Sunday, April 01, 2007

Pet Food Recall

Making headlines lately is the topic of a major recall of pet food. It seems that some supplier in china sold tainted wheat gluten which was used in various pet foods. This substance is supposedly causing kidney failure especially in cats. Researchers believe to have 16 "confirmed" deaths thus far. In my opinion, the number of unconfirmed must be in the hundreds.

Just a few weeks ago, I too was a concerned cat owner dealing with a sudden onset of what appeared at first to be dehydration. Initially I wasn't too concerned, given his age, I thought it was simply his time to go. However other family members seemed to disagree. We took him to the Vet whom diagnosed him with dehydration, injected some fluids and gave us the option of either taking him home and give him some TLC or keep him overnight for fluids at a cost of $800. If I could've found a vein on a cat I'd give him the fluids myself, but I couldn't. We still opt'd to take him home. We were feeding him with a baby syringe and watching as his body was shutting down. Frustrated from watching him suffer, I stopped forcing the meal replacement down his throat. I figured, without nutrition his suffering would end sooner. He was without a doubt terminal. I couldn't stand to watch him go from waking me up bright and early in the morning and running like a child to kitchen for food, to the cat that didn't have the energy to even lift his head. Two days later the vet called to check on the cat that was befriended by so many. He offered to see him the following day for blood work, and wouldn't charge for the visit. He too was concerned for the cat that so many grew to love. Sadly though, Scooch didn't make it through the night. I remember getting the call from my distraught mother and driving him to the pet hospital at 2am in the city to be cremated.

Unfortunately without the lab work or a look at his kidney's for traces if this substance, It's virtually impossible to prove that he died as a result of ingesting this poison being traced in pet food. It was obvious that his kidneys were failing, but what caused it will always be a mystery to us.

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