Sick dog, bad food?

By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics and access other forums reserved for members. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today by clicking here.

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:05 pm

In the US anyway, a lot of pet food has been recalled. My 80lb. Boxer became ill yesterday. It did not look too good. We have our dogs crate trained, but last night Cooper was allowed to sleep with me. Good thing, he had to go out every 20 min to barf. Finally, at 5 AM, he crashed out and began snoring like a chain saw with a missing muffler. Of course, he had to lay across my body, making breathing an experience unto itself. Today, he is drinking water again, and is taking "cookies". Whew! I thought the worst. Today is an "off" day for him, as he recovers. We're both pretty tired. I had to help him onto the bed all night, he was so weak. Don't know what I would do without my "slab dog". He's my first puppy, but he's 8 now.

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:14 pm

Hey Joe,

I love the word 'barf' it's one of those words that seems to evoke exactly what it means. I do hope your Boxer is OK and slobbering all over your face as they are prone to do.

Post some pictures if you can, makes a change from the cats.

Tommo.

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:33 pm

"We're watching the dog show! Poodle night!"

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:38 pm

we started not using dog food. our vet recommened laying off of dog food for a while, so we are now feeding our dog rice, beef, turkey, vegetables and eggs

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:43 pm

Is the dog food wet or dry?

I believe the wet food are suspect and not the dry ones.

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:43 pm

Hey Joe (I love saying that as you know by now Laughing

)

He's a cutey and I'm sure he will be OK.

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:46 pm

Glad he's OK! Smile

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:49 pm

Wifey just started feeding some wet food. I say hold off for a while. I checked the FDA site, but none of the foods were on the recall list. Yeah, he's cute, just call before you come over. He's a "bit" Twisted Evil

territorial.
Alarm system, Bah! Already have one.

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Dec 2005 Posts: 3551

Joe, I hope your family member will be okay. A friend of mine lost her dog due to the tainted food, and she is crushed. Some people think it was a deliberate poisoning.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

Yeah, know what it's liKe to have a barfing dog around ( or both ends going eeee)

Nice pic of the dog, reminds me of one a pal has, but his has the full tail.

My sympathies even tho' I'm a cat person

Is there a suggestion that this is a deliberate contamination of the food?

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 11:12 pm

Joe, go to your local Vet or Groomer and ask them if they have any organic dog food. There are different brands, both wet and dry food. I have been feeding my dog it ever since I got her. My last dog died of cancer and I personally feel that the diet of that crap food I fed her was partly responsible for her premature death, so I have vowed to only give my new dog the best. The organic food wasn't affected at all by the recall as far as I'm concerned.

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 11:22 pm

My best friend was a Rottie called 'Woof' who lived until she was 11 on a very unhealthy diet of anything she could steal fom the fridge. (I had to put a lock on it in the end)
My mum had a boxer.
One day, she decided that the boxer (Sadly enough, his name was 'The boxer') needed tinned meat instead of the dried food he'd been having throughout his life. The boxer, for the next 2 days hurled and poohed everywhere. When Mum took him to the vets, he said it was the change of diet.
Just a thought...

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 11:56 pm

RE: last posts, thank you,
He's a fine dog. He goes outside to "purge". Thank God, he's house trained that well.

I'm going to look into some different food for all our critters, I think.

You know, I was (am, see avatar)(avatar just changed). a cat person too, until my wife got us some dogs. Now, I' love em' all. Why not be both? I'm not sure if Don likes Chihuahua's though.

There are rumours the pet food was delibertry (sp?) contaminated. Possibly with Warfarin. (Rat Poison). AKA Coumidin, a blood thinner. I could be totally off on this comment.

I think a change of diet might have been a big factor too.

Tonight, he's doing well, drinking water and eating, dry food. He slept until noon today, then from 1 to 4 PM.
Thanks all, looks like he's going to be OK.
Joe.

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 12:27 am

Hey Joe, glad to hear that your mate is on the mend. It makes you wonder about the mentality of people who would deliberately try to hurt and kill pets. They must have had a sad life.
When we had our little Cavalier King Charles spaniel I used to make his food too and I mixed rice, minced beef, eggs, vegies and our vet said to add a little oatmeal or cereal.
He loved it. (the dog, not the vet). Smile

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 12:34 am

Really pleased to hear that Joe

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 12:57 am

My two dogs eat only (good quality) dried food and absolutely NO scraps or 'treats' from the dining table. Provided they have plenty of fresh water they thrive on it. Clearing up the poop is a lot less confronting too Laughing

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 1:42 am

@JT:

Great news mate. I thought my cats were safe because they only eat dry food - then the same manufacturer of the (extremely expensive) dry food goes and issues a recall. Luckily, it was for another type of dry food, and anyway it was only precautionary. Everyone is safe Very Happy

And yes, my monsters turn into little barfing machines if I ever change their diet.

FWIW, the current scuttlebutt among the veterinary/agricultural community up here (so I am told) is that the most likely culprit is a chemical called melamine, which appears to have been a contaminant in wheat gluten used in the affected products. There is some suggestion that melamine can falsely enhance measurements of protein content in wheat gluten, leading some to deduce that it was deliberately added to hide a poor-quality product or to fetch a higher price. However, this is PURE supposition at this stage.

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 2:14 am

Hey Joe. Hope your hound is OK now. You may need to modify his diet as he gets older anyway.

Ahh dog food. One of my favorite topics to rant about. I was converted long ago to feeding only fresh food. None of my dogs have ever seen, let alone eaten, the tinned shit. You don't need to add poison to it. It does a fair job of killing the dog slowly anyway. Find out what's in it and you'll see what I mean. I've always had blue heelers, and their basic diet has always been roughly 1/2 fresh chicken [the whole carcass with feathers and everything], 1/4 rice or pasta and 1/4 assorted vegetables. For the protein part I substitute fish, rabbit or 'roo meat when available.

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 5:59 am

Hope your boxer is OK.

My Leukocyte the red point siamese had kidney failure a while back. A neighbor boy asked me what was wrong? I told him I had too much money and the vet fixed that. I wonder if its illness was related to the recalled food it refused to eat.

A friend of mine from middle school is a pharmacist and a perfect friend for Reprob8. Sadly he made the local paper as his kitten is now playing with the giant ball of string in the sky.

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 6:50 am

I love both dogs and cats.. I have 2 cats and 1 dog.. I haven't fed them tinned food in years because it makes thier poo stink really bad. As far as the pet food recall is concerned, there is talk about rice gluten, used in some dry food, being tainted with melmane as well. I think I also heard something about corn gluten as well. Not trying to scare anyone, but the rice and corn is being reported as coming from the same supplier as the wheat gluten.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/18/pet.food/index.html

I'm currently feeding my cats Nutro Indoor formula and the dog is eating Purina One something..

This makes me VERY nervous.. Can we even trust the pet food industry anymore? I'm thinking of switching to home-cooked food for them. Shocked

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 6:58 am

As I said before, My Rottie 'Woof' was fed chicken, beef, veg, rice, oats and anything else she could steal from the fridge. She lived a very healthy life.
I agree with Rockaway. Dog food is poison to begin with!!
It's not as expensive as you'd think to feed them fresh food.

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 11:06 pm

Quote:

My Leukocyte the red point siamese had kidney failure a while back.

I had a cat go through that Connie. The vet had me give him IV fluids. I'd hang the bag in a tree in the backyard, and the cat on my lap. Shouldv'e seen the looks on the neighbors faces as they peeked over the fence! They never did ask. Laughing

By the way, Cooper is just fine now! Very Happy

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 1:47 am

A woman where I used to work told me that she had a cat that lived to be 19 years old. I asked her what type of food she fed her cat.

I was thinking maybe she would say a specially cooked gourmet meal or maybe some sort of high tech science diet. But no, she told me she based her buying decision on what was the cheapest cat food available at the time. It was an outdoor cat and she lived in a rural area, so she also never took it to the vet for shots or anything.

Also, on the subject of wet food, someone told me that wet food is bad for the teeth of the animal.

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 2:17 am

Quote:

It was an outdoor cat and she lived in a rural area.....

The cat was no doubt supplementing it's diet with whatever it could catch. It's not unusual for cat owners to buy commercial cat food, put it out for the cat, and it mostly gets eaten by rats. The cat eats anything else it can catch, including rats. The owner sees the cat food gone and assumes the cat is doing well on the bought food. The cat stays healthier than if it was actually eating the bought shit.

Any animals fed only "wet" food [and nothing else] stand a good chance of eventually losing a lot of teeth. Not just directly because of the over-processed crap in the food, but through the lack of balance in the diet.

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 2:49 am

We had a couple of tabby tom bruisers when we lived in the country and they used to go on hunting trips and bring back rats, rabbits, mice you name it (although they never bothered with birds). Their favourite meal was a nice juicy squirrel which they would eat - fur, bones, guts and all - and leave just the tail on the doormat as a 'gift' for us. We hardly had to feed them at all.