Posted on 03/16/2007 2:53:30 PM PDT by Dysart
WASHINGTON - A major manufacturer of dog and cat food sold under Wal-Mart, Safeway, Kroger and other store brands recalled 60 million containers of wet pet food Friday after reports of kidney failure and deaths.
An unknown number of cats and dogs suffered kidney failure and about 10 died after eating the affected pet food, Menu Foods said in announcing the North American recall. Product testing has not revealed a link explaining the reported cases of illness and death, the company said.
"At this juncture, we're not 100 percent sure what's happened," said Paul Henderson, the company's president and chief executive officer. However, the recalled products were made using wheat gluten purchased from a new supplier, since dropped for another source, spokeswoman Sarah Tuite said. Wheat gluten is a source of protein.
The recall covers the company's "cuts and gravy" style food, which consists of chunks of meat in gravy, sold in cans and small foil pouches between Dec. 3 and March 6 throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
The pet food was sold by stores operated by the Kroger Company, Safeway Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and PetSmart Inc., among others, Henderson said.
Menu Foods did not immediately provide a full list of brand names and lot numbers covered by the recall, saying they would be posted on its Web site — http://www.menufoods.com/recall — early Saturday. Consumers with questions can call (866) 463-6738.
The company said it manufacturers for 17 of the top 20 North American retailers. It is also a contract manufacturer for the top branded pet food companies. Its three U.S. and one Canadian factory produce more than 1 billion containers of wet pet food a year. The recall covers pet food made at company plants in Emporia, Kan., and Pennsauken, N.J., Henderson said.
Henderson said the company received an undisclosed number of owner complaints of vomiting and kidney failure in dogs and cats after they had been fed its products. It has tested its products but not found a cause for the sickness.
"To date, the tests have not indicated any problems with the product," Henderson said.
The company alerted the
Food and Drug Administration, which already has inspectors in one of the two plants, Henderson said. The FDA was working to nail down brand names covered by the recall, agency spokesman Mike Herndon said.
Menu Foods is majority owned by the Menu Foods Income Fund, based in Ontario, Canada.
Henderson said the recall would cost the company the Canadian equivalent of $26 million to $34 million.
FWIW I just checked the Iams site. They don't have anything up about it.
THX BUMP... I sent out an alert to my email list.
SW, you might also think about checking for diabetes. I have a diabetic kittycat, and she acted like that for awhile until we got her on insulin.
Thanks for the heads up! :o)
Ours eats the dry "Deli-Cat".
I'm going to buy some of that tuna packed in water..maybe even some canned chicken in water.
I hope to God we haven't been giving our Cats kidney failure.
sw
Thank you so much for posting this! Our German Shepherd has been experiencing intermittent extreme diarrhea for about 3 weeks now with no apparent explanation. It is very unusual for her, although I'd recently been reading that shepherds are prone to intestinal upsets. I feed her a combination of expensive natural dry food and 1 can of Ol' Roy (the chunky type) every day. I buy several different flavors and rotate them, so I'm just sure that some days I've been feeding her poison food and she would subsequently develop these troubles. Then I'd feed her another flavor, and it would clear up. I thought she had finally run the course of whatever had upset her system when yesterday she had the super runny diarrhea again (after feeding her Ol' Roy beef strips and gravy!). The thought had crossed my mind that it might be a bad can of food but it's been so intermittent since I rotate the flavors. I had only just started to make note of which cans I'm feeding her on which days and correlating that with the onset of diarrhea.
I'm so thankful that she's a large dog; maybe her system was able to cope except for the diarrhea. I sure hope there isn't any permanent damage! She's the smartest, most beautiful dog in the world.
sw
I hope it's just kittycats being picky, and not kidney problems OR diabetes--but it never hurts to check. We lucked out with Lucie--she thinks its fun to get her shots, since she can't feel them where we give them (the scruff of the neck where their mothers used to carry them), and it becomes something of a petting opportunity. If we are a few minutes late with the shots, she comes in and reminds us!
IAMs makes cats barf IF you can force them to eat it, which isn't easy and definitely isn't worth it unless you get a thrill out of torturing cats. I think we should feed Gitmo detainees IAMs to make them squeal, but it'll never happen. A pity, just the smell can make animals beg to be thrown into traffic. :-(
After leaving it in the cat dish for days I gave up and toosed it out. The vultures wouldn't even touch it. The raccoons even had to think twice about it. They decided it was slightly better than carrots which they won't eat, and left it for last. They wouldn't eat it the second time I threw some out when I received a free sample in the mail.
I've never have any problems with Purina products, augmented with occasional sardines and lots of scrambled eggs. This is good because who wants to clean up cat barf? that's the dog's job and he doesn't like it when it contains IAMs.
Never had a problem using a diet of lasagna, either, but it makes them a bit chunky. :0)
My best dog, Fred, a Black Lab, had epilepsy and had to eat lamb baby fod and rice the last few weeks of her life before her kidneys shut down and I put her to sleep rather than watch her starve to death.
My current dog, Willie, a greyhound mix, has been eating the Pedigree lamb and rice all of his 13 years...which is considered longevity for a larger breed.
It wasn't until I read the links to this post that I realised the same folks that invented the Snickers Bar make Willie's food...
These people are surely interested in health over profit....
It should clear up the problem with the runs.
Or you could just cork her up with cheese... works on the grandkids.
Our dog, Ursa, has been very hearty and healthy, also, until this recent episode. She, too, has a very healthy digestive system, so that's why this has been such an anomaly. I will definitely never feed her Ol' Roy again. I just added a can each evening to flavor up the dry food (which is Nutro brand). Thanks for the input and best wishes to your she-shepherd.
I recall when I'd take frozen shrimp out of the fridge to cook something with pasta two young cats would go nuts
A few broken up with the liquid over their catfood and they were in heaven
No problemo with their appetites of energy levels and I still had plenty of shrimp
Shrimp is a treat - even for us, lol.
That's like Piper and chicken!
Yet similar symptoms correct? I wonder if the feed stock was off on an entire batch?
Along with the cat?
Sorry about your dog. That's why I don't (didn't) want any more pets, especially dogs. I pet the neighbors' dogs, that's enough.
And took in a poor stray tomcat lol. I don't know if he would have made it though the winter outside even though I was feeding him or not. They can be pretty tough though. He eats dry Iam's mostly. I will switch brands back and forth and don't buy the cheapest stuff of the dry food.
piasa, don't waste good Lasagna on a pet..send it my way!
sw
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