Breaking news: Nutro parent company recalls some dog food.
Mars Petcare US, the company which also manufacturers the recently-scrutinized Nutro foods, has just recalled 100 of its 20-pound bags of Pedigreee Complete Nutrition Small Crunchy Bites, according to ConsumerAffairs.com.
NOTE: None of this food was sold in Florida. It appears to all have come from Albertsons' stores in southern California and the Las Vegas area.
Mars said it issued the recall after a component of the food that tested positive for salmonella was inadvertently shipped to its California plant.The affected bags have "best by" dates of July 7, 2009.
I could find nothing about this on the US Food and Drug Administration Web site. But click here for complete recall info from Mars Petcare.
Consumers have continued to blame Nutro products, also manufacturerd by Mars, over this past year for the illnesses and even deaths of their dogs and cats. One of them, Linda, talked about her experiences with Nutro in a note to SSS! that she posted yesterday. Keep going if you want to read it. She claims both her dogs and cats had serious problems on Nutro that stopped when she switched to Eukanuba.
Feel free to tell us about your experience, too.
Below is Linda's comment from yesterday.
Nutro has been around for years and has always been an excellent product. But I remember opening a new bag of food and the color was darker. The Nutro rep told me they had made changes to the ingredients. That was a few months ago and it seems to be about the time the complaints started.
We have 30 rescued cats (20 ferals) and 4 dogs. We started using Nutro last fall for both the dogs and cats.
We took several cats in for annual exams this year and they'd lost a couple pounds. Our vet was happy because they were on the porky side and needed to lose a little. But Nemo, one of the ferals has been steadily losing weight and we were going to have blood work done on him to see what was wrong. We had been finding bloody stools in the litter pan and thought it might be him. It started to worry me when we took a couple cats in that didn't need to lose weight and they, too, had lost a couple pounds. We also had several cats that were losing the shine to their fur. And our cats were no longer running to the food bowls when it was feeding time. I found I was throwing food out at the end of the day because they just weren't eating it!
Well, amazingly, the cats acted like starving strays when I switched to Eukanuba! No more bloody stool in the litter pans, fur shiny again, and Nemo is eating like he hasn't eaten in months! He's already filling out!
The problem with our cats and dogs is we were seeing different symptoms in them that appeared to be other conditions so we didn't connect it to the food. Max, our Pit Bull, was very ill for 2 weeks after we tried Nutro's Lamb and Rice. Our vet said it was gastritis caused by something he got into and we put him on meds and boiled hamburg and rice. When we started the Nutro Lamb again, he immediately started with vomiting and diarrhea. We took Max off the food thinking he just couldn't handle the lamb. The other dogs were fine so we didn't realize it was the food until Tazz, our German Shepherd, became very sick after Max recovered. We switched to Nutro's Large Breed.
They seemed to be ok on that formula. But Max started having stool problems. Soft, then hard, then soft. Our vet thought because of his age that he might need meds if it continued. Kaiser, another German Shepherd, was having to urinate 10 times a night. If we didn't get to the door fast enough, he'd urinate in the kitchen. We were going to get him in for tests. Tazz started to act disorientated and very unsteady on her feet. Tazz has arthritis and we know we're on borrowed time with her but she acted drunk. Jada, another German Shepherd, and Tazz started eating grass. And they all were drinking lots of water especially the dogs after they ate.
We switched to Eukanuba dog food. The first night after changing food - Kaiser slept all night instead of whining and pacing! When the
other dogs went out, I had to wake him up to go! Tazz is brighter and though she's stiff when she gets up, she's not acting drunk! Max is having normal stools! Jada has stopped eating grass! AND they're drinking normal amounts of water now - not guzzling water like they were dying of thirst. No more vomiting, no more diarrhea, fur is shiny again.
When there is weight loss in EVERY animal in a household, then something is wrong! We've been off Nutro for two weeks and every symptom we were seeing is GONE! I thank God we switched before we lost any of our precious babies!
It breaks my heart to read these stories of lost pets. Something is wrong and we all need answers! The stories I've read on http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/nutro.html have alarmed me terribly! I will never use Nutro again!
ANGIE BRENNAN, a Sun-Sentinel page designer,
lives with four dogs and one boyfriend. And has a lifetime of animal stories to share.
DIANE LADE, a reporter on the Sun-Sentinel's Help Team, has lived with cats, dogs, reptiles, fish, an iguana, and an armadillo.
CYNDI METZGER, editor of the Sun-Sentinel's Outlook section, is smitten with Bella, her poodle who regularly ignores requests to sit, stay and get off the ivory-colored sofa. 
JOHN TANASYCHUK, a Sun-Sentinel lifestyle writer, has lived with cats as long as he can remember. He and his partner currently share their home with three.
Comments
AUGUST 14, 2008-
I wanted to add an update to the nightmare we went through with all of our animals. To reiterate, we have 30 rescued cats (20 feral) and 4 dogs. Our cats are all inside cats - our dogs are in a fenced in back yard with no possible contaminants. Tazz, one of our German Shepherds, will be 12 in November. She was fine when we switched to Nutro last fall. She did have some arthritis started that basically bothered her in rainy weather. It wasn't until early summer 2008 that we started seeing her legs become weaker. July is when we saw her steadily go down hill. She acted confused, couldn't get up without help, would stumble and fall and need help to walk through the house. We would wrap a towel under her belly and bring it up on both sides of her so we could support her as she walked. We bought area carpets to help her with traction on some of the floors. We all were devastated that age was taking its toll on our beloved Tazz. It was obvious her legs were giving out and we worried that winter in NH would be too much for her. We had Rimadyl for those rainy days and started to give it to her more frequently. It didn't help. We knew we had to talk to our vet but we were all afraid. Sadly, we assumed it was age related.
A friend emailed me that she had read some disturbing stories about Nutro on www.consumeraffairs.com. I logged on and started reading. When I read the stories about other dogs with the same symptoms, it gave me chills. We didn't want to get our hopes up because it seemed unlikely this was what was happening to Tazz. Too much to hope for. BUT the stories and symptoms of other animals were too much of a coincidence so I immediately took all our Nutro back and bought Eukanuba. I still have cat food that I planned on throwing out. Now I want to have it tested if I can find out where and how to do this. I desperately want answers and want this serious problem dealt with. We were one of the lucky ones but we're still worried about any residual damage with all of our pets.
As I stated in my last letter, the symptoms are gone from EVERYONE! As I sit here and write this I can't help the tears that are filling my eyes because Tazz has recovered back to the point where she might be a little stiff on a rainy day! She's playing with the other dogs, running around the back yard, slower like a senior citizen but she's not falling, she's not disorientated, she doesn't need help getting up and she's got that bright look in her eyes once again! She was dying! If we hadn't taken heed of the stories that many are blowing off - we would have lost our beloved Tazz. We no longer feel we're on "borrowed time" with Tazz. We feel strongly with the way she's acting now that she's going to be with us at least several more years! That's a far cry from thinking we would be putting her down this fall!
Posted by: Linda | August 14, 2008 6:23 PM
We have been using Pedigree for years but last the last few months our dogs have been getting diarrhea & have been all but refusing to eat Pedigree dry or wet products. Then the worst happened last Wednesday...after feeding our three year old Aussie....he began drinking more water than usual...then he had 2 seizures in a row immediately after ingesting his Pedigree food. He was a perfectly healthy dog until now.
We have taken him to the doctor...he has run blood test & advised us that the seizures were not system or metabolic based...our vet has suggested it could be low levels of toxins...he has now advised us not to feed our dogs Pedigree any longer
We were also informed this morning that some of the pet stores have been recalling Pedigree products....one being Pet's Mart....where we were buying Pedigree....but Pedigree website (Pedigree.com) as of tonight doesn't mention that recall at all...but Pet's Marts website does
This scares us....the silence scares us....after years of using Pedigree, we will no longer continue to buy this product
We are interested in doing something about the way dog food is made & sold...it's a same that our loving pets are being perpretrated by these companies.
Posted by: Fran | September 21, 2008 11:33 PM