WARNING: Purina pet food has started making pets ill

[ladyofleithian]

Originally posted by boosette at WARNING: Purina pet food has started making pets ill

Originally posted by issendai at WARNING: Purina pet food has started making pets ill

My coworker John told me that his cat was seriously ill--throwing up, lethargic, refusing food, dropping weight. The previously healthy 6-year-old, 15-pound cat had lost a third of her body weight over the last few months. The vet couldn't find anything wrong with her. Blood tests were clean, and she didn't have any known illnesses. Yet she was a few days from organ failure.

That was a week ago. She's fine now. The solution was... to stop feeding her Purina cat food.

When John told me that, and said that friends of his had the same problem with their cats and Purina cat food, I looked into it. Holy shit. Take a look at the consumer complaints about Purina cat and dog food. This exact same problem has been an issue with Purina pet foods since 2007, but since this summer, the rate of complaints has picked up drastically. People who previously had to problems with Purina are reporting issues. Comment after comment sounds the same:

I've been feeding my three cats Fancy Feast canned food Chopped Grill Feast for many years. They have always devoured their meal and licked the plates clean. Last week, I noticed they did not want to eat much and went from plate to plate, ate a little. Next day, none of them would eat it. I kept trying new cans. What they did eat made them vomit and one cat was lethargic for days. I refuse to buy any more of this food. It's very scary. I don't know what is wrong with the food, but I fear it has toxins in it. I switched to another brand and the cats are fine now. Did anyone else experience this?

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My dogs have been eating Purina Dog Chow (green bag) for about four years. They used to eat only Iams, but due to financial issues, we had to go with a cheaper brand. The last bag I purchased was about a week and a half ago. My 14 years old Labrador has vomited about 5-6 times and my German Shepherd has vomited about 4 times. Something is wrong with this food! The food has a kind of metallic smell to it. It just does not smell right. I'm taking it back to the pet store. I am changing my dogs' food, it's just not worth taking the chance to save a few dollars.

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We purchased a large bag of Purina One Salmon dry cat food to give to a needy pet owner. She emailed us a couple of days later ,to say that there were maggots, lots of them with what looked to be like strands or webs with more dead gnats or flies, pieces of web in the food and "shells" of gnats or flies in the bag. Cats would not eat much of the food and, fortunately, they did not get sick. The store had noticed this problem in other bags and was willing to swap out.

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I purchased a 34 lb bag of Purina One Smartblend dog food every three to four weeks for my two Labradors. The last bag I purchased seemed fine until I noticed a new infestation of little black bugs. Upon further inspection through the contents of the bag, I noticed clusters of white "eggs" adhered to quite a bit of the food. Some of these clusters contained larvae in the process of hatching. I immediately threw out the remaining contents of the bag but did save samples for my vet.

We went out of town last weekend and had friends dog sit for us. We originally attributed their lethargy and random vomiting to separation anxiety. Although they are doing better, I am still concerned and will be watching them closely. As stated, I saved samples of the infested dog food for our vet in the event that anything results from this issue.

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I recently switched to the Friskies Poultry Variety pack (32 cans) that says it must be used by August 2013 (12281789 09:31 lo61237) sku (050000454242). I have 5 cats and feeding them this food, I noticed some of them throwing up. There's nothing in it but liquids, no hair ball, no food, nothing. My cats range from 8 weeks to 13 years old.

I switched my own cats to Purina a couple of months ago, and their coats look so much better than they did on the old brand of cat food... but Buffy has started vomiting stomach liquids. Purina and Fancy Feast are off the menu. Permanently.

I have no idea why this isn't news. But if you're feeding your pets any Purina brand, please don't wait for media confirmation that something is going on. Stop feeding your pets Purina immediately.

Comments

[darth-eldritch.livejournal.com]

There has been something wrong with pet food since the '90s.

Which is why I don't keep any pets, that, and the cost of vetinary care.

Now vets sell a lot of these "special" foods, and even have sales pitches for them. Of course the vets want to stay in business, so that calls or sick pets... it makes me wonder.

The only way I would keep a cat ever again is if I could home prepare the right foods for it. No way am I ever purchasing store bought pet foods ever again.

[awesome-emmy.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's really terrible. I wonder if something went terribly wrong with some of their batches of food that so many pets started getting sick all at once.

I'm glad my mom only feeds our dog Iams. It has never led us wrong before ^_^

[theonlymeyouget.livejournal.com]

I would personally never feed that garbage to Darwin in the first place. It's all bi-product and corn. The only one that's halfway decent is the Pro-Plan select, and it's crazy expensive. Might as well spend less money and get Blue Buffalo or something even better.

The only time he's eaten anything Purina is when he had pancreatitis (and the pancreatitis came BEFORE the Purina cat food), and that was only because, for whatever reason, it was all he'd touch. The important thing there was to get him to fucking eat something even if it was Fancy Feast dry, which, IMHO, isn't even food.

As it is right now, he's on Royal Canin Senior, which is both a light food and the only one he ever loses weight on, and has a smaller, softer kibble because he has some issues with other foods since having that tooth pulled this last summer. It's not the best food since it has some grain, but the first ingredient is chicken meal, which is just dehydrated chicken. He gets that in the AM, and wet food - either Evo, which is just meat, water, and vitamins, or Weruva which is the same - at night.

Genetics definitely plays a role, but I attribute his stellar kidney numbers at almost 12 years old to good diet. My childhood cats ate Tender Vittles - which was pulled from the market because it was so unhealthy - and Friskies their entire lives and every. single. one. of. them. died of kidney failure.

Darwin's may go eventually... his kidney values bounce around from high normal to VERY slightly elevated, but he's going to be a damn old man when they do.

[teasingfool]

Scroll just a bit and you'll have a safe-list of pet food manufacturers and distributors.

How many recalls has Purina had?

[lealynnkenobi.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I feed my dogs "NUTRO". :)

That's a terrible thing to happen to our furry pets! :(

[forcewatcher.livejournal.com]

And... here's me switching out Daisy's cat food. This should be fun. She's been living on that for 15 years and ups her nose at anything else. I appreciate the head's up. Makes me wonder if that's why she periodically goes through these bouts of "revenge for seemingly no reason."