Since we have a lot of pet owners here, thought I would pass this along (which was passed on to me via email)- apparently a batch of Diamond Pet Food contains toxins which can be fatal and has been recalled.
Tunch and I exclusively eat Science Diet Light, Hairball edition, so this does not affect us, but I thought I would pass it on.
*** Update ***
Post edited for clarity.
The Disenfranchised Voter
Thanks for the heads up, John.
Krista
I heard about that. Evidently some dogs were reluctant to eat it, so their well-meaning owners would put gravy or some such thing to get the dog to eat it thinking their pooch was just being picky, and the dog ended up dying. How horrible would that be?
Stormy70
It’s a very sad story. I feed my kitties Waltham’s cat food. You need a prescription card, but my vet recommended it because of the disparity in ages of my kitties. I have two thirteen year olds, one a male with urinary issues, plus a two year old and a kitten. This food fits all their special needs and I noticed an improvement in my cat’s coats and overall health. Neither the two year old, while a kitten, nor the new kitten would eat the kitten food. They wanted the senior food, and the seniors wanted the kitten food, which is very high in fat. Now it is Waltham’s dry and Whiskas soft (they will only really eat the Whiskas soft, picky little…) for their dining pleasure.
Stormy70
What are you doing to get hairballs, John?
(I had to walk through the open door.)
Krista
I change Dreyf’s food periodically, but usually rotate between Purina One, Iams and Science Diet. He has kidney issues and a lot of tartar, so I have to feed him low-protein crunchy stuff. If it was up to him, he’d just have a whole chicken every day. (You should see his face after he does have chicken — he looks demented.)
John, if you’d stop licking yourself so much, you wouldn’t get so many hairballs.
Larry
Male cats need a low ash food to prevent Feline Urinary Syndrome.
I found this out after Fenway (my tuxedo) needed a penilectomy to save his life.
It bought him another 11 years, but $2000, and his weener, was a high price to pay.
Sine.Qua.Non
Larry: Freaking OUCH!
John: Thanks for passing along the e-mail. There are enough toxins out there in the world for animals to get into without their food being toxic and killing them too. At least the FDA is doing something about this. Now, if they would just…
Also, John, if you can only afford to eat your cat’s food, well, cripes, I’m sending you some money! Although, Milk Bones aren’t bad….
Krista
Larry – yikes. I’ve heard of cats having to get that done. A high price to pay indeed. But, 11 years is a pretty substantial amount of time to get.
BTW – tuxedo cats are wonderful – they always look so elegant. Our old stray was one, with double front paws that looked like white mittens.
Mr Furious
Yeah, that was on the local Detroit news the other day, but get this—they never TOLD us the name, brand or type of food. I was on the computer (surprise), but listening. Luckily, my wife was watching, and said they showed the bag, but come on…
Putty (whose picture John and Tunch seem to be keeping to themselves) gets Waltham prescription cans from the vet. He also has kidney probs and can’t handle the protein in regular food. And he absolutely cannot handle table scraps. Which is a problem, because he is a notorious thief, and he has a willing patsy in my three-year-old daughter.
CaseyL
The three brands mentioned are Diamond, Professional and Country, none of which my cats eat. Whew.
I tried so very hard to get Ariel and Pamela to eat the healthy, organic stuff. Tried a dozen difference flavors and a dozen different brands – including the frozen raw venison in a tube. They like it for, oh, four mouthfuls. Then it’s “Ew, Mom, give us the Friskies.”
Which might be just as well. It’s embarrasing when your cats eat a healthier diet than you do :)
Mary
John, if you’d stop licking yourself so much, you wouldn’t get so many hairballs.
The Other Steve doesn’t get hairballs no matter how much he licks himself. Ask him why. I dare you.
Krista
No hairballs, just bruises from falling off the couch when he gets over-ambitious.
Mr Furious
[shudders] Ugh, this thread has taken quite a turn…
Krista
Sorry.
So tell us about Putty, then (besides his thievery.)
guyermo
Must go well with the boxed wine.
The Other Steve
This reminds me of that scene in ‘Tommy Boy’ where the guy says “For Christ’s sake, once during the war i visited a prostitute, and my life has been a living hell ever since.”
:-)
Mary
It makes its own gravy, guyermo. Two paws up!
The Other Steve
My cats get Natural Choice Indoor Weight Management.
Bubbles has a big mouth, and with science diet and such she’d just wolf down the food. With the Natural choice, the larger kibble promotes her to chew when she eats.
Squeak on the other hand is quite dainty with her food, and chews everything.
breeder
Okay, in fairness report the whole story. Diamond ended up using a shipment of grain affected with ataflaxin.
Don’t know about the cat world, but in the dog world show breeders passed the word quickly and most of the affected manufacturing lots were pulled.
I feed Nutro Natural Choice plus fresh foods to my own dogs, so I don’t get affected one way or the other by this one. But I know a lot of breeders who swear by Diamond for their top show dogs and puppies. The problem was one mfg batch and the inspection process for receiving the grain, not the entire product line or the company.
Sine.Qua.Non
Nobody is going after the company. We are just trying to make sure we save animals from death. If you notice, the link John posted goes right to a post where the FDA cites that as the issue. Unfortunately, that ONE BATCH hit around twelve states. That is a pretty big delivery of Toxic food. I’m glad the word is being spread.
Sine.Qua.Non
You know, I have an extremely visual mind…
Mr Furious
So tell us about Putty, then (besides his thievery.)
First, I neglected to mention, he is a dog. But, in many ways, more like a cat than a dog. I won’t tell you what breed he is ’til John posts the photos. He’s much cooler than what you wuold picture…
Lines
There really is little to no regulation of pet foods. I rep’d for Iams for a couple years, right up until a new batch of food burned my Scottie’s fur from too high of a copper content. Rep’d for a couple more brands until I just got sick and tired of watching one good food go bad after being sucked up by some background massive corporation. Finding a good pet food without having to take out a loan for a 50lb bag is a lot tougher today than just 10 years ago.
Krista
Lines – I know. And those of us with smaller breed dogs just can’t justify buying that much food at a time, because it goes stale long before the dog gets to it. And when your dog is 14 years old…well, it sounds morbid, but you don’t want to buy too much of anything ahead of time.
Lines
Variations in pet foods, bag to bag, can range greatly. Iams claimed they had a pretty good quality control, but I learned the hard way with them. Science Diet wrote the only book for Vets on nutrition, and they charge an arm and a leg.
Diamond has never been high on my list. Variation there has been pretty significant.
Purina…. Their One products are decent, but pricey for the quality.
Now I get my dog food from a farm food distributing place, and it seems ok so far. Its nothing special, but my dogs seem to do really well on it. I have a Lab and a Gordon Setter, you’d think one of them would react if it wasn’t any good for them.