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Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Warning: Canidae and Nutro Health Concerns





Warning: If you feed your dog either Canidae or Nutro, please look at the two links below!






Both of these foods have received dozens of complaints from consumers over the past couple months. Dogs have been getting very sick and lethargic, and experiencing diarrhea and appetite loss. With the Canidae, it seems some of the bag contents have a rather chemical smell, and the dogs have become ill from eating it. Apparently Canidae made changes to its formula.
The testimonials below are off the Consumer Affairs website. There are many, many more.

David of Frederick MD (12/12/08)Wow, my story is so similar to everyone else's here. I had been feeding my dogs Canidae for over a year. I bought a bag back in October. The fed it to my dogs that night, two of them wouldn't touch it, the third one ate about 3/4 of her bowl. I thought that was unusual since my dogs usually wolf down their food. I smelled the food that was in their bowls. The food had a terrible chemical smell to it.

The next day, the dog that had eaten some of it, got lethargic and had explosive, bloody diarrhea. I took her immediately to the vet and he told me it was food poisoning, and it was the most blood he had ever seen in diarrhea. I returned the food to the store, and got a different brand. Since then my dogs have been perfectly fine.

Here's where it gets interesting. I contacted Canidae the very day I took my dog to the vet. After I explained what had happened, immediately they said that the food was spoiled and it had sat in the sun too long. I told them it wasn't a spoiled smell, that there is chemical smell to it. I have smelt spoiled animal food before, and this is not it. They faxed me some paperwork, I filled it out. Every two weeks or so, I would send them and email, which they would say we'll look into it and get back to you, which they never did.

The day before Thanksgiving, they mistakenly called my house instead of the vet. Still I heard nothing. On 11 December, they called me and said We did a through review and found the food to have been spoiled. I asked them if they tested the food, they said yes. I called the pet store, they still have the bag at the pet store. So they didn't test it. The whole time they were very defensive and said their product could not possibly have anything wrong with it.

I went to the store today, 12 December, and found out, I wasn't the only one. At least two other people at the same store had the same problems with their food from Canidae. Not only that, Other stores all over the US had the same problem with their food.

I'm only out about $150 in vet bills, but clearly Canidae has a problem with their food. I felt that Canidae was blaming me. I have never dealt with a company that was so defensive about their product from the get go. Canidar had their mind made up from the second I called them what the problem with the food was. Well, I kept a sample of the food, and I'm going to send it get it tested to find out what is wrong with it.

L.m. of Hudson Falls NY (12/11/08)My 12 year old poodle started vomiting a few months ago. I had her to the vet twice, he gave her medication but didn't help. I started looking to the internet for answers. I came across all the information about Canidae formula being changed. I took the food back to the pet store and gave them this web site. They suggested a new brand and the vomiting stopped the day I took her off the Canidae. She is acting fine and eating fine now. I am planning to take her back to the vet to get her checked out and make sure she doesn't have permenent damage. She had been on the Canidae for over a year and didn't get sick until they changed the formula. They need to recall this dog food.

Carissa of Bozeman MT (12/11/08)I have a 10 yr old Springer Spaniel who finally found a food that didn't upset his stomach. I've had hinm on Canadiae for few years now wtih no problems. Then I just purchased a new bag, thought they just decresed the bag size and notice the food was larger size as well. My dog has been actting funny and has the shakes. Something he never has had. I called the store where I purchased it and they will take it back, though now I have to serch for another food that will make him ok, after preaching how great [their] product was! Why change something if it's not broke, cause now [they] broke more then customer base, now it trust. what about all the people whi don't have internet access that are spending a lot of money in vet bills right now or putting thier dogs down from a sudden ilness they can't explain! Shame on [them], very irresponsible!I was lucky so far and caught the odd behavior and googled any recent problems with product, I hope nothing is really wrong and new food will help any further symptoms.

Becky of Queen Creek AZ (12/10/08)I have been using this food for several years with wonderful results until recently. We get our food from a locally owned feed barn, and I'm in there every 2-3 weeks buying dog food (I have 4 dogs). My 6 year old black lab has had 2 seizures in the past 2 weeks, my english bulldog has been barfing constantly and farting like a pack mule. Several years ago my lab had a seizure and my vet attributed it to her food, we switched and not a seizure since, so the first thing I did when she started seizing again is look into her food.

I got onto the Canidae website and found more complaints than I could read regarding the newly re-formulated version of what once was a highly bragged about human grade dog food. I am very disappointed that they felt the need to mess up such a good thing. I am in the process of dumping the rest of the new dog food back into the bag and taking it back to the feed barn where I got it. Looks like I'll have to put them on Wellness.
If you're feeding either of these food, please check out more comments at Consumer Affairs. You may want to change your dogs' diets immediately. Here again are the links:

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