I've been posting lightly lately as I've been travelling quite a bit in our efforts to raise our next round of financing and I've also been helping out with the big release of our website coming up (keep an eye out for later in the week - fingers crossed).
Which is why I'm a tad late with the story of the huge cat and dog food recall that covers 50 brands of dog food and 40 brands of cat food that was announced last Friday, March 16, 2006.
The short of it is GO CHECK YOUR CAT AND DOG FOOD TINS NOW. There are a lot of common brands on that list that you might be feeding your pets.
Sadly, it seems that a few cats and dogs died from kidney failure after eating certain pet foods with gravy. Symptoms of kidney failure include loss of appetite, vomiting and lethargy. Go immediately to your vet if your cat or dog shows these symptoms.
As per the press release from Menufoods Income Fund (an odd name for a pet food company, isn't it), the company that manufactures the food:
Shortly after receipt of the first complaint, the Fund initiated a substantial battery of technical tests, conducted by both internal and external specialists, but has failed to identify any issues with the products in question. The Fund has, however, discovered that timing of the production associated with these complaints, coincides with the introduction of an ingredient from a new supplier. The Fund stopped using this ingredient shortly after this discovery and production since then has been undertaken using ingredients from another source.
So, I went off and checked Barnes and Lily's food and it was OK. We just got some Iams Cat Slices with Beef in Gravy 3oz tins for Lily (which she absolutely loves) as we hadn't been able to get to our local pet food store to get the Solid Gold tinned tuna (which she also would die for).
Quick digression: I also think that since the Solid Gold tinned tuna is literally just tuna, we have to be careful of high mercury content in the fish. I figure it is better to switch up her food every now and then than just give her the tuna.
Anyway, while the Iams tins are on the recall list, Lily's particular cans are not part of the recall. Phew! Barnes's food was not on the list.
