Pets Are Family Too

Many pet owners may hear about the pet food recall in bits and pieces due to work or other everyday tasks. In this blog, we try to present as much information about the pet food recall to allow friends and family members to keep one another on top of the tainted pet food that can kill our dogs, cats and other pet family members.

To my surprise, a neighbor’s cat became ill about two weeks ago. She found Khufu lying in a puddle of blood and immediately took her to the vet. The first veterinary hospital almost immediately diagnosed with “cancer” and written off. After protests about having her put down, Khufu was prescribed antibiotics and a different brand of “cat food”.

Khufu lives in a household with another cat, and three dogs. Until a few months ago, there were only two dogs, and they stayed outside while the cats stayed indoors. Prior to the latest dog coming into the household, the outdoor dogs were fed Ol’ Roy dog food, almost exclusively, outside. The cats were rarely exposed to the dog food bowls.

Then there was a new dog. He was not an outdoor dog, so during the day he stayed indoors with the cats. He was fed indoors as well and the cats would have access to dog food. Here’s where it gets iffy, the new dog, an older dog, came with a feeder dog bowl filled with dog food by it’s previous family! The feeder dog bowl was easily accessible to the cats, and Khufu is one of those munching kind of cats, who likes to sample all types of pet food! I know because she would come over and head straight for the cat bowl and eat my cat’s food!

No one knew what type or brand of dog food was in the feeder bowl or if it contained tainted wheat gluten or poisonous rice protein, the conatminants of the pet food recall. The neighbor turns a deaf ear when asked if the cat could have eaten some of the dog food! All kinds of outrageous other possibilites come up, like drinking oil instead of contaminated dog or cat food, could have caused Khufu’s illness!

Now, we wait to see what is the actual illness afflicting Khufu from a different vet, “second opinion”. But if your household is made up of different types of pet family members who share common feeding spaces, stay alert and check out all of the pets, if you have had recalled pet food in your home! To see if your pet food has been recalled, check here at the FDA website!

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