Pet Food Recall
Pet Food Recall leaves bitter taste
What they're not telling you

When Dana Smith-Mansell saw her cat, Kearsey, stumbling around on March 30, she immediately grew concerned and booked an appointment with a veterinarian. But as she soothingly brushed Kearsey in preparation for the 35-mile trip, her concern turned to panic. “I looked into her eyes and they were fixed and dilated,” says Dana. “She was in a full blown seizure. It lasted about five minutes. I bent down to pet and comfort her and she went into another seizure, this time for two minutes.”

After arriving at the vet’s office, Dana was directed to an emergency clinic ten miles away. By the time she arrived, Kearsey was unresponsive. The vet ordered blood work, which showed that Kearsey was in renal failure, a surprise to Dana since lab results only nine months earlier showed the cat’s kidneys were functioning normally.

“I had been chalking up some of the changes I saw in Kearsey as age-related. She had been eating one of the foods that we have since learned was included in the recall. But around late January/ early February, there were times when she would refuse the food. She had infrequent urination accidents and dropped a little weight so I added other foods, one of which was also on the recall. She began refusing her nightly treats which was the same product she had eaten for years. It’s now also on the recall list.”

The emergency veterinarian presented Dana with several options, including euthanasia. Dana couldn’t let Kearsey go without trying to treat her so the cat was hospitalized and placed on IV fluids. The pair returned home the next day with a guarded prognosis and a discharge report that stated Kearsey’s illness as “probable ingestion of recalled food”.

Dana’s horrific story is only one of many. Thousands of people have reported similar illnesses in their animals after eating the recalled foods. Still many more may have suffered damage not readily apparent.

“A blood test and urinalysis can assess kidney damage – whatever its cause,” explains veterinarian Dr. Jean Hofve, a nutritional expert and former advisor to the American Animal Feed Control Officials (AAFCO). “A few veterinarians tested all their patients who were eating the recalled foods, whether or not they were sick. All of them – even those who seemed perfectly normal – had signs of
kidney damage on the tests.”

So what went wrong? How have thousands of people been deceived into believing that they were feeding their animals a well-balanced and safe diet?

As this story goes to press, we still don’t know the cause of this pet food crisis. An initial lab report out of New York blamed the presence of aminopterin, a substance used as rat poison. Subsequent reports found no aminopterin but did discover melamine, a relatively harmless chemical used as a fertilizer and in making plastic. Melamine was found in high levels in wheat gluten imported from China.

While obviously of grave concern, many experts don’t feel that melamine is responsible for the acute renal failure animals experienced after eating the recalled foods.

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Published in the June/July 2007 issue of Animal Wellness