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Tests Find Melamine in Diamond Pet Foods Brands

Doubts Grow that All Contaminated Pet Food Been Found

By Lisa Wade McCormick
ConsumerAffairs.com

May 22, 2007

• RECALL LIST • Consumer Complaints --- News • FDA Orders Illinois Pet Food Maker to Clean Up Its Act • String of Illnesses Afflicts NUTRO-Fed Pets • Pet Owners Not Thrilled with Poisoning Settlement • Menu Foods Settles Pet Food Class Action • Many Pet Foods Still Missing From Store Shelves • Pet Owners Cheer Indictments in Toxic Pet Food Case • Indictments in Toxic Pet Food Case • Diamond Pet Foods Agrees To $3.1 Million Settlement • Tests Find More Toxic Pet Toys • Finding Safe Toys to Give Your Pet • China Agrees to Stepped-Up Food, Drug Inspections • Menu Foods Denies Acetaminophen Found in its Cat Food • Veterinarians Solve Pet Food Death Puzzle • Menu Foods Agrees to Test for Pain Killer in its Cat Food • Lab Tests Again Find Acetaminophen in Pet Food • Toxic Pet Toys: A Doctor's Advice • Consumers Respond to Toxic Wal-Mart Pet Toy Stories • Federal Import Safety Panel Outlines Proposals • Pet Industry Agrees on Need for Toxicity Standards • Industry Responds to Reports of Lead in Wal-Mart Pet Toys • Wal-Mart Attacks Lab Tests that Found Lead, Chromium in Pet Toys • Wal-Mart Reviewing Results of Tests on China-Made Pet Toys • Lab Tests Find Lead, Other Toxins in Pet Toys Sold at Wal-Mart • CANIDAE Denies Reports of Painkiller in its Pet Food • Lab Tests Find Painkiller in Samples of Pet Food • Purina Denies Claim on Bichon Frise Deaths • FDA Blocks Nutro Pet Food Shipment from Entering U.S. • FDA Testing Dog Treats Pulled from Wal-Mart Shelves • Wal-Mart Finds Melamine in Chinese-Made Dog Treats --- • More about Pet Food Recalls ...

Samples of another brand of dog food have tested positive for melamine and caused kidney problems in at least four dogs in California.

The dry dog food is Nutra Nuggets, manufactured by Diamond Pet Foods of Meta, Missouri.

Dr. Matt Humason of the Lone Oak Veterinary Clinic in Visalia, California, became suspicious of the pet food after four of his client’s healthy dogs suddenly went into renal failure.

“I saw the first two dogs around the beginning of May,” Dr. Humason told ConsumerAffairs.com today. “These were normal, healthy dogs and they both had become lethargic, one was vomiting, they weren’t eating, and they were drinking lots of water.”

Dr. Humason ran blood tests on the dogs and discovered they were both in renal failure.

“At first I thought maybe somebody threw something over the fence and that’s what made these dogs sick,” he says. “The pet food recall didn’t cross my mind because these dogs were both eating dry food and their food wasn’t on the recall list.”

A few days later, however, Dr. Humason saw another dog with the same symptoms.

“This was a younger Lab who was also a healthy dog, but now was sick and vomiting, and in renal failure. The owners happened to bring in their other Lab, who is older, and wanted that dog tested, too. That dog didn’t have any symptoms, but test shows its kidney values were elevated, too.”

Using his own detective skills, Dr. Humason uncovered the following clues that helped him solve the mystery of these ailing dogs:

• All four dogs -- who are Labs and Lab-mixes -- ate Nutra Nuggets dry food;

• The dogs’ owners had purchased the food from the same Costco store in Visalia, California;

• The dogs’ owners made those purchases within days of each other -- in Mid-April.

To confirm his suspicions, Dr. Humason decided to have the food tested.

Positive for Melamine

“I sent samples to the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory, which is working with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA),” Dr. Humason says. “And those samples tested positive for melamine.”

Melamine is a chemical used to make plastics and fertilizers. It is not approved for use in human or pet food.

The FDA, however, discovered melamine and melamine-related compounds in the wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate imported from China used to make many brands of pet food.

That finding triggered one of the largest pet food recalls in U.S. history. Since March, 18 companies have recalled more than 5,600 pet food products.

Thousands of dogs and cats that have eaten tainted foods have suffered kidney problems or died.

Dr. Humason says the four dogs he’s treated for renal failure are improving.

“The first two are going home (probably today) and their owner is going to give them fluids under their skin. This will keep them hydrated; what we’re trying to do is flush out the kidneys. They’ve been here for about a week on IV fluids. They’re still not quite back to normal, but they’re happy and eating again. ”

He adds: “The second two dogs are still here and have been on IV fluids since May 10th. They’re having a little harder time, but they’re doing much better and they may go home by the end of the week.”

Dr. Humason says he’s only treated a few cats for kidney problems since Menu Foods announced its massive recall of 60 million containers of wet pet food in March.

“I was actually starting to think this was getting more overkill until this happened,” he says. “But now I’m looking for this all the time.

“In fact, I saw two other dogs yesterday that were showing the same signs (of renal failure),” he adds. “I tested them, but their blood work came back normal as far as their kidneys were concerned. But I sent their food for testing because they were eating that same Nutra Nuggets as the other dogs — and their owners had purchased it about the same time.”

Dr. Humason says he’s not sure if the food is from the same lot, though.

The first two owners don’t have the bags of food anymore. And there are some questions about the lot numbers on those bags.

That could present problems for Diamond Pet Foods and its distributors. And also to pet owners who feed their dogs this brand of food.

Without the lot number, it might be difficult to know where the tainted bags were distributed. And if any are still on the market — or in pet owners’ homes.

Costco Concerned

“We’re in a real quandary here,” Craig Wilson, with Costco’s Food Safety Department, told ConsumerAffairs.com today. “We’re not the only ones who were selling this product. This was not a Costco brand; this went to many other sellers of this item. What we’re trying to do is get the batch (lot) number.

He adds: “This happened so long ago — sometime in April. The turnaround time in Costco for these items in less than in a week — in other words, they don’t sit on our shelves for more than a week. I’d be more concerned about stores where there’s not that much turnaround.”

A spokeswoman for Diamond Pet Foods called this an “isolated incident.” When asked if the tainted bags are still on store shelves, however, she said she wasn’t sure.

Spokeswoman Becky Johnson also said Diamond Pet Foods is running its own tests on the Nutra Nuggets.

“We’re not disputing those finding (of melamine),” she told ConsumerAffairs.com. “We’re just waiting for our own results. We anticipate we’ll have those back late Wednesday or Thursday.”

More Concerns about Diamond

Meanwhile, an Indiana pet owner contacted ConsumerAffairs.com on Sunday with concerns about another brand of Diamond Pet Foods.

Sharen C. of La Fontaine, Indiana, says her two dogs became sick after eating Diamond’s Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover’s Soul.

“I normally cook for my dogs, but I wanted to supplement them with this brand,” Sharen says, adding her dogs, Cassie and Star, are Lab-mixes. “When I tried it, though, my dogs became sick. They were lethargic and had diarrhea. And this lasted for a couple days.”

Sharen immediately stopped feeding the food to her dogs.

When their conditions improved — about a week later — she tried giving them the food again.

“But they got sick again and had the same symptoms,” she says. “So this wasn’t a coincidence. It made them sick -- twice.” Sharen contacted Diamond Pet Foods, but says the company downplayed her concerns.

”The response I got from the company were simply suggestions on how to feed my dogs.”

But shortly after her call, Diamond recalled its Chicken Soup for Puppy Lover’s Soul and Chicken Soup For Kitten Lover’s Soul. The company, however, didn’t recall the brand that made Sharen’s dogs sick — Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover’s Soul.

“And I have no idea why they didn’t recall that brand,” she says. “It definitely made my dogs sick.”

Sharen says Cassie and Star haven’t eaten that brand of food in weeks. And they’re now doing fine.

Will she ever feed them another brand of commercial dog food?

“No, I’m just not comfortable using commercial pet food,” Sharen says. “I cook for my dogs and my advice would be that everyone should cook for their dogs.”

Diamond Pet Foods in April recalled its Chicken Soup for the Kitten Lover’s Soul and Chicken Soup for the Puppy Lover’s Soul after the FDA confirmed the products contained melamine-tainted rice protein concentrate.

Diamond said those products were not formulated or labeled to contain rice protein—and that ingredient was added to the products as a “manufacturing deviation by American Nutrition.”

Diamond also said no other Chicken Soup brands of canned or dry pet food were included in the recall and none of the company’s dry food contain rice protein or wheat gluten.

Regarding the concerns Sharen raised about Diamond’s Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover’s Soul, spokeswoman Becky Johnson said her company takes all customers calls seriously. And she promised to have someone with the company contact Sharen.

Johnson also said customers with concerns about any Diamond products should contact the company at 1-866-214-6945.

More about the Pet Food Recall ...

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