New Food problems

This was sent to me this afternoon. I don't feed it but thought I would pass it along to those of you that do

A friend bugged me until I sent samples of the dog foods I feed (Canidae & California Natural) to be tested. The lab called with preliminary results Friday and said not to feed either food until they ran separate tests on the CA NAtural (lamb & rice puppy & adult) and Canidae (Original and Lamb/Rice). They had mistakenly combined my two separate samples and run one test instead of two. Got the final results yesterday--the Canidae is contaminated with acetaminophen, the main ingredient in Tylenol. Acetaminophen is immediately fatal in cats and if fed to dogs over a period of time will cause terminal liver & kidney damage. I'm still in shock. If you know anyone who feeds Canidae, have them look closely at the dates stamped on the bottom of the sack. It's hard to find. Here's what's stamped on the sacks I had tested: Canidae Original RM 7/7/07, use by 7/7/08; Canidae Lamb & Rice L&R RM 7/6/07, use by 7/6/08. Perhaps someone else will pay the big price ($250/test) to test the original and lamb/rice separately to see if either or both are contaminated. I called my dealer yesterday and she's going to call the company. My computer hard drive died a month ago and I lost a lot of e-mail addresses, so pass this on to anyone you know and I hope everyone will get the news.

Posting hearsay like this can cause problems.

Without the lab report, listing in PPM the contaminants, this means little to nothing.

Well the situation is not hearsay as a similar report was posted in the newspaper, however the FDA did not validate the results and found no contamination.

http://pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsbur.../s_512295.html

The newspaper article is an excellent example of how reporting should be done.

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Originally Posted by Catlady711

Well the situation is not hearsay
as a similar report was posted in the newspaper,
however the FDA did not validate the results and found no contamination.

http://pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsbur.../s_512295.html

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Note the DATE of the Pittsburgh Live article ... it's not a "fresh" report!

FDA rules out painkiller as pet food contaminant

By Karen Roebuck
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, June 13, 2007

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday ruled out acetaminophen as a pet food contaminant after a Texas lab insisted it found the painkiller in numerous varieties. ...

The FDA found no trace of the medication in five samples of one type of cat and two dog foods it tested in the past week, said spokesman Mike Herndon.
"At this point, FDA sees no compelling need to analyze any more samples for acetaminophen," he said."

by Phred

According to the pet owner who sent in the food ExperTox found levels of 0.2 micrograms/gm. The owner claims that feeding his cat 5.5 ounce cans of cat food for 4-5 days (after that the cat didn't eat any additional), the cat had 90% kidney failure.

Math time: There are 155 gms/5.5ounces. Assuming 0.2 micrograms/gm/155 gms, the entire can would contain 31 micrograms. Let's assume it was 5 days of feeding. The cat would have consumed 0.155 mg total over 5 days. In looking at the cat pictures it seems an easy 10 lbs maybe 15 lb cat? Let's go with 10 lbs.

At a dose of 10 mg/kg a cat will show toxic effects from acetaminophen. A 10 lb cat is equivalent to 4.5kgs. Thus in order for a cat to start to show toxicity from a single dose it would have to consume approx 45 mg. A one time dose guaranteed to show toxicity is 50-100 mg, and a follow up dose within 24 hrs is usually fatal.

Cat toxicities

We have a little paradox here of the cat consuming a total of 0.155 mg over a period of 5 days, yet one would not expect to see toxicity occur until the cat has accumulated 45 mg. Now the queston becomes at the end of 5 days how much of the 0.155 mg was in the cat? A cat will clear 85% of the dose within 24 hrs. Ummm... time for yet more math: After 1 day the cat would have retained 4.65 micrograms. After day 2 we have 85% of the day two dose excreted plus 85% of the 4.65 micrograms or 5.35 micrograms at the end of days 2... and at the end of day 5 within minutes of the last feeding the highest concentration of acetaminophen would be 36.47 micrograms, or converting back to milligrams, the highest concentration obtained in the cat would be expected to be 0.0364 mg.

The highest dose the cat was exposed to in theory was approximately 0.0364 mg, and yet most studies show toxicity starting at 40 mg or 1011X the dose this cat was exposed to in vivo. The owner makes a big adoo on his site that these small amounts starting at 0.0310 mg increase over 5 days to 0.0364 mg was the cause of death for the cat.

The owner's conclusion was: Chuckles received at least a 30 microgram dose of acetaminophen, courtesy of the pet murdering criminals at Menu Foods, with each can of food until she became too sick to eat.

But it seems a stretch to conclude that an accumulative 1/1000th the lethal dose for 5 consecutive days would kill the cat.

Curiously the main toxicity of acetaminophen in a cat is liver damage. Yet this cat died of kidney failure. The owner also remarks about the findings that cyanuric acid (used in pools), and which can react with acetaminophen to produce carcinogenic compounds was a contributing factor. Given the very short period of time, that also seems a leap of faith. Cyanuric acid by itself is non-toxic.

As far as is known the cat in question could have died of some other poison than the consumption of acetaminophen, totally independent of the food consumed.

it's not here say the email is from a breeder i know in person. This is what she sent me this morning

Here's what's stamped on the sacks I had tested: Canidae
>>>Original RM 7/7/07, use by 7/7/08; Canidae Lamb & Rice L&R RM 7/6/07, use
>>>by 7/6/08.

Glad I don't feed kibble....I had a mail about this too this morning when I opened......I wouldn't want to take the chance until everything is proven .

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Originally Posted by mike001

Glad I don't feed kibble....I had a mail about this too this morning when I opened......I wouldn't want to take the chance until everything is proven .

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And I'm glad that I do feed kibble or commercial dry dog food - the same day after day, year after year.

Glad I'm intelligent and stable enough not to be worried about everything I read in my email. If all my emails were true I'd be a multi-millionaire by now.

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Originally Posted by Lady's Human

Glad I'm intelligent and stable enough not to be worried about everything I read in my email. If all my emails were true I'd be a multi-millionaire by now.

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lol tell me about it

This worried me at first considering I feel Canidae, but considering I can't find any reports of actual proven contamination, I feel a little more at ease.

Is there a trusted and reliable website or mailing list you can sign up to that will let you know of dog/cat food contamination reports or something of the sort?

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Originally Posted by Lady's Human

... not to be worried about everything I read in my email.

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WHAT?
:eek:

You mean all that stuff many not be true? :eek:
How could that BE?
:(

Good grief.
I purchased a large bag of Canidae on June 8th. I don't know what was wrong with it, but Star absolutely refused to eat any of it. (She & Sherman devourved the first bag I bought) I finally gave up & got her old brand for her. It's not as high quality, but she eats it. Jack's been eating the Canidae and doesn't seem any worse for it. But I will keep an eye out for more reports.

you want me to ask the breeder who did the testing if i can post her name and email addy so you all can ask her yourself?

I hope it was just a fluke thing. The only food one of mine can eat without throwing up constantly is Canidae (lamb & rice).

I emailed the company and all they gave me was a canned response about how they've been making their food in their factory which was built in 1978 and that they take great care in making good food for dogs. This was also an issue with Innova which I feed my dog. I checked their website and they had their food tested by 3 independent labs including US Davis and Expertox. All 3 found no trace of acetaminophen or cyaronic acid. It was also noted that the sample that the customer sent was in a ziploc bag and not in the original bag. That suggests to me that someone may have added the contaminants to the the sample. Why wouldn't you send the original bag? I think this is a hoax; at the very worst, someone trying to slander the makers of Canidae and Innova. I think I'd be more open to believing this if there was an autopsy done on the dog that died of kidney failure.

I'm not sure we should believe every single thing we read - if I did I'd be feeding raw which I would never do.