Bil Jac is just about the only thing I do trust outside of cooking my own food from scratch - I wouldn't even trust baby food for my fur-baby right now. Bil Jac doesn't use any gluten in their products.

Here's a great list of alternative safer foods for your pet.

And another site with good information.

I like to think that I'm not an alarmist, but in this case, I am very carefully considering my own diet as carefully as I am considering Vixen's. It's not just that I don't trust the FDA (I don't), but I have zero confidence in their ability to investigate and act quickly when/if they are alerted to any additional danger.

Edited April 3, 2007 by Belle

[waterbuffalo]

Belle, your sources of information constantly amaze me. Is there anything you don't know about?????? (meant in the nicest possible way, of course :B)

So, Bil Jac, does it have to be ordered off the web or do you have a local source?

Thanks Dot and Belle for all of your helpful comments, btw.

Also, I've often wondered how much more it would cost to feed dogs with real chicken and rice. If anyone has done the math, it would be fun to compare how much more it really would be.

Edited April 3, 2007 by waterbuffalo