As most of you know, i am a veterinarian and also a pet owner-5 exactly. I know that everyone has their own reasons for what they feed their pets. Over the past years (not many but enough to tell some stories) i have heard all sorts of excuses for what people feed their pets-ie: only boiled chicken-that's it doc, only boiled chicken. (the dog is puking its guts up with raging pancreatitis) but when i fry some for me, i take off the breading and its the same as boiled. just one of the many. i think that this will be my new way of venting some of the stupidest things people have said and done. Not saying that i don't have brain farts -like everyday-but come on, people sometimes its absolutely crazy. Anyway, back to the recall. The Pedigree brands produced in a Pennsylvania plant have found traces of Salmonella in some of the products manufactured at that particular plant. Other brands include my not so favorite-Ol'Roy, Members Mark (all walmart, by the way) and many others. I have not received an official email from the AVMA (american veterinary medical association) but our clinic did receive some information. try to google it if you are concerned.
At vet school, i had a wonderful patient that i took care of every night for about 4 weeks. He was a yellow lab named Luke from Florence, AL. He presented to use for the recall that was in 2006-i think it was diamond-dog food brand. Anyway, Luke and his sister-a yellow lab-name? quit eating their dry food-telling the owners that something was wrong. anyway, his parents mixed it with canned food and they started eating it. They both got really sick and his sister died on Christmas eve. he came to us a couple of days later. Needless to say, after many scares and platelet counts of one, he finally started eating my supper one night-Sweet Peppers Deli loaded potato soup's bread bowl. He loved it and he got several over the next few days before going home. I don't know what happen to him but i do know that he survived and luckily diamond paid his vet bill-$5000.00.
But back to my problem with "CHEAP" dog foods and cat foods: They are CRAP!!!! and a bunch of it. My husband did not believe me about this and thought i just loved to spend money and buy fancy dog food-by the way, I've never been at someones house and gone through their cabinets looking at what food they feed. But anyway, we had a challenge-we live in a patio home in Alabama. We don't do the yard-it's done for us each week. We however, have to pick up the pooh-so we feed his food for a month and mine (by the way, is Hill's Science Diet k-9 maintenance and sometimes small bites (their fav). We then weighed his pooh compared to mine and measure the difference. The RESULTS: it was a huge difference, his food they pooped out almost double what they did on mine and we had to feed more of his food. Meaning with the more expensive food, they got more nutrients and food rather than just passing it out their other end. And for my favorite brand, hill's s/d, it so far to my knowledge has never been listed in any of the recalls. I know that me personally, i would be devastated if i feed my kids something that would potentially kill them. So now we only buy my food now and my husband is so cheap, he squeaks when he walks. I love him much though and miss him too.
The cat food: i give rocky $20.00 to buy my cats food-i feed Purina pro-plan indoor turkey and rice. it comes in a nice container that has a lid and is much easier to use and also much harder for the kids to tear into. so, he comes home with this $4.00 bag of crap-literally-raising he$$ about how much 8 pounds of food cost-$20.00 by the way. So, two days into feeding this stuff, we start to smell something. Our whole house smells like something died literally. The house, the litter box, i mean it was freaking the cat and the dogs out too. It smelled like something crawled in the cat and died and was rotten. Needless to say, rocky threw that food away immediately and without saying anything, he comes home with the expensive food and says-"Don't every buy that $#*! again" and that's a big statement for my wonderful husband.
So, please whatever you do, think about your pets food before you buy it and don't buy based on price. i am attaching an old picture of my kids-enjoy!
