deannie

March 21, 2007: UPDATE ON FDA CONTACT BELOW...

I finally received a call from the local FDA complaint coordinator. She was very nice and very sympathetic and very, very sorry it had taken her so long to get to me.

She asked me to tell her what happened with my kitty. I told her the whole story: How my little one had stopped eating much and started drinking tons toward the end of February; how I had taken her to the vet in early March and she'd been diagnosed--the whole sordid tale. She then asked very specific questions, including the lot numbers on the food I have (which I've memorized by now *grrrr*!). Also wanted to know the name and phone number of the vet, and their address. She also wanted to know if my cat had been hospitalized, and I said no, but that was probably because part of her labs looked fine and the vet knew I had been through this with other cats before and knew what I was doing as far as care was concerned.

When we were done with all of that, she told me that they were compiling all the information from each state and sending it to the main FDA research site to aggregate the data.

I haven't heard from Iams yet, however. I called them today and actually got through again, and the woman took my name and numbers again and said they have only two vets on this project, and the two of them are just totally swamped. She promised that I'd be moved to the top of the list and given a call within a day or so.

She and the lady at the FDA sounded really heartsick about all of this. As tough as this is for me, I figure I've had to deal with it before when it wasn't someone's fault, but they have to deal with not only my little one but thousands of other cats and dogs, too. I know a lot of people want to be angry about this, but all I can really be is sad that it happened and that everybody is having to deal with it.

Will let you know when I hear from Iams or from the FDA again...

March 19, 2007: Gotta clean this post up!

MENU FOODS RECALLING PET FOOD: SIGNS OF KIDNEY FAILURE IN CATS AND DOGS
CNN story link is here

Menu Foods, which supplies "chunk" cat and dog food to many major manufacturers, is recalling a ton of cat and dog food after 10 animals died and scores of others developed kidney failure after eating the food. My own cat ate that food (we checked the lot numbers and hers is the magic number *sigh*), and she was diagnosed with kidney failure last week.

They don't know why the animals have developed kidney failure, nor what happens next. I spoke to my vet this morning, and she has no more information than the rest of us do. She suggested that I call Menu Foods and find out what else they know. I doubt it will be much, but I'll update here if they tell me anything worth passing on.

So, if you have a cat or dog, no matter what kind of wet food you feed him or her, please go to one of the following websites and make sure your animal isn't eating this food (and please check your lot numbers carefully before you call the vet. Mine's currently being bombarded by calls--some from people who don't even give their animals chunk wet food!). And if you have the food in your house, STOP FEEDING IT TO YOUR PET, call your vet, and find out if the animal should be tested. You should check the links below on information about the symptoms of kidney failure in dogs and cats. If your animal has these signs, PLEASE get him or her tested. Cats, at least, can live for a good long time with kidney failure if properly cared for.

NOTE: IAMS AND EUKANUBA are included in this recall, though the Proctor & Gamble name is not included in the Menu Foods website recall list! CHECK YOUR FOOD! Hill's Science Diet and MIGHTY DOG are also included (see below).

Informational Links

Official recall notices

FDA announcement of Menu Foods recall (includes links to Proctor and Gamble and Menu Foods FDA announcements)
Menu Foods recall list (I don't think this is actually complete, because, when I checked it this morning, Iams and Eukanuba were not listed)
Iams announcement on the recall, including the lot numbers of affected food
Eukanuba announcement on the recall, including the lot numbers of affected food
Article on Canadian brands in the recall
Wegman's
Safeway
PetsMart (includes a link to this PDF file [you must have Acrobat Reader to see it] which lists ALL the foods being recalled. About time somebody did that!)
PetCO
Hill's Science Diet: Voluntary Recall
Purina recall--selected Mighty Dog only
CANADIAN: Iams, Eukanuba, Pet Essentials and President's Choice, as well as the in-house brands for Wal-Mart, Safeway, Price Chopper, Dominion and Sobeys (article above has more on this)
(How very not-at-all surprising that Wal-Mart hasn't announced this on its recall page online *humph*.)

Signs of Kidney disease in your animal

What to do if your pet is affected This is a link to the Petconnection website. They are also gathering data to find out the scope of the damage and the types of pets involved. Also, there's a link to a pdf with some info on what you should be doing for your pet if you think he or she has been eating the contaminated food.
Information sheet on kidney disease in cats
Information on kidney disease in dogs
The Feline Chronic Renal Failure Website (Granted, this is more for those of us with cats that already have renal failure, but it does have a nice overview of all the big and small indicators of renal failure in cats.)
Information on Acute Renal Failure (which many of the cats that are involved here probably have) from the Washington State University School of Veterinary Medicine

News Stories

AOL.com story about a dog who may recover from the kidney damage. (Please note that you should do absolutely everything you can to get your animal treated immediately, but that doesn't guarantee full recovery.)

PLEASE, check your animal's food. I have to deal with kidney failure in my cat, but I'd love if other people didn't.
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Further update regarding Iams, the FDA, and medical claims
2:32 CST Saturday, March 17.

Have left a message with my local FDA complaints section (they're closed on the weekend--hate to see their voicemail box come Monday!) about the recall (that's what their website said to do), so we'll see what happens there.

Just got off the phone with a very nice woman at Iams. That poor thing! I'm sure I'm not the first person whose cat has actually gotten sick that she's talked to today, and she was incredibly sympathetic, but she had that strain of "Oh God! Not another poor kitty!" in her voice. I figure there will be a lot of crying people over there and at Menu Foods. *sniff* Ah well, no moreso than those of us with sick animals, right?

Anyway, because my cat's situation really seems to point to the food (previously healthy 13-year-old cat suddenly has renal failure and strange lab work), she's faxing my info to another group that is actually taking care of claims for this. They will call me in the next hour or so--she said they're swamped (go FIGURE!), or it would be sooner.

So, for now, I wait. Don't know what they're going to be able to do. I mean, what happened happened. Not like they can go back and undo it. *shrug* But maybe they have more info for me. That'd be nice. Unexpected, but nice. *g*

Anyway, will update when I know more.

Update: 8:00 PM CST 3/17/07
No call yet. Assuming they're beyond swamped just now. Poor things!

further update: 1:00 PM 3/19/07
Still nothing from Iams or the FDA. Have sent Iams an email asking for a timeline. Don't have an email addy for the FDA, but if I find one, I'll post it.
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Phone Numbers and Information on Making Claims

Menu Foods: 1-866-895-2708 (I love that they now have a link to a press release that says they've "enhanced" their site. It's exactly the same and there's still no way to contact them via email!)

The US Food and Drug Administration: Go to the FDA's Complaints Site, which has phone numbers for all the states. I called and left my information at the one here in Chicago on Saturday. They were closed, but they were supposed to call me back today. Nothing yet. Also, I have no email for them, either.

Howl911 resource site: The web site Howl911 has a comprehensive list of who to contact for your individual brand. Again, I called Iams on Saturday and was promised a call by the end of the day, but I've yet to receive one.

Recall Report Blogspot: A blogspot has been set up to allow people to unofficially report to the world the status of their pets following this debacle. Don't read this if you cry easily. Hell, even if you don't, it just makes me damn glad my little one eats so damn little wet food! At least she's better off than many of the ones there who lived!

Pet Connection Pet Connection is gathering data to find out the scope of the damage and the types of pets involved--Please log your pet in if your pet is sick or has died as a result of this. The numbers of sick and dead released by the companies seem woefully inadequate, just given the number of anecdotal stories I've heard in the last few days. Also, there's a link to a pdf with some info on what you should be doing for your pet if you think he or she has been eating the contaminated food.

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Please feel free to run through the comments here. I've tried to update the post with information as soon as people give it to me, but I might miss a few things here and there.

And thanks to all who've expressed their fond wishes for my little one. She's hanging in for now--actually seems to be feeling okay. She probably won't have another set of bloodwork for another couple of weeks (have to talk to the vet about that when I go in to pick up her prescription food this evening), but I'm hopeful that we can keep her at the health level she's at now for a good long time.

My sympathies to everyone who has lost a pet or had a pet sickened by this.