ARE YOU FEEDING YOUR PET RAT POISON?

[Frankie]

Here are lists of recalled pet foods with possible rat poison:

http://www.menufoods.com/recall/product_dog.html
http://www.menufoods.com/recall/product_cat.html


Here's the related article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070323/ap_on_re_us/pet_food_recall

[Chiefs_Mike_Topeka]

Wish they would put some rat poison in the food my wife gives that annoying ass rat with wings sitting in the cage in the other room.

[stlchiefs]

Is this considered an alternative to feeding cats antifreeze?

[Dr. Johnny Fever]

I try to but the little bitch won't eat it.

[88TG88]

Is this considered an alternative to feeding cats antifreeze?
ROFL

[Frankie]

Is this considered an alternative to feeding cats antifreeze?
Cats are smart. They won't drink antifreee. But dogs do and die of it.

[chagrin]

I am all over this, I had just bought 20 cans of soft food for the first time in years, the day before I heard about this.

I am not a legal expert but does anyone think that this class action suit coming will end up setting a legal precedent for allowing pets to be considered "family" for the purpose of future litigation?

The company, Menu Foods, knew about this 30 days before it hit the public news.

[stlchiefs]

Well looks like we'll just have to stick with the poison laced cat food then huh?

[Rain Man]

I had to take one of my cats to the vet emergency room last night. He wouldn't eat and had thrown up a couple of times, but we weren't worried because we had checked the recall list and he didn't have any food on the list.

Well...they updated the list, I guess. We went back and found two cans that he had eaten that were now on it. I'm furious about it.

We took him in, and he shows all of the symptoms, but the vet looked up the lot numbers and said that his food was not in the affected lots. Internally, his blood tests look fine, but he's still not eating and not feeling well. I'm not sure what to think, but if it turns out that more lots were affected than is being reported, there's going to be hell to pay.

[stlchiefs]

From the looks of the way the company (Menu) has handled this so far I wouldn't be surprised if new info came out later on more tainted food or a broader recall.

Though I'm not a cat lover Rainman I understand the love of animals and hope all turns out well with your cats. I'd be pissed too if my dog had symptoms. We feed her Nutro dry food so when the recall 1st happened I was worried for a bit.

[Kclee]

Does this mean the rat poisen I put out to kill the rats was dog/cat food?

[seclark]

Does this mean the rat poisen I put out to kill the rats was dog/cat food?
taste it and see.
sec

[Kclee]

taste it and see.
sec


The box does look like Skinny and Sweet...

[DaFace]

Ahh...always nice to hear about my previous hometown (Emporia) in the news. :doh!:

[stlchiefs]

The only thing I know about Emporia is I used to stop at a gas station to pee there (right by the practice football fields) if I ever had to go between Wichita and KC.

[seclark]

The only thing I know about Emporia is I used to stop at a gas station to pee there (right by the practice football fields) if I ever had to go between Wichita and KC.
i won't even get off the turnpike in emporia for that. i just piss in a milk jug and toss it out the window.
sec

[stlchiefs]

Mmm Trucker Bombs.
I don't know though, they rebuilt the gas station a year or so ago and now offer some quality facilities.

Technically speaking, you are off the turnpike on that side of Emporia.

[seclark]

i'm usually coming down from topeka.
sec

[kepp]

Cats are smart. They won't drink antifreee. But dogs do and die of it.
Yikes...thank you Mr. Poe.

[stlchiefs]

i'm usually coming down from topeka.
sec

Gotcha. I did the Wichita to KC trip while I was in undergrad, going to school in KC and back home to see family, holidays, etc. Now the STL to Wichita trip is a bit longer and I try to keep it to one stop outside KC. I might have to try out a Trucker Bomb sometime though. First I'll have to see if I can get my girlfriend to hold it for me while I drive. :hmmm:

[seclark]

Gotcha. I did the Wichita to KC trip while I was in undergrad, going to school in KC and back home to see family, holidays, etc. Now the STL to Wichita trip is a bit longer and I try to keep it to one stop outside KC. I might have to try out a Trucker Bomb sometime though. First I'll have to see if I can get my girlfriend to hold it for me while I drive. :hmmm:
i go from nemo to ok city. usually leave home at 5pm and make ok city around 3:30am. takes lots of coffee.

shouldn't we be getting back to the dying cats?
sec

[stlchiefs]

Yeah, hijacked this thread.

Antifreeze
Antifreeze
Antifreeze
Dead Cats
Dead Cats
Antifreeze

There, better

[memyselfI]

I had to take one of my cats to the vet emergency room last night. He wouldn't eat and had thrown up a couple of times, but we weren't worried because we had checked the recall list and he didn't have any food on the list.

Well...they updated the list, I guess. We went back and found two cans that he had eaten that were now on it. I'm furious about it.

We took him in, and he shows all of the symptoms, but the vet looked up the lot numbers and said that his food was not in the affected lots. Internally, his blood tests look fine, but he's still not eating and not feeling well. I'm not sure what to think, but if it turns out that more lots were affected than is being reported, there's going to be hell to pay.

A cat eats to live. When it stops eating there is something seriously wrong with the cat. Hopefully, your Vet advised you to make sure the cat gets back to the Vet in a few days if he still isn't eating. If your Vet isn't taking your concerns seriously then find a different Vet.

I really wouldn't wait for Menu foods to fess up about the different types and lots involved. I would assume if your cat is acting sick then they have been exposed to this contamination. I heard a report that the actual number of dead pets has been way under reported...by the hundreds.

[Lzen]

Hmm, so this only affects the food that is sold in cans or pouches (I assume soft food ) ? Our dogs don't eat any of those foods listed. The only one on that list that would affect us is that Special Kitty brand. But we buy the hard kibble stuff. Is this not included in the recall? And if so, why is this stuff different?

[memyselfI]

Hmm, so this only affects the food that is sold in cans or pouches (I assume soft food ) ? Our dogs don't eat any of those foods listed. The only one on that list that would affect us is that Special Kitty brand. But we buy the hard kibble stuff. Is this not included in the recall? And if so, why is this stuff different?

To date, no hard food is affected. Thank God. More pets are on hard food than soft food. If it had been the other way around this could have been much worse.

The foods are processed in different plants for one. And the wheat gluten that is suspect is used as a thickening agent for the gravy in the wet food is another.

[Kclee]

A cat eats to live. When it stops eating there is something seriously wrong with the cat.

Wow, cats are bizarre creatures. They eat to live you say. Your interesting thesis has captured my attention please tell me more.

[Lzen]

To date, no hard food is affected. Thank God. More pets are on hard food than soft food. If it had been the other way around this could have been much worse.

I hope it stays that way. For the time being, I will just start buying something different for my cat. Thank God the food brand that I feed my dogs is not even on that list. Although I used to feed my old mutt that Walmart Ole Roy crap. That is, until I did some research and found out how much crap they put into it.

[memyselfI]

Wow, cats are bizarre creatures. They eat to live you say. Your interesting thesis has captured my attention please tell me more.

Cats eat to live, dogs live to eat. Cats, for the most part, don't get pleasure out of eating the way dogs do. They simply do it as a means to an end. Of course there are exceptions...Garfield comes to mind. ;)

[Lzen]

A cat eats to live. When it stops eating there is something seriously wrong with the cat. Hopefully, your Vet advised you to make sure the cat gets back to the Vet in a few days if he still isn't eating. If your Vet isn't taking your concerns seriously then find a different Vet.

I really wouldn't wait for Menu foods to fess up about the different types and lots involved. I would assume if your cat is acting sick then they have been exposed to this contamination. I heard a report that the actual number of dead pets has been way under reported...by the hundreds.

If the animal is drinking a lot (way more than is normal), it could be a sign of kidney failure or other illness.

[seclark]

Although I used to feed my old mutt that Walmart Ole Roy crap. That is, until I did some research and found out how much crap they put into it.
my cousin is a vet and takes care of our dogs. she said she'd beat the shit out of me if she ever caught me feeding ole roy to the dogs.
sec

[memyselfI]

If the animal is drinking a lot (way more than is normal), it could be a sign of kidney failure or other illness.

It could be a sign of renal disease or diabetes among other things. Those two are top culprits we suspect when we hear that symptom. Of course some medications cause that as well.

[Donger]

Here are lists of recalled pet foods with possible rat poison:

http://www.menufoods.com/recall/product_dog.html
http://www.menufoods.com/recall/product_cat.html


Here's the related article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070323/ap_on_re_us/pet_food_recall

I don't have a pet rat. But thanks for asking.

[Lzen]

It could be a sign of renal disease or diabetes among other things. Those two are top culprits we suspect when we hear that symptom. Of course some medications cause that as well.

I just remembered that you work at a vet. I guess you would know more about this then. Thanks for the info.

[memyselfI]

I don't have a pet rat. But thanks for asking.

Word has it Taco Bell has a decent supply if you are interested...

[memyselfI]

FYI Rain Man and anyone who's pet might have consumed this product. There might be more to this than rat poison. One of the Vets at our clinic was telling me she didn't understand how the drug would cause renal failure because rat poison consumption would normally be an anticoagulant causing the rat/animal who consumed it to bleed to death internally. She wondered if something else might be involved.

I just read this and it looks like she might not be the only one skeptical of the rat poison answer:

Some veterinary experts say they are still skeptical as to whether the chemical is responsible for the kidney damage the pets endured.

"With the information that we have, none of us feel that this product fits the lesions we are seeing, but there may be information we don't know yet," said Lawrence McGill, a veterinary pathologist in Salt Lake City. "The feeling is that there are more questions than answers with this product."

"Renal failure is not the expected response to these drugs," said Susan Weinstein, executive director of the Massachusetts Veterinary Medical Association. She added that most rodent poisons work as severe anticoagulants — meaning they cause the rats that ingest them to bleed to death.

"Whether this particular toxin in this case can create renal failure depends on how this drug works in the body, which may be an entirely different pathway than the anticoagulants," Weinstein said. "Because we aren't yet familiar with this toxin, we can't be confident of the causation link."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=2975912&page=1&US=true

[memyselfI]

The media has lost focus on this story but the Veterinary community hasn't. It is feared that potentially thousands of pets have been made ill or have been killed by the contaminated food. The reports of the pets who have died are only 16 because that is the amount who died from the TESTS of the food after it was deemed contaminated. There have been no Federal or state coordinated counts of the numbers of pets affected.

Here is a story about the situation that really gives the Vet community a reason to worry. One owner talks about how he would put food out for the neighborhood and ferrel cats and how he's worried he may have inadvertently poisoned some of the them.

Just today, we saw a 6 year old cat who we had to euthanize due to sudden and severe kidney failure. The owner claims she did not eat any of the contaminated brands. The part that worries us is that she is an indoor/outdoor cat and who knows what she's been feed and by whom. Possibly some caring individual fed this cat and as is stated in the article inadvertently killed her.

If your pet is showing signs of lethargy, drinking alot or not at all, vomiting or is suddenly very sick get them to the Vet immediately especially if you are not sure if they have been exposed to the contaminated food or treats. If your Vet isn't taking your concerns seriously then drive down the street to someone who will.

A simple blood test can tell them a great deal about what is going on with your pet.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa004&articleID=9AA80BDC-E7F2-99DF-325B0C8F34C09E95&pageNumber=1&catID=4

[Eleazar]

I just remembered that you work at a vet. I guess you would know more about this then. Thanks for the info.

Oh, don't worry, she knows more than you about everything.

[BIG_DADDY]

Oh, don't worry, she knows more than you about everything.

Oh yes Meme who works for a vet who thinks all pits should be killed? The only one I have ever even heard of. Give me a friggen break. Vets are worried about what, getting more business?

I'm done with all of this I'm going back to making my own dog food.

[Easy 6]

Only if its the Hank Petchow brand.

[listopencil]

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/95/pics/95mpetchow2.jpg

[crazycoffey]

I don't have rats for pets.......

[Donger]

I don't have rats for pets.......

Better late than never.

[crazycoffey]

Better late than never.


I had to read through twice to make sure I wasn't beat to the punch.



-ponch.

[memyselfI]

Outrageous. Wheat gluten with the new chemical being identified as the cause of the contamination of the sick pets has been supplied to a dry food maker and Menu Foods nor the FDA is telling who that manufacturer is. Here the FDA has been reassuring people the problem is in wet foods producted by Menu Foods. And yet, the supplier has sold the same type of product which was contaminated to a dry manufacturer and the public is not being told which one. :banghead: :cuss: :shake:

[stlchiefs]

Yes, I saw this today and it really started to worry me. I buy Nutro for my lab and Nutro was on the wet food list. She has been drinking a bit more, but I'm taking it as being due to the increased temps. The other thing I have going is that I bought the bag of food a couple months ago as I always buy a couple when Petsmart has a sale.
If there has ever been a mismanagement of a recall, this is the prime example.

[memyselfI]

Yes, I saw this today and it really started to worry me. I buy Nutro for my lab and Nutro was on the wet food list. She has been drinking a bit more, but I'm taking it as being due to the increased temps. The other thing I have going is that I bought the bag of food a couple months ago as I always buy a couple when Petsmart has a sale.
If there has ever been a mismanagement of a recall, this is the prime example.

I understand trying to protect the shareholders of the companies involved (if any) but my God, the FDA has no business concealing the identity of a company who may have used this product in their manufacturing process but has of yet escaped the plight of Menu Foods.

The sad thing is the whackos at PETA have been trying to get the FDA to open an investigation into dry food manufacturers because of the complaints and concerns it had received. The FDA had refused because there had not been a large number of reports of illnesses linked to dried food.

But, there is no federal or state coordinated clearinghouse that is keeping a count of the pets who've been affected. Thus, the FDA is playing chicken and egg with pets lives.

In a news conference, FDA officials said that the apparently melamine-contaminated wheat gluten also was shipped to a company that manufactures dry pet food, but they would not name the company.

http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2007-03-30-0005.html

[memyselfI]

Update: Two more manufacturers foods have been added to the recall list:

Hill's Science Diet Feline M/D Dry

http://www.hillspet.com/menu_foods/md_Recall_03302007_en_US.htm

Alpo Brand Prime Cuts Wet food

http://www.purina.com/company/press/2007/MightyDog.aspx

[kcfanintitanhell]

If anyone would like to find up to date info on all this, I recommend this site: www.dogfoodproject.com
It's a comprehensive analysis of pretty much every dog food out there and tips on which is the best for your dog.
Our dogs, thank God, have not eaten store-bought food since they have been with us. We feed them raw (meat and veggies-not that hard to prepare) and the effects are pretty amazing.

[trndobrd]

Is this one of the brands?


<a href="http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1562890671">Petchow Rat Poison</a><br><embed src="http://lads.myspace.com/videos/vplayer.swf" flashvars="m=1562890671&type=video" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="430" height="346"></embed><br><a href="http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.addToProfileConfirm&videoid=1562890671&title=Petchow Rat Poison">Add to My Profile</a> | <a href="http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.home"> More Videos</a>