Puppy in renal failure after eating dry dog foods -- Nutro Natural Choice Dog Food Recall Message Board

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Date Posted: 12:32:53 05/30/07 Wed
Author: Christy Hottinger
Subject: Puppy in renal failure after eating dry dog foods

Hi, My beautiful 7 month old bulldog puppy, Ruby, was diagnosed on 5/23/07 with kidney failure. She was losing weight but looked otherwise healthy and active. After 4 vet visits and being told each time I should not worry becasue her food was not on the recall list and she was probably just genetically smaller I finally demaned they do blood work and the results showed chronic renal failure. Meaning that this condition had been ongoing for a long time and did not just occur. She first became ill in Jan 07 at 13 weeks after eating Nutro Natural Choice lamb & rice dry puppy food. I fed her that becasue that was what the breeder had been feeding her. She refused to eat it after a few days, ran a fever and was very lethargic. This was before the recall and the vet could not figure out what was wrong. No blood work was done at that time and I did not know to ask for it. They tested for parvo and ruled out parasites put her on antibotics and switched to her to Royal Canin Med puppy 32 dry food. She seemed to get better for a while after the switch. In March around the same time as the recalls started her growth began to slow down and her appetite decreased but still she seemed energetic and healthy. We thought we were OK becasue at the time no Royal Canin foods were being recalled. We did keep the bag of Nutro food in case the dry food ever did get recalled though. In mid to late April she stopped eating the Royal Canin and seemed depressed. A few days later we heard about Royal Canin recalls so we switched her to Canidae dry (even though her specific food was not recalled) and she again began to eat and perked back up. However in May she began to lose weight. I took her to the vet but since she just started her first heat cycle they thought that might account for the few pounds of weight loss. But three weeks later when her cycle ended she lost more weight and I asked taht they do the blood & urine work which confirmed my worst fears. She was in renal failure with only 25% kidney function left! I have contacted and filed a complaint with the FDA and am waiting for them to re-contact me for food sampels of both the Nutro and Royal Canin. My Vet is investigating and trying to rule out any possible genetic reasons as well but said it likey could be the food since juvenile renal disease is not one of the more common genetic problems in Bulldogs. I wanted to share my story because I want everyone out there to know that just becasue the vets, pet food companies and the FDA assure you that the non recalled foods are safe does not mean that they are. They really don't know what is and is not safe at this point. I am not even sure they really know all the ingredients that may be affected. Also if your pet has eaten a food by a company that has had any recalled foods take your pet to the vet immediatedly and get the blood and urine work done to make sure they are OK. It is not enough to just switch food. If they ate this poison switching foods will not necessarily help- the damage may already be done and the earlier it is caught the better chance the animal has. I wish I had tested Ruby earlier when she first became ill or back in March when foods started being recalled. Maybe then her prognosis would be better. I just did not know to do it and believed the vets, pet food companies and the FDA when they said if the food is not recalled then don't worry. I was wrong and I am so sorry. Please don't make the same mistake I did. Christy

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