Has anyone had a pet die because of the tainted food currently recalled?

Question

I am a very sad previous owner of a cat that died just last Monday, March 12th...Walmart Special Kitty foil pouches are on the list and that is all Rocky ever ate...he wouldn't ever eat anything else. Rocky was only sick 3-4 days before he died of renal and kidney failure......I am trying to find others that had pets die of this.....I am seriously considering taking action. The people need to have some liability for what they put in the food for our pets to ingest....others that have had deaths due to this please email me. Thanks!

Answer 1

Hello, yes our cat just died this morning. I fed him the priority pouch food last thursday, by friday he was throwing up and just acting sleepy. Sunday he seemed a little better, but I went to the market to return the unopened packs, and they told me about the recall and to take him right away to the vet. That's when we found out he had severe kidney failure, and he died this morning. If you would like to discuss this further, please email me at my real email (I am on my son's email) at [e-mail]
Thanks, sorry for your loss too
Jennifer

Answer 2

I completely understand your frustration with this situation. It is a very bad thing to happen to lots of our beloved pets. But, there is something you need to take into account here. The tainted food only came from ONE batch, and you can find out if yours was in it by checking the website's batch number. If it wasn't (which is more likely than not, as your chances of getting THAT particular batch is about 1:10000), then your kitty had renal failure due to something else.

Kitties in renal failure, especially acute renal failure, sometimes don't show symptoms until they are very bad off. This is not at all uncommon. And cats get renal disease much more frequently than dogs (or humans) because they have fewer nephrons (the functional unit of the kidney) than other species, so it takes less damage to cause a problem.

Renal failure in cats can be caused by a number of things. Medication, diet, genetic preconditions, etc. If Special Kitty is all Rocky ever ate, it may have contributed to his renal disease (it's not a high quality food, and is a bit rich for a cat to eat as anything more than a once a week treat). It would be unlikely however, that it was the sole cause.

Now, if you check the batch number, and you DO have some of the contaminated food, then I would highly suggest you take legal action. It won't bring Rocky back, but it certainly may bring a small amount of peice of mind.

Here are some websites with info about batch numbers and the exact plants that the tainted food came from:
(If you are in the US --- If not, you will have to backtrack from these pages to the international websites for these companies.)

http://us.iams.com/iams/en_US/jsp/IAMS_Page.jsp?pageID=PCA&articleID=300003

http://www.menufoods.com/recall/product_cat.html

Answer 3

Yes, my cat Oinkers died as well. She exhibitied many of the same symptoms as the other posts. I was feeding her 'Compliments' wet food pouches in the whitefish/tuna flavour. Typically, she only gets one pouch a day, but my boyfriend was away in Australia and I decided to increase her intake to 2 pouches a day as a special treat. After two days, she stopped finishing the food, which was bizarre, as it had always been the favourite part of her day. I figured she just wasn't used to so much food. A couple of days later, she stopped eating completely. She was lethargic and her tongue was hanging out of her mouth. I took her to the vet, where she was placed on an IV to rehydrate. They also ordered a set of blood tests. When the tests came back I learned that her kidney levels were double to one-thousand times the normal numbers. The vet recommended that I put her down, which was heart breaking. She was only 6 and had been completely healthy until that point.
As I'm writing this, the press releases are still saying that there have only been 10 tainted food related deaths. The release also states that no pets in Canada have been affected. I am calling their bluff on both points. How many pet owners, like myself, chalked kidney-failure deaths up to bad genetics? I think that when the truth comes out, we may see hundreds, if not thousands, of dead dogs & cats.
Also, in response to the post that mentions the "ONE" batch of tainted food, that is simply not the case. In the instance of one brand (Compliments) and one flavour (tuna/whitefish) there were 15 production days affected and listed on the website.
Today, after 3 days of trying, I was finally able to get thru on the recall hotline operated by Menu Foods. They took my name, some information, and told me that I will be contacted by someone from the corporation. If anyone recieves a return phone call, I'd be very interested in what they have to say. My condolences to all the other pet owners affected by this tragedy.

Answer 4

I feel for all of the pet owners right now going through this. My cat Sam is very sick, I can only pray I caught it in time. I was feeding my cat the Nutro wet food. He stopped eating a day or two ago, and I rushed him to the vet today. The Vet did not know how to treat him and is still guessing.

I can only guess how many pets our there are sick or have died and still I see the news only reporting the 10 died number. I do not believe it. I have already spent $600 in vet bills today, and I expect to spend another $1,000 just to save my cat. I am very angry and I think we should all stop buying these companies products and let them go bankrupt.

Answer 5

Yes, my cat also died this week as a result of the tainted food. (Below is a response I had posted a few minutes ago to a different question - it explains what happned to our cat.) I also would like to take action. It sounds like our cats died of the exact same thing. I am so sorry to hear about your kitty :( Trust me, I know what you are going through. I don't know what the next step is... My boyfriend and I are going to talk to the vet tomorrow and see what they reccomend as far as taking action. Feel free to email me!!

***We had to euthanize our 2 year old cat last Tuesday (3/13/07) and have now learned as of this morning that his death was due to this recall. We were feeding him Iams Select Bites packets three times a day. We noticed last Friday that he did not finish all of his food, which was odd for him. Over the weekend, he continued to lose his appetite, stopped eating all together, and vomited several times. Our vet assured us he probably just had a hairball since he was otherwise very healthy. On Monday, we took him to the vet and they hooked him up to an IV because he was dehydrated. He seemed a bit better on Monday night, but Tuesday seemed very ill again. We took him back to the vet on Tuesday, and they performed X-rays and bloodwork. The bloodwork showed that he was having kidney failure, which is extremely rare in such young cats. We had to have him put to sleep Tuesday evening, because the vet said his kidneys were about to shut down all together and he could experience a very painful death. The vet said that he could have eaten part of a houseplant or somehow consumed cleaner or something that caused his kidneys to shut down, and my boyfriend and I felt terrible to think that we may have been at some fault for his death. We both miss our cat, Oscar, terribly and have literally been heartbroken all week. Yesterday, our vet called to tell us about the massive recall and said to watch the list in case Iams was added. Sure enough, we checked today and saw that Iams is in fact on the list. After looking into it, we found that the codes specified on Iams website did in fact match the codes on the remaining packets of food that we still have. I am now feeling a huge mix of emotions - relief to know what caused his death, but anger that the food we were feeding him took his life. Our vet said that we should be able to reimbursed the cost of his medical bills, but that still does not replace the pet that we loved and miss so much.

If you have pets or know someone who does, PLEASE take this very seriously!! Check the food that you have and make sure it is not contaminated. Our cat and numerous others have died. I only wish this recall would have come out one week earlier, and maybe our cat would have had a chance...

Rest in peace, Oscar - xoxoxo***

Answer 6

On March 5th we had our 11.5yr old Toy Fox Terrier, Spike, put to sleep. Within about a 2 wk period he started acting differently. He would hardly eat, he just laid on a pillow by my sons bedroom heat vent and had to be carried outside to do his business. He got very skinny and started having accidents in the house, feeling sorry for him, we had him put down.
The pet food recall didn't mean anything to us because his brand was not listed. Surprise, I went on the website today and found they made Meijer brand Main Choice with beef cuts in gravy. He also liked Chicken cuts and gravy. I checked the dates on the website and the can of beef we have matches the recalled cans.
Now my family is wondering if Spike could have been with us a few more years.

Answer 7

='[[[ I feel so bad for you. I'm really sorry about your little baby! ='[ I really feel your pain, I've had other pets that died, but not because of that... You should take action. You lost your poor little kitten. I'm a proud parent of 3 kittens I got out of a dumpster, and although I'm 13, I would /completely/ file a lawsuit.

Once again, I really am sorry for your loss, and you should take action and perhaps sue for distress and grief. =[ My condolences for Rocky! Take care, and I'm thankful that there's someone else in the world that cares that their animal, which I know as an animal lover is a child in all reality, has wrongfully died.

Answer 8

I know what u r going through, my cat ate the special kitty also but we caught him in time before any damage was done, but my bfs cat is now in kidney failure due to the bad food. We are wondering ourselves if there is any reimbursement to the owners due to the food being bad...

Answer 9

I'm so very sorry to hear of your loss.

My pet has been exposed, too, to one of the brands on the list and I am beside myself. Since the recall is so broad, spanning from Dec 3 to March 6, and so many brands, it is really upsetting and frustrating. I'm not sure what to look for.

But, otherwise perfectly healthy animals are dropping dead from reputable prepared food. It's such a nightmare!

Again, I am so very sorry for your loss.

Answer 10

Sorry for your loss, go to:

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/MenuFoodsClassAction/