Urgent :: Pet Food Recall... Urgent!!! - TOXIN FOUND

I baked "the gang" a fresh chicken tonight and the cats let me have a drumstick and a wing. They are loving the change in diet but they better not get used to nightly baked chicken.
OMG somebody somewhere on a chicken forum is hating me now!!!

Originally Posted by leesali

If this isn't enough to make you scream, I don't know what is...animals died during testing of product according to 1010 WINS:
http://www.1010wins.com/pages/309721...ntentId=378484

Menu Foods told the FDA it received the first complaints of kidney failure and deaths among cats and dogs from pet owners on Feb. 20. It began new tests on Feb. 27.

During those tests, the company fed its product to 40 to 50 dogs and cats and some seven animals -- the mix of species was not immediately known -- died, Sundlof said. The contamination appeared more deadly to cats than to dogs, he said.

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I read this story in other places, too. If they test 50 animals and 7 die - that is 14% death!! (even higher if they only tested 40) Not a good average. I am so sorry for all of you who have lost animals to this thing. Looks like the death toll will only get higher. I try not to overreact at this type of thing, but that 14% just gets to me. Hope this makes sense, I am tired.

Originally Posted by Jazzpicker

I baked "the gang" a fresh chicken tonight and the cats let me have a drumstick and a wing. They are loving the change in diet but they better not get used to nightly baked chicken.
OMG somebody somewhere on a chicken forum is hating me now!!!

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I did this Saturday night for Seb and me. Finishing it off tonight. Think I'm going to look into the raw option to replace his wet food. For one cat, it cannot be that expensive, I hope!

OK, so I got an e-mail from PetFoodDirect listing info on Nutro pouches being recalled. The numbers & info on the PFD e-mail do not correspond with numbers that other places are giving out, such at Petsmart.

PFD e-mail info:
best buy type UPC code
Jan/08/09 Adult Cal Tuna 24x3oz\tPouch\t3oz\t79105362580
Feb/06/09 Adult Cal Tuna 24x3oz\tPouch\t3oz\t79105362580

Petsmart website:
UPC Code
7910536257 ADULT CALIF. TUNA SUPREME POUCH 3OZ

The big thing is the UPC code info differs!?!? PFD better take my pouches back even if they don't match the info they have. I'm sure not feeding them!

no friskies or fancy feast right?

Originally Posted by icklemiss21

I have already seen several reports that have guessed at a fungal mold / toxin in the wheat gluten, but again until they release the info there isn't much we can do. It is important to realise that people have fed wheat gluten for a long time without these problems and that it was a 'bad' batch of whatever that has caused the recall

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exactly... I am just wondering what is taking so long

sharky, my thoughts exactly... WHY in the world is this taking so long???????????????
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:

I am so happy my kitty eats Fancy Feast and Nutro Dry!

I went to work today with my mom and I had to tell her one friend what cat foods were on the list, our paper actually had put the list in the paper for people that couldnt get to a computer and theres been a lot of media coverage whihc imo seems good who knows how many have died, some one said that they feed their cat nutro out this way and it died from kidney failure but since this was a week or so before the recall i guess theres not much to be done But my nieghbor that my mom does work with I told her special kittie so she hurried up and called her husband right awya and said dont u dare feed those cats, and also she is feeling a mess now because she also takes care of 2 ferals around here and she feeds them alot of the special kitty and well shes hoping they are ok and her one cat is sick so i told her about special kittie and she is freaking out which I am a little bit, I do remember when ever we bought specail kittie to give it a try (kitties are TOO PICKY) and wll they liked it but they didnt eat as much and stormie kept getting sick and my mom kept saying it was a hairball because shes medium hair and always cleaning herself but she doesnt really get hairballs and well thats when I took them off of special kitite, now I am happy to say that they eat fancy feast and friskies and whiskas well the purrfectly fish whiskas and we just started fancy feast because of the recall on all other foods (and thats the only wet tessa likes) And well the vets are swamped and everyone here seems ok it was just a few packets we feed so I am hoping all stays well and hopefully fancy feast and friskies dont turn into the recall!!! They even had it on our news website how the vets are overly packed now about the recall and so many people have lost pets in the last 2-3 months that they think its all connected and people are taken measures to save their pets and well its just craziness, my mom also stopped someone from buying the infected special kittie and iams at walmart the other day when teh recall was made, some one had 5 cats and went to get all his kittie food and my mom stopped him ebcause they had yet to take it off the shelves or even put a sign up about it But I am keeping my fingers crossed for everyones kitties and everyones pets are in my prayers I just dont feel safe feeding my kitties anything and I dont know what to do Also why is it taken them so long to find out what it is they have been doing tests yes but whats taken so long to determine what it is?? I am just so mad at htis and they are testing it on animals which also saddens me and angers me but how is that gonna help determine what the ingredient is that is infecting all of this? and Idk i Just dont really feel safe feeding my babies anything now And why cant they find different ways to test their foods and such for things and toxins? Why isnt this done before distriution?

Just wanted to let everyone know... I've been feeding Cosmo Natural Balance Premium Cat Food (dry only) for a long time and he really likes it. They make wet too, and apparently they aren't involved in the recall.

I also feed him Iams (dry only) - due to convenience of it being available in the store on the corner - but I'm now going back to Natural Balance only. The big pet store chains have it, so it shouldn't be too hard to find. You can get it online too.

Here's the website:

http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/

This whole thing really freaked me out. I lost my Comere a few years ago to kidney failure, and the idea of going through it again... *shudder*

I just created a post in the Media Links thread with a listing of important links relating to the recall. Here's the link to it:

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...91#post1664391

Feel free to add to my list. It's important that we stay informed and have access to the most current information about the recall.

Originally Posted by crazyforinfo

"Wheat gluten itself wouldn't cause kidney failure, leading FDA investigators to suspect contamination by other substances, including heavy metals like cadmium and lead or fungal toxins. Aflatoxin, a corn fungus, sparked a 2005 dog food recall. "

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I mentioned aflatoxin a few pages ago, though I'm pretty sure I spelled it wrong.
Aflatoxin can be in corn and barley.
Vomitoxin can be wheat and barley.

DH has tested barley and recalled brands Pet Pantry (doesn't exist anymore) and Pet Worth for vomitoxin before.

Not saying this is the problem, but that's some of what the plants do test for. And as I said in another post gluten meal isn't tested.

This is scary stuff. At first I thought it didn't affect me as I'm not in the US but I do buy some nutro from zooplus (german website) and they are made in the USA. I think I'll just throw them out rather than check all the serial numbers just to be on the safe side.

Reminder to anyone from Europe reading this - if you buy anything online check the list of brands and check any you have to see if they are made in the USA. I'm not sure whether Iams bought online from somewhere like zooplus might be made in the USA too.

Originally Posted by white cat lover

OK, so I got an e-mail from PetFoodDirect listing info on Nutro pouches being recalled. The numbers & info on the PFD e-mail do not correspond with numbers that other places are giving out, such at Petsmart.

PFD e-mail info:
best buy type UPC code
Jan/08/09 Adult Cal Tuna 24x3oz Pouch 3oz 79105362580
Feb/06/09 Adult Cal Tuna 24x3oz Pouch 3oz 79105362580

Petsmart website:
UPC Code
7910536257 ADULT CALIF. TUNA SUPREME POUCH 3OZ

The big thing is the UPC code info differs!?!?

PFD better take my pouches back even if they don't match the info they have. I'm sure not feeding them!

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Petsmart are temporarily offering to take all food without a receipt so perhaps just take them back there as the food doesn't have to be from petsmart

I usedto feed my cats special kitty pouches. a few weeks ago around feb but I have thankfully stopped in february and now I am worried after seeing this. I was still giving them cans of special kitty, oceanfish,salmon ect.. I quickly threw those out since I dont trust that anymore. I switch to 9lives cans now is that safe? what signs of sickness should I be looking for if they are ill from the cans.

Originally Posted by Javern

I figured when they cooked the foods it would kill molds, perhaps not

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Cooking kills molds, but molds produce toxins and these toxins remain in the food.

There was a report on the Today show this morning that said that the manufacturer of the tainted foods will compensate any pet owners affected by this for the loss of their pet and/or vet bills.

Keep all vet records, and if your pet is being treated or was treated and passed away due to ARF (not CRF) then you should be able to contact the company to receive said compensation.

Of course, they did not bother to provide any contact information.

I have a large vet bill from this, plus I need more info. about when the affected foods were on store shelves etc.

I cannot get though to Menu Foods.

Here is a recent update from USA Today...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...#uslPageReturn

Personally i think they should be funding everyones vet fees who have had their animals either checked for problems or worse still lost

I feed my kitten Neutro Dry Food. Should I be concerned?