Vet Blog
05/22/09
Another pet food recall was announced yesterday. This recall affects two types of Nutro Brand cat food. No dog foods are affected. Nutro issued a press release yesterday. Here is a quote.
This recall is due to incorrect levels of zinc and potassium in our finished product resulting from a production error by a US-based premix supplier.
Two mineral premixes were affected. One premix contained excessive levels of zinc and under-supplemented potassium. The second premix under-supplemented potassium. Both zinc and potassium are essential nutrients for cats and are added as nutritional supplements to NUTRO® dry cat food.
Based upon the limited information I have seen I am optimistic that this recall will not lead to serious illness in many cats. Zinc can be toxic in very high doses. Although I have not seen quantitative information on the amount of zinc contained in the recalled foods, it is unlikely that their zinc levels are high enough to cause problems.
Low potassium also can lead to a host of problems. However, they usually develop slowly.
In either case, I’m optimistic that switching affected cats to a nutritionally balanced diet will prevent major issues from occurring.
However, contact your veterinarian immediately if your cat has been eating a recalled food and he or she experiences lethargy, weakness, lack of appetite, vomiting, diarrhea, or any other unusual symptoms.
For more information, click here to read the entire press release.
A note about comments: emotions tend to run strong when pet food is discussed. Please keep your comments civil. Thank you in advance for not forcing me to delete your comments.
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12/13/08
 A few days ago I treated a five-year-old Toy Poodle who had been vomiting and hadn’t eaten for nearly a week. Blood and urine tests were normal. X-rays did not show any irregularities.
The poor dog clearly felt terrible. I wanted him to undergo an ultrasound examination immediately. The facility where I was working did not have an ultrasound machine or an intensive care unit, so I referred him to a specialist.
Fortunately, the ultrasound examination was normal, and the dog made a complete recovery after two days of nursing care. But the specialist’s assessment of the case was disturbing. Here is a quote from a letter that she wrote to me.
In a phone discussion with the owners . . . they reported that their other small breed dogs at home were showing similar clinical signs . . . [at the time the Poodle was discharged from the hospital, the] owners brought with them the chicken jerky treats that they had been feeding prior to onset of [the Poodle's] illness. The treats are manufactured in China and are supposed to be made up of 100% chicken breast. Last year, I saw a number of small breed dogs that ate similar treats (though a different brand), that presented with the same clinical signs of vomiting and prolonged [refusal to eat] after the vomiting resolved . . . A number of veterinarians at other hospitals had seen similar cases as well, presumed to have resulted from ingestion of a variety of brands of chicken jerky treats manufactured in China. Investigation of the products was not successful in identifying the offending substance and, unfortunately, removal of theses products from the market was not made mandatory.
If you have any canine chicken jerky treats at home, I’d recommend throwing them away.
About the photo: Dolly, fortunately, has no reported health problems.
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12/12/08
 Nobody with a pet will forget the horrible pet food recall that occurred in early 2007. Several brands of cat and dog food were tainted with melamine and cyanuric acid (a byproduct of shoddy melamine production). The contaminants crystallized in pets’ kidneys, sickening and killing pets across the USA.
Veterinarians and scientists have generally believed (hoped may be a better word) that pets sickened but not killed by the tainted food would not experience long-term effects from the contaminants.
Sadly, a well-respected feline practitioner (Dr. Gary D. Norsworthy of San Antonio) wrote to the editor of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) to describe his experiences with three cats. The letter was published in the October 15, 2008 issue of JAVMA.
The three cats in question had eaten contaminated food in 2007. They had been appropriately treated by veterinarians at the time of the recall. They developed kidney failure in 2008, almost certainly due to the contaminated food. Here is a quote from Dr. Norsworthy’s letter.
[Microscopic] examination of the kidneys [from one of the affected cats] revealed “occasional birefrengent tubular crystals similar to those described with melamine toxicity[.]“
And if that isn’t disturbing enough, here is Dr. Norsworthy’s next paragraph.
The manufacturer of the food refused to pay a claim for damages because it could not be proved conclusively that the cat’s [kidney] failure was related to the contaminated food that it had eaten about one year earlier.
It seems that the misery and heartache from the 2007 pet food recall simply won’t end.
About the photo: Sissy Sue was a victim of the pet food recall.
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11/18/08
 I have a friend whose Kerry Blue (four years old) just
died from some unnamed ailment. Clio had a
“quiver” that would run across her body. It got
worse and worse and then she started panting.
After taking her to the emergency clinic she was
pronounced as very dehydrated and was put on IV
fluids. Tests revealed nothing although she seemd
to have a tender abdomen. She finally could not
stand up and was unresponsive . . . all this after
numerous tests and two days in the hospital. Any
ideas what could have caused this? Thanks for any help
unraveling this mystery.
K.T.
Albuquerque
Wow. What a terrible story. I am very sorry for your friend’s loss.
It is shocking when a healthy young pet suddenly falls ill and passes away. And it is incredibly sad and frustrating for all of the people involved when nobody can determine what happened.
If the vets who worked on Clio were not able to tell you what happened, then you should not take anything I say as a proven fact. However, based upon your description I am suspicious that Clio may have consumed something toxic.
There are millions of potential toxins in the world. Some, such as pesticides and household chemicals, are manmade. Others, such as certain mushrooms and molds, are natural.
Blood tests sometimes indicate that poisoning has occurred. For instance, pets poisoned by melamine during the massive pet food recall that occurred in 2007 tested positive for kidney failure. Pets that consume certain types of mushrooms may test positive for liver failure.
However, many toxins do not cause any changes in blood values. Many of these same toxins can cause vague and progressive symptoms that ultimately may be fatal.
There are, of course, other possible causes for Clio’s sudden illness. But I feel that toxin ingestion is a very likely culprit.
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09/29/08
 A few weeks ago a reader named Elizabeth, from Washington, D.C. sent me a link to a book review written in The Economist.
The book, by Marion Nestle, is titled Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine. It discusses the infamous pet food recall of 2007. In the incident, melamine-tainted pet food sickened and killed thousands of animals.
A main thesis of the book is that the problems that occurred in 2007 should serve as a wake-up call. If contaminants such as melamine can make their way into pet food, they can make their way into human food.
Ms. Nestle’s advice could not have been more timely. This month it surfaced that melamine-contaminated milk powder has sickened thousands of infants in China. Several have died.
And today a breaking news report revealed that melamine has been discovered in Cadbury chocolate.
At this time the extent and severity of the chocolate contamination are not known. But this incident does a great deal to prove that animal and human food safety are interlinked.
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09/19/08
 Few people who lived through it will forget the massive pet food recall that occurred in the early months of 2007. Dozens of brands of food were contaminated. Untold thousands of dogs and cats fell ill or died.
As I mentioned in a previous post, research (supported by the American Veterinary Medical Association–I occasionally have my differences with the organization, but I should emphasize that it also does a tremendous amount of good work) concluded that animals were sickened by a combination of two chemicals in the contaminated food: melamine and cyanuric acid.
Melamine is a chemical normally used in the manufacture of fertilizer and chemicals. It can be used, nefariously, to boost the measured levels of protein in foods when they are tested.
Cyanuric acid is a byproduct of shoddy melamine production. The combination of cyanuric acid and melamine causes crystals to form in the kidneys of mammals, leading in some cases to kidney failure.
Or, to put it another way (what follows are unproven allegations): the manufacturer involved in last year’s pet food recall appears to have used melamine to make wheat flour appear to be higher in quality than it actually was. However, that manufacturer appears to have been too cheap to purchase high-quality melamine. The low-quality melamine used to throw off protein testing contained cyanuric acid. The combination of melamine and cyanuric acid sickened and killed pets.
Now, a similar process appears to be happening to humans. Infant formulas tainted with melamine have been linked to illness in thousands of infants in China. Several deaths have been attributed to the formulas.
I have yet to see cyanuric acid mentioned in any article related to this newest scandal, but I suspect that time will show that it, too, is involved in the problem.
It’s a sorry situation. My heart goes out to the parents of all affected individuals–dog, cat and human.
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05/21/08
Most people are familiar with the massive pet food recall that occurred in 2007. The recall affected dozens of brands, and was linked to ingredients that were intentionally tainted with melamine (and unintentionally tainted with cyanuric acid due to shoddy melamine manufacturing) by human beings. The combination of ingredients sickened or killed a large number of pets.
Human-made chemicals aren’t the only contaminants that can be found in pet foods. In 2005-2006, a massive recall of Diamond brand dog food occurred due to contamination with a natural poison. That poison was aflatoxin.
Aflatoxin is created by fungus that grows on corn. Exposure to aflatoxin can lead to sudden liver failure.
A report in the May 1, 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association discussed the symptoms, treatment, and outcome of dogs that ate contaminated food.
Different species have varying susceptiblity to aflatoxins, with dogs being highly susceptible . . . During late 2005, a serious foodborne aflatoxin contamination that was derived from moldy corn in manufactured dog food was recognized through collaborative efforts of regional New York State veterinarians and the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University . . . Although product recall was rapidly announced, high rates of morbidity and mortality of dogs nevertheless was encountered in the United States.
The report goes into quite a bit of detail about the pathology that occurred in affected dogs. But the conclusion of the study was disheartening.
Despite aggressive treatment, many but not all severely affected dogs died.
For reference, the article cited in this entry is J Am Vet Med Assoc 2008;232:1329-1337.
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02/08/08
The December 1, 2007 Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) included an article entitled “Researchers examine contaminants in food, deaths of pets.” The article discusses new revelations about last year’s massive pet food recall.
Some of the researchers’ findings are outlined below. Before you read them, I should warn you: what they discovered might not make you happy.
The total number of animals killed or sickened by tainted food is not known.
Cats and small dogs were more likely to be sickened by the contaminated foods, implying that small animals were not able to tolerate the contaminants as well as larger ones.
Two contaminants, melamine and cyanuric acid, appear to have been the main agents that led to kidney damage, illness, and death.
Neither contaminant, on its own, has been found to cause significant damage to kidneys in cats and dogs. However, in combination they form crystals in the body. This leads to kidney failure in some cases.
Melamine is an adulterant that is used to make the protein content of food components (wheat flour in this case) appear artificially high. According to JAVMA, “Adding melamine could throw off a test for the protein concentration of an ingredient, allowing flour to pass for a costlier high-protein ingredient.”
According to the prevailing theory of the researchers, cyanuric acid was present because of incomplete chemical reactions during the manufacture of the melamine.
Here’s how it looks to me. Note that what I am about to say is speculation, not proven fact.
The manufacturer of the wheat flour involved in the recall may have purposefully added melamine in order to obtain a higher price for the product. The manufacturer used low-quality melamine that was contaminated with cyanuric acid.
The combination of melamine and cyanuric acid caused kidney failure in some of the pets that ate contaminated food. If this hypothesis is true, it is scandalous indeed.
For reference, the article is J Am Vet Med Assoc 2007;231:1636-1638.
Further information can be obtained by visiting the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians website. Click on the 2007 conference proceedings (warning: large PDF file; relevant information is on page 29).
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