A Vet’s Advice for Pet Owners

The sad story about tainted pet foods has recently been reported. Since that time numerous questions have been asked and a few answers have been found.

To date two causative agents have been identified. A rat poison called Aminopterin and chemical called Melamine. Melamine is a chemical used in the manufacturing of plastic kitchenware and is used as a fertilizer in Asia.

Menu Foods is an animal food manufacturer company in Canada specializing in wet-style food products. Wheat gluten is the ingredient used by Menu Foods that has tested positive for Aminopterin and Melamine. They are used to thicken the gravy in "cuts and gravy" style wet pet foods. After these foods are mixed and cooked they are packaged under different brand names and flavors These packaged foods are shipped to different stores for sale to the public.

Earlier this month Menu Foods recalled 60 million containers of cat and dog food, sold throughout North America under nearly 100 brand names. All the recalled foods are either canned or pouched except one, Hill’s pet Nutrition food, that is a dry cat food. The foods on the recall list can be viewed at www.menufoods.com/recall/.

Nationally, 15 animals reportedly have died from eating these contaminated foods. These 15 cases may be just the tip of the iceberg and the number of affected animals could rise into the thousands over the next six months to a year. There is no guarantee Aminopterin and Melamine are the only agents causing disease in these foods. As further tests are completed we may find more causes. Both chemicals can cause kidney disease if ingested by animals or humans.

The severity of the disease and speed that the symptoms develop partly depends on the amount of poison eaten and the age and physical condition of the animal eating it. In the chronic disease the symptoms will be slow to develop and may even be intermittent at first. In the acute disease the animal may seem healthy one day and very sick the next day. Both degrees of the kidney disease are potentially reversible if treated aggressively and in a timely manner.

A concerned pet owner should do the following:

1) If you have fed your pet canned or pouched foods over the past four weeks check the pet food recall lists at::

www.menufoods.com/recall/

2) If your pet starts demonstrating symptoms of kidney disease or stomach upsets have your pet seen and tested by your veterinarian as soon as possible.

Some symptoms of kidney disease are vomiting after eating, or acting finicky over their food for the past few weeks or just not eating like they used to. After a change in their food they may start to eat again but after a couple of days they just pick at the food or stop eating it altogether.The pet may also start drinking more water and urinating more yet eating less.

Dr. Robert D. Mollica

Randolph Animal Hospital