REPORTS OF IAMS *DRY* CAUSING ILLNESS

[Holly_Hobby]

Thanks to nicknameless for heads up and link.

Update 3:30pm: We will be collecting emails over the next few days and release a result early next week. In the meantime, if you believe your pet was sickened by ANY kind of pet food, please contact the manufacturer and/or the FDA.

Original Post: We want to repeat that Iams dry pet food is NOT a part of the recall (it only applies to wet food) but itchmo has been hearing of several independent reports that Iams dry pet food has caused illnesses in at least three independent cases. All three reports of pets getting sick has singled out Iams dry food as the cause.

We’re not sure if this is anything more than just coincidence. But, we haven’t seen other dry food being singled out for illness and we’re curious. If you believe your dog has been sickened by dry food, or know of any reports that say so, please email us at [e-mail] and we’ll see if we can log more possible cases.

Reports of Iams dry dog food problems:

Seattle P-I
Gothamist First Reports
Gothamist Second Report
Colorado paper reports FDA investigating food not on the recall list.

Cities: All

http://www.itchmo.com/read/several-unconfirmed-reports-of-iams-dry-food-causing-illness_20070323

Read the posts by pet owners below the article....heartbreaking.

[Kagemusha]

1. Just on the wild chance it's relevant..

I keep recalling a DU poster who wrote that she'd given her pet a wet food pouch that came as a sample with dry food. It wouldn't be beyond the realm of possibility that these samples were forgotten but played a role in later difficulty for these pets.

Not like I really know, and not like the investigators shouldn't chase down every realistic possibility, including this one.

[Holly_Hobby]

4. I remember that too

Anything's possible at this point. They need to give us answers NOW.

[Kagemusha]

10. I agree, they need to get on top of the dry food issue.

I know they're 'investigating' and they're under a lot of pressure but, then again, so are pet owners.

[napi21]

7. You're right! I forgot about that free sample. Idon't feed my kids Iams

so I didn't take advantage of the coupon, but I do remember having a coupon for a free pouch of the "NEW" Iams chunks with gravy I think it was called. That very well could be the connection to the Iams ill dogs.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

2. Oh great. Just great.

x(

[spoony]

3. P & G says that they make their own dry food

So it would not be associated with this mess, since it isn't made by Menu Foods.

[Holly_Hobby]

6. Please read the 51 responses on that blog n/t

[spoony]

11. The fifty-one responses

without any firm links, are useless. Unless you're saying that there is, coincidentally, a wholly different food poisoning issue going on or that Iams is simply lying about where they make their dry food, then this is nothing more than rumour.

Neither you nor I know who these commenters are.

[CountAllVotes]

14. true enough

It was scaring me - was saying Nutro Chicken dry cat food had sickened cats and they had died!

This is really getting WAY out of hand! We must know the truth about this before the entire country goes into a state of extreme panic!

:kick:

[spoony]

16. This will happen during any crisis

Rumours start flying and people start collecting goods for the bunker, figuratively in this case (uh, so far). I admit I was running around this weekend checking ingredients and where things are manufactured and all of that. So I read the page from the OP several days ago.

That's how I know Iam's dry food has nothing to do with Menu so, unless there's some cross-contamination as suggested by some up-thread, I don't think there's a reason to do any more than keep an eye on it at this point.

And I agree, I wish they'd just get it under control and figured out so that we could stop worrying about this--there's plenty else to worry about, after all! :P

[Holly_Hobby]

20. There are links to newspaper articles

I only read one of them.

I'm kinda dense - why would it make any difference if they make their own food? Does that mean there's no chance of contamination?

[spoony]

22. What I mean is

that the contamination is, as far as we know, linked to Menu Foods production of "wet" pet food, not even their production of dry food, let alone the dry food of a company besides Menu.

And trust me, I'm worried too. But as we all know here the media is easily as prone to rumour as any online source, but at this point I don't see a reason to suspect Iam's dry foods.

It should also be noted that the current focus of contamination, wheat gluten, isn't used in dry foods (DUer Kestrel, a vet, confirmed that).

[kenny blankenship]

5. My brother's cat died Mar 10. She only ate IAMS dry and was diagnosed with diabetes and pacreatitis

I fed her the last week and a half of her life through a tube in her neck. So far during this food recall I have resisted blaming IAMS, because I believed that she only ate the dry stuff, not canned, but IAM beginning to think she was poisoned, too, by the dry IAMS food. She was only 6 years old and had easily half her life and more ahead of her.

[Holly_Hobby]

9. I'm so sorry

:hug:

I lost two of my beloved dogs in the past two years. There's a hole in my heart that I'll carry to my grave.

[Gregorian]

26. I'm so sorry about that.

These posts have reignited the wound that happened only three months ago when my cat died. He was everything to me. I'm now beginning to think it was poisoning from the food I was using.

How can we ever heal? I've tried communicating with my family, but it's unimportant to most people because it's only a cat. Well, as I can see from you and others here, we have bigger hearts than that. I'm worried that I also may never get over this. I just hope you and the others can all find a peace with the loss.

[satya]

48. I'm so sorry your family is so unsupportive.

I hope you reach out to other people who understand that it's not "only a cat". I also hope that you're not blaming yourself; if it was the food (and there is no way to know) it's not your fault -- we all are taking care of our pets in the best way that we can, and how could you have possibly known there may have been a risk? It's also possible that your sweet kitty was born with something that contributed to his untimely death. He was very fortunate to have spent his time here with someone who obviously loved him very, very much.

You probably won't ever really get over it (nor would you want to, really, because you'll want to keep him in your heart) but the passing of time will make it easier to forget the painful parts and just remember the good times. It must be really hard right now, with this constantly in the news.

:hug:

[Gregorian]

49. It really is hard with all of this in the news.

But I called the pet store today. I believe he was no subjected to the tainted food.

Man, some relationships can be so special. Every time I went to turn on the coffee grinder I would look over at Bart, and there he was looking at me like "There's milk involved". Or when I go to get a bowl of cereal. Milk involved. He was so cute.

But survival means not being too bogged down in sadness. I'm working on the other side. Thankfulness that we had ten years. I guess I feel like some things in life are very very special.

Let's be big. Let's let there be sadness and happiness at the same time.

[spoony]

12. Anything more to connect them?

Because those aren't even in line with the current tainted food symptoms.

[REP]

28. Probably Nothing to do with Contamination Issue and Everrything to do with IAMS now Being Crappy Foo

IAMS used to be excellent food, but since P&G bought it, the quality of the food went in the crapper. I sropped feeding it then, due soley to the downgrade in ingredients. They've been eating Nutro Natural Choice dry - I may be switching to Royal Canin!

[femmedem]

53. Unconfirmed problems with Nutro dry;

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=243x24787

There is also another thread in the Pets forum saying that the ASPCA says the animals' symptoms are not entirely consistent with rat poison ingestion, and that there might be another cause.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=243x24858

[kenny blankenship]

30. She vomited a lot and drank water very frequently, before the hospitalization

I don't know all of her symptoms because I didn't take care of her continuously until she was very ill and back from the hospital, and also I never spoke to the doctors.

[PhilipShore]

35. My cat was drinking tons of water --

as well as urinating frequently.

I am almost positive it was from the new brand of dry food, that I purchased around Christmas time at Kmart's -- and it was odd -- she would not eat it, but -- I thought it was because I had changed her diet.

I thought at first it was Iams; but it could of been another brand, like Max/Nutro, either one of those two. I only gave her a few bags of it around the Christmas season.

She is doing fine now, the vet gave her a blood test, and she has no Kidney problems, just Diabetes -- but that is better then Kidney problems.

He advised -- me to change her diet, and now she is doing fine, she runs all around the apartment, often -- and is not drinking tons of water, as she was before, and smiles, and does not shed as much hair as before; I think she likes her new diet -- holistic Halo Spot's Stew for Cats -- and the Vitamins I give her.

I also think the vet said her sugar level was 250, or something like that -- another cat was bothering her at the vet -- that could of raised her blood sugar levels. I am not a Vet though.

[LiberalHeart]

38. I got a bag of Iams in December -- same type my cat always eats -- and she wouldn't touch it.

Went out and got another bag of the same stuff and she gobbled it up.

[cascadiance]

41. Shoot, put my last post on here too soon. So it is affecting cats too?...

I have two cats who I feed separately now.

Early I was feeding them both dry adult IAMS. Then one that had a bigger appetite was eating too much and was having what at one point appeared to be life threatening respiratory problems as a result of his excess weight, so I switched him to measured amounts of RD Formula I've been getting from the vet, and he's doing a lot better now, but still at times sneezes a little. Still fed the other IAMS. She's now got hormone problems and I have to give her half a pill each day for that. Not sure if that's related at all to the IAMS or not, or if its primarily because both are getting old (12-13 years old), but I think I will go and ask my vet about this.

[nicknameless]

8. I just posted this info too, I hadn't seen your thread.

I'll delete mine

K&R

Edited for clarity and to add: Some beloved pets have *died* after eating Iams dry food as well.

Thank you for posting this thread.

[Holly_Hobby]

19. I saw your post in another thread about this

I thought it needed it's own thread. I didn't think you were still here. I'm sorry.

Thanks for bringing this site to my attention. I signed up for their alerts.

[nicknameless]

24. You were right -- this did need its own thread.

Thank you for posting it.

:hug:

[gravity]

13. I think people are overreacting

Every single pet death can be linked to pet food, so I think these reports come from confirmation bias rather than real evidence.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

27. I'm not so sure...

I fed my dog Award food exclusively for a number of months last year, before all this came up in the news. I gave him a variety of flavors, including the "cuts in sauce" that are involved in the controversy. I noticed that he seemed to be getting sluggish; and he started losing interest in the "cuts in sauce" flavors. He also was pretty gassy, and drank a lot of water.

So I decided to buy a different brand, labelled as "easy to digest", and he was significantly better within a couple of days. I've been feeding him Alpo and Pedigree for the most part, because I can't afford the really expensive brands all the time; but he hasn't had any problem since I stopped feeding him the Award.

I think there's more to this than companies are willing to admit.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

15. Oh my god....Thank you so much for posting this!

I've given my cats Iams hairball for their evening feeding. I'm going to stop immediately.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

21. me too.

I think I'm going to start feeding them baby food for a while, per a suggestion from another DUer whose vet recommends that. They're my babies, anyhow.

This is unbelievable. Bastards using cheap Chinese wheat, laced in who knows what.

:nuke:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

32. Baby food?

Any particular type?

If the pet food companies are using cheap Chinese wheat, I wonder who else is... :scared:

[CrazyOrangeCat]

34. Gerber's chicken, turkey, beef . . .

It's expensive, but so is everything else.

And yeah, this is unsettling as hell.

The culture of greed that is the hallmark of all Repukes, is behind this, too.

(See, I can blame the bastards for nearly everything. It's easy!)

They've finally crossed the line. NOBODY messes with Autumn, Chessie, Whiskers, and Stardust! Grrrrrrrrr.

I'm off to bed. Tho this is not sleep-inducive . . .

:hi:

[Lex]

17. This is what Hill's/Science Diet has on their page

about their cat food:

http://www.hillspet.com/menu_foods/Menu_Foods_en_US.htm

[Lisa0825]

23. I wrote a VERY ANGRY email to Hills....

because they chose to keep their beloved brand name off of the Menu Foods website and post their recall info only on their own website. I asked how many pets might have been endangered because they looked at Menu Foods and thought their pets were safe when their food was not listed there.

I got this reply today:

Dear Ms. Lisa0825:

Thank you for visiting HillsPet.com and contacting us with your concern. I certainly apologize to you for taking a few days to answer your email.

You bring up a good point regarding the Menu Foods notification and I will relate that to my company on your behalf. Thank you for caring enough about us to write to us.


Sincerely,


Elizabeth Offutt
Consumer Affairs


I didn't want to post a separate topic on this, but since you brought up Hill's, I thought I would toss this in.

[Lex]

29. Thanks for posting this.

Our 13 year old cat is on Science Diet dry, Prescription formula food.

They should be taken to task for not putting their recall info in with the main recall list. Not good.

[AZBlue]

33. That's not correct - Hills has always (voluntarily) been on the main recall list.

http://www.menufoods.com/recall/

[Lisa0825]

52. No, they were not.

I checked the first day it was posted and several times later. Maybe they added them later, but they were definitely not on there at first.

In fact, here is the initial list which was copied and pasted in this DU topic:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=430489&mesg_id=434083

No Hill's or Science Diet mentioned there.

[BeanCounting]

18. BENEFUL dry is causing problems too.........

and it started Dec. of 06. I wonder if this is more of the same shit? It sure stopped me feeding it to my dogs at the first hint of their claims that MOLD was making the animals sick, but the symptoms do sound related, CRAP!

<http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/beneful.asp>

[CrazyOrangeCat]

25. Thank you for posting this, Holly Hobby.

Kick this to the moon, people.

:grr:

[AZBlue]

31. This is terrifying - and extremely heartbreaking!

Thank you for this post - we should all keep a very close eye on this for any future developments.

I feed my cat Hill's Science Diet DRY food and was checking the ingredients yesterday - and sure enough wheat gluten is listed!! She's not sick, but that was an unsettling discovery.

[Pachamama]

36. It is terrifying - and it brings up a bigger question and issue about the overall safety of all the

pet foods in the market and their contents (and what is done to ensure their safety).

I will also say that if wheat gluten from chinese imports of wheat is the culprit, that it wouldn't or shouldn't be a crazy question to ask about the safety of our own foods for human consumption. With all the focus on the bottom line for company's profits, it wouldn't be impossible to think that a company could put a cheaper supply of wheat from china into their product (ie. kid's cereal) if it gave them greater profits.

I think this whole event has made many of us realize the scary possibilities of the whole supply issue and safety of food in general.

I like you, feed our pets Hill's Science Diet (dry and wet) and for us it included some of the recalled foods from Science Diet. I'm so upset that they sold their product from Menu Foods as if its so healthy for my pet, when its no different from the generic Safeway or Kroger's brand. That's the difference - I got to pay more to endanger my animal from the person who bought the safeway brand. It's so wrong that these companies, all of them don't take better care of their supply and input into the food for the animals. Even Menu Foods on their latest update, talk about how they are grateful to the NY officials who found the rat poison culprit in their tests. Why didn't Menu Foods peform the same tests? Why did they wait for someone else to figure it out? Can't they perform tests themselves? And if not, why not?

[AZBlue]

37. Those are excellent questions!

This really has brought up some awful realizations, for both us and our pets. I'm even questioning what happened to my cat, Sally, in the fall of 2005. She was older but in excellent health. Excellent. Then, all of a sudden she became sick, despite the fact that she was still eating (at least initially). Within one month I had to put her to sleep - she had non-specific pancreatitis, one of the results listed above. I wish I'd had the food tested at the time, but I just assumed it was old age. And maybe it was...but now, maybe it wasn't.

There has to be an overhaul of the food production industry (animal and people food). Peanut butter, dry and wet pet food, spinach and so on - this is a scary situation!

[Pachamama]

39. I have a friend who has made major changes in the way she "buys" food that she and her pets consume

And she made this decision about 2 years ago....For starters, she makes her own dog food. She buys frozen turkeys in particular when they are on sale and she cooks them and mixes a variety of things in, including vegetables etc. and then she freezes it and defrosts it as she needs it and then makes more. The dog, "Buddy" scarfs it up and loves it. She started doing it when he was having lots of digestive problems and nothing, including all the "expensive" Hills prescription foods etc. didn't work. With this food she makes, she knows what goes into it and he hasn't had any problems like he used to and its actually cheaper.

She also made an interesting discovery about the "distances" that food we purchase at stores goes before it makes it to our table. She understood about fruit and vegetables going to parts of the world that are colder than California, and we here in CA are fortunate that so many wonderful and fresh produce (especially organic) is grown within less than a 100 mils from here and is easy to get. But she was shocked to learn about how many foods travel an average of over 3000+ miles to make it to our tables - and processed foods with imported contents even more so if they contain ingredients coming from China or elsewhere. She made a choice to start buying food that came from within a 100 mile radius and with a few exceptions of things like wine or some goods from Oregon. She shops at the local farmers market for both produce and even meats etc. that are local. She gets her milk from the Straus Family Creamery that is here in Marin County, CA and has organic milk that unlike companies like Horizon and Safeway's private label brand that come from all over the country and multiple dairy farms, she can drive by and see where the cows are grazing.

She says she has never felt healthier and she knows where her food is coming from. She also feels that its a contribution on her behalf to reducing the greenhouse gases from the gas burned to truck food all over the country. I think that I'm going to consider switching over to this way of living and shop for my family's food the same way and even start making food for my pets too.

[AZBlue]

51. I've heard about that process too.

I generally try to buy organic but lately I've been hearing that local is healthier, whether organic or not. Makes a lot of sense really and this pet food recall has brought these facts to light. And, yes, I've also heard it in relation to environmentally responsible actions. It is perfectly logical - why worry about my extra car trips to the store when my food is being flown in from 2000 miles away?? We have a farmer's market here every Saturday and I'm actually going this weekend for the first time! I'm looking forward to it.

I'm looking into either natural processed pet food or making it myself - the only thing about making it yourself is that it may not have the added vitamins and minerals they need. For example, cats need taurine for their eyes and it's not easy to get in homemade food sometimes, so if I started making the food I'd want to make sure I added the most important minerals to it. (I've just started researching it all so I'm still not up on it all yet.)

The whole situation, with both our food and our pets', is so overwhelming. And scary. Once you start finding out a little bit about it, you feel the need to find out more and more - and yet you also feeel a little skeptical at first, thinking it can't really be that bad or more people would know about it. And yet it is. Amazing.

[cascadiance]

40. Any reports of dry cat food having problems?

I am just about ready to have to get another bag for my cat and don't want to get something bad.

[piesRsquare]

42. Pet Food Recall Information

Updated info on pet food recall http://2blackcats.wordpress.com

Includes:

-Link to list of recalled foods
-List and link to other lists of safe foods for dogs and cats
-Links to FDA and PetConnection databases for reporting sick or diseased pets
-Link to info about filing class action suit
-Link to list of Grief Support numbers/contacts
-Information and recommendations from the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)
-Clinical/medical information regarding the toxin and case presentation
-Links to other blogs following the recall

...and so on.

Click on the link above. Pass it around. Check the blog often. Link to it. I update it regularly--been up many long nights working on it. I'm a veterinary technician and have been following this whole deal very closely. The info there is up-to-date and accurate.

[lildreamer316]

43. THANK YOU so much!!!

Bookmarked for further use. I will check in often.

[piesRsquare]

44. Yer Welcome!

Glad it's of help...that's what it's meant to be! :-)

[NYC]

50. I had been to 2blackcats,

and passed the link to others. I didn't know it was your hard work. Thank you very much.

[w4rma]

45. 'free' trade and poor regulations and enforcement of regulations. (nt)

[PhilipShore]

47. Reagan's deregulation

[OhioChick]

46. Welcome to Globalization

Where no one is accountable for anything.