Comments on: String of Illnesses Linked to Nutro Pet Food

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:31:03 +0000

I have three small chihuahuas and all three throw up and have loose stool on Nutro. Once a started them on Sceince Diet small bites mature they have been fine. You decide I did.

By: Helen

Helen — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:24:00 +0000

Hi everyone,

I posted earlier about Nutro. I now work for Nature’s Variety. One of my cocker spaniels that I rescued recently was tested by the vet for allergies. He tested positive for chicken, turkey, oatmeal,soybean meal, brewers yeast, peas and carrots. The vet gave me a handout for foods that my baby could eat. He said Nutro was okay. I said No way and handed him all the Consumer Affairs.com complaints that I printed out. He no longer recommends Nutro. I went home and ordered Flint River Ranch Lamb, Millet and Rice for Fabian since he cannot eat our Prairie due to Oatmeal allergy and cannot eat Instinct due to brewers yeast, so he eats Raw Lamb Medallions and Flint River Ranch Lamb Millet and Rice and we alternate it with Natural Balance Fish and Sweet Potato or Wellness Core Ocean. California Naturals was also appropriate and they have a simple Lamb and Rice formula from Natura Pet so we do have options! Thankfully!!! He didn’t like Taste of the Wild, go figure.
For those of you struggling with multiple food allergies like my Fabian, check out Flint RIver Ranch.com. http//:www. frrco.com. or just google Flint RIver Ranch. It is another option for dogs with allergies. The Trout and Potato form is good too. But he cannot eat it.
But NO NUTRO FOR FABIAN!!!!
My other cockers eat Nature’s Variety Prairie and we rotate meat meals every bag. They also get raw! So do my cats!!
There are other options out there besides Science Diet, IAMS, Eukanuba, and Purina if Nutro isn’t where you need to be. Watch the treats too. Some treats are just as bad as the dog foods!! For treats I use Flint River Lamb, Millet and Rice Wafers, Raw Medallions and will be using Nature’s Variety new doggy ice cream!!! Sweet Spots!!!! Comes out late this month!!! That is it!!!

Have a great day!!!! Give all your babies a hug from me!

Helen

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:27:36 +0000

Who are you shills for Nutro? We were loyal to until I just got a fresh bag and all of a sudden our dogs are sick. After reading all of these consumer stories, I just feel grateful that we have caught it so quickly thanks to everyone who has shared their stories.

By: Bonnie

Bonnie — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:10:09 +0000

http://www.nutroproducts.com/nutro-food-recall-facts.shtml#affairs

Please go to the above link from Nutro they address all these questions.

I have fed Nutro for years and my dogs are VERY healthy. I feel bad for people whom have sick pets but maybe it is not the dog food.

By: Holly Messina

Holly Messina — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 02:30:04 +0000

I was a faithful user of Nutro products for several years. I have two Bullmastiffs and over the past several months both dogs have had intermittent vomiting, diarrhea, skin sores and seizure-like activity. My male dog has progressively been getting worse with lethargy, vomiting and excessive drooling. I have accumulated hundreds of dollars in vet bills with no definitive diagnosis. I then decided to investigate Nutro products. I was very shocked to read the numerous complaints from other dog owners with similar problems. I contacted Nutro and they insist there is nothing wrong with their products. I do not believe that all these complaints are purely coincidental. The representative from Nutro advised me that their independent lab had not found any problems with the food. I would just like to know how long it will take for something to be done and made public.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 16:41:13 +0000

Great, I have been feeding my boxer since 5 weeks old, Nutro Natural Choice. She is almost two. She hasn’t had the problems, but should I switch foods? And if so, what should I feed her? Thanks Laurie

By: Helen

Helen — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 05:20:33 +0000

Hi!
I used to be a pet nutrition specialist at Nutro and since May of 2008, I resigned. I now work part time for a wonderful company called Natures Variety. http://www.naturesvariety.com. I quit working for Nutro because I was receiving multitudes of customer complaints about the food. I always asked questions of the customers about changing foods too fast, if they were feeding any other treats than Nutro and if they were adding any other substance or canned food. I asked alot of questions to find out what was going on. Most of the people I spoke with for the most part were die hard Nutro customers but the symptoms were all the same, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, increased thirst, accidents in the home from the diarrhea and urination and lethargy. I reported this to my area manager and was told to reinforce the nutro quality controls in place. That doesn’t make a dent with a customer with a sick pet. Sorry Nutro but you need to take these complaints seriously and validate concerns expressed by the customer. A few days later, I was then approached one day at a demo by a very nice lady who told me her greyhound was fighting for his life after eating Nutro.Then a store manager reported a jack russell terrier had died a horrible death of pancreatic failure and renal failure. They were going to send samples to the FDA and to Nutro from the store. The owner was distraught and very angry. It about brought me to tears. I had been hearing complaints since Nov, Dec 2007 up through May 2008 when I quit and from the looks of the Consumer Affairs website, it appeared that many pets had been sickened or poisoned by a brand of pet food I once believed in. I brought it up again at our May Meeting and again I felt blown off. I resigned. I had been a faithful Nutro customer for years but in the March 2007 pet recall my cats were sickened. We found out the cause, tainted wheat gluten in the cat food packets. I put the cats on another wonderful brand and they did just great within a few days and their illness resolved. Then a year later, all these complaints about the dog food. In May 2008 just before I resigned, one of my own dogs started acfing lethargic, and had nasty diarrhea and he was drinking or guzzling water. I saw the same symptoms in him that others had complained of. The same day he refused to go for a walk and collapsed on the kitchen floor. I immediately stopped all food and gave him gut rest and fluids and called the vet. Fortunately once I started a different pet food he quickly recovered within 48 hours after getting the garbage out of his system. I was so angry at this point. I threw away all Nutro dog food, treats, canned foods in the garbage and saved some for samples to be tested. I never heard from Nutro about the result of my samples. I did talk to someone high up in the sales office and was told it was a plot by another premium pet food company to discredit Nutro.
I now feed Nature’s Variety dry foods and raw diets. I am very satisfied with how my babies are tolerating the diets and I recommend the foods highly. It is a corn free, wheat free, soy free and gluten free diet. If you don’t use Nature’s Variety, there are other great pet foods out there like Innova, California Naturals, Eagle Pack Holistic and a host of others. I’m not advertising, just informing. Just don’t go back to feeding foods with corn, wheat, soy and glutens. We should have learned our lesson in 2007 from some of these pet food companies when our pets were sickened from tainted wheat gluten.
When are we going to stop feeding our babies pet food filled with fillers, corn, wheat, soy and nasty byproducts, food dyes, preservative chemicals and contaiminated glutens that poison our pets. Do your homework folks. Read the ingredients on that pet food label. You need to know the truth. Beneful has a wonderful marketing campaign and TV commercial but the ingredients are less than savory and can do damage to your pet. READ THE LABEL.

By: Tootie

Tootie — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:51:36 +0000

My Boston terrier died yesterday after a progressive decline in health. He had been on a raw diet until October of last year. Then we inroduced him to Nutro dry lamb & rice small bites. He lost weight at first then he lost interest in his favorite toys,playing,going on walks or car rides. He was an alpha male in the house and turned into a weak unsure dog.He started having some small seizures in July and back and forth visits to the vet with no explanation, I could kick myself that it did not realize it could be the dog food. Recently he began drinking water excessively and urinating in the house. He never did this. He had loose bloody stool last week so I gave him Parvoguard for this and Tripsy for his kidneys.
Early Tuesday(Oct 14) morning he had Grand Mal epileptic seizures.This was the most painful thing I’ve ever had to see. He regained conscience once then had several more cluster seizures. Even if I’d got him to emergency at 4 AM he’d never of made it. His heart could not take any more.I made him comfortable but I knew he’d suffered brain damage after the first cluster seizure and I’d have to say good-bye to my beautiful Boston Dooley.I read more about this on ConsumerAffairs.com and now I see things through new eyes.
here are known reasons for these seizures taken from website
http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/seizures_overview_cause_treatment.htm Ingestion of toxins & insecticides
There\’s got to be way to stop this now

Damage Resulting = the result is the loss of our faithful companion.He was only 7-1/2 years old

By: Linda

Linda — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 22:02:13 +0000

PET FOOD PRODUCT SAFETY ALLIANCE DID TESTS ON TWO SAMPLES OF NUTRO FOOD AND POSTED ON AUGUST 14th, 2008. THE RESULTS WERE HIGH LEVELS OF COPPER AND ZINC.

The symptoms are consistent with the majority of those reported by consumers suspecting problems believed to be associated with feeding Nutro dry dog food.

http://www.pfpsa.org/news.html

Here’s a link on zinc toxicity in dogs:

http://www.vet.uga.edu/vpp/clerk/Hardy/

By: Stephany

Stephany — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 04:00:15 +0000

Thank you SO much for this “Public Service Announcement”! I am so upset I can hardly write. All I can say is…”I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT”! Within the past couple of months, I have spent countless moments cleaning up runny, mucus laced, bloody, completely liquified stool-accidents and vomiting from my Staffordshire Terrier! I experienced the lethargy, the not eating, the not drinking, and then drinking bowls and bowls of water! All the while trying to chalk it up to something that he may have picked up out side. But in the back of my mind, all signs were pointing to his food (although I regularly fed him Nutro with no probems)! I began noticing this nonsense after giving him Nutro in the last few months!
Now please understand, I may not be a multi millionaire or anything, but my dogs are are my children. I wanted to feed them the BEST most healthy diet out there. The people from Nutro led me to believe that their brand was just that..”The Best”! The problem I am having is that I don’t know what else to feed them that I can trust not to eventually kill them!
If anyone can recommend an inexpensive diet that I could purchase and prepare myself or if there really is a dry food that is true to its ingredients and is equivelent to healthy human food, I would be grateful to know.
My boys count on me to provide them with nutritious food on a daily basis. I feel as though I can not put their lives into the hands of these dog food companies any more for I know not who to trust.
The loss or sickness of one dog means nothing to a whole corporation unless that one dog is “their” long-time family member and friend.
Thank you thank you thank you for the submission of this article.