NUTRO food contamination

To an extent, there is that risk in feeding any commercial food. It's not huge but it is there. There is some risk in feeding raw, or homecooked, primarily in the balance of nutrients if you don't do it right.

 
   You're right about that Ron. The risk I'm referring to is bacteria in raw meat. I used to give Jessie a little raw meat with her kibble but stopped after she had liquid stools the day after I had given her a small amount of raw beef. I started cooking the meat and she was fine. Last week I decided to try raw meat again. The beef had been in the freezer long enough to kill toxoplasmosis cysts and had been thawed in the fridge to prevent bacteria from growing. The day after I gave her about one quarter cup of raw beef she had a mucousy soft stool and a runny one, so no more raw. I have raised concerns in the raw food and omnivore-carnivore debates about a domestic dog's immune system being able to handle the bacteria in raw meat. I should pay more attention to my own advice.
  I agree with you about continuing to feed your dog Nutro while waiting for the test results. Both dogs were fed the Nutro but also had access to the house where they could have gotten into something. The post mentioned a kennels so I'm assuming she has other dogs who were also fed Nutro and didn't become ill. It's been almost four weeks and there haven't been any reports of other dogs becoming ill after eating Nutro Lamb and Rice so it seems very unlikely that it was the reason for poor Gunner's death.

According to what I heard from calling Nutro yesterday, it was a kennel feed situation and the dog that died was a 9 or 10 year old Boxer. That means, one would think, that plenty of other dogs ate it and were fine. However, according to an email I received from Nutro yesterday, preliminary results of that batch were that the food was not the issue.

Also, the dog did not die from eating but was PTS based on a decision between the owner and the vet.
 
I posted in another message a link to a canine epilepsy site that pointed out that Boxers do suffer from epilepsy and sometimes it is a result of a brain tumor. And we've all heard of old dogs getting tumors. For example, labs can get fatty tumors. Hopefully, though, the owner involved will post an update to let everyone know what was wrong.
 
Even though dogs can suffer from eating raw, though many do not ordinarily suffer from it, humans can also suffer from parasitic infection if they come into contact with either stool or saliva from their pet, both of which have been shown to shed intact bacteria. I'm not being anti-raw, just considering possible other influences.

Nutro will post results on their website when they have come to a resolution.

If it were me, and we are talking kibble here, I would probably put it aside for a few days, maybe in the fridge to keep it a little longer and try to give other people the opportunity to come forward if there was a problem.  Most people are not on message boards and don't even know what is going on,  (only seems like it) so I'm sure we would know soon. Actually I feel pretty sure we would know by now to be honest.   And I also would not stop from feeding any food made in the Diamond Plant.  I'm not positive I would stop feeding Diamond if I had fed a different formula than the one that caused problems.

I think there's a few people here still feeding, if not Diamond, then one of the foods made at a Diamond plant. And Diamond's problem was with only one particular batch though inspection did reveal incomplete paperwork and or testing on incoming shipments of supplies.

I agree, if the problem happened at least 3 weeks ago and Nutro collected a sample then and thought a recall was worthy, they would have done so.

Also, wherever the stomach contents from the dead dog were sent to would probably have results back by now, as well.

As the OP gets circulated to other boards, it raises a bigger stink, so to speak. I bought our current bag from the Petco in Sherman, Texas around the same time. Sherman is far north Texas and Conroe is small city next to Houston. Opposite ends of the state. Shadow is still doing fine.

In a previous post I mentioned my wife getting sick from a rare steak. I had also taken along a steak to have cooked for Shadow. It was almost that rare. I fed it to him and he did fine. Of course, he's only 2 years and 9 months. My wife thinks it wasn't the steak at all but another guest who had a similar malady the day before the dinner party. Semething airborne and I'm just lucky I didn't get it, too. So, our steaks might have been fine, after all.

I know when ever I get sick after going out, whether it be to someones house or a restaurant and I get sick, I'm always on the phone calling others to find out if they felt okay!     Of course when you bring the food to someones else house,,,,then there is no one to ask. 

   I know many dogs do well being fed raw. When the first "stool incident" happened I had been putting raw meat in her kibble for about a month. The second incident happened right after I had started giving her raw meat again. I thought there might be a slight nutritional advantage to the meat being raw but to an old worry wart like me it's not worth the very small risk of illness from bacteria or parasites, so she's getting cooked meat. I bring clean up bags along when I walk Jessie, which is daily, so there wouldn't be a risk of another animal or a person being exposed to bacteria from coming in contact with her stool, but I didn't know saliva also sheds salmonella.

 " 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. "

   It's probably going to be a few more weeks until she has the results from Nutro's testing. I haven't seen anything about how long it will take to test the dog's stomach contents. You mentioned that older dogs can get brain tumors, which can cause seizures, but the Mini-Schnauzer also had seizures.

   " I know when ever I get sick after going out, whether it be to someones house or a restaurant and I get sick, I'm always on the phone calling others to find out if they felt okay!     Of course when you bring the food to someones else house,,,,then there is no one to ask."  LOL

Since I have to have my meat well cookied, i can't bring myself to feed raw to the dogs either.  They had beef liver last night (I fried some with onions for me, theirs was boiled) and tonight it was canned mackeral.

 " Since I have to have my meat well cookied, i can't bring myself to feed raw to the dogs either.  They had beef liver last night (I fried some with onions for me, theirs was boiled) and tonight it was canned mackeral"
 
  I don't necessarily relate feeding Jessie to what's good for me or what I prefer. [] A dog's digestive system is much different from ours and their nutrient requirements are a lot different too. I've read that cooking meat destroys some of the amino acids as well as enzymes and that's why I was giving her some raw meat with her kibble. Being fed only processed food can deplete the pancreas of digestive enzymes over time. Studies have shown that as we age our pancreas doesn't produce as many enzymes. We eat fresh fruits and vegetables which help replace enzymes but dogs fed a processed diet can't do that. The kibble I feed Jessie has digestive enzymes and probiotics but I wanted  to add the raw meat as added insurance. I add a small amount of pureed  fresh fruits and vegetables to her food but it probably doesn't help much because a dog's digestive system is too short to break down the cell walls of plant material. Many people feed their dogs a totally raw diet without problems, but perhaps they have occassional bouts of diarrhea too. A dog's stomach acid has a much lower ph than ours and it's supposed to kill bacteria but I don't know if that's been proven. Anyway, when I cook her meat lightly, ( medium rare), she does fine, so it may be the fact that she has a sensitive digestive system, (she has loose stools if she eats kibble with corn or venison), and not the bacteria.
   By the way, in case you didn't know, canned human food has too much salt for dogs, so you should rinse the mackeral or limit the amount you feed them. []
   

Some folks are not comfortable with feeding raw.  Period.  And you can lecture until the cows come home but they still are NOT going to be comfortable feeding raw.

I'm sure that Sandra knows to rinse the jack mackeral carefully.

You might want to try phrasing your suggestions in a bit less of an abrasive manner.

I add a small amount of pureed fresh fruits and vegetables to her food but it probably doesn't help much because a dog's digestive system is too short to break down the cell walls of plant material.

 
That's exactly what pureeing the food does. Breaks down the cell walls so the dogs CAN digest it.  They can't digest WHOLE fruits and veggies...ie chunks.
 
I don't understand why you're so afraid to feed raw. You already know dog's digestive tracts are very short and they eat and eliminate raw foods quickly. Also their stomachs are so full of hydrochloric acid and other enzymes that can kill any bacteria, yes, even salmonella. E-coli is usually found in ground meats...like hamburger. My dogs have never had a problem from eating raw chicken or turkey or beef or lamb. I do lightly braise their liver in sunflower oil and garlic powder , not because I'm afraid to give it to them raw, but that's just the way they prefer to eat it. I still leave it raw in the middle. I just quickly throw it in the pan for about a min, turn it over, another min and then take it right out.  They won't eat fish raw so I braise that too. But if they'd eat it raw, they'd get it raw. My cats like it raw.

Well, there is still no word of anybody else having a problem with Nutro kibble, so i am very inclined to think this is an isolated incident.
 
And, like Janice, I am for once glad jackson is allergic to chicken (though I was babysitting me ex's whippet last weekend and Jackson got some of his Nutro Ultra before I could catch him - now he has ear lesions again!!)

I feed raw a couple times a week.  I have NO problem feeding raw.  Some folks DO have a problem feeding raw and it is UNFAIR to give them a hard time about it.  If you are comfortable feeding raw, then do so.  But, please don't make others feel like lesser owners for NOT feeding raw.

I dont mind hearing the warnings... if this dog died and thats what they thought it was from then it was nice to let others know for better or worse.  As for the constant talk of this food or that food being bad or contaminated, it will probably happen with almost every food there is at one time or another... its that way with people food too.  I just wish the companies were a little faster with their testing, did anyone hear the results?

I'm sure that Sandra knows to rinse the jack mackeral carefully.

You might want to try phrasing your suggestions in a bit less of an abrasive manner.

Sandra, please excuse me for seeming abrasive in my reply to your post. I honestly didn't mean to come across that way but apparently that's the way it looked. I wasn't trying to pressure you or anyone else into feeding raw. I'm sure you know about rinsing the mackeral and I apologize for that too but I honestly wasn't trying to be a know it all . Sorry.

   Glenda; I appreciate you coming to the aid of Sandra, but please understand that I did not mean to be abrasive or offend her.