I hope all of us pet owners have seen the recent discussions

[rumpel]

on GD about food -

there have been several posts here on our beloved friends departures...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x443453

[cassiepriam]

1. Rumpel, I also noticed the number of recent pet deaths and wondered what

might be going on. Could there be a link between
the recent deaths and the tainted pet food?

[rumpel]

2. I find this awful..

but not surprised in terms of how these products are made - human and pet
I was advised by our holistic vet to feed them Innova it has no fillers and junk but it is over $40 for the big dry food bag even at a local discount pet store. I have not been able to afford the good stuff now for many months..so now it's supermarket - Pedigree on sale.
canned food, wood be a luxury at this time for us, too - so in a sense we're lucky

here again - we see the difference of wealth and health imposed on the citizens - It really should not be this way.

the last post from kestrel91316 is

132. A sampling of reports from vets on a forum:

".....I am currently treating 6 cats, 1 died. All from same house, completely indoor animals. They ate Iams...."


"...What do advise to a client who was feeding one of the non-PG brands of food? I had a 6yo DSH that I euthanized last week due to renal failure. She had been eating "Special Kitty" canned for 5 years and started acting lethargic, increasing PU/PD for a month. Necropsy showed no crystals, or other etiology. Just looked like CRF kidneys in an otherwise decently healthy cat.
Owner still has cans with the code numbers on them and all her receipts.
Who does she/I call to report/complain?..."


"...I work at an emergency clinic and we are inundated with calls from paniced owners. Since our techs work at a large number of other practices in the area, they are all saying that they have seen a large number of renal cases this past week. I also have a staff member with an 11 month old cat, who eats one of the brands recalled and now has a CR of 13, BUN of >140, and Ca+ Ox crystals in his urine. Tested neg for EG. This is a little unnerving...."


"...I posted a few weeks ago about 2 indoor only cats in acute renal failure...owner fed Iam's pouches intermittently...both cats responded to intensive IV fluid therapy...BUN, Creat and Phos were normal at recheck yesterday. We were killing ourselves trying to figure out how this happened, as there was no apparent toxin exposure. Another associate in the hospital has had one cat die (Iams exclusively) and one cat with an acute Creat spike (Iams intermittently). I haven't seen any dogs with problems. I feed my own animals Iams canned foods so I'm freaking out a little right now...."

simply awful -

on edit: I am so upset - I forgot to respond to your post - only the owners can probably put the symptoms and the food connection. kestrel said, in older cats she sees renal failure problems but this is acute, and in the past dozen or so years, she only had seen one acute case -

[cassiepriam]

3. Yes it is. And it could be even worse.

I just read a post on GD which says that human food is also manufactured
by only a few big companies but packaged under different brands. This could have happened to us!

I was looking yesterday at the March prayer thread and some of the posts on
the astro forum and I was very much struck by all the pet deaths this month.
Could it be tainted food that is causing the health problems?

Please everyone, check your pet food.

[rumpel]

4. Yes - and someone in that thread posted this helpful link

this is about good food -

http://www.dogaware.com/dogfeeding.html#commercial

at the bottom of the page are links to more information specialized to cats dietary needs and manufacturers..

[DemExpat]

5. I immediately checked if the food I give my Bonnie

Royal Canine, was on the list of tainted food....

I do give her various brands along with fresh food - also organic - to try to avoid any negative concentrations or imbalances of nutrients or additives to any one brand.

:-(

DemEx

[mother earth]

6. I feed my dogs dry Royal Canin too. We usually do give them

some of the holistic wet brands too, but hadn't done that for awhile, they've been getting some table scraps lately along with their dry food. They've been doing well. I think I'm going to stick with this for now on. We also give them carrot sticks as treats and brewers yeast tabs with EFAs. We gave up the grocery store brands a long time ago.

If you read the dog food labels it's downright scary what is considered food for man's best friend.

[momzno1]

7. Bones and Raw food Diet. the best for pets

My cats eat only raw chicken necks and raw ground rabbit occasionally. They are healthy, gorgeous coats, no litter box smell at all!!! and they have perfect teeth, with never a need for dental care because of the chewing of bones.
Bones don't splinter unless they are cooked.
It is a great option and much cheaper than "quality" high end dry food.

[Holly_Hobby]

8. I'm a raw feeder, too

My dogs' are healthy and happy. They get chicken, pork, turkey, beef, and rabbit, with organs. The only supplement they get is salmon oil to balance the Omenga 6's.

One of my previous dogs had severe food allergies and it led me first to feeding cooked ground lamb and rice. His allergies vanished. The next step was raw. He lived to be 15.

[DemExpat]

10. I'm hesitant to feed a raw meat diet because of hormones/antibiotics in regular

meats here, while organic meats would be far too expensive.

So I hedge my bets by giving my dog part good quality dried food, organic canned dog food, and small amounts of meats/vegetables and whole grains that we eat.

She does seem to do very well on this diet so far.

But in principle I see how a raw diet would be the most natural for a dog.

:hi:

DemEx

[tanyev]

9. Can you answer a question for me?

My kitty always begs for a handout when I am cooking raw meat, but I have been hesitant to give him any because of all the nasty ways we can get sick if we eat meat that has not been thoroughly cooked. Are cats able to handle it better than humans? They don't get sick?