Dog Deaths Surpass 100 Despite Toxic Pet Food Recall

At least 100 dogs in the United States have been killed in recent weeks by toxic pet food despite a recall of the products, scientists said today.

Some 19 brands of Diamond, Country Value and Professional dog foods have been recalled. But many pet owners are not aware of the recall, researchers at Cornell University said Friday.

Dogs have refused to eat the food and, in some cases, their owners have enticed them with gravy and other lures without knowing they were killing the animals.

"Entire kennels have been wiped out, and because of the holiday these past few weeks, the dispersal of recall information was disrupted," said Sharon Center, a professor of veterinary medicine who specializes in liver function and disease at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell.

The dog food is tainted with deadly aflatoxins that waste the liver away. The bad food could be present in a dozen other countries, too, the researchers say. About two-thirds of dogs that show symptoms from the toxin have died.

"Some dogs were stealing food from the kitchen counter," Center said. "Others just stopped eating the food and begged for treats. Unfortunately, some owners used gravy and other mixers to entice their dogs to consume what they thought was safe, quality dog food."

Only about two dozen deaths have been firmly linked to the tainted pet food. But Center and her colleagues know the toll is far higher.

"Every day, we're hearing reports from veterinarians in the East and Southeast who have treated dogs that have died from liver damage this past month or so," Center said. "We're also concerned about the long-term health of dogs that survive as well as dogs that have eaten the tainted food but show no clinical signs."

"Despite our understanding of this complex toxin, we have no direct antidote," Center said.

Symptoms arise over days or weeks. Early signs include lethargy, loss of appetite and vomiting. Later, look for orange-colored urine and jaundice, which is a yellowing of the eyes and gums. Severely affected dogs produce a blood-tinged vomit and bloody or blackened stools.

More information is available at a Cornell web site. The details of the FDA recall are here.

All my babies (dogs) are on Nutro Natural Senior, after trying about every premium food out there, and they are doing great on it (shiny coats and pretty darn healthy overall). The only thing I needed for my oldest dog was something nontoxic and less harmful than Rymadil because he developed arthritis. The Nutro rep said no food had enough glucosamine/condroitin in it and suggested getting one of the many liquid supplements on sale. So my dog's been on Flexicose for a month now and is as spry as a puppy. So in my experience, I've found the Nutro reps to be quite knowledgeable.

We've had good luck with our Lab feeding California Naturals. It's nothing but lamb, brown rice, and sunflower oil, preserved with vitamin E. It's also got some added vitamins but no funky "byproducts".

She had pretty bad allergies to corn and preservatives as a pup, so we had to switch off of Eagle and go with a no preservative brand.

She gets a scoop of wet stuff on top of her dry so we can hide her pills in it. The canned stuff is also California Naturals, pretty much the same ingredients as the dry except it has lamb broth, guar gum, and seaweed extract in it.
She loves it, it's pretty stinky :lol:.

LQ

The only thing I needed for my oldest dog was something nontoxic and less harmful than Rymadil because he developed arthritis.

Our Lab has been on Glycoflex (glucosamine/chondroitin tablets) for 5 years now, the stuff has worked great.

Unfortunately as the arthritis progresses it stopped being as effective, so we've put her on Metacam as well as oral glycoflex and Adequan shots (injectable glucosamine). Metacam is like Rimadyl but with more punch and a lower side effect profile. We've had her liver checked repeatedly and it's not causing problems at this time, and has made a world of difference in her mobility.

Just wanted to mention it in case your pup had to go onto an NSAID. They can be scary meds but in our case it was either give it a try or let her go. Fortunately it worked and hasn't caused problems yet. It doesn't have as bad a rap as Rimadyl does.
The generic name is called meloxicam, and they have a human version called Mobic that my friend's husband is on. I like to annoy him by mentioning that he and my dog are on the same meds :lol: .

A lot of dogs don't have trouble with Rimadyl, but some of them do and it seems really hit or miss. I had read about Labs having more trouble than most with it, but even so we used it occasionally on our dog when she was having a bad day, kind of like the way humans use Advil for headaches.

But once she started needing it full time we asked her surgeon (she had throat surgery in March), who was VERY sharp (probably sharper than our regular vet) what she would do if Lucy was her dog and she said Metacam hands down.

There's still no guarantee that any given dog won't have a bad reaction to it but overall it's had a better reputation.

One thing I recommend - have a blood chem panel done on your dog before starting it (if you ever have to put yours on it) and then peridically afterwards, like every 3 to 6 months. This can pick up liver and kidney issues before they get out of control.
Any of the NSAIDS (Rimadyl, Metacam, Deramaxx, and Etogesic) can cause liver or kidney problems in some dogs, particularly if the dog has a weakness in that area to begin with.

Another thing to look into is a natural supplement called "MSM" - I think it's methylsufonylmethane or something like that. Many glucosamine/chondroitin makers compound it into their products as it's a pretty good natural anti-inflammatory. If your current product doesn't have it in you can always ratchet it up to a product that does if the current stuff stops working on your dog.

Glycoflex comes in 3 levels, and we progressed through them over 5 years as our dogs arthritis got worse as we were trying like heck to stay off the NSAIDS. The "high test" has MSM in it and quite a bit of it, and worked well for her for 2 years.

We also puncture a fish oil capsule and put it in her food in the AM. We had heard it had anti-inflammatory properties so figured it was worth a try. It maybe bought us another 6 mos before we had to go on the NSAID, worked a little but wasn't a magic bullet....

Hope that helps, I know what it's like dealing with this with a beloved elderly pet.

LQ

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