Pet food recall: More updates from the press conference

• If you're new to the site, please check out our general information page.


• If you have lost a pet, we encourage you to learn about pet-loss resources.

The news that dry food, made by an undisclosed pet food manufacturer, may also be contaminated with the substance causing kidney failure in pets, as well as troubling implications for the human food supply, overshadowed some of the medical news that came out of this morning's FDA press conference. Investigators are onsite at the suspect plant, and the FDA promised to tell us anything they find out "as soon as possible"... a curious promise, since they currently know that the company purchased gluten from the same source as Menu did, and aren't telling us what company it is, so as consumers we can make informed decisions.

The press conference led with the announcement, which we reported last night, that the Cornell School of Veterinary Medicine laboratory was not able to find aminopterin, the rat poison previously identified by a New York laboratory as being present in recalled pet foods, in samples it tested. They did, however, find melamine, supposedly used as a fertilizer in other countries, but primarily used in the US in construction materials.

They found melamine in the urine of affected test animals, as well as the kidney of one cat, all from the original group of dogs and cats fed the food in Menu's test lab.

There is very little information available on the toxicity of melamine in dogs and cats, but the FDA's Dr. Stephen Sundlof said, "Melamine is an ingredient that should not be present in pet food at any level."

While researchers are still not calling melamine is the "smoking gun," they have identified one telltale characteristic of animals who have been affected by the contaminant: A specific kind of crystal found in their urine and sometimes, in their kidneys.

The FDA is still only reporting 15 "confirmed" cases, those from Menu's original test animals. Sundlof said that veterinary evidence needs to be collected before any other cases - and they've heard from over 8800 pet owners so far - can be confirmed. He said the FDA is sending consumers to the Menu website and fda.gov for information at this time.

More to come from Dr. Donald Smith, Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University.

If you have a pet with a recall-related illness, let us remind you to:

• Call the FDA to report your information


• Call your veterinarian and ask him or her to report to your state veterinarian, also for the FDA


• Enter your pet in our database

Go to the latest blog post | Go to the PetConnection home page

Technorati Tags: pet food recall, dogs, cats,veterinarian, veterinary

Comments

[Linda]

It is possibly that Menu Foods bought it all and then sold it to other companies at a wholesale price - and that Menu Foods could be more deeply involved than we suspect.



Just a thought - no real evidence.

[Mike]

Procter & Gamble says its dry pet food not contaminated

Fri Mar 30, 2007 12:44PM EDT



[-] Text [+] (Reuters) - Procter & Gamble Co. said there was no melamine or wheat gluten in any Iams or Eukanuba dry pet foods on store shelves, a day after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to its Iams pet food unit.



The company assured pet owners that Iams and Eukanuba dry foods are not manufactured by Menu Foods, which makes pet food under contract for national brands like P&G's Iams unit.



P&G Pet Care suspended production of all wet pet foods at the affected Menu Foods Emporia plant on March 14, the statement added.



http://www.reuters.com/article/consumerproducts-SP/idUSWNAS528620070330

[Steve]

Yes indeed who are the culprits.

[Elderta]

did I just hear Henderson from Menu Foods say that they have had over 300,000 phone calls? whoa...

[Dawn Turner]

300,000? Oh man, that's NOT good...... :(

[David]

well..well, "Dry food may be contaminated". Our dog died suddenly and horribly. She only ate IAMS DRY pet food. Thanks for the warning!

[Meaghan]

Yes, over 300,000 phone calls, but oh, only 16 pets are dead!!!!!!! Get real! The other 299,984 were just people phoning to chat!



We will never know the real numbers of how many pets were killed by this poison. There are so many people that don't use the internet, don't necessarily watch the news on tv and haven't heard about the recall.



Take a look at the petitions we've signed on itchmo and the petitionsite. Only slightly over 1,000 names on each of them! How sad is that? We really need to band together to make sure that Menu Foods is put out of business and 1000 signatures is not going to cut it.



1000 people not buying their product probably won't impact on them either. There is power in numbers and we need more numbers!

[Dennis]

After consumption of Special Kitty pouch food which matched the recall dates my 3 year old cat’s eating habits suddenly changed. Since the trash was picked up the day before, I was only able to retrieve one open pouch which matched the recall dates. However I still have 3 unopened pouches which match the dates along with numerous others that don’t match the dates.



Menu Foods advised me to take him in to the vet. His first blood test for kidney function was mostly ok. A day later he stopped eating and drinking. He then suddenly went from urinating a lot to not urinating at all. The second vet visit revealed an acute urinary blockage necessitating catheterization. After 4 days at the vets for sub-Q fluids and antibiotics he was referred to an internal medicine specialist who did an ultrasound. Nothing terribly revealing but it was noted there was some “sludge” and possible blood clots in his bladder. Although the symptoms came on suddenly after eating food on the recall list I could not find any info on the rat poison (aminopterin) that conclusively linked it to possible urinary problems. Also throughout his ordeal he has had spikes in temperature.



After the ultrasound I brought him home. For 3 more days he was urinating frequently with some blood in his urine. He has just now started to eat and drink a small amount and the urine color looks a bit better. He still acts quite sick and is still on antibiotics and sub-Q fluids at home.



Early this morning I read the FDA has found melamine in the food and in dead animals. I haven’t been able to find much on the effects of melamine on cats. However a quick search found some info on the OSHA site http://www.osha.gov/dts/chemicalsampling/data/CH_250440.html

which includes…

"Potential symptoms: Irritation of eyes, skin, and mucous membranes; dermatitis; in animals: chronic inflammation of kidneys (female rats); ulceration of urinary bladder epithelium (mice), urolithiasis (rats and mice); bladder cancer (male rats)."



Perhaps this may explain what caused my cat’s problems. Has anyone else seen any unexplained acute urinary blockages in pets which were feed food on the recall list?



I've still got hope.



Dennis

[Gwen]

Re: the petitions, I've always been wary of signing petitions, following a negative experience a relative had in which something was misrepresented to them in a petition they'd signed. I prefer to write to companies / elected officials / etc. myself, so I'm able to be in control of (and aware of) precisely what's being said in my name, y'know?

[Jaycee]

On the front page of Yahoo right now:



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070330/ap_on_bi_ge/pet_food_organic

[Sherry]

I don't know about this RECENT recall, but my cat suffered these SAME symptoms and almost died after Christmas. She ate IAMS canned food mixed w/IAMS dry (3 parts canned to 1 part dry). I wonder when this problem began, how long this has REALLY been going on and how many pets have truly been affected.

[johnypaycut]

Fda has NO right to withhold information on

the distributor of any pet food known to contain a toxin.. call you congress critter..

call evey politican you know? if you know anything they'r in serious trouble if they deny

you access to knowledge that can save you animal.

[Joseph]

Unfortunately, according to FDA rules, things like genetically modified corn and wheat are considered "corn" and "wheat" and therefore won't ever be tested or considered to be a culprit. Not unless they are also contaminated like this stuff was.



http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_4518.cfm

Matches the symptoms quite nicely. It's in most high fructose corn syrup in the U.S. and also in most animal feed(ie - corn meal in the pet food ingredient list)



They started growing it in 2001/2002, so this is a recent development that the pet food companies aren't likely even aware of.(Nutro for instance, is something like 80+ years old)

[Dar]

I think it's time we all, who have pets,start making are own food for are pets.As the days and weeks progress,there are more and more contaminated pet foods.I can assure you that the death toll is much higher than the media/government is reporting.We all(pet owners)now have to assume that all pet foods are contaminated.What's next,human food? I guess by the time we find that out there will be thousands or even millions allready dead...