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Pet Food Poisonings

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Finding_Neverland

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Our 21 year old cat is sick. Has been really ill for a couple of weeks now. At first we thought he had a stomach bug. He got sick and a couple days later seemed better. But then he stopped eating and drinking completely.

We took him to the Vet a week ago Friday. The Vet did a physical exam and thought our cat might have a bacterial infection. Our cat has a bad tooth that the Vet can''t do anything about. They''re afraid if they sedate him to remove the tooth, he won''t recover from the anesthesia. The gave him 150 cc''s subcutaneous fluids for dehydration, and a shot of long acting penicillin (for the infection) and B Vitamin (to spur his appetite). The Vet also suggested we offer our cat foods that he especially liked to eat. By Monday, this past week, our cat seemed fine. He was back to normal and eating well.

Later in the week, however, he took another nose dive. At first he quit eating his food. He would lap up the gravy, but didn''t eat the solids. Then we noticed he was only drinking the gravy from the food. No water. Yesterday, our cat quit eating entirely. We also found blood in the litter in the potty. Of course, we noticed this AFTER the Vet''s office closed for the weekend. And our Vet''s office does not have an Emergency Service.

During Hubby''s morning check of the "Headlines", he came across a link to this story:

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8NUCLFG0&show_article=1

Pets are being poisoned by their food. Wheat gluten is the suspect offender. This has led to kidney failure in cats.

Please check the following link to see if your pet has been eating any of the potentially contaminated foods:

http://www.menufoods.com/recall

Our cat''s favorite is on the list of suspect foods making pets sick.
 

marvel

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I''m sorry, FN
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...that''s just awful. How is your kitty doing now that you''ve removed him/her from the food? I''m surprised the vet didn''t know about the recall. I didn''t hear about IAMS being on the list, but not all the others. please keep us posted. Maybe you can try a can tuna.
 

Harriet

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Poor kitty. How is he now?

The food recall applies to wet food. So, those of you who feed your pets dried food, don''t freak out (like I did).
 

Finding_Neverland

Shiny_Rock
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Date: 3/18/2007 3:47:40 PM
Author: Harriet
Poor kitty. How is he now?


The food recall applies to wet food. So, those of you who feed your pets dried food, don''t freak out (like I did).

Good point, Harriet!

This recall is for "wet" foods containing sauces and/or gravies and meat. Not dry food.

Our cat is not well at all. He''s not eating or drinking and can barely walk.

Unfortunately, our town is not large enough to have an Emergency Care facility for pets. Our Vet doesn''t have an "After Hours" contact. I tried calling several other Vets'' offices too. Same thing. So we have to wait until tomorrow when our Vet''s office is open again.

When we were at the Vet last week, I was thinking "Oh Well. He is 21 years old." But I was puzzled that he hadn''t really been sick hardly ever in his life. And the Vet was thinking it was his tooth causing problems.

Evidently, the news about the pet food and the recall only came out this Friday. Probably why the Vet didn''t mention anything about it as we were there a week before.

I just wanted to post because so many people had commented about having sick Kitties lately. And that company makes so many of the various foods available.
 

Harriet

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Poor kitty. He sounds healthy otherwise, so hope for the best!
 

pricescope

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Sorry to hear that Finding_Neverland, i know nothing about cats but when my dog (a pup 7 month old) was sick with enteric bacterial infection, a severe one, we used human micro-flora supplements to recover him and he was the only pup survived that epidemic happened back 20 years ago out of about 200 other dogs.
You may ask your vet about it. I will be thinking of your cat sending good vibes your way.
 

zoebartlett

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I''m so sorry to hear that your kitty is sick. I may have missed this, but when your cat is able to eat, have you tried dry food? Sending healthy kitty vibes your way.
 

RockDoc

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I saw this and looked to see if friskies cat food was on the list which is generally what I buy her, and didn''t see it listed.

I bought a few cans of Iam s about 2 months ago, but seemed she didn''t care for it as much as friskies .....

She prefers the gravy over the meat in the meals they have with gravy. Mostly the fish things..salmon usually.

She does get spoiled with some people food. But she''s pretty fussy about that stuff....like sliced ham ( cold cut type from the deli ) and rotisserrie chicken from Costco. So I got boneless chicken breats and grilled some for her, which she stuck up her nose at and would eat it. Occasionally. she like a touch of mashed potatoes, and maybe a dab cream cheese which she licks off my finger. Also made some steak, but she didn''t seem very interested in it.

She does also like the friskie''s dry food which she eats regularly.

Last few days though, I think she''s been sneezing ( at least that is what is sounds like ) so gonna see about an appt with the vet tomorrow.

Find it surprising with all the advertising about how healthy Iams is, that it is made along with all the generic store brands.
Wonder if it is the same stuff. hmmmmm........


Rockdoc
 

Harriet

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I think I''m going to switch my monsters over to Science Diet.
 

sumbride

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We have about 15 different kinds of wet cat food in the house right now trying to find something that Max will eat consistently. Luckily for us he''s turned his nose up at anything remotely healthy, including the Iams and has been feasting on Meow Mix. Luckily our Iams is one number off the recall so the 2 packets we served our herd were ok. And luckily the Meow Mix and Whiskas he''s willing to eat aren''t suspect. small miracle.

I hope this information gets out better. I imagine there are a lot of sick animals out there that shouldn''t be.
 

ForteKitty

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Science Diet was on the cat food list too...
 

Finding_Neverland

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I don't know if our situation was food related or not.

About 5 years ago, we lost our fella's sister to Renal Failure. But her's was a gradual onset condition and the symptoms were not at all similar. She was drinking water like there was no tomorrow. We used fountains then. She'd drain both fountains and then she'd get into the toilets, the kitchen sink, where ever she could get a drink of water. And the potty was always wet. Soaked.

Our cats had been totally dry food cats until our female's Renal Failure. Then, she had to have special food from the Vet. Our Vet said there would be no harm in spoiling our Tom with a bit of canned food too. So he get's a can or 2 pouches of wet food each day at "dinner time". He has dry food out to munch on during the day as well.

Like Rock Doc, we have an assortment of canned and pouch foods of various brands. Our Tom is a pretty picky eater and loves, loves, loves GRAVY. In fact, cat food companies could put out canned gravy and he would be a happy Kitty.

As opposed to our female, in our Tom's case, this is totally quick onset. 2 weeks ago, he was fine and now he's on "death's door".

I don't know if the food is to blame or not. He is 21 years old. BUT, Hubby found that news article. Our cat's favorite food, which he happens to have been getting a lot of while he's been sick, is on the list. It may be the food or it may be a coincidence. I don't really know.

I just wanted to warn others about the pet food problem.

Check your stocks and see if you have those brands and codes labels.

Wanted to add,..........

Thanks much for the well wishes. He's my Baby and I'm his person. This is very heart wrenching for me.
15.gif
 

Kerbear560

Shiny_Rock
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I''m so sorry to hear about your cat Finding_Neverland. Here are some suggestions to get him to eat that I learned working in a veterinary hospital: Do you have any canned food that is not covered in the recall? If you do, you might want to try putting some in the microwave for a few seconds to warm it up a little, and placing it in front of him. Sometimes that will entice cats to eat. If he still doesn''t show any interest, try petting him and/or talking to him. If that doesn''t work, sometimes all it takes is placing a small amount in their mouth for them to continue on their own. If he''ll eat that, you might want to try mixing a little water in it, which will get more fluids into him. I hope everything goes well at the vet tomorrow!

Also, as a precaution, Purina and Hill’s have announced that they are voluntarily recalling some products made by Menu Foods. Here are links to their websites, which list the recalled foods: Purina''s website Hill''s website
 

Cind11

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Goodness, Finding Neverland I hope your cat will be okay. You are SO lucky to have such an old guy. You must be doing something right. I hope you and your vet can figure out what''s wrong. I''ll be wishing for the best for your kitty.
 

AmberGretchen

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FN - that is so sad about your kitty. I really really hope he pulls through, that sounds so miserable for all of you. Its amazing how deeply these little furry creatures worm their way into our hearts, isn''t it?

For those of you following the pet food recall, maybe consider this as a time to switch your kitties to a food with better-quality ingredients. Here''s a really good website that lists some of the higher-quality cat food brands and why:

Cat Food Reviews

We switched to Innova about 8 months ago when I started really researching cat food quality, and it has made a HUGE difference for our kitties. Even though we''ve been free-feeding rather than controlling portions our two slightly overweight older kitties have lost weight, and their skin, teeth, coat, eyes, everything looks better. At first I thought maybe I was imagining it, but when I took one of them to the vet for a hurt paw he couldn''t stop raving about how fantastic she looked and he thought it was possible that the high-quality food had a lot to do with it. Anyway, just a thought of something to try - I''m somehow more comfortable feeding my kitties something that seems to have really high-quality ingredients and is closer to what their "natural" diet would be, and also that doesn''t have ground-up road kill or potentially diseased (that''s the reference to 4D animals on that website) dead animals in it.
 

FireGoddess

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FN I am so sorry to hear this! Head bonks and healing thoughts to your precious kitty!! Chloe is on a vet diet (Hills) XD wet and dry food. I tried the recall link but it was down so I couldn''t see what was on the list.
 

ellaila

Brilliant_Rock
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Oh FN, I''m so so sorry to hear your kitty''s been feeling so sick
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This whole story just breaks my heart, thinking about all the poor animals - and their owners - who have been hit by this. Just a tragedy.

Hugs to you and your kitty
 

RockDoc

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Amber

Thanks for the tip about Innova foods. I found a local pet shop that sells it.

Hopefully they have fish/seafood wet food and dry food as it seems she prefers that to chicken/ beef/fowl type foods.

My kitty has been acting a little strange, sleeping more than usual, and sneezing, although a little less of it today.

I called the vet and he is booked up I guess from the pet food scare. They will call me if something opens up.


Rockdoc
 

FireGoddess

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Thanks for that list of foods AG. I looked up Innova. Doesn''t seem they have any prescription diets? Are the Hills Science Diet prescription foods subpar as well as the normal Science Diet ones are? After all, I get it from my vet, you''d think they''d have a stake in backing good food!!! But that could be a bad assumption?? I have to feed my kitty a diet that prevents oxalate stone formation.

By the way FN, thanks for those links...I forwarded them to every pet owner I know.
 

chrono

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Unfortunately, my kitty is fed one of those recalled cat foods (Nutro Natural Choice). No wonder she suddenly started turning up her nose after scarfing it down for ages. I initially attributed it to typical cat fussiness but I now know it must be the wheat gluten. I''m not sure what to feed her now that my "old" stock is gone.
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She has to be on a wet food diet that is low in phosphorus since she has kidney problems.
 

Finding_Neverland

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Well,............

We got our Tom to the Vet this morning. We couldn''t get an appointment. Our Vet is backed up too. But they took him to keep and worked him in.

Before noon, the Vet called. The news was not good. He was too far gone. The Vet said she doubted he could recover to any meaningful quality level of life.

Hubby and I went to the Vet''s office this afternoon to say goodbye to our long time friend. They gave us a room to visit privately with him. I didn''t want him to be alone and scared so I held him while the Vet gave him his shot. He passed away quietly and peacefully in my arms.

He was a wonderful, faithful friend, and a valued member of our family for 21 years.
 

FireGoddess

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15.gif
Oh FN I am just stunned and so, so sorry. This is horrible. At least your baby lived a long, long happy life with a person who adored him.
 

Harriet

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I''m sorry.
 

DMBsGirl

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ETA: I am so sorry to hear about your kitty.
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Mara

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oh FN I''m so sorry to hear about your cat...at least he is no longer in any pain. lots of hugs.
 

marvel

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I''m so sorry, FN.
 

RockDoc

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FN

You have my condolences too...... Why can''t our pets live as long as we do??? Seems so unfair.


Rockdoc
 

RockDoc

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Well back from the Pet Food Store....


Got some dry Innova Cat food, which believe it not, they guarantee that you get a refund if the cat doesn''t eat or like it.

I also got some canned moist food, which is mostly chicken or turkey flavored but did get wellness which they told me was good in the seafood flavors too.

They did advise to mix the new with some of the old to avoid diarehea.

So I mixed up some dry and canned food, and she did nibble at it, and then went back for more.

So hopefully that will do the trick.

Rockdoc
 

AdaBeta27

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FN, I''m sorry to hear about your kitty. It''s hard to lose one when you''ve been together so many years.
 

justjulia

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That''s rough. ((hug))
 
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