System, what system?

Part of the reason the pet food recall coverage we're doing at PetConnection.com is eating my soul is the endless stream of reports from people telling us about losing their animals to kidney failure. Partly this is because I lost a dog years ago to acute kidney failure, even though I did everything on earth to save him, including taking him to UC Davis for dialysis.

Mostly, though, it's because their stories are just so agonizingly sad, and their grief so deep. And all of them, all of them, are struggling with the guilt of knowing the food they were giving their dogs and cats was what killed them.

The worst are the stories 0f people whose pets became ill with kidney failure, and who took them to the vet. The dogs or cats were hospitalized and treated, often at great expense - sometimes into the thousands of dollars - and then, when they were finally well enough, sent home.

Kidney failure causes nausea, so it's often hard to get pets to eat while they're recovering from it. So a lot of these owners got down on their hands and knees and coaxed and begged and pleaded with their pets to eat. Do it for me. Do it so you can get strong and well. And those same animals ended up right back in the hospital, and died. Because it was the food, and no one knew. These stories, and we've had more than a few, are giving me nightmares.

Of course, depending on when this happened, someone DID know. No matter how I play the timeline, there were at least a few weeks after Menu saw large numbers of their test animals sick or dead with kidney failure before they announced the recall. Maybe that period was longer. Maybe my understanding of the timeline is wrong. Hopefully this is a question that will be asked by someone who actually has the ability to get an answer. Like a really mean lawyer.

My personal response to crisis is typically to act in some way. I usually write about it (no surprise there), and also focus on what can be done to fix the problem in the short term, and prevent it from happening again in the long term.

So I read with great interest the indictment of our current non-system for reporting large scale animal health disasters posted by catmanager at vetcetera today.

My wife (a veterinarian in an exclusive feline practice) spoke with an AP reporter yesterday about the food recall. One question the reporter asked was whether the state veterinarians had asked local veterinarians to send in data on pets affected by the recall. Oregon’s state veterinarian has been collecting data in his state and released numbers earlier this week.

The reporter’s question got catmanager wondering about how the state veterinarians and state veterinary medical associations had responded to the pet food recall.

What I discovered was disappointing and might go a long way toward explaining why it’s been so hard to get official numbers: almost none of the states seem to want to collect the information (or if they do, they’re making it darned difficult to find out how and to whom to report data).

Although we at PetConnection, and others in the media, are telling pet owners to make sure their vets report their pets' illnesses to their state veterinarian's office and the FDA, there really is no mechanism to facilitate that process. One commentor at PetConnection said he asked his vet to report his pet's illness, and the vet looked at him blankly and said it was up to him to do that. Huh?

DVM Newsmagazine somewhat presciently wrote on February 1:

Veterinarians are falling short of their original mandate to be guardians of the nation's food supply, and that could pose a security risk in the event of a major food-animal emergency, a recent study shows.

Released by the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges and the American Veterinary Medical Association, the study evaluated the need of veterinary medicine to take greater responsibility for the animal food supply system, one of the founding duties of the profession.

Because not enough veterinarians are available within state and federal agencies or in rural community practices to respond to major animal-health emergencies, there is a security risk to the modern food system, the study indicates.

I don't think this is actually the fault of veterinarians, though. Most of the vets I have spoken to - and I have spoken to dozens - didn't even know about the recall until you and I did. No one contacted them, including all the sales reps usually so eager to get in touch with their latest press release or product sample. Professional groups such as the Veterinary Information Network were critical in disseminating information about the recall to their members, but not all vets belong to VIN, and not all vets log onto VIN on the weekend (the Menu press release was dumped on a Friday afternoon, of course).

So while we at PetConnection constantly urged people to contact their vets and report to the FDA, there was no system in place to actually allow them to do that.  Their vets often didn't know any more than they did about the recall itself (although they were and are the ones to talk to about their pet's health risk from consuming the food), and as for reporting to the FDA, good luck. There was nowhere online to report, and the FDA said itself it had well over 4000 phone calls from pet owners to return - although it hadn't done so yet, and those were only the ones who got through. I never got anything but a busy signal when trying to call. And now we're also urging them to have their vets contact their state veterinarian, and it looks like in many states, that's not necessarily easy to do.

So, while some people are suggesting the system is broken, I think it's worse. I don't think there is a system.

We should fix that.

Comments

Thank you for continuing to follow up on this horrific tragedy. Your diligence and candid reporting are very much appreciated. Keep up the good work!!

[Cathy]

Yeah, I found that piece from the DVM last night when I hit on Current Issue and I thought the timing was apt. I guess DVM will have something to say about the issue in their March mag, only a teaser up now at their website.

And no, I don't think we have a system. But I do think something is broken - our government.

Seems there is no system in Canda either. I do hope people take the time to write to their governments, state, federal and even county to ask WHY NOT? Does Homeland Security have nothing else to do but bug phones?