WARNING: Purina pet food has started making pets ill

[mickeym]

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.

(EDITED TO ADD: I don't actually have a pet, myself; those 'I' statements up above are from those who cobbled this together. But if I did still have my pet, you can bet I'd be changing her food.)

Comments

[wendy.livejournal.com]

Almost all commercial pet food is crap -- literally made of extra bits. The reason why is simple: People don't want to pay for expensive pet food.

I buy Canidae, which is made with human grade ingredients. It's one of the very few that is, and it's available only at specialty stores, and yes, it is very expensive.

Science Diet also is one of the worst. It's notorious for causing stomach upset. And people always say "But my vet told me to use it." Which, they probably did. Because Hill owns most of the vet schools too.

[brandywine28.livejournal.com]

I didn't even realize that Fancy Feast was owned by Purina. My cat Moe, who died last year at age 22, loved Fancy Feast Chopped Grill with a fierce passion that I never understood. When I tried to ween him off of it he actually went on a hunger strike rather than try any of the nicer brands I had started buying. He was a little brat. :) But you can bet if he were still alive right now I wouldn't be putting up with his crap in the face of this nonsense. Organ failure, my god.

[raynedanser.livejournal.com]

Or just don't feed "your" pet Purina. It's a terrible, horrible food for your pets and has very little nutritional value.

*shudder*

[kgoodbuddy.livejournal.com]

Aside from the bug issue, Purina is full of genetically modified grains, and most animals will eventually wind up with serious skin and allergy problems from it. Some studies show that hamsters fed a GMO chow are all sterile by the third generation. There's no way that GMO crap is any safer for humans. Our dog gets EVO (which is primarily meat and no grains) and is healthy as a horse----she eats about half as much as the recommended dose of garbage dog food, so that helps with the fact that it's more expensive. It's still way cheaper than vet bills, though.

[electricmonk333.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing - this may be a problem for our dog. It's homemade food for Samuel Winchester from here on.

[rainbow.livejournal.com]

oh man, that last comment -- throwing up just liquids is a sign of renal failure :( :(

i'm so thankful we can make homemade food.