posted March 17, 2007 02:08 AM         

March 16, 2007 07:49 PM PDT

A warning out there for pet owners: a dog food company is recalling 60-million containers of wet dog and cat food.

"Menu Foods," producers of "Iams" says it has received reports of cats and dogs suffering kidney failure after eating the food. Menu Foods supplies pet food to major stores like Wal-Mart, PetSmart, and other retailers.

The recall covers its "Cuts and Gravy" style food, sold between early-December and March. The food comes in cans and small foil pouches. It consists of chunks of meat in gravy.

The company says it is not sure what happened, and product testing has not revealed a link that would explain the illnesses and deaths.

Menu Foods did not immediately provide a full list of brand names and LOT numbers covered by the recall, but says the information will be on the company's website, www.menufoods.com/recall, Saturday morning.

About 10 animals have died from the contaminated product. http://www.wten.com/Global/story.asp?S=6240415

Mar 16, 2007 9:28 pm US/Mountain

Pet Food Recalled After 10 Cat And Dog Deaths

Katherine Blake
Reporting

(CBS4) DENVER 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.

Naomi Tibaldo had no idea her dogs' favorite food is part of a recall.

"I could have taken that home and my dog would have been sick and I might not have known why," she said. "It just seems like every time you turn around there's something else we have to be worried about."

She almost bought the dog food, until she found out it could cause kidney failure.

"I don't like for my dogs to be sick," she said. "Nobody wants their dogs to be sick."

Jeff Young is the president of Planned Pethood in Denver. He told CBS4 what to expect if your pet gets sick from eating the food.

"It's going to be the same for cats and dogs and basically you have lethargy, vomiting, and they might drink more and pee more," he said.

He also said if you have any of the recalled food at home, don't give it to your pet.

"At this juncture, we're not 100 percent sure what's happened," said Paul Henderson, the company's president and chief executive officer.

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.

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 -- www.menufoods.com/recall -- early Saturday. Consumers with questions can call (866) 463-6738.

P&G announced Friday the recall of specific 3 oz., 5.5 oz., 6 oz. and 13.2 oz. canned and 3 oz. and 5.3 oz. foil pouch cat and dog wet food products made by Menu Foods but sold under the Iams and Eukanuba brands. The recalled products bear the code dates of 6339 through 7073 followed by the plant code 4197, P&G 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.

posted March 19, 2007 04:32 PM         

WOW! I never heard of that food..........that is sooooo sad!

posted March 27, 2007 03:01 PM         

I've been looking around at diffrent brands with glucosamine/chondrotin sulfate. Our puppy has joint problems and had surgery at then young-young age of 4 months on her elbow. That being said, she will develop arthritis at some point in her life and i figure if i can introduce the glucosamine/chondrotin (sp?) early, it will give us a jump start to her future. Maybe even prolong the flare up of arthritis. I feed me cats "Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul" and they love it. I just found out last night, after looking at thier website that they also offer a dog food line. And guess what ... its got what i want for Carrera - glucosamine & chondrotin. So i think, after all this, i will make the switch and see how she likes it.

Here's the ingredients of the cat food:

Ingredients
Chicken, chicken meal, cracked pearled barley, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), ocean fish meal, white rice, potatoes, oatmeal, millet, natural chicken flavor, salmon, turkey, duck, flaxseed, sodium bisulfate, egg product, methionine, potassium chloride, choline chloride, dried chicory root, taurine, kelp, carrots, peas, apples, tomatoes, blueberries, spinach, dried skim milk, cranberry powder, rosemary extract, parsley flake, yucca schidigera extract, L-carnitine, Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation solubles, dried Aspergillus oryzae fermentation extract, zinc proteinate, vitamin E supplement, niacin, manganese proteinate, copper proteinate, zinc sulfate, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin A supplement, biotin, potassium iodide, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, manganous oxide, sodium selenite, vitamin D supplement, folic acid.

posted April 03, 2007 12:18 AM         

p.s. i dont mean to get in your busines or anything, i just thought you probably werent aware of this, and if youre looking to change anyways, then i encourage it.

posted April 20, 2007 04:24 AM         

quote:

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Update: From the comments (thanks, Kathi!), reported by KTXL in Sacramento, CA:

A Stanislaus County (CA) hog farm was placed under quarantine after an industrial chemical that’s tainted more than 100 brands of dog and cat food was found in pig urine there, state agriculture officials said late Thursday.

Additional testing was under way to determine if the chemical, melamine, was present in the meat produced by American Hog Farm in Ceres since April 3, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

“Although all animals appear healthy, we are taking this action out of an abundance of caution,” State Veterinarian Dr. Richard Breitmeyer said in a statement. “It is unknown if the chemical will be detected in meat.”

State officials believe the melamine came from rice protein concentrate imported from China by Diamond Pet Food’s Lathrop facility, which produces products under the Natural Balance brand and sold salvage pet food to the farm for pig feed.

[…]

Dr. Mark Horton, the state public health officer, said so far “evidence suggests a minimal health risk to persons who may have consumed pork” from the farm.

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Christie Keith is a contributor to the weblog mentioned above, but she has also been writing for her own, at Dogged Blog.

Itchmo has a forum and Howl911 also has information, including personal stories from people who have lost pets to all of this.