Nutro Pet Food Under Consumer Scrutiny
The FDA has made a sort of a "sideways" confirmation that it is investigating complaints of the past two years of illness and deaths of cats and dogs after eating Nutro pet foods. The confirmation came by way of denial of a request by ConsumerAffairs.com, which asked for a list of complaints and lab results the agency has collected regarding NUTRO pet food. According to Lisa Wade McCormick, ConsumerAffairs.com, the FDA's Division of Freedom of Information denied the request, saying that "releasing the information could hamper 'prospective or ongoing' action by law enforcement." Read more.
Update September 14, 2008:Mars Petcare US announces the recall of a number of cat and dog dry foods, due to the risk of potential contamination with Salmonella serotype Schwarzengrund. Although Nutro pet food products were not on the list, the symptoms of Salmonella poisoning (diarrhea, vomiting, inappetance, lethargy) were disturbingly familiar. I'm sure we will all be watching for further information about this recall. . .read more
Original Post: 4/25/2008:
For some time now, I've seen random complaints of sickness in cats and dogs after eating Nutro Pet Food, in email lists, forums, and blogs. These are not related to the Pet Food Recall of 2007, which involved certain Nutro Pet Food Products, but new concerns. All of them are anecdotal, and I have not yet seen any confirmation by lab tests, nor has the FDA acknowledged them. Recently, ConsumerAffairs.com picked up the gauntlet. It's report says in part:
- Scores of pets from California to South Carolina have experienced sudden and recurring bouts of diarrhea, vomiting, and other digestive problems.
Through an examination of reports submitted by readers, ConsumerAffairs.com has uncovered a common link among these pets: They all ate the same brand of food: NUTRO pet food.
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100% Safe NUTRO™ Pet Food Products
Q: Are NUTRO™ products safe?
A: Yes. All NUTRO™ products are 100% safe and conform to the standards set by the FDA, USDA and AAFCO.
Q: Why is the quality and safety of NUTRO™ products being addressed?
A: We have received recent isolated reports of inaccurate information posted online regarding the quality and safety of NUTRO™ pet foods products. Many blogs and internet sites can be a repository for misinformation and hearsay regarding many topics—we are working to clarify the issue.
I'd be interested to read my readers' own recent personal experience with Nutro products, since I've listed it in my own picks of both canned and dry cat foods.
Comments
I’m gonna agree with the manufacturer, for the moment, it’s seems too random and some of the complaints are “older” then others so it’s hard to connect them. I’ve had some pets do GREAT on certain foods & lousy on others. As I read & reread the article & complaints I came up with MORE questions, for the owners! As for the “objects” yeah things happen sometimes & weather this was before or since the earlier recalls or what “other” connections, if any, are also involved again more needs to be considered, not just they all at this “stuff” especially since the company makes more then 1 variety & most of the complaints rarely mentioned exactly WHICH type it was, specifically. as always buyer beware and your mileage may vary but my dog’s skin problems have gotten WORSE since ditching the neutro that she’s going back on it to see if it helps.
I use Nutro pouch and dry before the recall and now after the reformulation.
I have noticed no problems.
-TommyR
It’s very interesting that you write this article now. For about four years, I swore by Nutro. I’ve fed Nutro Max dry to my dogs and and Nutro Complete Care dry and Nutro wet food my cats, and they did great, until recently. One of my dogs became very sick (vomiting and diarrhea) in November last year, and as part of our treatment plan, the vet and I decided to switch his food. Then, in January this year, my other dog became sick after I opened a new bag of Nutro. In addition to an expensive trip to the vet, I switched her food. My cats were also doing poorly: vomiting, drab coats and irritable (well, more than usual). I decided to change their food as well. All my animals, I’m pleased to say, are now brighter, healthier, and even happier. All their coats are now shiny and no longer oily or flaky. The dogs’ tummy issues stopped almost immediately upon eating the new food, and the cats do not vomit nearly as often as they used to.
I’m disappointed that Nutro doesn’t work for us anymore, as it was more in our price point than our new food. But this change started sometime late last year. I know Nutro has changed some of its formulas (for example, Nutro Max Large Breed is suddenly chicken food, not beef). So we will not be feeding or recommending Nutro anymore.
Both of my cats ate dry and wet Nutro for a while and never suffered any ill affects – this was previous to the recall. I’ve only fed Nutro wet food a few times after the recall and they’ve been fine then, too.
With that said, I doubt I’ll ever feed Nutro again. There’s always something going on with this company and it freaks me out a little. It’s just not worth it to me.
I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with my dog one night when his stomach was hard as a rock and I could tell he was feeling really bad. I took him to the emergency vet and they did an xray which showed he was extremely constipated. I had also seen vomit in the dog bed but hadn’t known which of the 4 it had been. I knew it was the dog food that was making him sick but I just thought it “didn’t sit well” with him, not that there was anything wrong with the food. I quit giving it to him and didn’t have any more trouble. I offered it to him a couple of times after that but he wouldn’t eat it. Until someone in my rescue group had posted one of the articles floating around about problems with Nutro, I hadn’t given it a second thought. But the descriptions in the articles matched my dog’s symptoms accurately.
I have used Nutro dog and cat food for many years and have had no problems with the food in the past or present. Anything can upset animals systems just like it does us humans. Other dog/cat food products have also not been good for some animals for whatever reason. I stand by Nutro. It is an 80 year old company that knows its food and even though Mars Co. owns them they are a stand alone company. They make all there products in-house and in their own plants here in the United States. A few people are picking on Nutro which is a good premium food.
Thanks for starting your blog.
My cats were on Nutro and Max Cat for a while, with no ill effects (other than Audrey having trouble adjusting to it, since I didn’t know what she had eaten before I adopted her and had to switch her abruptly, but that isn’t Nutro’s fault). When the recall was announced, I switched them to Eagle Pack and they are more energetic – I didn’t know that was possible with Energizer Abby – and their coats are unbelievably soft and shiny. They seem to like it a little better, but eat a little less, possibly due to higher protein content. I never thought Nutro was bad, I just think there are a lot of better foods out there.
One point about choosing a food that I didn’t know until a vet visit a few months ago: Too high of a fiber content (3.0% or more) evidently can cause digestive problems in a cat who doesn’t drink enough water. Abby and Audrey were eating Paul Newman’s organic cat food mixed with their Eagle Pack at one point, and Abby (who at the time, didn’t drink as much as she should – now, I’ve found a fountain she likes, so she’s OK) had a bout of constipation that led to a UTI. Audrey, on the other hand, drinks water frequently and had no trouble whatsoever.
This is rather… annoying… to find out right now! I just decided that since this was the best cat food the pet store had, I’d start my cats on this (no more Purina Cat Chow…) and I just bought a bunch. In fact, my cat is eating one right now. Should I stop feeding it to them, or see if there are any problems before I switch? It’s either this or Purina Cat Chow, at least until the weekend.
I had been feeding my two older special needs cats Nutro Senior natural choice for 14 months.
The 15th bag, (back in January) I realized I was throwing away more than they were eating, and both cats had gotten very thin. Assuming it was jsut stale, I brought the bag back, but the regular formula wasn’t available “something to do with the bags” the store personnel said.
So I took a bag of the Nutro Senior natural choice Indoor formula. both cats went crazy for it and by the time the bag was empty they had regained weight and their fur was really nice.
So I purchased another bag of the Indoor. This bag had new dates and new lot numbers from the last one.
Both cats refused it after one sniff. I offered it to my two younger, non-finicky cats. they wouldn’t go near it either.
I brought it back to the store, the indoor was stil the same date and lot #. By then the regular formula was back and I purchased that. AGAIN my cats refused to eat it. Three bags out of the last four, that was enough for me.
I emailed Nutro with my complaints twice and never received any answer.
My cats did not get sick from the food, but as they are special needs, the weight loss they experienced from not eating the food could have been very serious if I hadn’t noticed it right away.
All this happened before I knew there were other complaints. I found out about the other complaints quite by accident while researching other foods.
It is my belief that Nutro has reduced the quality of their ingredients. Same ingredients, so they don’t have to put “new formula” on the bag. just poorer quality.
I will never trust Nutro again.
(regarding the unanswered emails, I want to say that every single other pet food company I have ever emailed with complaints or questions has always been answered promptly and courteously)
I started my cat on Nutro and I even made a very gradual transition from his old food. a few days ago he started vomiting, and I was worried so I started talking to fellow pet owners. One said…he’s not eating Nutro is he…Oh my gosh could that be it…And that is how I found this blog. I find it very odd that he has gotten so sick after starting Nutro. He has switched foods before for hairballs and weight control and he has never gotten sick once. I was just about to take him to the vet to find out whats wrong, and I still may but the first thing I’m going to do is get my poor baby some real food.
I fed our dogs Nutro/Natural Balance for several years, then after the wheat gluten issue, switched to Solid Gold. Last month, after reviewing labels, I thought I would try switching back to Nutro Sensitive Stomach (the light green bag)-no corn, no wheat. Two of my dogs had problems with vomiting and bloody diarrhea. I called the vet, who thought they might have been eating sticky weed, and sure enough, I found some in the back yard. About 2 weeks after removing the weed, one dog became sick, refusing to eat and having bloody diarrhea again. A trip to the vet revealed nothing unusual, and he was prescribed some anti nausea meds, antibiotics and chicken and rice. He seemed to recover, but after talking with some friends whose dogs all had similar symptoms, we discovered we all were feeding Nutro. A little research on the web indicates we are not the only ones having these symptoms, check out some recent comments at http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/nutro.html. Coincidence? Maybe….but I am switching foods back just in case…
I posted earlier about my cats refusing the Nutro Senior. I had written twice to Nutro with no reply.
I finally got an answer. Rather than apologizing, the customer service rep suggested, since the cats would no longer eat the food that (1) I wasn’t giving my cats enough variety in their diet or(2) they were sick and needed veterinary attention.
This really ticked me off, who is this rep to tell me how to take care of my cats. I replied that my cats get plenty of variety (they do) and as they are special needs they are at the vet frequently for maintenance check ups.
I requested that a supervisor be brought into my issue. If anyone is interested I’ll post what I hear.
I have been a faithful Nutro customer for year and became a pet nutrition specialist because of the amazing results I had with my dogs and two cats. It made a huge difference with the skin and coat, decreased number of ear infections, and their stools were compact and not runny or soupy. I am also a veterinary technician and I know that diarrhea and vomiting can be the result of several other diagnosis other than food, but… I’m beginning to wonder…Recently May 2007 MARS, inc. bought Nutro which has been a successful company on its own merit for over 80 years! Now here in the last few months I’m hearing more and more complaints from faithful Nutro customers in pet specialty stores who want to know what is going on. I’ve referred them to the 1 800 number and thhe website and they are not getting the validation or satisfaction for their ocncerns it seems. I urge people to save the bags, the use by date on the bottom of the bag with the lot or batch number. Even if you throw away the bag, clip out the use by and batch number and save it. Save a small sample of food in a ziploc bag in the refrigerator with the information above. That way you can submit for testing and investigation. Many people just return the bag which is fine but if your pet is sickened or dies, and needs a necropsy to find the cause of death, you have something to back up your claim if it was the food. Get it tested. Call the 1 800 number and note the person you talked to and what they said. Follow up and keep at it. Otherwise it might be assumed everything is fine and it isn’t. Nutro can take 4-8 weeks to test food so you may want to use another testing source. Call the ASPCA Poison Control, they may have suggestions or your veterinarian.
I am dismayed at these consumer complaints because they should not be occurring at all. Nutro has had a great reputation for all these years and now this. I’m wondering what is going on.
Its tough when your pets are ill or if you lose a pet. Keep records of everything that is happening, and who you speak to and the dates and times. This is only a suggestion but it might help in future litigation if it comes to that. Some people do mix bags when their canister is getting low and pour another one in. Again, keep the batch numbers and use by dates. It is sad we have to do this but to protect yourself, please do so.
I was a loyal Nutro customer for 4 years. It started when we got a our yellow lab as a puppy and were taking for obedience classes at PetSmart. Our trainer recommended Nutro for us because we needed a food that would meet the needs of the younger growing lab (he was 9 months old) and our 4 year old Shih Tzu. Nutro was great! The boys loved the food and they seemed to really benefit from it. Then came the recall of 2007. Nutro dry dog food, Natural Choice Lamb and Rice Formula, is all that we fed our dogs, and it wasn’t on the recall so we didn’t worry. Later that summer, around June and July, both dogs started vomiting. Every dog vomits every now and then so I dismissed it at first. Then the vomiting became a daily occurence and was accompanied by diarrea. Suddenly both of my dogs were sick. I kept telling myself that it wasn’t the food because it wasn’t on the recall list and that it was such an expensive brand. We had just bought a new 40lb bag of the food and I didn’t want to just throw it away. After a week and a half I began to panic because they started losing weight. Both dogs went to the emergency vet because they were lethargic, not eating and drinking water like crazy. Lab tests showed elevated levels of something having to do with the liver and a high blood cell count (White i think). I went home still unsure of what it was. I decided to just stop the Nutro to see if that worked. I fed them both beef and rice (home made) by hand and after a couple days they started acting better. I then went out and bought Purina One, one of the few brands accessible to me that wasn’t on the recall list. They have been on that ever since, their coats are better, they have boundless energy, and the lab has really benefited from the protein, he is extremely strong and fit.
I will never trust Nutro again! Like many others, I wrote and called Nutro and recieved no help what so ever, they wouldn’t even address the issue. I do believe it has something to do with Mars buying them out. They have changed the formula, just read the ingredients on the bags from now and from 3 or 4 years ago, they are different. Mostly the same but a couple things on there are different.
As for those of you who say it is a great “Premium” food, Nutro brands itself a premium food, no one else. I don’t consider any dog food company a premium food when they manufacture their food in the same place as O’le Roy dog food, which was the case with Nutro during the Menu Foods Recall. I drove 45 minutes south to go to PetSmart to get that food, when I could have gotten food made by the same people in the same way right up the road at the local pet store or Wal-Mart. Nutro in my opinion has now become nothing more than an extremely overpriced below average grocery brand, it’s definitely not a premium brand, much less a “super premium” brand.
I mean come on, $40 dollars for a dog food that is made right next to $8 O’le Roy?????? That’s a slap in the face!
I have been feeding my dog only the Nutro Lamb and Rice dry food. I started a new bag and after a few days the dog started vomiting. It has been a week of bloody vomiting and diahrea. The dog is lethargic and miserable. We have spent a lot of time and money at the vet for xrays and tests. He is now eating rice and prescription canned food and starting to come back. I started to mix his dog food back in and he is vomiting again. I truly believe it is the Nutro and I will never feed my dog any foods with ingredients from China.
I myself am beginning to get concerned. I have two dogs and feed them the Nutro brand. I had issues with other brands and wanted to get them the best food possible. My Springer has been vomiting roughly once or twice a week since we got the food. I weaned him off the old food just like we were told, so that should not have been an issue. There was a little it of watery blood in his vomit tonight so I started to get really worried. Found some pretty concerning stuff about this food. A lot of other people’s pets are showing the same symptoms and they all feed the same food. I am calling the vet tomorrow and taking him off the food until I know more. This is just disconcerting. Good luck everyone.
My dog and cats both eat Nutro. No known problems as of yet. I do have one concern with all these negative comments. If all these people are seeing major problems with the food then why hasn’t any of the food been determined to be unsafe. You bet your #$@ I would be getting my pet food analyzed if something bad happened. I have not seen one confirmed case of their NUTRO dog food being analyzed and determined to be unsafe. Just all guessing. If you are going to write about Nutro causing your pet to get sick then get your food tested and write about the results. That would help everyone out instead of all these assumptions.
I just got back from the vet today. My animals have always eaten nutro. My blue heeler started acting funny and her eyes looked like they were protruding a bit so I took her to the vet. Her eyes are fine, the blood work showed that her liver is shutting down.
I have three cats that eat Nutro. I should say DID eat Nutro. I have them on Blue Buffalo now.
I am scared that Nutro is killing my animals. My male tuxedo cat had an ultrasound a year ago for jaundice. What is the likely hood that two pets in the same household would both develop liver problems? Not likely. I believed Nutro was okay after doing some research a year ago. I think I have killed my dog.
This is awful.
I have two cats- both of them with their own personalities, preferences, and specific needs. My older fixed male- a handsome grey tabby with a seal’s pelt, and a very laid back view of the world is prone to cystitis, and my younger fixed male- an orange tabby who I swear has ADHD, is very picky about his food, and constantly wants change. Recently (in April), I bought a bag of Nutro to try and pique my orange tabby, and to try and find a food that could satisfy my dignified grey. However, after the switch was made (over the course of 10 days), I noticed that my grey’s lovely soft pelt which is normally dense and as soft as any mink you can find was turning almost dusty, and he was shedding a good deal more. In addition, my orange tabby had eaten it once and refused to go near it again- way beyond his normal pickiness. Then my grey- who has never been said to have a sensitive stomach began throwing up after meal times. That was my final straw- I switched them to Newman’s Own, and have never looked back. Within days of the switch, my grey’s coat was back to it’s normal splendor, and my orange boy was eating like a draft horse. I would have chalked it up to just a bad choice for my boys, but after reading quite a few stories, I think I’m just going to stay FAR away from Nutro. I know they dismiss the words as unsubstantiated- but you know, I’d rather not deal with a company that’s more interested in insulting people who are telling their stories than finding out what’s going on. If they dismiss claims- they miss the early warning signs that something’s wrong. Hopefully, the pet owners won’t make that mistake.
I’ve been involved in cat rescue for many years, and have used dozens of different kind of foods before. It’s been years since I’ve fed cat foods such as Nutro Max or Science Diet. I’ve learned how to read the labels and decide what pet foods are best. I suspect as others, that the quality may have gone downhill on Nutro Max since the merger with Mars.
If you would like to find a high quality food it’s quite easy. If the first ingredient is chicken by products or corn, then you should not be feeding it to your animals. The first ingredient should always be a protein- whole chicken, chicken meal, or any of the other fish, poultry, or meat protein bases. The next ingredient can be a starch, but stay away from corn. There is a reason they give it to cows to fatten them up ASAP! Rice is a much better alternative for dog and cat’s digestive system. Go to petfoodexpress.com and find the ingredients page which explains in detail which are good and bad. Or go to naturapet.com which also explains their ingredients in detail. California Natural is one of the highest quality pet foods, with a minimal of ingredients. So less for your pet to be allergic to, or irritated by. It costs slightly more than Nutro Max, but think of it this way. You are paying for a large bag of corn when you are buying Nutro Max and Science Diet. So high quality pet foods are actually a better buy.
If you can’t afford to feed the more expensive brands, then try Costco’s super premium pet food. The cat formula has the exact same ingredients as California Natural, but it is less than half the price. The protein content is lower than CN, but you cannot buy a better food for the price.
Here is my basic breakdown of pet food-
High end brands- California Natural, Evo, Newman’s Own, Wellness, etc. are like shopping at Whole Foods and eating healthy and natural.
Medium brands- Science Diet, Nutromax, Iams, etc. are like shopping at Safeway. You buy from the produce and meats, but stop by the junk food aisle as well. Not terrible, but you could certainly do better.
Low end brands- Purina Cat Chow, Meow Mix, Good News, are like feeding your animal Mc Donalds or Jack in the Box every day. Would you eat only junk food every day of your life?
Go out an spend a little extra money, and save on vet bills later. Aren’t your pets worth a little extra money ?
My dog experienced the same digestive problems as related by others. Started with vomiting yellow bile first thing in the morning, then gradually progressed to vomiting food, loose stools, gas, lost weight,lethargy. Did some internet research, found out others had the same problems. Stopped feeding Nutro – problems stopped. Kept an eye on the internet reports – they seemed to be increasing.
After 2 mos. of watching decided to have the food tested at an accredited lab that has done dog food testing (for private citizens) – Accutrace. $249 later, test for “unknown toxins” shows nothing. No melamine, no cyanuric acid, no acetominophen.
That said, I have no explanation for my dog’s illness. He had been on Nutro puppy, switched to Nutro Small Bites at age 1 yr., and this was the second bag…could it be food allergy?
Did not have the food tested for salmonella or e-coli or something along those lines (mold spores…??) BUT, all I know for sure is that he got sick on a new, 20 lb. bag, it wasn’t a “switching foods too quickly” scenario…and since stopping the food he has had no further sypmtoms. He’s gained back his weight, does not vomit bile, no more loose stools, gas, and gurgling tummy.
Still, won’t feed Nutro again.
I’m going to keep the food in case something is found down the road….
After wondering why my Mikey had been having so much difficulty walking (hind legs not functioning properly)and with diarrhea and lethargy I started to comb the internet for solutions. I was amazed at how many people are having the same problems and are using the same brand of pet food. I’ll definitely cut out Nutro and cook his own food from now on.
One of my dogs has been affected by eating Nutro Max dog foods. My dogs were switched over the Nutro in May 2008 after the recall happened. There were no problems with the Nutro Max until Mars bought out Nutro and then reformulated the Max dog food. In Jan 2008 one of my dogs started to drink large volumes of water all the time. She then started to have incontinence. She developed a horrible UTI and was treated all along I was feeding her Nutro Max dog food. The UTI went on for two more month and then developed into struivate crystals in her bladder. I threw out the Nutro food and put my other dogs on a safe brand. The sick dog has to eat a special prescription diet in hopes that it will clear up the UTI and crystals caused by Nutro Max. The vet also put her on antibiotics which didn’t work the first since I kept her on Nutro Max and had no idea this was causing her continued infection and UTI problems. My vet bills have been so far around $600.00, which I can’t afford. I submitted my claim to Nutro and they said they would send a mailer for my food sample to be submitted to this was 12 days ago. I went one step further and claimed to the BBB in California. Mars and Nutro know that there is a problem with their product and fail to do a darn thing about it. Its not coincidence that dogs and cats from coast to coast are getting sick or dying. Wake up pet owners, you dog might not have gotten sick, two of mine didn’t from eating the food, but ONE did. Why RISK your pets health by feeding them NUTRO? Its not worth it. There are better and safer pet foods out there.
I’m concerned by what I’m reading but a bit relieved also. We have two dogs, one a senior dog and the other a three year old ball of fire. Last fall, the three year old devloped severe itching. It was driving him crazy. Our vet checked him head to toe but could find nothing. The vet suggested it could be a food allergy so we switched from Science Diet to Nutro Lamb & Rice. We kept the older dog on Science Diet Senior. In March our younger dog developed severe diarrhea and gas. The senior dog, who sometimes eats from the younger dog’s food, started vomitting after eating the young dog’s Nutro. She also started peeing everywhere in the house.
I went to Petsmart yesterday to buy a new bag of Nutro for the young dog. There were very few bags of Nutro on the shelves. I found one bag of Lamb & Rice, bought it and brought it home.
Tonight while web surfing, I stumbled on this website and others describing similar problems. I’m grateful to find there may be a common link with my dog’s sudden problems. But I feel like an idiot for not having related my dogs’ behaviors to the change in diets.
To date, no tests have revealed a problem with the Nutro. However, the military has a saying:
“The first occurrence is of no consequence. The second occurrence is coincidence. But the third occurrence is enemy action!”
And personally I’ve never been a great believer in coincidence to begin with. Tomorrow I will return the Nutro to Petsmart. I guess I’ll return to the Science Diet.
I had my dog and cat on Nutro for about two years. I started noticing the last year, that they had increased bloating and stomach problems. The vet said it was the food and recommended Science Diet. I switched and now they have no stomach issues at all. I consider myself very lucky after reading about the pets that became violently ill.
I fed my dog Nutro for two years and was very happy with it. Suddenly he started getting very itchy this spring. We switched to Nutro’s holistic blend and he has just gotten worse. The vet swears it is his food.
I’ve been feeding all my dogs Nutro for years and have never had a problem. They are all healthy with beautiful coats.
I have fed Nutro to both my cats and my dog for 6 years now and have never had a problem. I only occasionally feed wet food, more as a treat than anything else. When the recall hit, I like so many switched dry food, just to be sure, and all three suffered a less shiny coat and loose poop. I switched back and have never looked back. It’s funny how the first thing blamed for a pets problems is their food and the last thing given credit for what is good is their food. I sure have more trust in Nutro than any consumer affairs site that ends with com and not org or gov.
I just recently took both of my dogs in with liver damage most likely due to toxins. I switched my dog food from Pedigree to Nutro less than a month ago?????
I just was searching for a puppy on the web. A site was listed that caught my attention. It listed a chat group for the breed…discussing NUTRO. I thought, hmmmm, could that be about the dog food NUTRO. Yep, it was! Lo and behold, it is everywhere…all over the web…and recent, too. I am truly grateful for my discovery…as I have put off going to purchase a new bag of cat food for our 4 cats…two of them EXPENSIVE Bengals. I am setting out tomorrow to do so.
I could not believe it…I have noticed after purchasing this past bag of cat food (first time for Nutro) that our male Bengal (known to be a VERY smart and energetic…to say the least…the breed…definitely keeps you on your toes…can get you up out of your chair in an instant as they laugh right in your face because they are always demanding attention)…he has been getting more lethargic. He has not vomited or have diahhrea…I just have been mentioning that there is something wrong with him lately…like he is not feeling well.
I will try a different brand tomorrow. Too bad, the cats’ coats, I noticed, had become SO silky and shiny and soft (TRULY) after this past bag of food…recommended for that reason by a “specialist” who sold me on the bag because the company guaranteed that “every cat will like it or your money back!”
Thanks for the possible warning everyone. It could have just saved me $$$ for vet visits???
We have been using Nutro dog kibble and snacks since March and have not seen any problems or concerns…
I think it’s false information. Unless I hear directly from the pet owner(s), AAFCO on the news, or Nutro directly linked to those deaths, I’m going w/ the manufacturer….
We breed and show german shepherds and have been very pleased with the Nutro Natural Choice Lamb and Rice products until this last litter this spring. Their Natural Choice puppy formula reg. and large breed didn’t seem to be doing anything for their coats. The puppies had very dry, dull coats. I have recently changed to a slightly more expensive brand of food which has one formula for all dogs and is rated very highly. One week since the change, the puppies have a much better coat!! I am still debating whether or not to take the adults off the adult Natural Choice Lamb and Rice….something is different.
We have two dogs that have developed horrible symptoms because of Nutro and our cat who is a scavenger has also gotten sick from the food. It’s a long story but hubby has Stage IV cancer and my attention to the dogs has been limited. Nutro was introduced and wham the Chesapeake got sick and now just refuses to eat-goopy eyes, lesions, diarrhea lethargy excessive thrist and craving of ice cubes and the puppy who gets a couple of bites when he escapes has thrown up and once was fed the Chessie’s food because we were out of his and spent about 48 hours throwing up. I have the bag and about 5 lbs of the food. I know, with no doubt in my mind whatsoever that this food is causing these things. I feel bad that I have taken until today to discover this, bad mom syndrome is taking over. My poor dogs and cat.
I’ve used NUTRO for over 6 years. I have two dogs 6 and 9, and 4 senior cats. I use NUTRO because of food allergies my lab had. Like most consumers, I’ve learned I need to read the label of what I’m feeding my pets. No by products, no animal digest, no ground yellow corn. I think NUTRO makes a premium product. While I have sympathy for anyone that has a sick pet, I really think if you suspect the pet food,you should have the product tested. There should be batch #’s and similar locations where all these assumed incidents are taking place. I can’t imagine that any pet food company would purposely try to make pets sick. It’s defeating their purpose isn’t it? I agree with another post that said how can you trust many of the “blogs” where people are able to write what they want about any company and they do it anonymously. There is no factual evidence to back up these allegations.
For those of you who have not had problems, you are lucky. I have used Nutro for over ten years and never had a problem until just recently. We purchased our usual Nutro Adult Lamb and Rice for our 20 month old dog who is usually very energetic (hyper to be exact), and playful. No illnesses whatsoever. Since this new bag of food, she has had diarhea, vomitting, eating grass like crazy…all the smae symptoms other people have been reporting. She was smart enough to stop eating the food…even when I was trying to get her to eat it, she refused. I have switched her food and the difference is amazing. 36 hours off the Nutro Lamb and Rice and she is already starting to perk up and the grass eating and vomiting has disappeared completely. Her stools are still soft, but I have a feeling that will go away as well. I have called my vet, the doggie daycare center I take her to and the pet store. They have all had complaints and problems with dogs eating Nutro. PLEASE be carefull with this food. I understand that some will not believe it until they see it (I know I wouldn’t), but if your animal starts showing signs of illness and you are feeding them Nutro, CHANGE FOOD IMMEDIATELY! If their symptoms disappear without anything else changing…well, that is pretyy much proof enough, isn’t it?
Me and my girlfriend have been feeding our 8 m/o female pitbull terrier the nutro natural choice large breed puppy food since she was 3 months. we did not know her previous brand of food so when she randomly would vomit and chew grass i blamed it on the food change. since then she has been incontinent a few times in her cage overnight and ive heard that dogs normally will not do that in a small caged area. this i blamed on her being just a pup. she has now developed a rash on her stomach that has started spreading to her tail, legs, chest, and paws. also nonstop itching and licking to the point i keep finding giant saliva marks on blankets and carpets from her exessive licking. she was going through heat for the first time these past weeks so i blamed the rash on that. and now im noticing that the rash is turning into small scabbed areas much like i would see on my old cat, who died last year at the age of 17. just this week she has started to refuse her food at the normal feeding time and only comes back to eat “some of it” it late at nite or the next morning. her attitude has also changed very quickly to where she will not come to me when i call her and since she was a pup she would lie on my bed whenever im at the computer or doing something in my room,
but now she lays outside the door. its as if she does not want to be near me or my girlfriend today so i decided to look online to see what i could come up with. i decided to start reading about what she is eating and to my horror i have read over 40 reports from other owners who have been using nutro brand foods with the same results. i think she is avoiding us because we are poisoning her with this nutro brand food and she knows it!
i am throwing out the remaining 25 lbs. right now and planning on putting her on a home-ade diet, starting tonight. i advise anyone else that is feeding their dog this poison to stop immediately and not wait till your dog develops these symptoms, or possibly dies overnight. i also just read from the FDA website that Nutro was asked to recall ALL of their dog and catfoods and they refused. isnt there something we the people can do about this. someone with more knowledge then me should start a petition to get this food recalled asap and pulled from shelves BEFORE we start to see the results of NUTRO’S neglect.
8-24-2008 after anxious night, our 8 year old Aussie is bouncing back – after 250 dollars at our vet for tests. Aussie woke up and acted listless, disorientated and generally out of it.
Did some quick Google searches and found 100’s of folks like you and me posting in 2008. Hundreds.
Immediately removed food, refreshed water to prevent dehydration and boiled 1/2 a plain chicken breast and 1/2 cup of plain rice. Rinsed it with cold water so she could get. She got it down.
Got her into vet a 8:00am.
Same type of blood work as everyone is mentioning – a bit below etc.
Going to switch to Science Diet later today.
Bottom line, do not remix old food and baby feed your baby till you get to Vet. If your reading this you love your pet, get to the Vet the sooner the better. Print off some of the test results that other posters have put up so your vet knows what your talking about and save some time.
Again – toss the food, return it whatever, just do not use it. Would you eat bad food twice to save money.
My2cents.
We’ve fed Nutro to hundreds of dogs and cats over the last few years. As in the days pre-Nutro, a few will become ill for various reasons, but the vast majority thrive. Food isn’t the only cause of illness, but of course some pets do better on different foods. It’s never one size fits all.
response to John (July 22): That rash could be caused by many things. We had a pit with an allergy to plastic. We brought her in for her shots, the vet saw the rash around her face and asked if she used a plastic dog bowl. – yes. The vet said this was more common than anybody thought. So- new bed, new bowl, new toys, new collar… No rash.
Now about the food. Our giants (1 mastiff, 1 dane, 1 pbt) are doing fine on the Natural Choice large breed senior. It has the most we’ve found for glucosamine. That being said, I’ve notice that they are eating a lot of grass lately. Now, I’m wondering about the food. – Is it just the Nutro Max or all their products? I’m thinking about getting a small (20lb) bag of something else to see if they stop eating the grass.
The cat seems to be doing fine on her Nutro as well. However, we lost our 12yr. old cat last year. We didn’t suspect anything but he ate Nutro as well and he did have many of the same symptoms as what others have reported. -It does makes me wonder.
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 in 2007 for both the dogs and cats. We pulled both cats and dogs off Nutro products as of July 26, 2008.
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 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. 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!
My two labs have eaten Nutro dog food for years. After purchasing 2 new 40lb bags of Nutro, my youngest lab got explosive diarreha and now today my older lab (8) years old is now very lethargic, salivatating, groaning constantly and we have to force him to even get up. When he does get up he seems very stiff and sore and off kilter when trying to walk. Neither one of my dogs get sick often and never to this extent. I thought i would pour an unopened bag on top – in the bowl and after that was eaten and the dog got further down to the original food, he then got sick. I will take him to the vet in the moring. I am really worried and the only common denominator was the Nutro dog food. After a little research I found these postings– i am SHOCKED that I did not hear about this officially or how there are so many others experiancing this issue and the company still has the food on the shelves. Someone posted and stated she didn’t believe it was the food because her dogs ate Nutro for years without an issue. So did mine until this week. I would have never known all these issues exist until my dogs that are faithful to Nutro started getting sick and behaving like they are being poisoned. I really wish she was correct so others don’t get so sick– my dogs are eating the same food and type of food they have for many years so I am not sure its an allergy all of a sudden.
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
I have used Nutro cat food for some time now (at least the 3 years since we’ve had our cat). This past month we noticed that our cat was puking much more frequently. I thought maybe it was due to excessive hairballs and have tried to remedy that, but it’s not helping. Now I am very worried that it is the Nutro cat food and will switch his food immediately….although to what I am not sure since it seems all these pet food places stink.
http://www.dogster.com/dogs/201351
So Nutro was purchased by Mars huh…that is very disturbing. It’s bad enough Nutro has Menodine Sodium Bisfulte Complex in it…now that Mars has the food, I can’t imagine the crap they will add. Say BHT/BHA (known to cause cancer), meat-by-products (from road kill and euthanized pets), low grade bone meal not suitable for human OR animal consumption, and God knows what else. I do not trust these companies. And just because a dog isn’t getting sick right away, doesn’t mean the food isn’t hurting, poisoning, and even killing them. Things like Sodium Phenobarbital (found in euthanized pets) kills over time and shortens the life span. The dog is eating little bits of poison each day and this builds up until they prematurely die. There are better alternatives out there than this commercial crap like a well balanced home cooked meal, or a high quality kibble from a trustworthy source.
Ashley & Kaine
So Nutro was purchased by Mars huh…that is very disturbing. It’s bad enough Nutro has Menodine Sodium Bisfulte Complex in it…now that Mars has the food, I can’t imagine the crap they will add. Say BHT/BHA (known to cause cancer), meat-by-products (from road kill and euthanized pets), low grade bone meal not suitable for human OR animal consumption, and God knows what else. I do not trust these companies. And just because a dog isn’t getting sick right away, doesn’t mean the food isn’t hurting, poisoning, and even killing them. Things like Sodium Phenobarbital (found in euthanized pets) kills over time and shortens the life span. The dog is eating little bits of poison each day and this builds up until they prematurely die. There are better alternatives out there than this commercial crap like a well balanced home cooked meal, or a high quality kibble from a trustworthy source.
Ashley & Kaine
I have used Nutro Max Naturals for both my dog and my cats. I like it very much for my dog because she is over 10 now and a large breed (117lbs). They have one for “Large Breed Senior” and since she has been eating it along with her meds she is doing much better with her hips.
I have never noticed anything amiss since they have been eating this food, however I just started a new bag and will certainly pay closer attention.
With all the negative stories about Nutro right now and the recall by Mars on Pedigree crunchy bites becasue of a possible contamination of salmonella…I’d think twice about keeping my dog or cat on any of their products. Many dogs have died in just 4 days! Glucosamine and chondroitin are in the formula you’re using and can be bought as supplements with higher doses than you’re giving you dog in this food. Just not worth the risk to me after what we’ve been through-until we find out what is going on!
This is so frustrating. I recently (6 months ago) switched to Nutro Naturals Indoor for both my cats after doing tons of research and trying several “high end” cat foods. They love it! Their coats are softer, their skin healthier, and the have more energy. However, if there is a chance this food could harm them there is no way I can continue feeding it to them. I wish there was more hard evidence in the way of lab testing but I’m just not willing to take a chance.
I have been feeding my Sheltie Nutro Max since I brought her home about three years ago. Until recently she has never had a problem with it. Earlier this week she began vomiting with no other signs of sickness. I didn’t think much of it until today, when she started back up vomiting an alarming amount. The vet diagnosis was a possible ulcer, with everything else looking good. After reading many posts and sites on the internet I’m not so sure. Her symptoms are the same as what I keep reading time and time again. It may be wide spread panic and all turn out to be nothing, but I love my dog far too much to take that chance. After a couple of days on hamburg and rice, I will be switching foods.
I wanted to add an update to the nightmare we went through with all of our animals. To reiterate, we have 30 rescued cats (20 feral) and 4 dogs. Our cats are all inside cats – our dogs are in a fenced in back yard with no possible contaminants. Tazz, one of our German Shepherds, will be 12 in November. She was fine when we switched to Nutro last fall. She did have some arthritis started that basically bothered her in rainy weather. It wasn’t until early summer 2008 that we started seeing her legs become weaker.
July is when we saw her steadily go down hill. She acted confused, couldn’t get up without help, would stumble and fall and need help to walk through the house. We would wrap a towel under her belly and bring it up on both sides of her so we could support her as she walked. We bought area carpets to help her with traction on some of the floors. We all were devastated that age was taking its toll on our beloved Tazz. It was obvious her legs were giving out and we worried that winter in NH would be too much for her. We had Rimadyl for those rainy days and started to give it to her more frequently. It didn’t help. We knew we had to talk to our vet but we were all afraid. Sadly, we assumed it was age related.
A friend emailed me that she had read some disturbing stories about Nutro on http://www.consumeraffairs.com. I logged on and started reading. When I read the stories about other dogs with the same symptoms, it gave me chills. We didn’t want to get our hopes up because it seemed unlikely this was what was happening to Tazz. Too much to hope for. BUT the stories and symptoms of other animals were too much of a coincidence so I immediately took all our Nutro back and bought Eukanuba. I still have cat food that I planned on throwing out. Now I want to have it tested if I can find out where and how to do this. I desperately want answers and want this serious problem dealt with. We were one of the lucky ones but we’re still worried about any residual damage with all of our pets.
As I stated in my last letter, the symptoms are gone from EVERYONE! As I sit here and write this I can’t help the tears that are filling my eyes because Tazz has recovered back to the point where she might be a little stiff on a rainy day! She’s playing with the other dogs, running around the back yard, slower like a senior citizen but she’s not falling, she’s not disorientated, she doesn’t need help getting up and she’s got that bright look in her eyes once again! She was dying! If we hadn’t taken heed of the stories that many are blowing off – we would have lost our beloved Tazz. We no longer feel we’re on borrowed time with Tazz. We feel strongly with the way she’s acting now that she’s going to be with us at least several more years! That’s a far cry from thinking we would be putting her down this fall!
I was feeding my dog nutro small bites, but I couldn’t find the same kind I had been feeding her for years. I found one that looked the same, but the packaging was different. It is Nutro small bites. My dog has been vomitting and has had diarreah ever since eating this new food, it’s been a couple days now. I was unaware of any of this info posted on the web. It is disturbing me, and I will throw out any remaining food that I have here and purchase something different altogether. At first I thought maybe it was just because it was different food from what she was used to. But I’m not going to take any chances with that.
I recently switched my cat back to Nutro Max indoor cat food after last year’s recall. But i noticed that he began losing hair, specifically a silver dollar size patch between his shoulder blades. I’m not sure if it’s the canned cat food, or the fact that he sometimes sneaks some of the dogs dry food (in which I’ve begun to prevent him from doing). But another incident recently occurred where my dog ate some of the canned Nutro cat food (he likes to sneak and get the cats food when we’re not looking) and immediately he began scratching his ear and shaking his head, again, i’m not sure if it’s the food, but there does seem to be some kind of link, it’s not the first time this has happened and i never put two and two together until now. But I’m not taking any chances. I’m immediately stopping all Nutro products and will not return.
I also recently took my dog off of the Nutro Max dry food, he just flat out refused to eat it and was losing weight because he would not eat.
I have used the Nutro Max adult chicken flavor dry food before with no problems and no ill effects to my babies. However I decided to try the Nutro Max indoor adult chicken dry and although I introduced it gradually my babies started having runnt stools and one began to vomit. I also noticed that the new indoor formula had a strange smell like alfalfa or something. I switched them back to Science diet and that’s where they will stay from now on.
nutro has absolutly nothing in their food that will bring harm to your animal.infact if your animal has gotten sick for some reason,its not ok to just reach out and just blam anyone for maybe something genitically passed in the animal.Stop blaming Nutro.Nutro is abosolutly safe 100 % and I have my animals on it,and never ever had a more healthier animal with all their needs met in nutrition.If your animal is sick.Its because of another reason.Nutro is all naturally made using the finest ingredients,and has been throurally tested over and over and perfecting each step of sucess .Even the perservitives are all natural.read it more better then do your research.you will see for yourself.Right now its just people wine because they are the top leader in the best dog and cat food in the market place.100% garenteed…
Thank goodness for the Internet and vigilant posters! We bought a bag of Nutro Senior Dog Food this week and problems began the next day with loose stools, licking of paws, excessive thirst, scratching his mouth with his paw and scooting his snout on the floor, restlessness at night (not able to get comfortable and not wanting to be with us), licking his nose, sneezing. My husband took him to the vet and a blood test revealed a slightly elevated white blood cell count. No thyroid or other problems. The dog is an indoor dog with walks and the walks have gotten hard for him. I read these blogs and am stunned. Thanks to all of you who are talking about this despite Nutro’s attempt to bully people into keeping quiet. It’s not imagination. What is going on with this country that the FDA and USDA aren’t providing oversight, acting when it’s far too late? The problem now, what food to trust?
i was just looking on the internet to see what was wrong with my cat ..the first page i looked at had this artical on nutro pet food! i just recently got her from a neighbor and he was feeding her friskies so my girlfriend that worked at a pet store told me to feed her nutro and incorporate it slowly to the friskies she started puking everyday diahrea and very irratible licking of the paws legs and back like she had bugs on her or something ..none of this stuff happened before i fed her nutro so now i no what the problem is thank you.
HEY ROSE…….
READ NUMBER 40 AND 50! ALL I CAN SAY IS – YOU’RE LUCKY!!!
I sympathize with anyone who has lost a furry member of their family, but most of these posts have no credibility. Especially #14, who claims to read labels, and gets NOTHING about nutro right…. No corn there, what brand were you talking about?? And #20… nutro no longer contracts production of food, and it wouldn’t matter which other brands the jobber produced, they would be required to meet their contract with any company for formula and ingredients.
AMAZING the way none of these people has saved a sample of the food, for testing. And amazing the way that less than 1 customer in thousands is claiming problems… That just makes no sense at all.
Hey Barry-I saved food for testing but found out you need the bag it came in. We used a vittles vault to keep our food in so out went the bag. Believe me, I would have loved to have it tested. Also found it that it costs a couple hundred bucks and without knowing what to look for, the expense can be higher. And I think most people thought, like we did at first, that our dog had gotten into something. Until the next dog got sick right after with the same symptoms. And the dog with the constant urination! Stopped after we took him off the food! Weight loss and dull coats with every one of them!
We had used Nutro for 9 months without a problem. Four dogs and 30 cats with problems on Nutro and you don’t think something is wrong??? DUH!
P.S.
What is rather interesting is I went to Petsmart in Manchester NH to ask them if they’d had any complaints about Nutro foods. The manager told me no. A clerk walked into the conversation and said they (Petsmart) had received a memo from Nutro saying there had been some digestive problems reported. Last I knew, diarrhea and vomiting were considered digestive problems.
I found this post because I was searching for reasons my cat could be having blood in her stool. She eats Nutro Natural, I never thought to relate the two. The last vet visit fecal test did not reveal anything, yet she still has blood in her stool.
I’m not saying it is the food, but it is the one thing that has remained a constant.
I have had no problem with my cat’s eating, drinking water, or her digestion until today. She is healthy and has had a good bill of health on every vet visit. She is a little over a year old.
However, I noticed her passing a lot of gas today for the first time ever, and I also noticed she had very loose stools. She seemed to not be feeling well, and went to sleep and moaned. So, I came to the internet, and before long I was at this blog.
I usually buy her food at the local pet shop, and try a variety of good quality foods. I did give her Nutro Natural dry cat food, and after reading here I will never buy that cat food again!
I did not change her diet, and this is the first time she showed any symptom like this. She ate the whole bag of Nutro (over time) and this is the first time she has shown a symptom like this, but she passed a great deal of gas. It seemed to frighten her.
After what I have read here, I will not be buying ANY more Nutro brand.
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/
Over 2 million pets eat Nutro….
There may be over 200 animals that have gotten sick, only 34 here….
That is a .01% chance of an animal that eats Nutro getting sick.
Please. Next it will be the terrorist fault right?
If you have a sample of food that a veterinarian says is ACTUALLY tainted, not pretend tainted, then stand up and talk.
Everyone else, do more research and that does not include what other people say.
Nutro customer for over 6 years and I LOVE my animals.
GARY—Read 40 and 50—There is NO doubt in my mind that our 30 cats and 4 dogs suffered because of Nutro food! Seems to be too much of a coincidence that they ALL got better when we changed food to a NON NUTRO brand. Unfortunately food testing is expensive and pointless if you have no idea what to test for. AND most people, like us, took the food back for a refund to buy something else. And how many have gotten sick that we don’t know about? That people haven’t connected to the food? There are people who don’t research on the computer. If vets don’t know what’s going on, how are owners supposed to figure it out??? You are extremely lucky is all I can say. But don’t come here and slam people who have had problems with this food! There have been dogs that have DIED! How about some compassion for them??? How about you do some research about Zinc toxicity, Copper, and elevated liver enzymes. Read the stories on consumeraffairs.com…. I received a call from Nutro yesterday – weeks after I sent them an email. She said there were only 5 of them in corporate dealing with the complaints and they’re overwhelmed. Sadly, most people didn’t keep the food for testing. She also told me that they would send me a self addressed bag so I could send them back a sample of our cat food that we did keep. We regret not keeping the dog food. They will test for salmonella, as well as a list of other contaminants and whether or not the food was under baked. It will also take up to 8 weeks to get results. She did agree when I said “Mistakes happen in production, transportation, storage …”
Apparently you can’t add…there are a lot more than 34 animals on this site that have had problems with this food!!!!!!
I hope everyone makes their own decision instead of just listening to the stories of a MINORITY of the pets that eat this food. An extremely small minority.
EXACTLY-LET THEM MAKE THEIR OWN DECISIONS WITH ALL THE INFORMATION AVAILABLE TO THEM.
AND BY THE WAY Gary – THE “MINORITY” OF ANIMALS THAT HAVE DIED IS MORE THAN THERE SHOULD BE! PET FOOD SHOULD BE SAFE FOR ALL ANIMALS!!!!!!!!!!
P.S. By the way, what do YOU care whether they stop using this food or not? It’s no skin off your nose unless you have stock in Nutro.
I don’t know about the fda.com website, but when I search for food and drug administration I come up with http://www.fda.gov which I think is probably more trustworthy. Search Nutro pet foods on that website and you won’t find any warnings except for the Menu foods recall that everyone knows about already.
I am so sorry for everyone who has lost their best friends and I know you want to blame something, but try to be as objective as possible – you could run a very fine company out of business by panicking and still not get to the heart of the problem.
I don’t know about the fda.com website, but when I search for food and drug administration I come up with http://www.fda.gov which I think is probably more trustworthy. Search Nutro pet foods on that website and you won’t find any warnings except for the Menu foods recall that everyone knows about already.
I am so sorry for everyone who has lost their best friends and I know you want to blame something, but try to be as objective as possible – you could run a very fine company out of business by panicking and still not get to the heart of the problem.
Mariah, we would be saying the same thing you are now if we had only one cat or dog that had become sick. But we saw it with all of our cats and dogs. The only common link was Nutro.
When we took them off Nutro on June 26th of this year, we saw GOOD changes very quickly. The (30) cats fur had become dull and many had mats that had never had them before. When cats don’t feel well, they don’t groom! They all gained back the 2 pounds that they ALL had lost. With as many as we have, we’re in our vet’s office monthly for yearly exams and shots. We had seen vomit on a daily basis that we’re no longer seeing. We sort of figured with this many cats, you’re bound to see vomit on a daily basis. BUT we haven’t seen vomit since we took them off Nutro. We had bloody stools in the litter pans that we’re no longer seeing. Some cats had been hacking and coughing and that is no longer happening. We took them off Nutro because of what I read on consumeraffairs.com. and how the symptoms matched what was going on. There were only two pages at that point. Last count was 113 pages! We had spoken to our vet because two of the dogs had been on meds. At first he didn’t think it was the food. We didn’t want to take any chances so we took them off the food. Now he feels as we do that something is going on! He had tried Nutro Lamb and Rice for his dog but he immediately vomited. He thought as we did at first that the lamb might be too much for his dog. He never used it again. Kidneys and livers get affected when there is a toxin. It just seems like too much of a coincidence for me to take the chance until we know more. I just want to make people aware so they will know what to watch for. And we may never know. This may very well get swept under the rug. Mistakes happen. Don’t forget, even excellent companies were involved in the food recall last year. And who knows how many animals have been affected that we don’t know about!
If you remember the recall in March of 2007. It took months of animals being sick and dying before the recall was announced.
THIS IS HOW IT ALL BEGAN IN 2007 WHEN THE MASSIVE RECALL HIT—-Pet owners with animals showing symptoms such as vomiting, lethargy and extreme thirst are being told to bring them in for immediate examination. Some of the 60 million cans and pouches of food have been blamed for kidney failure in scores of animals and killed at least 16 pets. Neither the manufacturer nor authorities have been able to determine why the pets died.
I have been following your discussions, as well as the comments posted at the Consumer Affairs website. The subject of Nutro pet food is also being discussed at the Itchmo Forums.com website. I have a four month old australian shepherd puppy that was eating Purina Puppy Chow when we brought him home. After a few days, I began switching him to Nutro’s Chicken and Oatmeal Puppy formula since our other two Aussies were eating Nutro’s Lamb and Rice Adult. By the time he was completely switched to Nutro’s Chicken and Oatmeal, I noticed that he was drinking a lot more water and when he urinated (in the house, still housebreaking him), the urine smelled horrible. I’ve never smelled dog urine like that and I’ve lived with dogs most of my life. Other’s noticed it too. I was going to have him checked for a UTI, but after stumbling across all the Nutro comments online, I decided to switch his dog food first and transitioned him to Blue Buffalo Lamb and Rice for puppies. Immediately his water consumption returned to a more normal level and when he had an occasional accident in the house (still working on that housebreaking), the urine smelled like normal old dog urine. Although my adult dogs were not having problems with Nutro’s Lamb and Rice, I switched them to Blue Buffalo too. They seem to like it better anyway.
I’ve been feeding my cats Nutro for a couple years now. Both dry and canned. My dogs have been fed this, too. We’ve never switched foods, except on trying Pet Promise. Actually, one of my cats, she won’t really eat any other dry food, but Pet Promise or Nutro, although she perfers Nutro over Pet Promise (for one they’ve been fed that more and Pet Promise was too far of a drive to get for cats) Their coats shine from eating this food.
Disclaimer: Animals (in my opinion) are like people. One product works for a certain companion. That is why there are so many food companies for pet food. As like people: Tylenol may not work for one person, but Advil does or visa versa
Congratulations, Alyssa. I think it’s wonderful that you and others were so lucky. Our cat’s fur was shiny and soft in the beginning, too. I swore by this food last fall and told all my friends about it. This is why I feel so strongly that something happened to the food. A friend of mine has 9 cats and she saw weight loss as well. She had several that developed UTI’s. I’m just not a gambling person with the lives of my cats and dogs so I think I’ll stay away from Nutro.
As a lifelong pet owner. Never been without a cat or a dog. I feel for all of you that had issues with your pets. I have used Nutro for 17 years for my cat (eating senior complete care) and 8 years for my current dog (large breed chicken and rice) and never had a problem. I also do not use any cheap treats or other junk thats sold in the pet stores. I use Nutro because they never use “by products” and colorings or preservers.
My pets and my neighbors pets are doing well on Nutro.
Their large breed chicken and rice and lamb and rice are the best selling dog food in pet stores.
I wish more people that had a positive experience would post their comments!… I don’t believe everything I read on the net since usually only negative comments are posted…
Happy Nutro user.
LAST COUNT OF NEGATIVE COMMENTS ON CONSUMERAFFAIRS.COM – 116 PAGES!!!
I’ve fed Nutro to my 2 dogs for over 7 years now and have had NO problems with it. In fact I switched my JRT to Nutro after having bladder problems on Pro Plan and Purina ONE. The vet said I’d have to keep him on RX food for the rest of his life. I did some research and changed him to Nutro and haven’t had problems since. When we got our new puppy, a pit mix, I put her on Nutro as well. 7 years later I’m still happy with the product and reccomend it to my friends.
Please listen up pet owners I have used Nutro with no problem for 11 years however I almost lost both of my healthy dogs this week because of this food! The problems started this summer and they are the same symptoms the other dogs have had but were not so lucky to survive. After a few thousand dollars in vet bills and my vets completely puzzled as to why my dogs became sick I am now confident that it is the food. My dogs were eating Nutro Max Mini chunk chicken. I was shocked and outraged to get online and discover that the same problems other people are having are identical to my toy poodles issues…urinating frequently diarrehea , vomiting eating grass drinking lots of water and almost dying without understanding what was going on.. I strongly encourage anyone using nutro products to switch no matter what the cost because your pets life is at stake and like I said I have been a fan for over 11 years but something terrible has recently happened and the company is claiming there is nothing wrong. Thank god my pets are with we still.
More on Nutro Pet food problems…i just took the time to review the above discussions and I want everyone to know and realize that I believe there most definitely is a problem and it is not going to be easy to figure it out. I have read that the company Nutro has tested their food and is saying it is safe, however there is definitely undisclosed amounts of tainted food in the market place today. I stated earlier on this site that I have been a very happy consumer of their products for over 11 years, however this summer my dogs behavior and health changed…i kept taking them to the vet for numerous testing knowing something was wrong but couldn’t figure it out..costs of these visits adds up to over $2000 dollars .one day they were sick a couple of days later they would get better…this continued for 2 months back and forth to the vet…my point being I did not suspect the food because both dogs ate out of the same bowl but were sick at different times with simular issues but not exact. I now suspect that the food in the bag is not all tainted with the same concentration of poison therefore one dog was eating a bad bit while the other dog was getting smaller amounts. This is why it took me so long to figure it was the food, plus I didn’t want to believe it could be the food because I have thought my dogs did so well on it for 11 years. I strive to give my animals the best. I also have a cat and for some reason she was drawn to eat the same food…and she was throwing it up..I just thought well she is getting older and must be starting to throw up stuff…now mind you this was not daily however this summer it became more bizarre I was finding throw up in my basement but the cat was not acting sick so I brushed it off . My guess is there was some sort of smell that made her want to eat the food, she normally eats a different brand of cat food. and is a healthy cat at 15 years. If you use Nutro pet food and are happy and your pets are healthy good for you, you have dodged a bullet..however if your animals start urinating in the house and pooping beware these are the first signs I noticed, and I thought it was a behavioral issue…also if they start drinking lots of water and eating grass beware another sign they are slowly taking in the poison, the next step may be shaking, diarrhea and vomiting to follow. All of these signs may or may not happen at the same time therefore you will go to the vet they will run tests only to tell you their blood work or urine have no signs of trouble, you will spend tons of money trying to figure out what could it be…not only have a lost money but I have spent multiple nights loosing sleep because I knew something was wrong but we couldn’t figure it out until now. I absolutely know this is Nutros food. My heart breaks for those who have lost their pets..I almost lost both of mine this week..the happy ending is they are alive and we will be switching food..I plan on getting the food tested at whatever the cost…because if my findings lead to prove there is a problem then I will have saved some unknown pet owners the potential loss of their beloved animals. I am not out there to destroy Nutro as a company however if they have unsafe products in the market place and are not doing anything about it shame on them. Someone will have to pay.
I give my cat wet food most days for breakfast and buy whatever “high quality” food that is on sale. He gets Purina One dry for dinner. For the first time, about two months ago, I picked up some Nutro pouches of wet food because they were on sale at Pet Smart. Around the same time, my cat started vomiting up the meal he had just eaten. I ran out of Nutro and fed him other canned foods. The vomiting stopped. I didn’t put together the vomiting & Nutro until just now, after reading the article. Just yesterday morning I gave him another pouch of Nutro (on sale again!) and he did his vomit trick again. I never thought it could be the food until now. He does not vomit with his dry food, or other wet foods. And I don’t think it’s a sensitivity to a particular “flavor” because I get a variety – one of each of what they have. When I think back on it, he only vomits when he’s had Nutro for breakfast. Then he doesn’t eat his dinner. This is a normally ravenous cat who aggressively wakes me everyday at 6am to get his breakfast – unlike his picky sister (who doesn’t even like wet food, so that’s why she doesn’t get it). I can’t believe that this cat who is always starving and eager to eat would forego a whole day of food, unless he is feeling sick. I haven’t fed the Nutro for about a month, and for that month he did not vomit. I was about to take him to the vet, but the vomiting stopped – coincidnetly as the Nutro ran out. No more Nutro for my kitty!
I lost one of my Jack Russells in June to Nutro Max. Bonnie started vomiting, losing weight, shaking, eating grass and drinking HUGE amounts of water. Her brother Clyde was doing some of the same but not as bad. Took both dogs to the vet. Bonnie was diagnosed with acute renal failure. She died 2 days later. Clyde had elevated kidney functions but by changing food & adding flax seed meal tea to his diet, I managed to save him. I contacted a lawyer on a neighbor island (I live on the Big Island of Hawaii). She sent some of the food out for testing to Expertox in Texas. She told me they were one of the few labs in the country that don’t take grants, money, etc. from pet food companies so results should be accurate. She also sent slides from Bonnie’s necropsy to a pathologist in Georgia that she worked with during the Menu Foods recall last year. Results are pending. I will update when I have them.
I spent a lot of money so far in vet bills, testing labs, etc. I brought these dogs with me from New Hampshire when I moved here 2 years ago. We almost didn’t move because I couldn’t fine Nutro in any of the stores, but I found it at an animal feed store in Hilo, so we made the move. How ironic that a loyal customer should almost not move because of a source of dogfood and then have that dogfood possible KILL one of my dogs!! Bonnie & Clyde were perfectly healthy when we moved here as they had to go thru extensive testing, lab work etc. to be allowed into the state. (Quarantine!) So I know my dogs were in “Top Shape” before all this. There have been other cases reported on the island of Oahu that my lawyer is handling also. This has got to stop!! If you love your pets, STOP feeding Nutro until we can get to the bottom of this!!
Someone posted Nutro refused to recall their food, as requested by the FDA
If you go to the fda site, you can see it never happened!
The only recall, is the one from almost 2 years ago, when more than 100 companies were effected. And, nothing has ever been traced to Nutro
No company tests have confirmed anything amiss, no consumer testing reports have ever showed anything wrong with the food.
That consumer affairs site is a JOKE!
It is not a . gov or . org site–it is a . com
ANYONE could have started it..possibly an eemployee, or even a competitor. MY issue is with sites like that, whose sole purpose it seems, is to instill fear into the mases.
I also have never seen anything posted on a REAL news source.
Never on CNN, MSNBC, television—only some private person..
I have used nutro for both my cat and dog for years.
Never had any issues.
I have never had to take either of them to the vet, for anything other than a well visit.
My previous dog, before I knew anything about food, was on beneful, and died of cancer–that could be due to the crap in te Beneful–artificial colors, BHHT–cancer causing preservatives—and science diet?? The first ingredients are by products (HEAD & FEET AND INTESTINES) and corn!
A known allergy trigger.
I tried Blue once—they have these little black kibble in it–life source bits?
I assume that is where all the vitamins are?
Bad thing is, they spit that out!
Yes, Mars did buy them out–and due to the financial backing, Nutro can now make their own facilities (They have always made their own dry food) but now, with the new plant, they willnever have to deal with the MENU FOODS type of issue again.
My biggest concern about all of this nonsence, is that someone may really have a sick dog or cat, assume it is ‘evil nutro’ and not have the pet checked for what is really wrong.
CHECK YOUR SOURCES PEOPLE!
I can’t believe you are all like lemmings, following along!
Check things out for yourself—look at REPUTABLE sites, listen to news, and don’t just join some bandwagon.
EPPIE-You’re one of the few who has been lucky with Nutro. Perhaps you work for Nutro?
no, don’t work for them.
Nutro works for me, and my pets.
There have been other posts saying Nutro worked for them too.
Would I be able to assume the other anti nutro posters work for their competition? LOL
How strange to assume I work for them,because I like the product.
Or, do you think that Nutro Employees get a different food for their pets?
I just really don’t want to see someone mistakenly do nothing if their pets are really sick.
No one mentions all the other recalls we have every day!
People food as well!
it hits all companies—
Taco Bell
Blue Buffalo had a recall no one mentions and that was as recent as end of June, begining of July
The only Nutro recall, was the one that hit all the other companies, almost 2 years ago
If we as a group, are focusing on just one company, we miss the idea of shairng ideas–the forum, just becomes a negative, mass hystrical site—with nothing to substantiate any claims
Again, SHOW ME T HE PROOF.
And, catsofmany–please check your VITTLES Storage unit you have
Could be a possibility, that they are alregic to the plastic you are storing the food in?
(Since those foods affected by the recall, had melamine in them–I am wondering if what you store your food in, can also be an issue)
Perhaps a recount of who stores food in what ype of container could help?
I’m not a gambling person with the lives of my cats and dogs. Until there is an answer as to why my 30 CATS and 4 DOGS became ILL on NUTRO, I will not trust this food. I certainly don’t want people to just assume it’s the food and do nothing if their pets become ill. I would hope everyone would consult with their vet as WE DID if anything arises with their pets. I think it’s absolutely wonderful that you dodged the bullet with your pets. I don’t wish this nightmare we experienced on ANYONE! BUT It’s far too much of a coincidence that a pet gets sick on the food – gets better off the food – gets sick again when the food is reintroduced. One of two in our house and it never would have entered my mind to think it was the food. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what’s going on here. AND I would be willing to bet Nutro will fix this problem under the table – we will never know what happened – and it can happen with ANY food out there. BUT it’s happening with Nutro right now and we need to be vigilant with our pets no matter what food we have them on!
Good point about the storage containers used for the food. BUT we kept our dog food in the original bag. The cat food is stored in cereal containers and considering how many cats we have, it does not sit there long. IF that was an issue, the cats would still be sick after changing to a new food.
In response to Eppi G, I can find no reference anywhere on the internet to the Blue Buffalo recall in June/July to which you refer. The last listed recall for that company was in April 2007, during the mass pet food recall.
The tests conducted by the Pet Food Products Safety Alliance (Pfpsa.org) on certain Nutro products, revealed high levels of copper 2 to 3 times higher than AAFCO recommendations. Some breeds of dogs are are very sensitive to copper.
I do not know if excess copper is at the root of the problem people seem to be having with Nutro pet food. But if people hadn’t been complaining in forums like this, the tests wouldn’t have been run. Consumers have a right to know exactly what is being put into the food they feed their pets so they can make appropriate choices.
I’ve been using NUTRO products for my two dogs and four cats for over 6 years. I have never experienced any health issues with any of my pets. I find it interesting that the people complaining that NUTRO is making their pets ill, never have a batch or lot number on exactly which product they are using., so that these particular products can be tested.
HELLEN-I took the food back and exchanged it for another brand. I didn’t think to keep a number on the bag not knowing there were others out there having problems. Believe me, I regret that! I think if you read MORE you’ll see they DO mention what kind -With us it was Nutro Lamb and Rice – the one we were using – AND we also used Nutro’s Large Breed. The cat formual was Nutro Natural Choice and Max Cat. No I did not keep the number on the cat food bag either but I do have cat food left that will be sent to Nutro for testing. Sadly many of us react with JUST THROW THE CRAP OUT when our animals got sick on food and I think as we thought, that it might just be a spoiled bag. It wasn’t until I read consumeraffairs.com that it all came together.
Maybe a bit off topic–but did you guys see the problem in china?
6000 babies rushed to hospitals, and 4 died, due to melamine in the baby formula?
That’s the same stuff menu foods had in the food from the massive recall—why aren’t they watching China more carefully?
Tiys were recalled for lead paint from China–I know when I get my pets a toy, I look first, to make sure it’s not from CHina.
The whole thing is scary—
And I rechecked–you’re right Helen—
this is what I saw on the fda.gov site
List of recalls for Dog Food from Brand ‘Blue Buffalo (RICE GLUTEN)’
Information current as of June 25, 2008
It is a list of all the Blue Buffalo cat and dog stuff from the recall of 2007
I have given my babies Nutro Natural Choice dry cat food for the last 4 years and have not seen any evidence that it in anyway has made them sick.
Hey Eppie- I posted number 78 and 79 so you can read my story..I am not a crazy blogger but a concerned pet owner. As you can read I used Nutro Max Mini chunk for 11 years – my toy poodles whole life and last week they almost tragically died. It is directly tied to the food.
On june 9th they both were given a clean bill of health and updated shots. My dogs have never had any health issues..they are puppy like at a 11 years old. In July of this year things started to change over time…my point being whatever is in the food or the packaging of the food is toxic. I store my dogs food in the original bag and feed them from there…I have an unopened bag of food with the same batch number of the food that almost killed them..I will be working with a independent lab to get it tested at my own expense because I want answers. So I will keep you posted…as far as not believing postings on these sites all I can say is Thank God to everyone who has posted because without your stories I would not have suspected the food, and because of your stories I discovered what was making my pets sick to death. They almost died on Sept 12 and today they are running around as if they are puppies again, I took them to the vet and there blood work looks great…last week the enzymes in their liver were over 1300!! Left untreated they would not of made it…All I did was take them off the food!! Now I am home cooking for them until I can figure out a food company I trust and the dogs like. So Eppie I understand you are happy with the Nutro food but be warned this poisoning is not readily apparent and does not seem to change the animals health immediately. I am looking into all angles as to figure out what is going on, you see they claim the food is safe and that the FDA has tested it and found nothing wrong, however are they testing the packaging? The new packaging for what I am feeding changed this spring if I recall correctly. So let’s all take a step back and open our minds and figure out what happened? We all love our pets or we would not take the time to share our stories. My goal is to prevent any more animals and pet owners from going through what I lived the last 4 months…Just as I do not know 100% the food is bad until I get my tests results back
how do any of you know for 100% fact the food is safe…Are you really going to trust what these companies say? By all means feed your animals whatever you choose and good luck.
WELL SAID LORI!
I should have video taped our 12 year old German Shepherd. If you doubters had seen her struggle to stand, weave back and forth once she was on her feet, then collapse…Struggle to stand again and then fall over…Her head shaking like she was drugged…the fear and helplessness in her eyes…and how we would put a towel underneath her belly to help her up…then lead her slowly down the hallway to the back door so she could go outside. And back in again to the kitchen and her dog bed where she would collapse from exhaustion. And my husband, daughter and I would watch with tear filled eyes, sick to our stomachs that we would have to call our vet and make that dreaded decision to put her down. We thought sure it was her legs giving out because she had been progressively getting weaker in her back legs over the summer. And then suddenly she couldn’t get up. Sadly that’s how it happens with elderly dogs so it never entered our minds that it could be caused by her food. And who wants to video tape their dogs last painful days?
I wish I had…Because that dog is trotting around the back yard now! She’s getting up by herself, trotting down the hallway by herself, begging for her treats and sassy again!
For a dog to go from deaths door to back to normal without treatment, without meds – that tells me she was being poisoned. We’ve been in close contact with our vet. But she did such an about turn around after stopping the food that our vet said it sure looked suspiciously like the food and to watch her closely but take it day by day.
Nutro Pet Food Co. has issued a statement on its website refuting the findings of the Pet Food Safety Alliance. The PFSA’s response can be found at Pfpsa.org, under News Updates. I found it quite interesting.
WOW…is all I can say after reading both Nutro’s statements and PFPSA’s statements. And no warning on their food bags to say – Our increased copper levels might kill your dog. I’m just glad we stopped using it and won’t ever again.
FROM NUTRO’S WEBSITE in response to PFPSA’s report: The report is correct in stating that there is a small minority of dogs that are sensitive to copper. These dogs are relatively few and need to be carefully managed with the assistance of a Veterinarian.
But, if you read the site mentioned above—the AAFCO states it can have up to 1000mg/kg of copper, and Nutro has 260, they certainly have done nothing wrong?
They are still well below what the pet food governing agency recommends.
Now, I will other companies’ levels—OK, so far, I have seen copper in California Natural, Science diet, Blue buffalo—
Yes, Eppie, all foods have copper BUT Nutro has INCREASED COPPER! And no warning that they have INCREASED levels that could harm your pet! And Nutro admits that these dogs need to be carefully managed by the assistance of a veterinarian. And how are we supposed to know we have a dog that is sensitive to copper???????? Until that dog gets sick or dies????? And even with bloodwork done – the tests did not come back as TOO MUCH COPPER!!!!!!! Read the FULL report from PFPSA. You, Eppie, would argue this up to the day your dog is on death’s door. That’s ok. It’s your dog. But how can the rest of us trust a company that knowingly puts a food out there that can harm some dogs. I certainly would trust the report from PFPSA more than Nutro anyday. Sure makes me wonder what increased levels they put in catfood that affected all 30 of mine!
And here is a comment from PFPSA. “At the very least Nutro openly admits it has no problem with providing massive doses of copper to pets it knows it could kill.”
Quote from PFPSA:
While Nutro may view a shiny coat as desirable on sick, dead or dying pets – whether well founded or not – the Pet Food Products Safety Alliance does not share that view.
In January 2008, but healthy 7 year old cat began vomiting (yellow liquid & partially digested food) several times a day.
(Nutro MaxCat Gourmet Classics Adult Roasted Chicken flavor). He had been fed this same brand for seven years without incident.
After changing to another brand, the vomiting drastically subsided within days. After six months, the vomiting almost completely ceased, remaining at maybe once every couple of weeks.
Recently, as a stop gap I stupidly mixed in some of the original MaxCat formula with his current diet and within a week, his vomiting has returned to 3-4 times daily. I have of course immediately stopped and am praying that he will once again recover.
From these circumstances I am 100% certain that this batch (Jan 08) of food is tainted.
Does anyone have information on how to get this food tested or on existing test results for this brand? I have a significant quantity of this batch remaining for testing.
Is there any specific testing for my cat I can request from my vet? I took him to my vet and explained these symptoms originally, but they did not recommend or perform any screening whatsoever.
Any suggestions on testing of the food or the cat would be greatly appreciated.
I’ve been feeding my 2 year old Corgie Nutro from 6 weeks on. Dry and Wet. Never a problem and her coat and she is very healthy. I just got a German Shepherd about 3 weeks ago and feeding him the same. No problems at all. In my opinion, this is a coincidence…period.
In response to Paul, if you go to Pet Food Products Safety Alliance (pfpsa.org), and click on Testing Tips, they offer several labs you might choose, as well as other helpful information regarding testing pet food.
Doglover – Let me ask you this …. Your friend’s dog dies after getting his head stuck in a plastic bag. Do you become more careful with plastic bags or do you say – coincidence…period???? All we want is to make people aware there is a danger connected with this food. We all are happy your dogs are okay. No one here wants this to happen to anyone else’s dog. But beware and watchful as it can happen suddenly.
I didn’t mean to leave out cats as well. Testing has come up with answers to the dog food but the cat food problems still remain a mystery.
I was feeding nutro to my kitties and switched around a month ago thinking that they weren’t doing very good. One of them got sick but is better now, and the other just passed away today. She was diagnosed with kidney failure. I wonder if Nutro was responsible for this. I don’t have that bag or the cans they ate any longer. It’s too late and last year I lost 2 kitties to the tainted pet food! How can they get away with killing our pets? Our own government KNOWS what is happening..they don’t even care. I’m sure this has to be population control or something. My heart is empty and sick.
We have been feeding Nutro and Nutro Max pouch food to our cats for at least 6 months. The 3 boys really loved it. One male started urinating all over the house about 4 months ago. The vets couldn’t figure out what was wrong. The 2 other boys just got sick very violently 4 days ago. They started being lethargic and vomiting. One had a little bit of blood with the vomit. After xrays and quite extensive tests, the vet indicates that the most likely cause is salmonella. These are all indoor cats, so we couldn’t figure out what was wrong! Then the vet called late in the evening and told us to stop the food. Unfortunately, it was too late for one of our poor cats. He basically became paralyzed, was having trouble breathing, and starting twitching all the time. We had to put him down yesterday… The other one is starting to bounce back but he is the younger male, and was always a strong cat. He is still gagging and vomiting after 4 days…. Curiously enough, the other 2 cats in the household didn’t get sick. Now we know why….the girls didn’t like the pouch food. They stuck to dry food (not Nutro). I just feel so guilty that I bought this food for them…..
My older cat has eaten Nutro for the entire 4 and a half years of her life, and my kitten now does as well. Both are happy, healthy, and have beautiful, shiny coats. I have never had any problems with Nutro, no vomiting, no diarrhea, nothing. I recently recommended it to a friend of mine whose cat was having health problems and not eating, and her cat fell in love with it. His health problems are a thing of the past.
Both of my cats absolutely love and thrive on it, but it does concern me that it is now owned by a large corporation. I am considering changing to a smaller, holistic brand of cat food only because of my concern that a larger company will not closely regulate the ingredients and quality of the food.
To very sad owners – I am so sorry to hear of your loss. I hope your other cats are recovering.
We were having major problems with cats and our German Shepherd urinating in our house while they were on Nutro. That has all stopped since we threw that junk out. Our animals had been on the food since last November/December.
We have been back and forth to our vet with our 15 year old Siamese. He thought it could be colon cancer. He gave her an injection and had us keep coming back for exams to monitor her. She’s finally improving. Her problem started on NUTRO! We took everyone off the food at the end of July this year. She was having bowel problems. Would cry out in pain as she was having a bowel movement. Last year she nearly died when she ate contaminated food that was part of that recall. It took months for her kidneys to recover. Then this! It’s like playing Russian roulette with your animals lives.
My cats had been on Nutro Max for years until March 2007 when one of them was badly sickened by the pouch food. This happened several times. I had to take one of them to the vet for testing. What made it worse, I worked for Nutro. I reported the illness, noone bothered to contact me. I worked for company (be aware of this). So I talked to manager and he reassured me. So I went on thinking this was a one time thing. So I continued to promote the food on my job and outside of the job. Then around Feb, March of this 2008. my two cats didn’t want anything to do with it and were constantly vomiting. I put them both back on another holistic formula and that has worked well since. Then a month later in May 2008, one of my dogs all of a sudden got very very lethargic and was drinking ALOT of water all of a sudden. I went to the website and saw the numerous posts on consumer affairs after a regular Nutro customer talked to me while I was working about the current complaints and she had switched to another holistic formula for her greyhounds. I was very upset when I read all the posts. Its true, some of them don’t add up and that happens but there are many that state similar symptoms and problems. It seems the problems began once MARS Petcare, Inc. bought them out. I don’t know why they would start having problems if its’ a stand alone company. I was scratching my head on this one. It didn’t make sense but I was hearing more and more complaints in the stores and on the website. Mostly about the dog food but some cats too. I reported all complaints up the chain. They were not appropriately addressed. Again, I was upset. So I resigned after a meeting we had where my concerns and those of other employees were brushed aside. They had heard about the complaints and were a bit reticent about continuing to promote Nutro. We were brushed off at the end of the meeting just before we left was it finally addressed and quickly too with no time for questions. I resigned the next day. I was furious. It upsets me that people’s pets are being sickened by a recommendation I may have made. So I left Nutro. I could not continue with this company if I wasn’t confident in what I was promoting. I’m not a hypocrite. After I left, I did some more reading and kept up on the posts on Consumer Affairs. I was dumbfounded by what I read. I’m a skeptic by heart and I looked at the posts with a critical eye (I’m a vet tech) but everyone who posted cannot be lying or telling a falsehood. I’m glad for those of you who have had no problems with any of Nutro’s foods. That is the way it should be. However, there are so many who are brokenhearted due to sickened pets and are feeling duped and ignored by the complaints they have voiced to Nutro or the pet food stores they bought the food from. I’m so sorry I ever promoted Nutro. I used to be such a staunch advocate. My dogs did great for years on it. It was about the only food that didn’t give them diarrhea or the soupy poop. I foster dogs too and I promoted Nutro to all families or persons adopting my fosters. I don’t anymore. I tell everyone I come in contact with not to buy Nutro due to my experiences and the experiences of others.
Helen, Thank you for your letter. Please make sure you hit every blog out there with this information and make sure you send it to consumeraffairs.com. We need to keep hammering away until something is done.
10/12/08
A month ago I changed my dog’s food to Nutro Lamb and Rice. I noticed that they have been extremely thirsty, started panting, it wasn’t hot outside and sounded as though they have upper respiratory infections and some vomiting. One of the dogs would not eat the food. Thinking he was finicky I added warm water to persuade him to eat; he did but not as much as usual. The other dog, a lab eats anything. At this point I did think that maybe the food was high in sodium. With 3 pounds of the Nurto left I needed to purchase more food. Went into Petsmart, looked on the Nutro bag for sodium content. I told the Petsmart representative about the above problems with the dogs since changing dog food. She said her dog got sick also and she changed to another brand. I did choose another brand. I went home and did research. I found that my dogs had the same symptoms as other dogs that have been eating the toxic food! I did write to the company. I called Petsmart the next day and asked why the food is still on the shelves when dogs are getting sick. I was told to call corporate. The blogs about the food have been from October 2008 back to Mar. 07.
Check out below website.
http://www.securepet.biz/wordpress/2008/08/august-2008-pet-deaths-pet-owners-suspect-nutro/
I had a cat on Iams and have tried other dry food with her but she constantly had diarrhea. Switched and tried out Nutro due to the advice from my sister who loved it, and ended up with great results. Normal stools. I was using pedigree with my dog and went to try out Blue which led to her bloating and having severe diarrhea. So! I’m now trying out Nutro with our dog since it worked really well with the cats.
I’ll see what happens!
We’ve fed our kitties Nutro Max Natural for several years now.
We got a new bag 10/12 and that night, one kitty threw up several times and we found a lot more around the house the next day.
Then we noticed all of them wouldn’t eat it at all and were doing all they could to get food (Garbage can, begging, trying to get food off our plates, etc) We finally put two & two together & figured out something was wrong with the food. They are happily eating a different brand now.
What I got off the bag:
USE BY 20/OCT/2009
06:38 H02 F0C (or FDC)
CAPF00024
I have used the Nutro small cans for cats. One of my cats ate this exclsivly for many years, My new kittens ate the kitten pouches from 3months to about 7 months old.
Due to these reports I have been slowly pulling out the Nutro cans. It has become a 2-3 times a week all 3 cats will split a small can. This was mostly to clear up my stock of the cans. The stock is now almost gone.
But as I have had no personal problems, I am going to go buy another stock of the cans and continue to serve them a few times a week.
However Nutro is no longer be their primary source of food intake as it has been in the past.
I had been feeding Merrick to my 3 dogs and have been VERY happy with this food. My Malamute was having problems with soft stool, so I figured I would switch her over to Nutro Chicken Meal, Rice, and Oatmeal, as I had used that when she was younger and had soft stool as well. Well, I am not even through 2 20 pound bags and she has a severe case of crystals in her urine. The vet put her on precription food for at least a month, totaling more than $200.00 for the food and Clavamox which price is $150.00. I wish I had researched a little bit more, as I didn’t know the formula had changed. With so many people having this problem, Nutro should be covering these vet bills. The info is out there and Nutro should be doing something to fix it.
My cat Bella, like many on this forum and other sites, almost died about a week and a half ago. She was vomiting, acting lethargic and not eating her food. We took her to the Emergency Room and then she spent a week in the “hospital” on heavy anti-biotics and IV fluids. It turns out that she had a kidney infection and e.coli.
I had no idea how all of this happened. She has always been healthy and is only 4 years old. Then a neighbor asked me if it was something in her food. Her food? Hum… I had never thought of that. I had fed her the same food – Nutro Complete Care- for about 2 1/2 years. I jumped on-line and to my awe, story after story of the exact same things happening to other cat owners (just google nutro cat food and it is on the first page of hits). Our cat is one of the lucky ones, but she will be on anti-biotics for 6 weeks (administering is super fun!) and she has been on IV fluids administered once a day by us via a large needle in the back of the neck for about 3 min. (keeping her from flailing out of our arms is quite a feat) for a couple of weeks. She will still have to have her blood tested again and possibly an ultrasound on her kidney (sound cheap?) All in all about $3000. I wonder how much Nutro is making per bag by buying unregulated stuff from China. I bet if I paid that little bit extra per bag, it would come out to a heck of a lot cheaper than 3 grand!
I know there is no proof of a link between these events and the food, but if these were PEOPLE getting sick and dying this company would have been shut down a LONG time ago. Why do hundreds of animals and pet owner’s have to suffer before any action can be taken?
Almost everyone I have talked to that feeds there animal (dog or cat) Nutro has mentioned a problem with vomiting, panting, lethargy or plain refusing to eat the food. Something is definitely wrong! I still need to do my part and post complains to Nutro, the FDA and Consumer Reports, but first I contacted everyone I knew and told them to stop feeding it to their animals and save it (in the fridge) for future testing.
All of you who continue to feed this brand to your animals, just watch for the warning signs and discontinue use if you see them. My condolences to those who have lost their pets/multiple pets and good luck to everyone else trying to nurse their pet back to health!
My 9 yrs old cat suddenly became ill while eating Nutro. We were told she had kidney failure. All the blood work showed that she did not have a bladder infection or any thing else. We gave her fluids for 2 weeks and tried to get her to eat the special food. My other cat refused to eat the Nutro, so I went and got Max cat food. She, the sick one, begun to eat the new food and she is all better. Nutro asked to test the food. I don’t results yet.
We have been feeding our dog Nutro natural choice and the Nutro senior food in the silver bag(forgot the actual name of it)and ahve not had problems with it until recently one of our dogs was diagnosed with pancreatis. What arised a suspicion is that one of our friends dogs was diagnosed with pancreatis at the same time as our dog was, he is located in the same geographic and feeds nutro dog food as well. So we researched on the internet and found several other complaint identical to ours and they all seem to show the same link to nutro dog foods.
Buddy died last weekend. The vet had found crystals in his urine several weeks before and he had been on antibiotics. About 4 months before that we had switched to nutro food. Last weekend he was fine one day and then the next he was very lethargic, had trouble walking in the evening and was very thirsty. Apparently after research it appears that he suffered from rapid kidney failure. He died that night, very unexpectedly. In my opinion, the cause was nutro food.. Which he had been on for a few months. He had no major health problems in the 9 years we had him UNTIL we switched over to nutro (which was recommended by our vet at PETSMART). His deterioration was rapid and dramatic. I now feel very guilty. PLEASE DON”T TAKE CHANCES WITH YOUR PET!! I hope pet owners will read these warning before it is too late for your pet.
Our 12-year-old Golden has had recurring bouts of diarrhea or loose stools over the last several months, possibly associated with the last batch of Nutro Max Large Breed Senior dry food. When we take him off and feed rice/boiled hamburger or rice/cottage cheese or rice/cooked egg he bounces back, but returning him to Nutro brings back the symptoms. Based on these anecdotes, we’re going to dump the Nutro and switch to ??? Thanks all for sharing!
I discovered these comments about Nutro 2 months ago, when I was researching my cat’s problems with vomiting and losing weight. He died in September. Another cat died in October from Kidney failure. Both had been fed Nutramax for about 7 years. Another cat developed FLUTD when he was a year old, and almost died from blockage. He was switched to Science Diet c/d. Currently he is being hospitalized with pancreatitis. I don’t know what is going on with my cats. I also have three female cats who are fine. I did switch from Nutramax to Science Diet in August after reading the comments about Nutramax. I don’t know if there is a connection between Nutramax and my sick/dead cats. I thought indoor cats were supposed to live 12-15 years. But, I just buried a 9 year old and an 8 year old cat, and my 6 year old cat is hospitalized. What is going on with my cats?
My 13 year old Lab is DEAD. She exhibited the same symptoms associated with Nutro, and the timing of my feeding her on and off with that brand coincided with the symptoms. I attributed the symptoms to her senior age status. I had the food analyzed at the University of Idaho lab, which showed 300g of zinc – a potentially toxic dose over time.
AUG122011 Senior Gourmet classics….my cat at this point started vomiting with a change to MAX CAT….it could be something else but bought 6 cans to give variation between, friskies and fancy feast….I have noticed and noted vomit with first can, no grass, in vomit was noticed……..now feed and sick, vomiting and not eating…..anyone else??
My cats have been eating Nutro dry since before the recall. I’ve never had an issue with them. Nutro has better lab practices than some of their competitor brands. I do worry about the reports and I personally know a dog that passed away recently due to digestive complications and he was eating Nutro dry. They have switched and I’m going out today to buy more dry for my cats and I’m unsure of what to get them!
My healthy 8yr old Min pin Buddy is dead. I fed him Nutro Natural Choice (lamb and rice mostly) for his whole life. In the past few weeks he became increasingly thirsty and lethargic. He lost a lot of weight, and I finally took him to the vet. They said he had Diabetes and required immediate intensive care, which he got.
After reading all the comments on Nutro (too late) I realize that Buddy must have been slowly poisoned by his own food. I strongly recommend not feeding any Nutro products to your pet, including the treats -which he got plenty of.
My sadness over Buddy’s death is replaced by anger at Nutro. If I could only go back a few weeks I would have tried taking him off the Nutro food and fed him home made beef and rice, he would have loved that!
OK NOT SURE ABOUT THIS NUTRO. QUITE ODD I HAVE BEEN FEEDING MY FIVE MONTH OLD PUPPY ON THE STUFF AND FOR SOME REASON I COULDN’T SEEM TO POTTY TRAIN HER AS FAST AS MY LAST DOG. NOW I’M NOT TO BRIGHT ABOUT DOGS AND THIS IS THE ONLY SECOND ONE I EVER HAD IN MY LIFE. SO ONE DAY WHEN MY PUPPY URINATED ON THE FLOOR I WENT TO CLEAN IT UP AND DISCOVERED IT HAD A BAD SMELL SO I TOOK HER TO THE VET. WELL SHE IS NOW ON CLAVAMOX FOR UTI. ALSO MY AUNTS ONE YEAR OLD DOG IS ON NUTRO AND HAS UTI AND HER DAUGHTERS DOG ABOUT NINE MONTHS OLD HAS UTI AND IS ON NUTRO. THESE ARE ALL FEMALE DOGS AND WE ALL LIVE A COUPLE HUNDRED MILES FROM EACH OTHER. QUITE A COINSIDENCE DON’T YOU SAY?? I THINK THERE IS SOMETHING NOT RIGHT WITH THE NUTRO PRODUCT AND HAVE RECENTLY SWITCHED MY DOG TO HILLS SCIENCE DIET. OH AND BEFORE THE UTI AND SWITCHING, MY DOG HAD BOUTS OF DIARRHEA. SO AGAIN NOT SURE BUT I KNOW AFTER DOING SOME RESEARCH HILLS SCIENCE DIET IS THE BEST FOR CRYSTALS AND BLADDER STONES.I AM SORRY I FED MY DOG NUTRO AND AM HOPING HER UTI WILL CLEAR UP WITH NO OTHER PROBLEMS.MY PUPPY HAS BEEN ON NUTRO FOR MONTHS AND THE POOR THING MAY HAVE MAJOR DAMAGE FROM FEEDING HER THAT NUTRO. MAY NOT BE ABLE TO PROOVE IT BUT I WILL NEVER EVER AGREE WITH THE NUTRO PRODUCTS. MY CAT IS ON SCIENCE DIET AND NEVER HAS HAD A PROBLEM. EVEN DURING ALL THE RECALLS. MY OPINON…..NUTRO IS NOT A SAFE PRODUCT FOR ANIMALS. JUST READ THE STORIES AND YOU DECIDE. I AM URGING MY AUNT AND EVERYONE TO STOP USING NUTRO. POSTED 01/03/2009
I have been feeding my cat Nutro for 4 years no problem with the food at all. I have a new kitten and she’s on the same food because it didn’t bother my other cat and i have no problems with Nutro at all.
just for the record…after about about 6mos of eating a dry Nutro dog food we switched to mixing in some of the Nutru wet food into their diet. All of the sudden our long haired chihuahua’s have been vomiting bile and having diarrhea for the past week. one night there was diarrhea followed by large drops of blood from our 2.5lb pup. after a $500 middle-of-the-night vet visit we fed them babyfood mixed with dry nutro product and they were fine for a couple of days. when we fed them wet food again gus, our little one, exploded again this morning.
after my suspicion of the food was validated this morning i’ve been doing research for the past few hours. I assure you two things. It is definitely NOT random bloggers posting about this. And, we WILL be switching our dog’s food, effective IMMEDIATELY!
I have been feeding my 9 yr old pug Nutro for quite a while. Before Thanksgiving his stool started getting loose. It continued for a while and after Christmas I brought him and a stool sample to the vet. He had actually gotten into the cat’s igloo style litter box and had a feast a bit before this all started happening so I thought he had worms. They didn’t find worms. I’ve been watching him carefully and comparing his actions to those from before he got “sick” and nothing changed. For the past month he has been pooping liquid – like it sounds like a faucet running. Not more frequently, not with blood but not normal. I was going to e-mail Nutro to see if anything in the food was different but when I googled Nutro dog food lots of links came up that – varying from mild to severe – are about what I’m dealing with. to be honest, I’m scared. He had rice tonight and will continue on a very bland homecooked diet for a while and I hope he will recover. I’m going to keep my bags of Nutro and will bring them to the vet to test if it turns out it’s the food.
I have 2 labs that have been on Nutro Natural Lamb and Rice formula for 8+ years. I’ve notice the last week that both have runny stools. About a month ago I recommended Nutro to my brother for his new pups. He did some research and mentioned about all the problems. I told him I stand by Nutro. Now, I am concerned. My dogs have been about as healthy as can be until now. Just bought 2 new bags of Nutro today. I guess I will be taking them back. Now I have no idea what to feed them. One has a very sensitive stomach and the Lamb and rice formula was the one dry food that didn’t seem to bother her. What a shame!
I haven’t had any problems. She is 1.5 yr. Golden and eats chicken soup for the soul.
I fed my 2 year old cat nothing but Nutro Natural Choice dry food since I got him as a kitten. A few months back, the pet store was out of the 4 lb. bag I usually get, so I got a bag of Nutro Max dry instead. Both my 1 and my 2 year old seemed to like it, so I stuck with it for a couple of months. During these months, my 1 year-old, Milo, started having bouts of diahrrea and my 2 year-old, Bob, was gassy. Also, Bob started keeping me up at night because he wouldn’t stop meowing. I thought maybe he was bored or that it was a side effect of his medication.
Well, a little over a week ago, I ran out of dry food when the pet stores were closed. I had to run to the grocery store and get a bag of Meow Mix to tide the boys over. That very night, Bob slept through the night! I was reluctant to believe the Nutro could have caused him enough discomfort to keep him up crying every night, but now it’s been over a week and my Bob doesn’t cry anymore. As for Milo, the diahrrea is gone.
I’m done with Nutro and currently researching other quality products to feed my boys.
I have ben feeding Nutro products to my cats both wet and dry for some time now no problems.I am very pleased with Nutro. My cats like and and they are active as can be. During the Recall when I could not buy the wet food I went to something else it was more expensive and not as good. I was elated when nutro can were put back on the shelves. I like nutro and recommend to people who are looking for a food. No I am nut a agent for Nutro but am just a satisfied pet parent.
For six years I fed my dog Dudley nothing but Nutro Large Breed Adult. Two weeks ago, after opening a new bag, he started vomiting and having diarrhea, and his consumption of food trailed off. I’ve fed him other foods, and he gobbles it up with no ill effects. He’s been tested for worms and parasites, to no result. I’m pretty alarmed here, and have been reading about a lot of similar instances. You know that sense you get when you feel you know the cause of something? Even before I heard of any Nutro complaints, I suspected it was the food. he acted funny when he went near his bowl, as if the food just wasn’t right. I’m taking him off Nutro for good, and I’m probably getting him a blood test t check his liver and kidneys.
I work in a small pet supplies store. We sell Nutro, Innova, and other high quality foods. We have a fair number of regular customers who use Nutro for their cats and dogs. I haven’t heard not one complaint from any customer.
I fed my cat Nutro for 4 years, never had a problem. This summer, I noticed he was vomiting more–but mainly from hairballs (he’s a long-haired cat.) Occasionally bile, but never bright yellow bile. I switched him to Science Diet Hairball formula and he stopped vomiting (maybe 4 hairballs since summer.)
Saturday, I decided to give Nutro another go (quality’s supposed to be better–no by-products, it’s cheaper than Science Diet, etc.) I mixed in a little with his food Saturday night, a little on Sunday and it was mainly Nutro today (Monday.) Also, just to experiment, put in an order for Wellness (which is coming tomorrow.) I found this blog Sunday night, which freaked me out a bit, but thought, maybe it’s a January 2008 problem, bad batch, etc.
Well, this evening (Monday) he cried out and vomited a HUGE amount of bright yellow bile. I freaked out. This is a few hours after eating the Nutro. Brought the Nutro back to the pet store, exchanged it for Science Diet and am going to call the company tomorrow.
It could be a coindence, but I don’t think so.
I’m hoping my cat is well with no other problems. If he vomits bile again tomorrow, I’m bringing him to the vet.
When Wellness comes, I’ll mix it in with Science Diet and hopefully he’ll like it and there will be no problems.
My heart goes out to all the people on this blog who either lost a pet or whose pet got sick as a (probable) result of Nutro.
Some months ago I notice that the Nutro cat food I was buying for multiple cats started having a strange smell. The cats would eat only intact kibbles and not fragments or crumbs. Also,the cat box started to have a horrendous odor. At about the same time we had adopted a young kitten which appeared to be in excellent health. We purchased Nutro Max Cat canned kitten food for our new baby. The kitten became very lethargic and hid most of the time. We had made an appointment at the veterinary hospital to have her checked out but she died hours before the appointment.
We also have an older dog who was diagnosed with pancreatitis. The Vet put her on an antibiotic and special Science Diet formula and she improved rapidly. When returned to the Nutro lamb and rice food her symptoms gradually returned. I have now switched to a totally different brand for both cats and dogs and am waiting to see if anything changes. Cats and dogs seem to like the new products better.
My 9 month old kitten had been eating the Nutro Complete Care dry food since we brought him home from the shelter. He became extremely lethargic, stopped eating, and started freaking out licking his hind legs and belly all the time. We took him into the vet and they ran blood tests and came up with nothing. They told us to stop feeding him Nutro thinking maybe he had a food allergy. A couple days later we took him back to the vet because he was barely moving. The vet ended up pumping him with fluids because our kitten was very dehydrated. He still wouldn’t eat…we were afraid this ‘mystery disease’ was going to be deadly…the vet was out of ideas. Then on May 21st we got an email from PetSmart about the voluntary recall of the food we were feeding him. When I spoke with the vet, they said that it appears we were poisoning our kitten with the high levels of zinc in the Nutro. After almost 3 weeks of nursing our kitten back to health…he is starting to show signs of improvement.
Well, I posted back on October 22nd after my 4 year old cat almost passed away because of, in my opinion, the Nutro food. It took 2 months and $3000 dollars to nurse her back to health, but now she is completely recovered and the great cat she used to be. We now feed her Innova food. The ingredient list isn’t full of crap I can’t pronounce and she loves it! She has never been so excited to eat before or at such a healthy weight before. Nutro has finally released a Recall claiming there were no complaints from consumers!!! My rear-end! Maybe we should forward this string of like 120 complaints of people saying they contacted Nutro with no response! Anyways, my food doesn’t even fall into the recalled food. I will never trust this company again or buy from them. So sorry to everyone who lost their pets and good luck to those with sick pets. Some do pull through.
My 12yr old min. schn. started bleeding stool an vomite. My wife had fed him nutro lamb an rice recipe that day. $1000 bucks later my little dog is fighting for his life. vets are clueless.But I know what caused the problem. That frigin nutro.. My dog dies and there be hell to pay. You SOBEES
Have 4 dogs ages 3-12 yrs. I have used Nutro for 12 yrs.Purchased 11 bags of Nutro Max opened one and after one week major diarrhea with all four. Figured cause was food change, but after 8 days and feeding extra rice with food still having issues. Husband called Nutro and girl said may be rancid bag. She would give us credit for replacement of bag and take rest back to the store. Husband took Nutro Max back to store and came home with Nutro Lamb and Rice (they always did well on this). Girl at PetCo informed my husband that many customers have returned Nutro Max and replaced with Nutro Lamb and Rice and did well. For those of you who don’t want to be disloyal to Nutro good luck with that. I will watch my girls on this and if is no improvement or still have issues I am going to contact someone to see what my rights are and if this food line can be checked out.