03/20/2007: "Pet Food Recall"

mood: Pretty worried about my buddies out there

Holy cats everybody! Have you heard about the big food recall? I swear it’s a conspiracy to keep me hungry. Actually they tell me my food is not affected by this. Anyway, a lot of pet food brands have recalled a certain type of food, because several kitties have become sick. A possible culprit is a new type of wheat gluten that was used starting in December, but they don’t know for certain yet. It’s reportedly caused these kitties to go into kidney failure, and some have died. The doctors here tell me that signs of this disease can include drinking more water, urinating more, vomiting, decreased energy and (yipes!) loss of appetite. If your kitty (or dog for that matter) is showing these signs, be sure to bring him or her right in for evaluation. The doctors can run bloodwork and check a urine sample to see if the kidneys are working OK.

The food affected are NOT any dry diets; the recall involves mostly foods in pouches and some canned food. If you don’t have massive Maine paws and can operate a keyboard on your computer effectively, you can find a full list of products at www.menufoods.com/recall. This is the company that made foods for a lot of other companies. The foods were mostly sold at Kroger, Safeway, Walmart and PetsMart stores. The food was made between December and March. In addition to the foods listed at this site, Iams and Science Diet have voluntarily recalled some of their products that could be affected. You can find these products at www.fda/gov/oc/po/firmrecalls/hills03_07.html and www.iams.com. The foods are the chunks of meat with gravy type foods. Again, dry foods are NOT involved in this problem.

If you have been eating one of these foods, check the lot number to see if it’s involved in the recall. If it is, DON’T EAT ANY MORE. We recommend you come in for testing to see how your kidneys are doing. At this time, we don’t know if the pet food companies will be paying for this testing. The above sites have phone numbers you can call to ask them.

If you have any questions, give us a call here. I’ve stationed myself by the phones to help out.