Nutro Now Bad?
Added August 13, 2007:
Over 100 varieties of Nutro Products pet food subject to a Refusal Action by the FDA. According to information on the FDA site, the reason is the food was either adulterated with unapproved substances, contained known poisons, or both. There appears to be at least two substances involved. It is unclear if Nutro was trying to import their toxic waste, or to export it. According to Nutro, none of their products have ever tested positive for melamine. The obvious question is, what substances are involved? The FDA continues to keep a tight lid on anything that doesn’t support the melamine from China theory. Any bets that contrary to the lies the FDA feeds to the media, the FDA has in fact duplicated the ExperTox results as shown in the lab section of the site?
One unsafe ingredient, one poisonous ingredient, and no melamine.
I just had to post a comment I was just on the web site for menu foods, I do this every couple of months (since my cat was poisoned in Feb.) On June 29, they held there annual meeting discussing the recall. the president of the company stated that they stopped using the wheat gluten that was shipped from China on March 7, my Question is WHY DID THEY NOT RELEASE THE RECALL UNTIL MARCH 17.?????????? They Knew they had a problem & did nothing about it. How many more animals got sick from the 7 until 17. I urge people to got the the menu food web site & look. This company is only about there profits, they care nothing about pets!!!!!
This is a mis-interpretation of the facts, and has been blown way out of proportion. All of Nutro’s food is made in the USA. The food that was blocked was food that was part of the original recall, on shelves in overseas retailers. Nutro requested all food to be returned to them for it to be destroyed. The FDA identified it correctly, since it was labeled as tainted.
Since the Menu Foods recall, Nutro has found another US canner to provide their canned products. Nutro dry products were not affected. Nutro has information on their website about this.
I do not work for Nutro. I just believe it their products. They are a good American Company.
IF THEY ARE SUCH A GOOD AMERICAN COMPANY, WHY DID THEY NOT RELEASE THE RECALL EARLIER, THEY KNEW THEY HAD A PROBLEM & DID NOTHING AT ALL ABOUT IT. THEY NEVER RETURNED MY PHONE CALLS, THEY DID HOWEVER SEND MY EMAIL TO THERE LAWYER. I STILL GO DAY TO DAY NOT KNOWING WHEN MY CAT IS GOING TO BE ILL AGIAN, & LETS NOT FORGET THE INJECTIONS HE GETS EVERY OTHER DAY NOW WITH AN 18 GAUGE NEEDLE, & STILL NO PHONE CALL FROM ANYONE AT MENU FOODS OR FROM NUTRO. IF YOU THINK THIS IS A GOOD AMERICAN COMPANY, YOU HAVE VERY LOW STANDARDS.
Hello, I did feed my older mini schnauzer, then 16 yrs. ALWAYS been healthy till this problem I fed her NUTRO for a long time.Now I think I know why she got an anal infection.
We had to put her too sleep because the vet told me she would not get better.
Even after a month on antibotics.
So that was before the recall 🙁
DON’T FEED YOUR PET ANY NATIONAL NAME BRAND “TOXIC MEAT SOUP” FROM RENDERING PLANTS… DO GET YOUR PET ON A HOLLISTIC BRAND ASAP. I HAVE ONE DEAD DOG AND A VERY SICK SECOND DOG THAT IS TWO AND SHE IS LOOKING LIKE THE DEAD ONE. SAME SYMPTONS I FEEL TERRIBLE ABOUT THIS. IT IS THE DRY FOOD AS WELL DON’T LISTEN TO ALL THE LIES AND COVER UPS. TO THE GUY THATS FEEDING NUTRO TO HIS PET I HOPE ALL IS FINE IT DIDN’T WORK OUT SO GOOD FOR ME.
BTW………………………………………………………………………………………………….. THE FIRST DOG WAS ONLY TWO WHEN SHE DIED. I PURCHASED THE SECOND FROM ANOTHER BREEDER.
I had been feeding Nutro dried food for years but in 2007 I had 5 cats with hind limb ataxia, 2 with uterine inertia, 1 with massive haemorrhage, 34+ kittens born dead or died screaming in agony 24-48 hours after birthing, queens without milk when they were previously the best Mums and my Brown Burmese breeding program of 17 years almost wiped out until I realised the common denominator was Nutro dried cat food. Some were 100% Nutro feeders. Once I stopped feeding this rubbish all my cats are walking again, Mums have milk now and 4 litters born to queens not fed Nutro during pregnancy and all babies alive and well. Mums now lactating again. I know of 10 more homes that have had similar problems when feeding Nutro dried food.
Nutro are in constant denial, don’t care, don’t give a damn and adopt bullying tactics when owners email them about their concerns. Make phone calls to vets and owners trying to convince them that it is not their food causing the problem. Samples sent back to USA by two of us via Nutro were destroyed at the point of entry because they did not do all the paperwork. Yet a sample sent back by Nutro for Nutro got through and the Head Office agreed the food was rancid.Some of the food was radiated because of the ingredients but vets tell me radiation should not cause these problems. The symptoms are the same as Salinomycin Induced Polyneuropathy that occurred in Holland in 1996. 3 Vets agree that this is the clinical history of my cats. Post mortem was inconclusive because the University was not able to test for ionophores. Nothing else was found that could cause a cat to become crippled.
I will never feed this food again. This company needs thorough investigation and I have written a formal complaint to FDA and an American vet.
I purchased Nutro Max Adult Dry Dog Food 12/20/07 & 12/23/07 I had my yorkie at the emergency vet. 12/28/07 he had to have a blood transfusion & as of 2/3/08 he still taking medication & doing much better. Meanwhile my american eskimo started vomitting & had dirrahea, 12/31/07 I had him at my vet. As of 2/3/08 he is in the hospital on IV fluids because he won’t eat.
I emailed Nutro Products about a month ago – no response as of 2/3/08.
I called Nutro Products last week – no response as of 2/3/08
It hasn’t been diagnoised as tainted dog food. I had two healthy dogs until the 3 days of Nutro Max
About (6) weeks ago my healthy dog passed away from what emergency vet called ‘sudden death’. At this moment, confirmation of what caused death is not clear but vet may suspect dry food was bad and I am going to have tested.
Hoping that I did not kill my dog by giving him what I thought was good food, I stopped in to Petsmart to calm my nerves and be assured that the food in question is fine. What I found was the shelves that contained Nutro Natural Choice were almost bare.(That never has happened) At the aisle with Nutro area they had a Nutro rep stationed here. When I questioned him about why no food was here, he stated that no ‘recall’ is in effect and Nutro just happened to shut down a few plants who were producing what he termed as ,not as tasty food’ and the ‘quality’ was not up to par. Seeing that a dog can’t talk, I asked him how they would know it was not ‘tasty’ and it seemed far more plausible that a company whose main product is dog food would not shut down a plant and have no product unless some very extreme situations were coming to light. He stated that the food plant being shut and my dog dying were coincidence. Furthermore, the 800 number he gave me is not being answered now.
I had a meeting with Petsmart to discuss. I do not blame them right now for the death of my dog, but I stated to the manager I had a BIG issue with them allowing a Nutro rep to tell prospect clients some very vague, questionable, and misleading information, on the status of Nutro food. As noted, the 1-800 number just kept ringing. Additionally, I checked their web site-www.nutroproducts.com and found NO information regarding any plants being shut down. To me, that would be very significant information to relay to all consumers especially if supposed steps were being taken in the best interest of the dog because the food was not as ‘tasty’. Also, letting consumers know info on lack of product and when to expect more would seem to be the obvious steps for anybody not hiding something.
I am not sure what you can do but I am simply hoping you can point me in the right direction. This is not about money and simply about wanting to save even one person the heartbreak and guilt I am going through and holding those parties accountable. I will not let this be swept under the rug and hopefully will get confirmation I am looking for with testing of Pet food I still have.
I appreciate any help you may be able to lend.
I am from the UK and am very angry. Nutro is making my dog sick. My wife and I got a collie/lab cross puppy from a rescue centre 12 months ago, she was 4 months old then. They fed all their dogs Nutro and recommended it. I wanted to feed the best food I could so we used Nutro. Ruby has been fine on it, lovely coat, full of energy, the picture of health, until 2 weeks ago. We got a different bag of nutro ‘Adult Maintenance chicken and rice’ and she was sick for a few days although we didn’t put 2 and 2 together immediately. We switched her to home cooked chicken and rice for 5 days and she was OK, we then slowly introduced nutro with some wet food but she got sick immediately. We stopped giving her nutro and she was OK again. I have juts checked the web and seen all of the reports about nutro dog food. We are worried about the long term affects and will take Ruby for a blood test at the vet this week. This bad Nutro food seems to have caused problems in Australia and the UK as well as the U.S.A. I pray Ruby is going to be OK
Nutro has been around for years and has always been an excellent product. But I remember opening a new bag of food and the color was darker. The Nutro rep told me they had made changes to the ingredients. That was a few months ago and it seems to be about the time the complaints started.
We have 30 rescued cats (20 ferals) and 4 dogs. We started using Nutro last fall for both the dogs and cats.
We took several cats in for annual exams this year and they’d lost a couple pounds. Our vet was happy because they were on the porky side and needed to lose a little. But Nemo, one of the ferals has been steadily losing weight and we were going to have blood work done on him to see what was wrong. We had been finding bloody stools in the litter pan and thought it might be him. It started to worry me when we took a couple cats in that didn’t need to lose weight and they, too, had lost a couple pounds. We also had several cats that were losing the shine to their fur. And our cats were no longer were running to the food bowls when it was feeding time. I found I was throwing food out at the end of the day because they just weren’t eating it!
Well, amazingly, the cats acted like starving strays when I switched to Eukanuba! No more bloody stool in the litter pans, fur shiny again, and Nemo is eating like he hasn’t eaten in months! He’s already filling out!
The problem with our cats and dogs is we were seeing different symptoms in them that appeared to be other conditions so we didn’t connect it to the food. Max, our Pit Bull, was very ill for 2 weeks after we tried Nutro’s Lamb and Rice. Our vet said it was gastritis caused by something he got into and we put him on meds and boiled hamburg and rice. When we started the Nutro Lamb again, he immediately started with vomiting and diarrhea. We took Max off the food thinking he just couldn’t handle the lamb. The other dogs were fine so we didn’t realize it was the food until Tazz, our German Shepherd, became very sick after Max recovered. We switched to Nutro’s Large Breed.
They seemed to be ok on that formula. But Max started having stool problems. Soft, then hard, then soft. Our vet thought because of his age that he might need meds if it continued. Kaiser, another German Shepherd, was having to urinate 10 times a night. If we didn’t get to the door fast enough, he’d urinate in the kitchen. We were going to get him in for tests. Tazz started to act disorientated and very unsteady on her feet. Tazz has arthritis and we know we’re on borrowed time with her but she acted drunk. Jada, another German Shepherd, and Tazz started eating grass. And they all were drinking lots of water especially the dogs after they ate.
We switched to Eukanuba dog food. The first night after changing food – Kaiser slept all night instead of whining and pacing! When the
other dogs went out, I had to wake him up to go! Tazz is brighter and though she’s stiff when she gets up, she’s not acting drunk! Max is having normal stools! Jada has stopped eating grass! AND they’re drinking normal amounts of water now – not guzzling water like they were dying of thirst. No more vomiting, no more diarrhea, fur is shiny again.
When there is weight loss in EVERY animal in a household, then something is wrong! We’ve been off Nutro for two weeks and every symptom we were seeing is GONE! I thank God we switched before we lost any of our precious babies!
It breaks my heart to read these stories of lost pets. Something is wrong and we all need answers! The stories I’ve read on http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/nutro.html have alarmed me terribly! I will never use Nutro again!
ON 08-08-08 I SUBMITTED A LETTER ABOUT OUR EXPERIENCE WITH NUTRO PET FOODS AND THE PROBLEMS ALL OF OUR CATS AND DOGS EXPERIENCED. I URGE YOU ALL TO CONTACT THE FDA AS I HAVE DONE TODAY. EMAIL OR WRITE TO PETCO, PETSMART AND ANY STORE THAT SELLS NUTRO PRODUCTS. WE NEED ANSWERS AND THE ONLY WAY WE’RE GOING TO STOP ANIMALS FROM GETTING SICK AND DYING IS IF WE RAISE AWARENESS AND GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS. MY HEART GOES OUT TO EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU WHO HAS LOST A BELOVED PET.
http://www.fda.com
OR WRITE:
Food and Drug Administration
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville, Maryland 20857
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.
Here’s a link on zinc toxicity in dogs:
http://www.vet.uga.edu/vpp/clerk/Hardy/