Another Nutro Food Update
September 13, 2008 by Gyvel Young © 2011
Filed under CONSUMER REPORTS, Pet Food Recalls, Unsafe Pet Food
Pictured here is Mr. Archuleta with the family dogs. Cheryl states "Zoey, the tiny pom in the middle, is the only survivor. Cubbie, the black chihuahua, is the one whose eye came out, boy is to the left and Meanie's face can't be seen, unfortunately. As you can see, they were very well cared for and I love them and miss them terribly."
Nutro Alert!
I received this comment on my Zinc Toxicity Suspected in Recent Nutro Food Complaints post. After contacting Cheryl via email I made the decision to post her story for everyone to read. It is my personal belief that pet owners would be wise to remove any Nutro products from their pantry shelves.
On Sep 9, 2008, at 10:46 AM, Cheryl Archuleta wrote:
Gyvel:
I was a Pet Nutrition Specialist for Nutro from 2004-2008. In February, I had a family approach me in a Petmart and tell me they found foreign objects in their Large Breed Lamb and Rice food. I immediately called my manager, who told me the food was fine. He did tell me in confidence that Nutro had received a ‘bad’ shipment of rice but everything would be fine and I was not to tell the customers.
I immediately went home and googled Nutro and found the consumer affairs website. I also took my animals in for a vet check up asap.
My lab and my son’s lab were diagnosed with gastritis and the vet said they were ok, but to switch foods asap.
My 2 chihuahuas and 2 poms were diagnosed with Mitral Valve Prolapse and one with adrenal insufficiency as well. They all had check ups the prior year because of the recall and were fine. This was such a shock to have all 4 of them with the same heart condition. They are different ages, different breeds and not related.
In May, my oldest pom, started coughing and we took him right in to the vet. They started him on heart meds, but it was too late, the heart was too damaged. I called Nutro right from the vets office, begged them to tell me what they thought it might be so I could get help for my dog and they said ‘nothing was wrong with the food’. My Boy dog died in June.
My oldest lh chihuahua started coughing Memorial weekend and on Memorial Day, she coughed so hard, her eye came out! We rushed her to the vet and they did emergency surgery. Her heart was bad too and said she didn’t have long. About two weeks later she developed pancreatitis and she died.
My other lh chihuahua fell right in line and she went from 4lbs to 2 lbs and she died in July.
My smallest pom is hanging on, but she coughs now too and the vets says 6-8 weeks.
The little dogs were eating the Senior chicken/rice in the silver bag. They also ate the biscuits and treats and occasionally the wet food. Not thinking it was another recall situation, I returned all of the food to Petsmart. I made my kids take their food back too.
No one from Nutro will return my calls, answer my letters or emails. I just want answers. If it is copper or zinc toxicity, we could have gotten treatment months ago. I’m just disgusted.
Thank you for listening.
Cheryl
My recommendation? Remove Nutro products from your pet food list!
Please, keep up-to-date with the latest pet food findings by visiting the FDA Pet Food Recall/Tainted Animal Feed site , the Pet Food Recall Facts, the Pet Food Products Safety Alliance, and the Pet Food List as often as you can.
To find out more about the pet food industry visit the Association of American Feed Control Officials, Inc. (or the AAFCO ). More about the pet food industry can be found at Pet Food Industry an online magazine about the industry written for the industry.
To find out what about FDA regulations (there are none) and pet foods visit the FDA Pet Foods or the FDA’s Regulation of Pet Food.
To lodge a complaint with the FDA regarding pet food contamination please go to the FDA’s Consumer Complaint Coordinators web page.
Keep in mind that an informed consumer is a powerful consumer. Pets rely on us for their lives and health.
I can barely type a response to the Nutro food Scandal because my dogs have been vicitims too….I almost lost them both this week and I am beyond devasted.
Thank God I found postings online to figure out what has been going on since June of this year. 2008 My heart breaks for Cheryl and her losses…I have had my dogs in and out of the Vets Clicnic all summer with costs over $2000 dollars not to mention the grief and loss of sleep I have suffered staying up with them while they were getting sick on the hour. Their health had stumped the Vets and had them telling me they must of been exposed to a viral infection. Because their blood and urine would be ok but then last week I had Baileys blood check one more time and it was toxic to the point we didn’t know if she would make it. Both of my dogs have been on NuTro Max mini chunk chicken their whole lives which is over 11 years. My dogs are siblings and come from a great bloodline. They are minature poodles and have been amazing…they are true gifts from God.
The food that recently really made them sick is Batch # 25-84269-01 Best if used by Oct 29 2009. I have another unopened bag of this food with the same numbers on it and I have 2 other bags that are different samples from another batch. I will be having this food independently tested no matter what the cost. I will not be putting this food back in the hands of a company who is just telling us lies or not looking into the possiblity there could be toxic food in the market place.
At this point I do not care about receiving the minimal money as a refund I have got the evidence and intend on getting to the bottum of this important issue. My goal is to save innocent pets lives and if I can save anyone from going through the undo stress of having a sick pet for no good reason but the fact that some person was irresponsible in telling the truth. Nutro had my trust for 11 years and it took me numerous times to the vet and both of my dogs almost dying for me to point the finger at the food. But now I know with no uncertainy that my dogs were poisoned by the hands of Nutro and I will not stop until the questions are answered…what happened to the food and what’s in it? They messed with the wrong loving loyal pet owner … lori
We have had our Poms on Nutro Natural Choice for 10+ years and they are fine.
[...] whose three dogs died within weeks of each other, contacted me with her story, you can read it here. Many pet parents reported that their dog’s lab work revealed liver damage. Often the [...]
I just saw this article and I am in shock. I have been feeding my border collie Nutro Natural Choice for 7 years. 5 months ago he started coughing and hacking up phelgm. We couldn’t figure out what the problem was. I went to the vet 3 times. The vet put him on antibiotics, thinking it was a repiratory infection. He was on the medicine for 1 month and it did not help. The vet did a heart worm test and tested his heart and he was ok. We then tried benadryl b/c he thought it was allergies. Then we tried a cough suppresent which really helped, but the medicine was so darn expensive. Finally my border collie got really bad diarrhea, so I took him off food and gave him ground beef and rice for 2 weeks. His cough got so much better and there were nights he was not coughing at all!!!!!! His stomach and diarrhea was doing much better, so I took him off the ground beef and rice mixture and gave him his Nutro dog food again and that night the poor guy was coughing and hacking all night. Neither of us could sleep. He is now completely off the Nutro diet. I can’t believe they would sell this garbage to our family pets!!! I spent a lot of money and many hours trying to figure out what was wrong with my dog. I was finally giving into the idea of having him x-rayed and tested for cancer by my vet, which would have cost me a fortune. This is just unbelievable to me.