Pet Food Recall

My Aunt used to feed her Great Pyr - Iams Lamb & Rice, because the vet told her it was for animals that were allergic to poultry products. The dog loved it until about a year ago, when Iams changed their formula and the vet told her to avoid Iams. He then advised Purina's new "One" and the dog never leaves the bowl till it's empty!

I saw something the other day about phenobarbitol being in pet foods. That's usually reserved for seizures.

Now that I think about it, when we took the IAMS "cuts in gravy" cans back to PetsMart in December, the clerk told us that IAMS had recently "changed their formula" and they'd had a lot of it returned. It must be that some dogs were refusing it. The reports I've heard state that ten cats died of kidney failure, but no reports of dog fatalities. You have to wonder, though.

Our dogs' main food is a kibble not on the list of recall companies, but we'd use an occasional small can of IAMS when I don't have home-cooked chicken for them. Darn, this is like messing with baby food. I hope somebody does an in-depth study on the pet food industry.

Anybody with some experience about Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance dry food.. I think I am becoming nervous about Eukanuba also.. I always fed my dogs dry food.. But I am starting to get my doubts about these corrupt practices with the BIG NAMES..(4d food, etc.. give me a break..)

:)

Yesterday we went to the pet store to get more food for our dog, and bought the Nutro packets. Read the recall info this morning and discovered the brand we bought is on the list, but the dates are prior to the recall dates. The original article said that wheat gluten was the suspect but hadn't been confirmed. Wheat gluten is supposed to be a source of protein and is the third item on the contents. Now our delima is.... do we take it back for a refund or assume it should be safe?

I too feel like we are being ripped off. We think we are getting a better product by going to the pet store, only to find out the cheap stuff is being manufactured by the same company as the expensive foods.

lilhowlinwolf wrote:

CA POPPY wrote:
IAMS and Eukanuba do indeed make "wet" food.

Unfortunately Iams does not make it's own "wet" food - that's why it's part of the recall. Menu makes it for them and 39 other labels. Makes you wonder why you laid out the extra $$$ doesn't it.

Absolutely right - thanks for correcting my error. I guess with all the marketing brainwashing, even when we know that, we still misspeak.

So sorry to hear that some are seeing signs of illness in their pets. Interesting also, as CA POPPY mentioned, my boxer-dog likes IAMS dry (lamb & rice only), but gave me the "fisheye" when I tried to feed him IAMS canned cuts and gravy - that's why it was still in my cabinet. He still gets some dry, some canned (Pedigree), homemade broth, rice, veggies, etc. but will not touch IAMS canned. Appears he may, as suspected, be smarter than I am.

I went to Ralph's Market yesterday and went down the pet section. There were two employee's removing all the the IAMS and Eukanuba can pet food. I was kind of curious to see if they still had the can food on the shelves.

I left a note for my DW as I left for work yesterday, and sure enough, by the time I got home we were $180 poorer from a Vet bill. The vet took some blood, and is supposed to call us today with the results. The good news is that the packages we had left all had dates prior to the ones in the recall. We don't know however if we may have had some newer packages with the involved dates that he has already eaten. These were WM Ol-Roy foil packs, hopefully the fact that they buy them a cazillion at a time made them all prior to the affected dates.

Hit The Road Jack wrote:
\
DW & I have been feeding our 3 cats 'Science Diet' or 'Iams' since day 1, at the advice of a family friend/Vet, all this time feeling confident that our fur babies were in good healthy hands with these over-priced delicacies...now we find...not the case!

Do we limit our concern to a simple recall/refund?... or perhaps get to the bottom of this, thus preventing any further future major health issues.

The problem is that Science Diet and Iams (and anything you can buy at Wal-Mart) are NOT quality foods. Both have too much corn in them and use animal by-products. By-products are the parts of the animal not fit for humans to eat. Also they use 4-D meat. 4-D stands for animals that are dead, dying, diseased, or disabled when they reach the slaughter house. Also, look at your pet food labels. If it say MEAT by-products and doesn't specify what kind of meat, throw it out! Many of the cheaper foods, Iams included, use euthanized dogs and cats in their food. There is no law against this except in I believe California. The reason vets like to promote Science Diet is that most vets are taught very little about pet nutrition in a class sponsored by Hills (who makes Science Diet) and many make a good profit off of it. Its no wonder that all these poor animals are being hurt by the food. If anyone has any more questions about what's really in pet food, please write me. I worked at PetSmart for 2 years and learned more about pet food than I wanted to know, and I'm tired of the pet food companies and even some vets who are hiding the truth. It's really awful!

lilhowlinwolf wrote:

Unfortunately Iams does not make it's own "wet" food - that's why it's part of the recall. Menu makes it for them and 39 other labels.

Should've been IAMS and Eukanuba "sell" wet food, of course. I doubt that all 39 products were identical. They probably change some ingredients per the brand, but I guess we'll find out. And the last I heard, nobody had figured out what caused the problem.

Interesting that the widely scorned (by some people) Purina products and Pedigree did not seem to be on the recall list.

on edit: Whoops, I stand corrected. Mighty Dog is a Purina brand. With all these companies buying each other, it's hard to keep them straight. Mighty Dog pouches of cuts and gravy are included in the recall.

CA POPPY wrote:
IAMS and Eukanuba do indeed make "wet" food.

Unfortunately Iams does not make it's own "wet" food - that's why it's part of the recall. Menu makes it for them and 39 other labels. Makes you wonder why you laid out the extra $$$ doesn't it.