WARNING! POSSIBLE TAINTED CAT FOOD!

[tominhouston]

Hi everyone, I has started this thread on Monday when one of my two cats, Knuckles, suddenly started throwing up for no reason. By the time I got her to the vet Monday afternoon, she was bleeding internally and from the eyes. The doctors so far have been stumped.

Last night, her sister, Mugsy, also threw up (she is perfectly fine now). I had put out some wet food the night before Knuckles got sick. Knuckles eats wet food but her sister does not until it dries out, so it is very possible Mugsy didn't get sick until she finally tried eating some of the wet food.

I know that in the recent past, pet food from China that used Melamine as a thickener was linked to a string of pet deaths in the U.S.. I do NOT know if the food I gave them is indeed bad, but preferring to err on the side of caution, you should know this was a per-packaged cup of "Meow Mix Souffles with Salmon, egg and Garden Vegetables".Made in Thailand.

I dug the empty cup out of the trash and will try to have the vet analyze it as much as they can. Unfortunately, I washed the remaining food down the drain before it occurred to me to have it tested.

(I'll post a follow-up when I know more.)

 

[peaches08]

Geez, that's scary!  You could go back to the place you bought it and compare lot numbers.  Have you called the manufacturer?

 

[chwx]

YIKES!!! That's scary! My dog started having bloody diarrhea and projectile vomiting (blood) when I fed her Nutro. The food was never recalled despite several other people reporting illness and even death after feeding it. Vet couldn't figure it out! I switched foods and she completely stopped and regained all her energy back. (She was EXTREMELY...Like super scary lethargic when eating Nutro!) Just another brand I'll never touch again. I've always been iffy about Meow Mix too and this certainly gives all the more reason to be! I hope your babies get better soon!

 

[kittenpowerpow]

My cat got really sick too. He was having bloody diarrhea and vomitting. He has friskies...maybe all the food is bad. Idk. He eats meow mix kibbles sometimes. For the most part i feed him cooked chicken and turkey and tuna is his treat. I will not be feeding him that canned crap anymore. Thanks for the heads up!! Goodluck with kitties!!!

 

[tominhouston]

 
Geez, that's scary!  You could go back to the place you bought it and compare lot numbers.  Have you called the manufacturer?

Hi, yes. I just got off the phone with "Meow Mix".

I told them that my cat has all the symptoms of Salmonella poisoning (vomiting, fever, blood loss/low platelet count, etc) and the last thing she ate before getting sick (or since) was their wet catfood with "egg" in it. They told me none of their products have ever been recalled, and took the package lot# so they could check it out. She also asked if I had another cup, same variety from the same lot (same Sell By date) and miracles of miracles I did. She told me to hold onto it, to store it "the way they do in the store" (unrefrigerated in a cool/dry place).

They also asked for my permission to call my vet, but then never asked me for their name or number.

On my way home I stopped by the Wal*Mart where I bought it, and they to said they had had no recalls.

I told the vet this morning to give special consideration to the likelihood that this is Salmonella (they said there is no test to confirm it) and to give her extra antibiotics to fight it. (It's bad enough we have to be our own doctors, now we must be our own VETS too and diagnose our sick pets ourselves. They called me yesterday to say they were going to see if it were cancer! ("cancer" = "I'm out of ideas".)

This vet bill has already cost over $2,000 and could go up another $2,000 more before we're done. If the cat food was the culprit, I expect them to pay the bill.

PS: The cat I lost last year after it was misdiagnosed with cancer, I was also charged thousands of dollars only to watch the poor animal die in misery.

 

[tominhouston]

My cat got really sick too. He was having bloody diarrhea and vomitting. He has friskies...maybe all the food is bad. Idk. He eats meow mix kibbles sometimes. For the most part i feed him cooked chicken and turkey and tuna is his treat. I will not be feeding him that canned crap anymore. Thanks for the heads up!! Goodluck with kitties!!!

"Dry" food and wet food in a metal can that is NOT in cream sauce is fairly safe. This particular variety of Meow Mix (their expensive "Soufffles" line) contains "egg".

Also avoid any wet food in "sauce" manufactured in Asia because the stuff they use as a thickener ("Melamine" IIRC) is poison. And I'd definitely avoid canned tuna. Too much mercury (the small trace amounts don't affect most people because they don't eat that much over long periods of time for it to build up. Since cats are smaller and eat fish more often, they are far more sensitive to the mercury in tuna, and ALL tuna has mercury in it now.)

For good or bad, my cats refuse to eat people food (not even milk), and nothing in "chunks". Very odd, but they don't beg at the dinner table or try to eat my food.

 

[tominhouston]

YIKES!!! That's scary! My dog started having bloody diarrhea and projectile vomiting (blood) when I fed her Nutro. The food was never recalled despite several other people reporting illness and even death after feeding it. Vet couldn't figure it out! I switched foods and she completely stopped and regained all her energy back. (She was EXTREMELY...Like super scary lethargic when eating Nutro!) Just another brand I'll never touch again. I've always been iffy about Meow Mix too and this certainly gives all the more reason to be! I hope your babies get better soon!

My poor Knuckles shows all the signs of Salmonella poisoning and the last thing she ate before getting sick contained "egg" as part of the banner ingredients.

I told her vet today to give special consideration to the likelihood that she has Salmonella, for which they will now be giving hr additional antibiotics.

 

[kittenpowerpow]

Yeah he only gets 2.5 ounces of tuna once a week. Its a very small dose and only used as a treat for him. I think to be safe im just going to keep him away from all those generic brands of cat food.

 

[ldg]

I told the vet this morning to give special consideration to the likelihood that this is Salmonella (they said there is no test to confirm it)...

Of course they can do a fecal culture to look for samonella. Think about it. If there were no way to test for salmonella, how could any food ever be recalled?

Salmonellosis is diagnosed by isolating the causative organism from feces, blood or other specimens. Salmonella species are identified by culture and biochemical testing. Under the microscope, they are Gram negative short rods. Colonies on nutrient agar are grayish, moist, translucent to opaque, and smooth. Broth cultures are turbid and may contain a pellicle or sediment. Selective media are available. Identification can be confirmed by serologic analysis of O and H antigens.

From: http://www.state.nj.us/agriculture/divisions/ah/diseases/nontyphoidal_salmonellosis.html


Bleeding from the eyes. I'm not finding that as a symptom of salmonella. The bleeding would normally be in vomit or diarrhea. Does she have a fever?

I mentioned in your thread in health that it does sound like a type of poisoning. What are her kidney values? With the non-localized internal bleeding, I wondered if perhaps she ate a poisoned mouse.

I'm so sorry for everything you're going through. But it concerns me greatly that your vet says there is no test for salmonella.

 

[ldg]

kittenpowerpow

... For the most part i feed him cooked chicken and turkey and tuna is his treat.

Cooked chicken and turkey are not a balanced diet. If this constitutes more than 15% of his diet, your kitty is at serious risk for many health problems. It's not difficult at all to add the supplements necessary to balance that. Please see http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264153/home-cooked-cat-food-resources

 

[rachelinaz]

I am so sorry to hear about your babies. How are they today?

 

[peaches08]

Of course they can do a fecal culture to look for samonella. Think about it. If there were no way to test for salmonella, how could any food ever be recalled?
From: http://www.state.nj.us/agriculture/divisions/ah/diseases/nontyphoidal_salmonellosis.html


Bleeding from the eyes. I'm not finding that as a symptom of salmonella. The bleeding would normally be in vomit or diarrhea. Does she have a fever?

I mentioned in your thread in health that it does sound like a type of poisoning. What are her kidney values? With the non-localized internal bleeding, I wondered if perhaps she ate a poisoned mouse.

I'm so sorry for everything you're going through. But it concerns me greatly that your vet says there is no test for salmonella.

Agreed.  This definitely sounds like poisoning, and it also sounds like every health resource (pet and human) available to them is a disaster, or else there's a misunderstanding.  I don't understand this many misdiagnoses of cancer, both pet and human.

Not to mention, aren't most recalls of pet food containing salmonella due to salmonella infections of humans?  Not infected pets?  I know from raw feeding that salmonella just really isn't a huge concern. 

 

[tominhouston]

Of course they can do a fecal culture to look for samonella.

Sorry for the confusion. "No test" because she's not pooing.

 

[jodiethierry64]

Hi, yes. I just got off the phone with "Meow Mix".

I told them that my cat has all the symptoms of Salmonella poisoning (vomiting, fever, blood loss/low platelet count, etc) and the last thing she ate before getting sick (or since) was their wet catfood with "egg" in it. They told me none of their products have ever been recalled, and took the package lot# so they could check it out. She also asked if I had another cup, same variety from the same lot (same Sell By date) and miracles of miracles I did. She told me to hold onto it, to store it "the way they do in the store" (unrefrigerated in a cool/dry place).

They also asked for my permission to call my vet, but then never asked me for their name or number.

On my way home I stopped by the Wal*Mart where I bought it, and they to said they had had no recalls.

I told the vet this morning to give special consideration to the likelihood that this is Salmonella (they said there is no test to confirm it) and to give her extra antibiotics to fight it. (It's bad enough we have to be our own doctors, now we must be our own VETS too and diagnose our sick pets ourselves. They called me yesterday to say they were going to see if it were cancer! ("cancer" = "I'm out of ideas".)

This vet bill has already cost over $2,000 and could go up another $2,000 more before we're done. If the cat food was the culprit, I expect them to pay the bill.

PS: The cat I lost last year after it was misdiagnosed with cancer, I was also charged thousands of dollars only to watch the poor animal die in misery.

Again I'm so sorry you're going through this. I also understand your frustration with having to play Dr.
I use to give vets a lot more credit then human Dr's.
No more. They have become no different. All about the money but unlike human Dr's, vets very rarely have malpractice cases. They are not held accountable like Drs who treat humans.
I've learned so much on this site about nutrition.
I use to feed my babies dry Friskies with a small amount of wet. My babies were having health issues and this is why I joined this site.
My vet treated their conditions but never told me to feed them different or that what I was feeding them was causing them these health issues.
My husband and I became angry knowing that if the vets had talked to us about nutrition we would of changed. Our babies would of gotten better but like my husband said vets make very little money on healthy pets.
When I changed their diet to 90% wet and 10% grain free dry, the vomiting stopped. My feline with stomatitis has not had a flare up in 9 months. Their immune system is stronger. I even had to tell my vet about giving my stomatitis kitty lysine. The vet didn't even bring it up, knowing that lysine works wonders for stomatitis.
Like you I don't trust vets. I don't refuse them veterinary care but I do my homework and I also started seeing a holistic vet who does care about your beloved furbaby!
Like you my kids will not eat raw. I can get them to eat some cooked chicken. Commercial pet food is not regulates like human food and even then the F.D.A. fails us humans. A lot of pets die every year from tainted food but little changes and how many pets die from tainted food that goes undetected because the vet has no clue. The vets are not looking for food poisoning. Our beloved pets are considered disposable. If a human dies because of tainted food there's big lawsuits and the risk of jail but not with animals. I'm sure there's much more animals that die from tainted commercial food that never gets reported. Scary!!!!
Again prayers for Knuckles!!!!

 

[kittenpowerpow]

He gets his vitamins and minerals still i give him sweet potatoes, pumpkin and other things for his nutrients. He drinks kefir too.

kittenpowerpow
Cooked chicken and turkey are not a balanced diet. If this constitutes more than 15% of his diet, your kitty is at serious risk for many health problems. It's not difficult at all to add the supplements necessary to balance that. Please see http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264153/home-cooked-cat-food-resources

 

[vball91]

He gets his vitamins and minerals still i give him sweet potatoes, pumpkin and other things for his nutrients. He drinks kefir too.

He gets his vitamins and minerals from sweet potatoes and pumpkin and kefir? Those are not the supplements that LDG is referring to. He needs a source of calcium plus minerals and vitamins commonly found in organ meats. Non animal matter will not provide her with the nutrients that she needs as an obligate carnivore. Please read the link that LDG provided you.

 

[Willowy]

Canned foods usually can't have salmonella because of the high heat required in the canning process. But since Meow Mix tubs are plastic, probably they aren't processed at such high heat? Hope you figure out what's wrong and she feels better soon .

 

[tominhouston]

Canned foods usually can't have salmonella because of the high heat required in the canning process. But since Meow Mix tubs are plastic, probably they aren't processed at such high heat? Hope you figure out what's wrong and she feels better soon

.

That's my thinking too. But I'm reading online that dry food can be even worse, and it was the first thing I suspected (because the food I gave her was a new unopened bag), but her sister got sick even after I took that particular dry food away.

I plan on having both the wet AND dry tested now. Thx.

 

[peaches08]

Is there anything else that your cats could have gotten into?  I swear this sounds like a poisoned mouse like LDG mentioned.  This reeks of warfarin.

You mentioned that this cat chews.  Could she have licked something off of your shoes?  Like weed killer, fertilizer, etc?

What diagnostics did the vet do?  I'm glad she's home, by the way.  Hope she feels better.

 

[denice]

 
Is there anything else that your cats could have gotten into?  I swear this sounds like a poisoned mouse like LDG mentioned.  This reeks of warfarin.

You mentioned that this cat chews.  Could she have licked something off of your shoes?  Like weed killer, fertilizer, etc?

What diagnostics did the vet do?  I'm glad she's home, by the way.  Hope she feels better.

I've been thinking the same thing.  This just doesn't sound like food poisoning to me.