Pet Food Recalled After Several Dogs Die

ksat.com ^

[chance33_98]

Pet Food Recalled After Several Dogs Die

POSTED: 7:21 a.m. EST October 27, 2003

SAN FRANCISCO -- A Canadian company has issued a pet food recall after several dogs died in California and more than a dozen other animals became sick.

Petcurean Pet Nutrition is recalling all of its Go! Natural pet food products after receiving reports of illnesses in animals that ate their food.

Officials of the Canadian company say they have heard of 14 dogs and cats in California falling ill, with seven of them dying. California veterinarians have reported more cases.

Go! Natural is touted in advertising as a top-notch product for dogs and cats that boasts one of the highest meat contents of any pet foods. It retails for $42.99 for a 30-pound bag.

A spokesman said the company is looking at one particular batch produced at a new Texas plant that may be responsible for the illnesses. The product is sold in the San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento, Seattle and Denver areas.

Consumers who have questions abut the recall can call Petcurean toll-free at (866) 864-6112, Ext. 104.

[Ichneumon]

BARF Diet For Dogs

When I first saw the name, I thought, "yeah, that sounds like something a dog would enjoy".

I have both cats and dogs, and when one of the cats starts making gagging noises (hairballs, etc.), the dogs line up to see who gets first crack at it, unless I beat them to it with a roll of paper towels.

[drlevy88]

Why? Recycling and fiber.

[verity]

Are those dogs or wolverines?

[pops88]

I'm in NZ and we feed our dog raw meat we get at a pet food store. The store owner said that when Kiwis started feeding their dogs commercial food, the vets started seeing health problems they'd never encountered before, as well as more health problems. Raw meat is a common diet in NZ for cats and dogs from what I understand, and our vet recommends it. It's cheaper and our pets prefer it.

[tkathy]

Our dog cleans out the kitty litter box crunchies, as well as slurping up all the cat barf.

[Smittie]

Studies have shown the shots last longer than previously believed and some dogs have had sometimes fatal reactions to the shots. Dogs with yearly vacines also were reported with higher cancer rates. In Texas, the requirements were changed to requiring rabies shots every 3 years.

[Xenalyte]

Do you prepare the meat, or do you just thaw, dump it out of the styrofoam into the dish, stir in an egg, and let the dog have at it? I've often wondered whether the Dread Boston Salty might do better with real meat like that, instead of Science Diet.

[LibertyAndJusticeForAll]

The breeder I bought my dog from convinced me to feed my dog raw meat. I did so for one year and finally had to stop because he was getting sick too often.
I think the problem is finding a good source. Many dogs have died from this diet and every vet I went to gave me a really hard time about it. I read all the literature and believed in the theory, but in practice it wasn't working for my dog.

[pops88]

Coming from the US, I was very surprised when the vet said to feed raw meat. Our pets haven't had a problem, but I also don't think Salmonella and E. Coli are as big of a problem here as in the US. The other option would be to cook the meat. Carbs aren't particularly good for animals, or people.

[LibertyAndJusticeForAll]

I'm cooking meat and adding it to his diet. At first he was just getting cooked meat & certain veggies, which helped. The vet convinced me to try this particular dry food and he's doing great now.
The breeder is such a die-hard believer in raw meat, she told me I might as well feed my dog poisen! I'm just glad my dog hasn't needed to go to the vet for over 6 months.

[palmer]

Our dog cleans out the kitty litter box crunchies, as well as slurping up all the cat barf.

If he'll eat the bird leftovers (heads and feathers) too, I'll buy him from you.

[Johnny Gage]

The Rabies requirement was changed here as well.

The key is, you are still vaccinating your pet.

To not vaccinate at all, is not only harmful to your pet, but dangerous to your family.

[Ribeye]

From what I uderstand the Salmonella as related to eggs is usually on the shells, which we wash. The dogs get Coscto eggs, the family and I eat our homegrown. Costco eggs are sub-par (thin shells, runny whites and not-very-yellow yolks).

Dogs appear to be able handle E. coli, Salmonella and the like.While they avoid the gut contents on animals they kill/scavenge, they still get messy and ingest the bad stuff. I've seen dogs eat rancid game and dig through week old gut piles and not even belch let alone get sick. They are not made to eat grains and veggies and rice. My family has been feeding our animals this way since my grandfather was raising working dogs and no problems.

Ya know those pig ears and chew hooves everyone feeds there dogs? Read the bag...you need to wash your hands after handling them because of Salmonella, etc. Yet they expect you to give them to your dogs. That because dogs have cast iron guts. The only time my dogs have had problems (wicked gas and/or diarreah) is when some bonehead friend of mine tosses them a piece of pizza or the like.

Anyhow, I'm not preaching but it works for us! What ever makes them happy.

[shhrubbery!]

I have both cats and dogs, and when one of the cats starts making gagging noises (hairballs, etc.), the dogs line up to see who gets first crack at it, unless I beat them to it with a roll of paper towels.

ROTFL! I don't know why, but this tickled my funny bone.

Speaking of which, do you think if house cats could magically grow as big as lions, they would eat us?

[Ribeye]

We just thaw, pop an egg or two on top and serve.

[yarddog]

I feed my dog the cheapest I can find, at least that I think is ok. Usually Walmart's Old Roy. He also gets a lot of scraps.

He is as pretty and healthy a dog as you will ever see. Someone dumped the Mother off here while she was pregnant. She was a great dog. Had 8 unusually pretty pups. I eventually gave them all away except for one. Surprisingly easy to give away too.

One day the pups disappeared for a day. I found them about a quarter mile away feeding off a deer carcass. It stunk to high heaven.

After that I decided that putrid meat must not hurt them too much. I wonder what really was wrong with that food which killed them?

[Ribeye]

The chicken they get are ours and they get it raw or, if there's leftovers cooked and pulled form the bone.

We don't eat commercial chicken. I wouldn't touch it my self. We're lucky enough to have enough room for 20 or so chickens. We've bought chicken at Whole Foods in the past that is not bad. The fat should be yellow, not white!

[Xenalyte]

Should I maybe try Salty on a little bit mixed with his dry, or let him have a bowl of egg/meat all together? I don't want to upset his already nuclear innards. (Salty's gas is so potent, Xena's Dad calls him the Methane Marauder.)

[vetvetdoug]

This same ideology surfaced back in the early 1970's and we began to see elderly dogs with distemper and the diseases that are routinely vaccinated against. Dogs and cats that develop cancers will also develop cancers from injections of sterile water. Some cats develop fibrosarcoma for no reason at all. Right now there are a bevy of new veterinarians that are advocating less vaccinations of animals. This flies in the face of epidemiology, especially with the large population of non-vaccinated animals. Some are checking immunity in vitro expecting a good correlation with in vivo immunity. This has been shown to be a fool's endeavor in the past when dealing with reality. The safest thing to do and most logical is to vaccinate in respect to risk versus benefit which means in most areas of the US, yearly. Why is it that we recommend vaccinating the elderly yearly because immunity is waning and these veterinarians are recommending not vaccinating yearly in old dogs and cats? Methinks some don't have much experience in realiy.