ProPlan and Pedigree dog foods - possible toxins: anyone else had this problem?

[ehrnst]

The rescue I work with got this email from a staffer at a rural shelter that we work with. They are very good on health protocols, and very proactive in letting us know of any health problems at the shelter. This email is particularly disturbing - and I wanted to see if anyone here had (or has heard of) similar experiences:


"One of our dogs died today. A chihuahua named Pepper. She had no symptoms prior to today. She was bleeding out from her rectum this morning. The vet did bloodwork. From the symptoms she had and the numbers on the bloodwork, she was given something toxic. The only thing she had was ProPlan and Pedigree dogfoods.

We had another dog die yesterday after he was neutered. The vet did not know why. Some of the other dogs had diarrhea a few days ago. They have been eating Pedigree and ProPlan. I gave my dogs ProPlan last week and two of them had diarrhea until I threw the food away. Please be careful if you are feeding this brand."

[yy4me]

1. I'd like to spread the word, can you tell us who makes them?

My daughter just had very serious medical situation with her dog and I would like to tell her to check up on these reports.

[hobbit709]

2. We feed our 5 Pedigree Weight Maintenance dry

Haven't seen any problems.

[Blue Gardener]

3. I had the same problem with Science Diet Senior cat food

As soon as I switched to Pet Promise, the problem cleared up. No more diarrhea.

[Coyote_Bandit]

4. Someone I know was telling me earlier this week

about her dog having a problem with bloody diarrhea. She was feeding Pedigree to both her dogs. One was sick the other was not.

[livvy]

5. Just a thought here...

I noticed the other day that the cost of the dog food I buy has gone up quite a bit. A 40 lb bag of Canidae and one of Solid Gold ran around $90. That's about $10 more than the last time I stocked up. The Solid Gold went up the most in price.

Could it be Pedigree and ProPlan lowered the quality of their ingredients to keep their price down, or have their prices gone up also?

I used to feed both brands to my dogs, but stopped several years ago when they weren't agreeing with their systems like they had in the past.

[Muttocracy]

6. another Canidae fan - and I think your thought is right.

I was suprised how long it took for the price of Canidae to rise at my local shop - long after my food costs were going up.

The big cheap pet food companies switch ingredients according to price. Some of them have vague ingredients on the labels, and can switch without it being obvious. Many of the big pet food labels are owned by human food conglomerates, and the pet food gets the scraps that can't be turned into human food.

Anyway, I'm a huge fan of Canidae. Whole Dog Journal considers it a top brand. My mutts seem to have inherited the German Shepherd finicky intestines, but never have problems with the Canidae - and it's actually pretty cheap because they only need <2 cups a day. I saw a study a few years back about how cheap foods are more expensive because so much of it just goes right through the dog - more to buy and more to clean up from the other side!

[Muttocracy]

7. Not enough info in that email to judge; wouldn't millions of dogs be sick?

Purina and Pedigree are fed to millions of dogs - if it's something coming from the manufacturer, wouldn't it be showing up everywhere, even more than the recalls a few years ago or earlier aflatoxin problems?

That said, I don't use the Big Brands to feed my dogs, for many reasons.

[CC]

8. Have they tried to narrow it down to

one food over the other? Pro Plan is made by Purina and Pedigree is made by Mars. Also did they say if they contacted either company? Sent samples of the food for testing? How much food do they have on hand for how long and what are the storage conditions?

I don't use either brand but I know many rescues depend on donated food and it can be a budget buster to just go out and replace what they have. At the minimum the food that has been given to the dogs that got sick needs to be tested so they know if it was the food or not. If not did someone clean the kennels and maybe not get all cleaner rinsed off thoroughly? Did a new dog bring something in with it that is now going through the rescue? There are so many ways for contaminates to go through any kennel type setting that at the minimum the vets should be looking at everything before blaming the food.

Those are just the first questions I would of been asking had I received an email like that. You are most likely more familiar with that rescue so you would know if they did the basic preliminary steps to isolate what is going on there. I hope they find out what is going on soon so they don't lose any more dogs.

[ehrnst]

9. Unfortunately, no further information on the situation

As a rural, understaffed shelter, they have very limited time and resources.

In light of how long it took for the last big tainted pet food horror to come to light, I just wanted to see if anyone else was experiencing anything that might lead to a pattern.

This group is the best - knowledgable, varied and responsive.

Thanks!!!!!