Cat food recall alert

[darlili]

<I find one of the most distressing aspects of this current recall to be how low under the radar it's flying. There are thousands of people still feeding this stuff who would stop if they knew it was substandard. *sigh*>

Not sure how low under the radar it is - all the big box stores in my area had pulled it off the shelves, with large notices, from the Nutro-initiated recall...my vet's office had a notice, and I got emails from both Nutro & Petsmart....and that's not even counting the news stories in press and tv. I'm in a metro area - maybe we just get more news dumped on us

Now, sure, some people will miss the news - a friend didn't even know Obama was on his European/Mideast trip now, and that's sort of hard news to miss - but I'm not sure what more can be done, logistically. As I recall, no reports of illness have been linked to this at this point - but certainly people should be in to their vets if they've noticed a change in their cats' health, no matter what food they're feeding, don't you think?

 

[momofmany]

Originally Posted by darlili

As I recall, no reports of illness have been linked to this at this point - but certainly people should be in to their vets if they've noticed a change in their cats' health, no matter what food they're feeding, don't you think?

Just because there aren't documented reports of illness, doesn't mean that they aren't happening. My vet told me that they had a cat that died after eating the food. It had other health issues and it appeared that eating the food put this cat's health condition over the top. My Muddy also blocked again after eating the food. The imbalance of phosperous is enough to do this.

But you can't definitively link the cases to the food, so no reports are being collected. It's not as obvious a correlation as the melanin scandal last year. This one is going to kill cats in a much more subtle way.

 

[followedbydolls]

Originally Posted by Momofmany

Just because there aren't documented reports of illness, doesn't mean that they aren't happening. My vet told me that they had a cat that died after eating the food. It had other health issues and it appeared that eating the food put this cat's health condition over the top. My Muddy also blocked again after eating the food. The imbalance of phosperous is enough to do this.

But you can't definitively link the cases to the food, so no reports are being collected. It's not as obvious a correlation as the melanin scandal last year. This one is going to kill cats in a much more subtle way.

For the clueless being me

what exactly can their error with the ingredients do to a cats health?

 

[darlili]

Well, if no data is being reported, how can you generate documented reports, or initiate any other further action? Did the vet(s) involved do any sort of reporting? Even to Nutro or to AAFCO, the state vet society, or to anyone other than the owner? If not, why not? Even if other underlying health causes were the direct cause of death, it'd be useful if vets reported that X number of cats with Y health condition died after being fed Z food formula (and, as we know, only certain lines of Nutro were affected in this last recall).

As I recall, during the Menu-related recall, Banfield was a leader in generating a nationwide database precisely to capture this sort of information. Anecdotal information is, sad to say, really pretty useless in trying to fix anything, whether it's pet food or, well, anything. It merely becomes a he said, she said type of discussion, which leads pretty much nowhere if you can't document anything.

 

[momofmany]

Originally Posted by followedbydolls

For the clueless being me

what exactly can their error with the ingredients do to a cats health?

In the case of my Muddy, a change in the mineral content triggered him to develop crystals in his bladder which caused him to block. Cats with chronic bladder problems are highly sensitive to changes in diet.

Originally Posted by darlili

Anecdotal information is, sad to say, really pretty useless in trying to fix anything, whether it's pet food or, well, anything. It merely becomes a he said, she said type of discussion, which leads pretty much nowhere if you can't document anything.

Yup. Banfield probably got away with doing this because it was a big enough organization that could afford to do it. They were losing their patients to that recall, and it was to their benefit to document cases. But this current problem is more subtle, and my bet is that your independent vet clinics don't have the time or resource to try to prove the correlation. It seems to be more of an issue of an existing condition being triggered by the food, rather than a specific cause of death or illness.

It's a shame, but all we can do as consumers is to stop supporting a company that has been repeatedly involved in recalls. They might not have messed up the food, but they also seem to have an issue with quality control from their manufacturers.

 

[darlili]

As I recall, Banfield designed the program to collect info from all vets within the US, not just the ones within their practice, since this was a national problem. And, sure Petsmart/Banfield probably does have the pockets to design such a program - sometimes bigger can be better for a lot of purposes. Big companies often develop programs pro bono - hard as it may be for some people to accept.

Saying an individual vet cannot report incidents to another organization, for tracking purposes is like saying a small human medical practice isn't supposed to report communicable diseases to the local health departments because it costs money to do so, IMO. What good is this vet doing if he doesn't report his findings to a higher level group? How can the heath care providers discover these subtle relationships, unless incidents are documented and reported?

On the Nutro site itself, in connection with this recall, it specifically referred to how the incorrect formula could have implications for pregnant females - and for owners of any cats to check in with their vets for any questions. And, from what I understand from Nutro reps at the big box stores, Nutro definitely wants to hear from owners and vets if they have any sort of documented information to share.

And, honestly, name one company, of any sort in any country, that doesn't have quality issues at one time or another? And how many companies may not go public with problems? As was discussed, some of the raw food manufacturers don't even try to meet AAFCO testing protocols, or release results - so, who really knows what they're doing? I'll bet 99% of them are on the up and up, but, who knows? Do we honestly think Nutro was the only company using this chemical vendor as a source? Or, perhaps Nutro is the only one willing to step up and take a financial hit by initiating a voluntary recall?

Certainly, all of us would love to be able to find good foods that can be evaluated objectively - so, getting more hard data is only to the good, both to drive out 'bad' companies, and help 'good' companies increase their sales, IMO.