Anyone who has been a part of, investigated or just studied these types of problems understands finding the answer is usually more complicated than just testing the food/treat/environment or animal.
The problem starts with the fact that while hundred to thousands are implicated in this situation, it's a small blip on the number of dogs/cats that become sick every day. The symptoms mimic many other disease that occur every day and are far more common than an intoxication.
Then you get to the diagnosis and cost of tracking down these things if they are suspected. It's very costly to run tox screens when you know what you're looking for, and SUPER expensive to run a full tox screen. These costs are always borne by the owner. Those costs could be reimbursed if the culprit is found and law suits happen - but that's about as likely as winning a lottery.
Testing the food/treat is problematic because often this is only done in the case of a death when a toxin is known to be highly probable and most times the owners have disposed of everything, food, treats, toys ...
If you do find evidence of a toxin, where did it come from??? At home by some sick individual, in the grocery/pet store, in the regional warehouse, in the manufacturer's warehouse, during production or transport, or in raw ingredients?
FDA funding is part of the government budget that is subject to the same cutbacks that everything else has been with the sequester and more recent shut down. With the money they do have, investigating animal issues probably has a lower priority than human issues, that's just the way it is.
Doug, DVM
