NUTRO food contamination

I certainly would think that Nutro themselves would put out a warning if they thought something was bad, wouldn't you? 
With the holiday being yesterday,,,,could make matters worse I suppose!

Ummm...this happened 3 weeks ago.  If there was a problem, wouldn't it be known and the food recalled by now?

This is in reference tot he DIamond/Aflotoxin problem - it may not help here, but thought I would share it anyway:
[linkhttp://sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060108215126.htm]http://sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060108215126.htm[/link]
 
 
{quote}
The Cornell veterinarians also recommend that any suspected food be labeled as poison and stored away from animals and children. Save labels with lot numbers from bags. Until further information emerges, if food was stored in a wooden container, the container should be destroyed. Plastic and metal containers should be sanitized with bleach.
Blood, tissue, liver and food samples can be sent to the Animal Health Diagnostic Center, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-5786, phone (607) 253-3900 (check its Web site for a fee schedule). To report animals that might have died recently from the food poisoning, send an e-mail to [email=diagcenter@cornell.edu]diagcenter@cornell.edu[/email], and the researchers will follow up with a questionnaire
 
I am truly sorry for your loss of Gunner and the illness of your daughter's fur-kid. My heart goes out to you.

This happened three weeks ago, allegedly, and there is no mention of it at all on Ms. McCall's website: http://www.rockytopboxers.com/Gunner.html

I'd think that if she really wanted the word to reach the maximum number of people, she'd post it on her own site, and not just let people pass an e-mail around the internet. JMO.

Also, if the food was conclusively identified as the cause of death, I would expect to see something from the company by now ... it's hardly in their interest to leave contaminated food out there to kill dogs. Again, JMO.

The "MSU" in question could be quite a number of vet schools; Michigan State has an extensive lab and it might have been sent there for analysis. No idea.

My question: if the food is NOT identified as the cause of the death of two dogs, is Ms. McCall going to circulate a "sorry, I was wrong" e-mail on the internet? Just wondering.

It happened 2 weeks ago, though. You'd think that the necropsy results would be in already, (although I've never had a necropsy done before, so I'm not sure how long it does take) and if it was a threat, Nutro would have put something on their website. (Did Diamond put something on their website.)

Rememer though, sadly it is just one case. (that is known). I bet there has to be a whole lot of cases of the same thing to make them pull their foods off the shelves- just like Diamond's Aflitoxin, and just like Proheart (sorry- seems like I'm always bringing that up).
I would also like to know which part of Texas that they're talking about.

Sorry to hear about what happened.  Please update us.

 " The commercial food industry is getting ridiculous, its no longer about healthy pets but consumers money and lawsuits."
   I think many companies, such as Nutro, honestly do want to make a product that is good for pets. Sure they want to (have to) make money, but I don't think that means they disregard the health of pets in favor of profit.
 
 " The more I read the more I want to feed homecooked with a little purina or something with a long term reputation for crunching on during the day."  These stories are totally unacceptable. "
   If you consider the millions of dogs that eat commercial kibble in this country daily, the incidences of illness and death caused by  kibble are indeed rare.
 
   We don't even know yet what caused Gunner's death and the other dog's illness. In my opinion, it is unlikely to be the kibble because there have been no other cases reported. How could only one bag be affected? I'm not familiar with Ms. McCall or her website, but she said "Gunner is housed in the kennels" so I'm assuming she has other dogs and they also ate the same food. Both the Mini Schnauzer and Gunner had access to the house, so isn't it ossible that they ingested something else that made them ill; a plant , prescription meds, etc.? I think it is premature to stop feeding Nutro and bash the commercial pet food industry based on what is known so far.

 

This was posted on one of my goleen boards this morning.
 
I just saw this post from Angel Gunner's owner. It was posted this morning.

To all concerned about my post, "Possible Dog Food
Contamination", first let me say thank you to all of
you for your kind words and thoughts regarding the
loss of Gunner and the effects this has had on my
daughters mini schnauzer, Dexter.

Because there has been an overwhelming response to my
post I would like to ask those forwarding my post to
PLEASE KEEP the subject line as stated in my original
post which read: "POSSIBLE Dog Food Contamination". I
have noticed that many people forwarding my post to
others and to other lists have changed my original
subject line to things that I have not stated and they
seem to be creating some hysteria. PLEASE, PLEASE do
not change the subject line. My intent was to inform
not create panic.

I want to make sure that everyone understands UNTIL I
have test results back on the dog food which will take
6-8 weeks and test results back on stomach contents of
my deceased dog, all I am saying is the
food "possibly" was responsible. Nothing has been
confirmed as test results are not in. It would be
premature for me to make the claim that the food was
the cause, no matter how strong I feel it was.

That being said, IF the food IS found to be
responsible, I didn't feel that waiting to warn people
of that possibility was the right thing to do. In all
good conscience, I could not take the chance of
someone else losing their pet, by then any warning
would be TOO LATE! I felt an obligation to let people
know so they could make an informed decision on their
own regarding the food they feed and whether to
continue feeding it or not.

Better SAFE than SORRY in this case! I wish I had
been given the chance to heed a warning.

Thanks for your time,

Sil McCall
****************************************************
 
This could be a case of in store tampering.  Two things did concern me.  First she was told they needed 4 cups, but when they came they wanted to take it all and the bag.  Well, i can understand taking the bag to check and see if they could find any tiny holes to indicate something had been "shot" into the food.  But why did they want to take the entire contents. after she was told they needed 4 cups.  I am so distrustful of companies now that this makes me think they were trying to amke sure she didn't get it tested on her own.  that is just my distrut coming thru.  Also, it seems they were pretty quick on the draw to want to compensate her.    Usually there is a lot haggling going on. 
 
She has a point about wanting to warn people.  Several dogs were dead before it came out about the Diamond dog food. Many dogs were dead before it came out about Proheart6, and many people had had strokes/heartattacks/died before it came about about Vioxx and Phen-Fen. 

That's very scary.  That's the exact food I fed Romy and Winston until I switched to Canidae. 
 
Could MSU be a typo and she meant SMU which is in Dallas?  They wouldn't neccessarily need a vet program would they?  Just a lab to test the chemical makeup of the food.
 
I'm so sorry that she lost her baby - and in such a violent way.  Hopefully she'll find some resolve soon.

Hello,
 
We retail Nutro, among other brands.  This rumor about Nutro causing seizures is quite probably a hoax.  The SKU mentioned is not even a legitimate Nutro SKU.
 
Nutro Natural Choice Lamb Meal & Rice Formula is the #1 selling pet store dog food in North America.  Don't you think that there would be a whole lot more dogs with seizures if there was a problem with some kind of contamination?
 
Elaina Pate, manager
Oak Ridge Feed
Oak Ridge, TN

It seems all we hear about these days is dog food contamination, from diamond to Timber wolf and now Nutro.  Dogs are animals and they can get into things that we don't even know that they did...Who knows what the dogs got into or if it was the dog food...there are no test results on dog or food that have been released.  I am sorry that you lost your dog.

I truly don't mean to overly alarm anyone, but if this was something I fed my dog I would want to know if there was even a small chance of this.
 
I hope it is not true, I hope it turns out to be something else.
 
Sorry if this upset anyone.

They do have a MSU in Mississippi. And it does have a veterinary program for pre-graduate and graduate.  Maybe the results are taking so long because it was sent so far, and they may just take a while.  When my Kayla died we had the option of sending her to the university here for the necropsy instead of the vet, and although they said the results would be much more thorough it would take 2-3 weeks... and this place was about 10 miles away.  And they certainly wouldnt pull the food and panick people until those results are back along with the food testing results, right?  I dont know but hope its not true.

[linkhttp://www.msstate.edu/]http://www.msstate.edu/[/link]

weren't dogs dying for months before people realized it was contaminated Diamond dog food at fault? 

I would like to confirm, this is NUTRO we're talking about? Not NATURA right?