Dog Community

Nutro dry food - potential investigation

Posted : 3/29/2007 8:56:42 AM

Reposting this from an email list of an animal rescue where a friend of mine adopted her dog. The intent is not to cause panic, just thought I'd pass it along.

>>>>
>>>>Hello everyone,
>>>>
>>>>I hope you are enjoying this nice day....I just wanted to give you a
>>>>little more info on the food recall.
>>>>
>>>> I was feeding Nutro Max small bites (DRY) to my 3 Aussies and 1
>>>>Corgi. For the last 3 weeks on and off all 4 dogs have vomited
>>>>yellow bile. I did not think much of it because it was on and
>>>>off...maybe they were eating snow...whatever. Then the
>>>>recall...only wet?
>>>>
>>>>My brother called me on Sunday on the way back from the Rescue show
>>>>and his 10 yr old Sheltie spayed bitch was vomiting bile on and off
>>>>for a few days and now has blood in her urine. They brought in a UA
>>>>and dog is being treated for a UA infection.
>>>>
>>>>Yesterday he called me and his male-13 month old German Shepherd has
>>>>blood in its urine...guess what...feeding DRY Nutro Max. Another UA
>>>>to vets. No infection.
>>>>
>>>>The dispatcher at the police department where I work over heard me
>>>>talking to my brother...she has 2 mixes on Nutro Ultra DRY...they
>>>>have been vomiting bile on and off for about 4 weeks.
>>>>
>>>>A women in my obedience class...her mother has a Terrier on Nutro
>>>>All Natural DRY...dog is being treated for blood in urine.
>>>>
>>>>The dispatcher called the FDA today and spoke with Bill Boiven
>>>>(Spelling) at 781-596-7783. She gave him all our info and he
>>>>contacted me. Guess what!!! They have already started to launch an
>>>>investigation on the dry dog food. They are getting millions of
>>>>

hone calls about this. He did tell me that the foods are processed
>>>>by 2 different manufactures but this is way to coincidental.
>>>>
>>>>Yes I have now put my dogs on boiled r ice, hamburger and Wellness.
>>>>Just thought some of you might want to know and maybe call if you
>>>>are having problems. Seems to be more wide spread than wet or
>>>>canned.
>>>>
>>>>Thanks
>>>>>>>>Moonstone Shepherds
>>>>Dogs are not my whole life, but they make my life whole.

glenmar

Posted : 3/29/2007 9:02:46 AM

OK, here I am going to step in and ask that we NOT panic and not help to spread what might not be fact.

We are not dealing with first hand information here and I'd hate to start widespread panic.

Cheryl

Posted : 3/29/2007 9:08:04 AM

You're correct Glenda.

I had both my Eskies on Nutro Adult Dental Care dry mixed with their ProPlan dry and one got sick and the other did not. If there were a problem with Nutro Dry, then wouldn't both get sick? If indeed there was something wrong with it.....

I wouldn't jump to any conclusions.....

jenns

Posted : 3/29/2007 9:11:13 AM

I edited the title and intro to as not to sound too alarming. also wanted to point out it is a reliable source, otherwise I would have not posted it. Everyone can take what they want from it, but i would rather have the info out there and let those who feed the food make their own choice.

jenhuedepohl

Posted : 3/29/2007 9:15:24 AM

I had Lucy on Nutro Natural Choice Lamb & Rice when I first got her because that was what the shelter was feeding. She occasionally (once or twice a week) vomited yellow bile. Never did after I switched her. I don't think there's anything wrong with the food itself, it just didn't agree with her. My sisters dogs were on Nutro Ultra Large Breed for about a year with no vomiting whatsoever. Many food seem to cause problems with certain dogs - like pudding poop on Wellness or Two - it doesn't mean the food itself is awful Just doesn't work for those dogs.

sandra_slayton

Posted : 3/29/2007 11:28:53 AM

I edited the title and intro to as not to sound too alarming. also wanted to point out it is a reliable source, otherwise I would have not posted it. Everyone can take what they want from it, but i would rather have the info out there and let those who feed the food make their own choice

This is what you call being caught between a rock and hard place. You don't want to spread untrue rumors-----but at the same time you would feel awful if you didn't say something and then dogs died. It is "do I tell or do I not tell?" Personally, I would rather read or hear about something and then do a little looking around myself than not hear or read about something...and it caused illness/injury/death of one or more of my dogs.

Santino Rizzo

Posted : 3/29/2007 11:44:27 AM

I'm pretty sure Nutro manufactures their own kibble, so while there may be a legitimate issue, it wouldn't be as widespread as the Menu Foods problem. Also, I would hope the FDA and USDA are looking into dry food as well as wet as they still aren't positive what the cause is, and if the source is something general (like wheat) you would want to make sure it didn't get shipped anywhere else, though you would also hope once this situation came to light the manufacturers would take care of that.

willowchow

Posted : 3/29/2007 11:47:28 AM

I guess I'm hesitating to believe because supposedly it's the wheat gluten that was the issue and I'm not sure about ALL the Nutro dry formulas nor do I have time to look now, but if they don't contain this ingredient then this wouldn't make sense that the illnesses are in connection with the recall.

Anyway, I hope all the dogs mentioned in the OP are doing OK now.

Lori

jeano

Posted : 3/29/2007 12:08:03 PM

Sofia's sister, Athena, and Lily the piggle dog (pit bull x beagle) eat NutroMax and are fine. No vomiting, everything okay. And they have been eating it the entire time this recall has been going on.

Not that I haven't called my son and asked him to watch the dogs like a HAWK, but so far, so good.

ILoveChi

Posted : 3/29/2007 12:23:49 PM

My parent's have 9 dogs, they all eat Nutro Natural Choice and every one of them is fine.

jessies_mom

Posted : 3/29/2007 12:51:27 PM

I'm pretty sure Nutro manufactures their own kibble, so while there may be a legitimate issue, it wouldn't be as widespread as the Menu Foods problem. Also, I would hope the FDA and USDA are looking into dry food as well as wet as they still aren't positive what the cause is, and if the source is something general (like wheat) you would want to make sure it didn't get shipped anywhere else, though you would also hope once this situation came to light the manufacturers would take care of that.

I agree; it could be more widespread than the canned because they aren't certain yet what the cause is. The FDA has not corroborated the finding by the New York Lab that it was rat poison. Also, Dr. Hansen of the ASPCA says this; [linkhttp://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=press_032707_2]http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=press_032707_2[/link];

Dr. Hansen continued, "Aminopterin has been used to treat cancer in people, since it is able to disrupt rapidly-growing cells. In animals, it should result in effects that mimic this function, and these include bloody diarrhea, bone marrow suppression, abortion and birth defects. Further, renal damage—which has been seen in the affected animals—can occur at high doses.
"However, to be consistent with the effects of aminopterin, we should also be seeing a significant number of affected pets showing the accompanying signs of severe intestinal damage, as well as bone marrow suppression, including 'leukopenia,' which is a serious reduction in white blood cells.
"This is the missing connection that we want to alert veterinarians around the country to. We are asking all veterinarians treating cats affected by these products, to report their findings to the U. S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA).”

I couldn't find "Small Bites" dry food on the Nutro website, but the dry Nutro Max mini chunks has wheat flour. There seems to be wheat flour in all of the Nutro Max dry food. They do not list the ingredients for Nutro Ultra but have moving pictures instead; one picture looked like either a wheat field or oat field, hard to tell.

jenns

Posted : 3/29/2007 12:58:15 PM

ORIGINAL: sandra_slayton

This is what you call being caught between a rock and hard place. You don't want to spread untrue rumors-----but at the same time you would feel awful if you didn't say something and then dogs died.

Yup, exactly. I really do hope there is nothing wrong with the food - there are enough problems with the recall as it is.

jessies_mom

Posted : 3/29/2007 1:02:47 PM

Yup, exactly. I really do hope there is nothing wrong with the food - there are enough problems with the recall as it is.

It's hard to know what's true and what isn't, but it's important to let others know of possible problems; thank you jenns.

Jennifer

Posted : 3/29/2007 1:14:52 PM

I belong to 3 e-mail lists currently for either dog food or dog nutrition. When I did some research about a year ago on random vomiting (because I had a problem with one of my own....not on Nutro I will add) a ton of stuff came up about Nutro and random vomiting. I think this food has a small history of this as it's "didn't work for my dog" red flag. And those were archive searches dating back years.

Jilly's Virtuos

Posted : 3/29/2007 1:21:05 PM

No some dogs are ammune (SP?) to somethings others are not and there could be something mixed in, in different places of th dog food I'm guessing on that one though??