WARNING: Purina pet food has started making pets ill

[jennythereader]

I'll be checking when I get home tonight, and getting rid of anything we have from Purina.

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

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

remember that almost all grain based pet fods:
source their ingredients from lowest bidder and from all over (including china, remember last time?)
because they are grain based they attract grain weevils and other bigs.. which are HIGHLY alergenic critters.. (that can be reduced in risk by just upending the bag into a sealable garbage can, which tells you exatly what was on the bottom of the dry fod)

most domestic carnivores are allergic to corn. many (like my cat) are allergic to wheat. these are in almost all pet foods, as thickeners and etc at least.

thsi sint limited to purina.
however, since purina is the BIGGEST mfg their stuff gets made in whopping huge batches, and spends lots of time in warehouses, which means more time to get infested....

personally?i am slowly switching to raw meat with a DHA (fish oil) addition. its cheaper than the premium foods, and probably better for them

[medelle.livejournal.com]

When we got Cleo I started looking at cat foods and discovered that the food I used to feed my old cats had changed formulas and was full of a lot of gunk now. (It was Purina One)

So I put Cleo on Halo Spot's Stew - which is a company started by Ellen DeGeneres because she didn't like all the by product and other crap that is put in a lot of pet foods.

She loves it and aside from being pudgy, she has thrived on it. She has only thrown up I think 2 or 3 times in the time we've had her (I discovered that it was a certain flavor of treat that was causing her to vomit almost instantly).

I highly recommend it - and it has a grain free variety if you suspect your cat is having trouble with that.

ETA: I forgot to mention, if you sign up for their email list - they email you I think about every 2 weeks - and in every email is a coupon for about $2 off a bag of food, which brings the cost of a bag down to around the same cost as say a bag of Purina. (in the 4 - 6 dollar range).

If you have trouble finding it, look at Whole Foods. That's where we buy ours.

[jennythe-reader.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestion! We don't have a Whole Foods around here, but I bet either the co-op or the independent snooty food store will have it. I'll look around this weekend.

[medelle.livejournal.com]

No problem!

Hope it works out for you! Let me know if you find it!