Nutro Max Puppy food, dry, purple bag

Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Nutro Max Puppy Food, dry, purple bag Current mood: crushed Category: Pets and Animals
In researching different products and diets, I had a conversation with a woman who runs an animal sanctuary and works with healing animals. She has a protocol for handling poisonings of all types and system malfunctionings of animals affected by the pet food recall. This protocol can be found at: http://wolfcreekranch1.tripod.com/pet_food_recall_protocol.html
In our discussion, when she found out I had formerly been feeding Nutro Ultra, she mentioned that 4 cases of animals dying from this particular Nutro product had been reported to her. Last night, unfortunately, there was confirmation of this. Someone on one of the internet boards I frequent lost his 6 month old pug. The vets thought it was rat poisoning. There was nothing more to be done for the poor pup who was lost (in Minnesota). The anguish of a family being helpless to help their puppy is a terrible thing to see or feel. A call to Nutro responded in denials. I am extremely disappointed because we've been in their food program for breeders for over a year. It would be to their benefit to say "send us some of the food and let us test it" to at least acknowledge that there might be a problem and try to fix it.
Please beware that the contamination might be found in more and more foods, including dry. If your dog has unexplained vomiting, then be sure to check kidney function with a blood test. Also, if the vomiting is right after eating, discontinue that particular food and try either homecooked or raw until the animal feels better.
If you have an animal you suspect is affected, have a post-mortem (or necropsy) done to check for melamine. Be sure to report the information to www.petconnection.com and to the fda (petconnection has a link to fda reporting on their site).
The wide spectrum of this problem has to be recognized and addressed and not swept under the rug in an attempt to minimize the damage. The manufacturers don't realize that this is making or breaking their reputations. Companies like Nature's Balance and Blue Buffalo have been affected, but they have taken swift action to communicate and contain the problem. Companies like Nutro are continuing to deny the issue, allowing more pets to die needlessly, and are establishing a reputation of being all about the profit. Let's hope it changes soon.
**** update ****
Another puppy, this one 10 months old in Georgia has reportedly died from Nutro puppy formula which contains wheat gluten. Reading the label for the holistic line doesn't show any glutens, so it is a safer bet, but still keep a close eye on your pet.