Meanwhile, Hill's Pet Nutrition recalled its Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry cat food. The food included wheat gluten from the same supplier that Menu Foods used. The recall didn't involve any other Prescription Diet or Science Diet products, said the company

That's one of the reasons I am so paranoid and try to do as much reasearch as possible about pet foods. Years ago I started reasearching dog foods and was appaled at what I found goes in it. I have since then, an have for a few years now, only fed all natural and/or holistic dog foods with human grade ingrediets.

I'm glad I use purina for my cats. They weren't on that list. And I hope they keep off of it. I've always used purina dry food. And they don't really eat the wet stuff but when they have it's been purina's fancy feast. If they were to pop up on the list..even if it wasn't my particular one..I would switch to an organic in a heartbeat!

I would think if your cat/dog hasn't already gotten sick from this incident, you will probably be ok. All the contaminated food has likely been withdrawn from shelves, so as long as you aren't feeding them something from a recalled brand you should be ok.

I have a friend who is a vet tech in TX and she said their clinic has been swamped with dogs and cats with these problems. This week alone they lost a cat and a yorkie and a 7 yr old Golden is bearly hanging on. All have their blood work come up with kidney failure.

I work at Mcd's, and my manager today, says she won't feed wet dog food to her dogs because in it they use the fat waste from Restaurants, and she's seen our grease get mixed up with some Degreaser when they are cleaning the grills...it runs into the grease...thought I'd let you know that. A truck picks up our grease weekly in barrows..and it's used for dog food, etc...

Carolyn

That TOTALLY grosses me OUT!!!
I use Blue Buffalo holistic dog food, and don't use canned foods at all..this IS very scarey...

Rebecca

Oh yes, it is disgussting what you find out that goes in most dog/cat foods. Unfortunately the huge companies whose brands you see in all grocery and supermarket stores will go for quantity not quality and try to make their food as cheap as possible which means they will get their supply of "ingredients" wherever they can at the cheapest price.



I use Canidae and have for years. All of their ingredients are human grade products (no 4D meats) and all comes from US suppliers and they own their own facilities for the most part. I have used some holistic brand canned foods as well as make my own mix.

Flint River Ranch is very good food and they use human grade ingredients. They bake it and not extrude it and it's broken peices and you get it directly from the manufacturer. If anyone is interested, the breeder of my Westie is a distributor and she can hook you up..It's excellant food and she uses it exclusively in her kennel...

Rebecca

I'd love to feed my guys something like Flint River Ranch, but there's no way I can afford it. Right now we feed Purina dog chow, and when I want to add something special I cook them something. Chicken broth or gravy or something like that.

Unfortunately Maisey has eaten Alpo Prime Cuts forever and it's on the list.

We noticed a couple of weeks ago she was acting sorta sick. Wasn't eating her wet food as good as she usually does. So we switched things around some. I bought her some Kibble n Bits when I went to buy her canned food this last time.

She seems better now but I don't know. I wonder if we got ahold of the bad stuff?

I think I'm going to call the vet Monday and see if we can get some blood work done.

I would definitely be on the phone with the vet first thing Monday morning, if for no other reason then to make sure there isn't a problem.

I told hubby about it this morning and he plans on making sure Maisey gets seen or at least we get to talk to someone about her odd bahavior.

Take your dog to the vet ASAP. Renal failure happens over a span of time and once the symptoms show it means that it has really effected the kidneys already.



If at all possible, can you get a better food than Alpo, Kibble's n bits etc.? It is really really bad stuff all together. I know that for a lot of people the cost of a better food is the factor, but you feed less with a better food because the dog gest more nutrients out of it and the body is able to absorb more therefore, you don't need to feed that much.The food is really calorie dense and it really evens out in the long run and for the most part, you save yourself some vet bills too.

If you go to a feed store or a local small pet shop, they have some brands such as Chicken Soup, Premium Edge, Canidae....really not all that much. (i.e. in my area a 40lbs bag of Canidae is $35) I have 2 Rottweiler mixes and a bag such as this will last me around 5 weeks. One of my dogs gets 1.5 cups for the day the other one 2cups for the entire day. Compare that to how many cups do you have to feed a 80lb dog with Kibbles&Bits or dog chow... just a comparison.

Actually, it's not that much more, since you don't feed as much as Purina..I know my breeder told me IF I couldn't get the good stuff, to feed Purina ONE....but it kinda sounds like all the cheap stuff may be bad...

And it's like Seasa said, you save in vet bills in the long run, using a premium food. The Blue Buffalo, at Petsmart is about $40 for 30#..I have 2 westies and it will last us about 8 weeks. And another good thing about feeding premium foods,is that they only poop about 2 times a day, rather than 3-4 times. Amazing when they absorb their nutrients and not get a bunch of fillers, they don't have to poop so much.

Rebecca

I'm going to look into that. See what we can get into. Thanks guys.

I used to feed Nutro, and I have to say it did cost more than feeding the Purina Dog Chow. Right now we go through a 50 lb bag of Purina every 10 days or so, at about $17 a bag. As far as vet bills go, my guys really haven't had any problems other than things like injuries from scrapping with each other on occassion. In my past experience with feeding the premium foods, it actually was more expensive, and at the moment it's just not feasible. If we didn't have 6 large breed dogs, we could afford to feed the premium stuff.

You know, I must have an incredibly honest vet...lol I was just there on Friday with my cat and I asked him if her food could be making her sick (she has a urinary tract infection). I told him that she is on Whiskas, has been for years and years and he said, Nope...it is just fine what you're feeding her. I said, should I put her on the higher quality stuff though? He said, Nope...it won't make a difference with her health. Now, this guy is an awesome vet (wish he would deal with my birds too!!) and I trust him completely. If he had told me to purchase the more expensive stuff, I certainly would have!! But apparently, and this is his (and the other 3 vets he works with) opinion that a change in diet would have no affect on my little kitty cat. Kinda interesting.

Well, sorry for the wait. Hubby got Maisy in Monday for some blood work. Got the results back today.

She's fine. All tests came back great.

Vet said she may have been going through some sort of blahs or something that week.

So until this wet dogfood scare is over, we've decided to just give her dry dogfood.

I do not want to hijack this thread, but did want to add a note about premium pet food products.

While most pet foods available are absolutely fine for the majority of pet dogs and cats, there are some animals that have specific issues that need to be addressed. Hence, the premium foods come in to play. For instance, smaller breeds have different nutrional requirements than larger breeds ... makes perfect sense, right?

The premium foods generally include specialty items such as vitamin supplements, high grade meat, lower cholesterol, reduced fat, etc. By feeding these premium brands one may often see smaller, firmer stool, more clear eyes, diminished skin reactions to allergens, and a healthy and shiny coat with decreased shedding activity. Firm gums is also a benefit.

I am not on a soapbox saying this stuff is for everyone, but if one were to weigh out the difference, literally, one would see that less of the premium food is necessary to feed the dogs and cats to achieve the results of fullness and take advantage of the added bonuses listed above.

This being said, I personally am a HUGE Purina fan. I have always fed this to my dogs, and I believe Purina does an excellent job in standing behind their products and giving back to the community. It was only after I had the opportunity to work with a promotion on a premium dog food that I was educated on the differences in foods, and have begun to feed my dogs this food. We feed less, the dogs are full, their coats are beautiful, and smaller and firmer stools are a bonus for anyone who has ever been on poop patrol! We are fortunate because we receive this food at no cost.

Now, if I were in a position where I would need to purchase food for my dogs again, would I buy the premium brand I have grown fond of or would I return to Purina? Hmmm ... at this stage in the lives of my dogs I believe I would stay with the premium, but only because my dogs are nearly eleven years old and have the onsets of arthritis and joint problems. For a perfectly happy, healthy dog with no issues, I do believe that Purina, and most of the other store bought brands, live up to their commitment of nourishing our pets.

Whew ... sorry for the rambling ...

I've also fed Purina dog chow for years and haven't had any problems. We had been feeding Purina One (I think) with lamb and rice, and Nick's hair started falling out. We found out he's allergic to lamb. I used to feed a premium food, and while I really liked them on it, but they seem to be just fine on the dog chow. I won't feed the bottom of the barrel stuff like Ol Roy, simply because it's a very low quality food. I have seen a change in dogs when switched from the actual store brand foods to a well known name brand food.

Now, that all being said, when we get to the point where we can afford it, I plan on switching them back onto a premium food like Flint River Ranch or something like that. I like feeding human grade foods to them. There are benefits like less shedding, overall improvement of health, less gas, less poop, and better breath when they're fed the high quality foods.

I used the Flint River Ranch for about 4 years and my breeder uses it exclusively..It is human grade food and excellant, but my dogs wouldn't eat the one she suggested..THey had been on the regular and I think the one she suggested was their lamb and rice...They hated it and their beards have been brown since Dixie had the puppies 3 1/2 yrs ago. I also used Solid Gold which is good premium food and now I use the Blue Buffalo and their beards are getting whiter..I have Westies...West Highland White Terriers and white beards are so important to their overall looks...
I know my vet told me that Ole Roy is the worst food you can feed a dog...
Rebecca

As much as everyone is saying premium dog foods are better, because they contain human grade food, this incident is not a good example to prove your point. Human grade products would not have prevented this incident or the previous one in december. The previous one was a premium dog food (diamond brand) in which some of the corn was contaminated. A lot of valuable breeders and show dogs died from that one. In this current scare the contaminated wheat gluten was human food grade.

As a matter of fact the FDA spent a lot of effort investigating the importer to make sure none of of this gluten was incorporated into human foods. Certainly human grade dones not guarantee that the food is safe. How many times this fall were country wide recalls put out for human vegetables? 3? 4?

All that said I don't feed my dog bottom end dog food. I am just trying to say that just because it is 'premium' does not imply that it will always be safer than cheap dog food. iams and science diet were both recalled and those are supposed to be pretty decent quality foods.

I think, in my opinion, that with this recall more people are simply becoming aware of what is actually in our pets food. Granted, recalls can and do happen all the time even with human foods. Look at the spinach recalls not long ago. If this recall encourages more people to stop feeding the garbage foods like the no name grocery store brands then maybe something good can come of it. Either way you look at it, the pet food industry is no where near as regulated as the people food industry.

My husband was saying he saw a news article that stated that the melamine was actually added intentionally to increase the protein levels. Now...before anyone freaks out, my husband said this. He has a tendency to misinterpret what he sees and reads sometimes, and I haven't seen any reports of this myself. Has anyone else seen this?

He's right Stacy that was hypothesized in an article but is by no means fact yet.
The FDA is still refusing to say that the melamine is definatly what is at fault. More that it's present in some food and in some of the dead animals and that shouldn't happen, but they havn't got the whole story yet.

Thanks Jamie!