A friend of mine contacted me today because her dog got sick (nausea and bloody diarrhea). Her vet said this has been a growing problem, there have even been cases in Australia. The common thread at the moment seems to be packaged chicken jerky. My friend gets hers from Costco, and guess where it's made? That's right...China. Surprised? I'm not. If you can avoid it, stop feeding your animals any foods with chicken raised and processed in China. And definitely avoid feeding the jerky and chicken flavored treats. She feeds her dog Purina Pro Plan and suggested she switch to Pedigree. So if you're feeding the Pro Plan you might want to switch too.
Here is the most recent posting I have been able to find on this.
12 January 2009
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7 comments:
I've noticed similar problems with chicken and dogs myself. I believe the issue is HOW the chicken is raised, not WHERE though. Most chickens, as I'm sure you and many of your readers are aware, are raised in horrendous confinement and because of that they need to be given huge quantities of antibiotics and other drugs. Much of that still remains in the processed chicken, especially the parts which go into dog food (I think it's usually called "dried chicken digest" or something like that.
I use Beneful. I have never had a problem with it yet!I have had problems with Pedigree. My dogs turned their nose up at it! It may have been a bad bag of food. My white lab smells everything before she eats it, smelled the Pedigree and absolutely refused to eat it. We disposed of the bag immediately. I didn't want the vet bill.
This is probably related to the melamine issue that caused the deaths of many pets back in 2007. It seems the chicken jerky is the main source of the problem. I think the food recommendation was a precautionary one. I have not heard of any current recalls on kibble.
Thanks for the warning, Shtuey. My dog got very sick about a year ago from eating Nutro Ultra. She had been eating it for about a year and never had problems with it, however, she wasn't looking as good as I hoped she would-they touted it as more "natural". Anyway, I bought a new bag just before we left on vacation and we brought her with us (as we always do). She had already eaten about two meals from that bag. While on our road trip, I noticed she was sluggish and sleeping a lot. I thought she might be feeling car sick, but that never happened before. Then, as the week went on, she balked at eating it (Labs never balk at food!). When we arrived home, I fed her and she threw it all up, immediately. Again, I thought the car ride made her sick. Then the next morning, she threw it up again, immediately after eating it. She became immediately sluggish and sickly. I rushed her to the vet and he asked if we had changed foods. I said no, never thinking about the fact it was a new bag of the same food. Long story shorter...after over $500 of tests and watching her become sicker every day (we were still trying to feed her the food because we had no idea it was bad)...I did research on the web and found a bunch of people who had the same problem with the Nutro Ultra and the company refused to do a recall. Dogs were dying from it and they would not take the step to pull it from the shelves.
If we had left her on that food any longer, she would not be here. I started feeding her a natural diet of food I make for her at home. I also supplement it with a kibble (which is only sold at dog grooming and supply stores) that is made in the USA with food that is only grown in the USA (the same supplier of meat and vegetables for Dominick's grocery stores). There are no ingredients from China and it is made only in the USA. One year later she looks great! Shiny coat, unending energy, perfect weight, and extremely healthy!
BTW, making your own dog food and treats is easy and fun. I make the food on weekends and bag individual portions and freeze it. It's a balanced diet of meat, vegetables and grains approved by vets. The treats are the most fun to make. They are good enough for human consumption, I even tried a ginger bread cookie and it was great!
Sorry for the long comment. :-(
Wow! You just solved the mystery for me! My dog had the same symptoms - the first time recovered in 24h, the second time it took days and vet intervention. Both times - he ate minuscule treats of chicken jerjy - which I just now verified - made in China. I am happy to know the cause - as I adopted my dog recently and was not sure if this was some chronic problem or something more serious.
I just made copies of that FDA caution and left copies to all pet shops in my neighborhood - with the story of what happened to my dog.
I have to thank you once again - as I still had some of those treats left and had it not been for your blog, I might have fed those to my dog again.
M.E., sounds like your dog was victim of the melamine contamination from last year. I'm so glad you were able to figure out what was going on before the worst happened.
Edge, I'm so glad you saw this post and are spreading the word. The chicken jerky problem has been going on for a while it seems, but places like Costco, etc are still selling it. Hopefully the FDA will pull this crap from shelves so no more pooches get sick from it.
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