Nutro Dog Food Reviews

Sumo passed away Jan 6th, 2011. He had stopped eating and become lethargic. We brought him to the vets where they kept him overnight for IV fluids and antibiotics. We waited for blood work and urine analysis. The following night, we brought him home so we could take him to a specialist the following morning. He passed away shortly after we brought him to bed with us. That was the worst night of my life. He was gone before we could get a diagnosis. Although his death happened quickly, Sumo did have a strange episode back in December.

Rewind back to December... He would go back into his litter box after urinating. We thought maybe a UTI so we brought him to the vets. Nothing was found, no crystals, no blockage, etc. We took him to the specialist after we were told his bladder cells were abnormally shaped. The specialist did an exam and an ultrasound of his abdomen but everything looked normal. The following day he had completely stopped the strange behavior of going back into the litter box and seemed fine after that.

Fast forward to the night he passed...We had a necropsy done by the emergency vet. The vet told us that some of his organs didn't look normal. His liver stood out the most. Results came back showing Lymphoma in his liver. We have not yet had more tests to see where else it had spread. After reading all of the horror stories and complaints about Nutro pet food, we had the food tested.

Before Sumo passed away, he had just started a new bag of Nutro Indoor Adult food. So we have plenty of samples, including the bag it came in. We sent the sample in to Midwest Laboratories. Results show the food was high in iron, zinc, copper, and manganese. The ratio of phosphorus and calcium is wrong as well. I have the results if anyone wants to see them.

Now we are deciding if we want more tests done on his tissue samples and bone marrow to look for zinc, etc. At this point, looking back at everything that has happened over the past few years, we are concerned that the Nutro was causing problems which led to his death. It just seems like there is no consistency in their product. Between the recalls they have had and the consumer complaints and the similarity of the stories, it shouldn't be ignored. When we first decided to put Sumo on Nutro, I had done all the research and found them to be a good brand. However, I should have kept up on research over the years. Since Mars took over the brand, they have had at least a few recalls and that is really when we started seeing inconsistencies in the product.

I am hoping Pancreatitis does not develop and we caught this in time. Coincidence or is there something wrong with the NutroMax Cat dry food? Just putting it out there to see if there are similar complaints or coincidences.

In March of 2010, we took him to the vet for his checkup and discovered that his kidneys were only working at 20%. He suffered terribly and was dead in 5 weeks. We truly suspect his death was caused by feeding him Nutro lamb and rice dog food.

We slowly made the change as recommended and Ginger was fine until this last spring when she had a bad diarrhea when she had started a new bag of Nutro. I took her to the vet and ran tests that turned up negative for anything viral. I had to give her antibiotics until we got the results back. The store exchanged the food and she has been fine since. It cost $230.00 plus the worries that Ginger was going to be okay. I just by chance found this site and had no idea that there were concerns regarding Nutro.

I took her to the vet and he took an x-ray. Her stomach appeared to still be full when she hadn't eaten all day. She was put on antibiotics for a week and seemed to be doing much better. She is still having runny stool off and on and I assumed, once again, that this was normal for her. After reading all of the very recent complaints regarding this dog food, I am certain that she will not be eating this food any longer. I plan to switch her immediately. I wish that I would have found this information earlier.

I also noticed an increase in the amount of feces and urine in her littler box. I have to clean it out almost twice a day sometimes. I didn't notice at the time it was diarrhea because of the clumping litter, but I have been inspecting it since the vomit and it is indeed diarrhea. As of two days ago, I noticed a few spots of yellow mucus vomit on the floor.

I was concerned but watched to see if this was just an isolated incident. Not the case, since then I am finding more vomit all over the house. I immediately thought to bring her to the vet but decided to look online to see if a home remedy would be sufficient. Thanks to Google, within two subject searches I found this site regarding Nutro food and the horrific affects it is having on animals. I did not even mention Nutro or expect to see anything regarding it.

Our dog has been on Nutro for six months and she has the same signs of dehydration and diarrhea. I really did not put the two together until I switched the cat and she has had rapid side effects from the same brand of food. The dog has gone to bathroom in the house countless times because she had diarrhea so bad at times. She started peeing in her dog bed about 2 weeks ago and this is so unlike her. I don't know what to make of it, but after reading this information, I think her insides are probably torn up from the food.

We had tests to rule out pancreatitis and heartworm. The vet put her on two different diuretics to relieve the fluid in her abdomen. When the fluid went down, she gained a little appetite and seemed to be doing okay for a couple of days but started going downhill again. I rushed her to another vet who tried to save her with antibiotics and blood transfusions but her body was too sick. We had an autopsy done but other than lesions on her liver, the autopsy came back inconclusive. I need to know if we have recourse to have the food taken off the shelves so no other family goes through the torture mine did--and whether we can get reimbursed for our vet expenses.

The vet said the exact cause of this disease is unknown. There are many theories. It could be diet, a bacterial infection, bacterial toxin, virus, reaction to an intestinal parasite, etc. My opinion is diet because my dogs became ill after changing brands of dog food.

We immediately put him on a different food and he was much better and happy again. But about two weeks later he had another seizure. Then we found that he had gotten back into the Nutro bag that hadn’t been thrown away yet. You can bet that bag was in the trash that very minute! After a year of no seizures, we thought we would give it another chance since his joints were doing really good before on the Nutro, and now he was having hip difficulties. We thought maybe it was just a bad batch.

As soon as we started him on the Nutro again, he had another very bad seizure. He is now so wiped out from the stress of the seizures that he is listless and morose and probably we will have to put him down. Until this happened, he was friendly and playful even though he was 15 years old. He now won’t go for walks or even wag his tail. I’m giving him a little more time to see if the food change is part of his distress since I know that can make dogs sick for a while. Poor doggie and shame on Nutro!

Recently, about 4 months ago, I bought 2 big bags (35 pound bags) while on sale at my local PetCo in Los Angeles. One bag, he ate through with no problem. He occasionally vomited but nothing more than I have seen him do on other foods. But about 3/4 on the way through the second bag, he started to hesitate to eat the food. Then came the yellow runny vomit. I thought he was sick, but I cooked him some white rice mixed with hamburger meat, and he ate it fine and pooped fine. So after he recovered, I switched him back to the Nutro, and the vomiting stated up again.

And it's not the vomit I am used to when he throws up all his food and it looks just like a soft version of the pellets. This vomit is yellow and runny. So between this and his reluctance to eat, this brand all of a sudden, leads me to believe something has changed in the food and not for the better. I am done with the Nutro.

They had uncontrollable diarrhea and vomiting . Since I work at Petsmart, I picked up some doggie anti-diarrhea medicines and it helped very little. The 3 of them started getting bloody stools also. My 4th dog is a min pin and he is on different food since he breaks out in hot spots even on blue buffalo but he was the only one that was OK. Then my boxer/pit started getting these pimples and losing her hair like crazy. So I figured that she was allergic to the food. So I returned all that I had left of the food and switched them over to another brand and in about a week, their stools went back to normal and the vomiting stopped. I felt so bad when I figured out that it was the food that I had picked out to help them and it made them extremely ill and I will never again suggest nutro food to another customer.

He could have died from this. The vet bill was $600. He had to have a cath and was at the vet for a few days. My cats are now on the prescription form of Science Diet for bladder health. I don't know if this happened because of Nutro, but I think it's a little strange that this dog and my cat would have bladder crystals after eating the same brand of pet food.

I am upset. If Nutro makers know these side effects, why aren't they trying to fix it? I am definitely thinking a law suit should be made.

Now, her little brother is puking, drinks water like it's no one's business and only eats (without his usual enthusiasm) because "momma" (me) tells him he has to eat. It is awesome that my little boy is eating to obey me even though he probably knows it's going to kill him. Meanwhile, he is lethargic, despondent, and cannot defecate properly (hey, I have owned dogs and cleaned up their remains enough to know what it should look like), and is just not a 3-year old boxer at all.

This was a product I totally trusted. Now I am not so sure. I feel that it is their responsibility to make consumers aware of any problems with their products. I would say that considering the number of complaints I have read, there is definitely something wrong, and they are not living up to their responsibility. I will throw away this almost 60 dollar bag of dog food and try something new. Very disappointed.

I found this website and others about the same complaints, am shocked, and saddened that we consumers have not been protected from this brand of pet food. Nutro deserves to pay us all back for our veterinarian bills! Now I wonder if it was the Nutro food that made our other dog so ill. She's gone so I focus on the one that's left. I'm doing whatever the veterinarian says. We dumped all the Nutro food out and am taking it back to Petco the unopened cans. I plan to tell the manager about this website. Retails, don't sell this product! I loosed one dog plus vet bills.

At the same time, my other two dogs, labs, started refusing food and vomiting bile. We assumed they were not wanting to eat because of a difference in the household balance (with the loss of our shepherd) and started putting egg and tuna on their food. After a week, they also refused the egg and tuna covered dog food. I can hear my dogs' stomachs growling and they will still refuse their dry food. Both labs have been in and out of the vet for GI issues and numerous tests that are inconclusive. All stool samples are normal. Our dogs are indoor dogs who are only walked on a leash. Today when we took one of our labs in, again, we were asked if there were a possibility of the dogs getting into poison.

These dogs do not eat anything but Nutro dog food, no snacks, no people food. They drink the same tap water I drink. There are no poisons, paints, oils, household cleaners, antifreeze, or any other poisonous substance they could get into. Food will be changed asap and two 35 pound bags will go to waste. I have a very hard time believing that this is all coincidental. I will retain the UPC and sample of food if anyone at Nutro or FDA is interested in testing.

It started to worry me when we took a couple cats in that didn't need to lose weight and they, too, had lost a couple pounds. We also had several cats that were losing the shine to their fur. And our cats were no longer were running to the food bowls when it was feeding time. I found I was throwing food out at the end of the day because they just weren't eating it! Well, amazingly, the cats acted like starving strays when I switched to Eukanuba! No more bloody stool in the litter pans, fur shiny again and Nemo is eating like he hasn't eaten in months! He's already filling out!

The problem with our cats and dogs is we were seeing different symptoms in them that appeared to be other conditions so we didn't connect it to the food. Max, our Pit Bull, was very ill for 2 weeks after we tried Nutro's Lamb and Rice. Our vet said it was gastritis caused by something he got into and we put him on meds and boiled hamburger 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 Eukanuba dog food. The first night after changing food - Kaiser slept all night instead of whining and pacing! 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 and 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!

About three weeks later, I noticed blood spots all over the floor. and then within about an hour it began, my dog Kita, was uncontrollably pooing bright red blood. I made her as comfortable as I could, as it was late at night and in the morning I took her to the vet, because the bloody diarrhea was not getting any better and she had begun to throw up a yellow bile as well. The doctor had to hydrate Kita, ran blood work (which came out normal) and she put Kita on anti-nausea medication, a pain killer, and anti diarrhea medication.

I have removed the food from all of the dogs, but I still have the portion uneaten and the bag it came in. There has been no other change in our house, and Kita was perfectly healthy before all of this. With that food taken away from her, she is on the mend, but still not 100%. I am reporting this to the FDA. I had to pay $350.00 in vet bills and meds, but no price can be put on watching my dog go through that pain. I completely thought she was going to die. How many dogs will this have to happen to before the food is pulled?

Unfortunately, it was too late for us because both of them were gone when all these recalls began to happen. I blame myself because I fed them this lousy food and it killed them. I hope that the Nutro company goes out of business, which will never happen because there are still people out there unwilling to believe they are still feeding this crap to their dogs. I have told everyone I know and even people in the pet store that were buying this food not to feed it to their pets.

My dogs are my life - they are my kids. It was very devastating to lose them both. We lost our youngest to colon cancer and our older one to liver cancer - all caused by this food. These people should be fed this food so they can die a slow painful death like my girls did. I hate this company, what they stand for, and the fact that they keep on producing this dog killing food.

I immediately searched my house, garage and backyard to be sure they hadn't gotten into something and found no evidence that they had eaten trash or people food or caught a bird or bunny in the backyard. On Saturday, July 10th, 2010, they still refused to eat, were vomiting and glassy eyed like they had a fever, and were still lethargic. I took them to my vet at 8:30 AM. Examination revealed fever and tender abdomens, and blood work revealed pancreatitis. The vet asked me the same questions: did they eat people food, trash, eaten something outside, were any bedding items or toys missing. Finally, she asked me how old the food was. It was a brand new bag just opened. I had purchased it June 26th, 2010 and had stored it until I needed it on July 9th. There was no staining or damage to the bag. We determined it was the food.

The vet bill came to $340 including numerous medication and subcutaneous fluids for both. My vet pointed out that had I waited, the dogs would have required hospitalization. I went to Petco the afternoon of July 10th. The Nutro representatives were there. I explained what had happened. My concern was that it was a bad lot of food and wanted to make them aware. They gave me a replacement bag of the Nutro Natural Choice Lite as it is the lowest fat and would be gentler on the dogs' pancreatitis. Everyone was very nice and expressed concern. They also gave me a coupon for $2 off next bag and the district manager requested I call Nutro and tell them what had happened.

On Monday, July 12th I called Nutro. Diana at Nutro barely let me get a word in edgewise. She just kept repeating that once food leaves their plant and is taken by distributors, it is no longer their liability and they are not responsible. She did request my dogs' medical records and I had the vet fax them to her. I foolishly thought the records would help them possibly determine what was wrong with the food based on the test results. Tuesday, July 13th, I called Diana with the lot number, expiration date, and barcode from the bag. She stated that that wasn't one of the lots with problems and it was not their liability. She then stated it was my fault due to improper storage in the garage.

She also stated that any customer who cares about their dogs enough to feed them all natural food should know better than to store food in the garage. I did explain that the dogs had been on Nutro for 10 years and I have always stored the food in the garage. She said it was not their fault for improper storage. I said what if the distributors had somehow improperly stored the food along the way to the retailer. She stated it was not Nutro's responsibility or liability for distributors mishandling the food.

Up until this point, I was chalking it up to a fluke bag and was planning to continue with Nutro. However, after my experience with Nutro customer service, I will be switching to another natural brand. I had only called because their representative requested me to do so. I expected them to say thank you for letting us know and we will monitor to see if other reports about the food are received.

Or they could have said thank you for letting us know and we will remind our distributors about proper food handling and storage. I never asked them to pay the vet bill or even to give me free food, yet Diana treated me with the abrasiveness of a defense attorney. It was most unpleasant and after 10 years, I will be switching to another natural brand. Two very sick dogs for a week and a $340 vet bill and now I have to research foods and switch 10-year-old dogs to new food.

At this point I was just waiting to be able to take him to the vet which opened at 9:00 am. I could not imagine what was causing this condition, Rocky is 3 1/2 years old has never been this sick and has been fed Neuto Dog Food lamb and rice for small breed. We occasionally mix in some chicken or beef but never has it caused illness. Over the 3 1/2 years of his life he occasionally has vomited bile for no apparent reason but it did not concern us. Back to July 6, 2010, I took Rocky to the Vet and explained the constant vomiting and bloody diarrhea condition at which point Rocky was examined, blood works, xray, etc. to try to determine the nature of the illness. He was put on IV for fluids and the Vet requested to keep him overnight for observation due to the fact that all tests were negative but he needed the hydration was put on antibiotics as a precaution and he wanted to be sure the diarrhea was stopped.

The next day we picked up a lethargic and weak dog with no concrete reason for his condition ($702.00 dollars to the Vet). He was put on a prescription dog food with a continued regime of antibiotics and anti-diarrhea medicine. I just happened to serf the internet for possible reasons for my dogs condition and to my horror came upon the many complaints as well as dog deaths possibly caused by Neuto Dog Food. In that Rocky only eats what he is given by me and cannot get into the garbage and is never walked unleashed so he is always under supervision, and the Vet's findings were negative in all aspects, I am now highly concerned that possibly this health issue may have been as a result of eating Neutro Dog Food.

I would like to be kept in the loop for any developments. I have kept what I had left of the food should it be needed for testing as I will no longer feed him Neutro. Physical Damage the terrible vomiting and diarrhea of my little dog, lethargic and not himself for several days as a result of the condition. Economic $702.00 Vet bill for an unknown condition.

We went back to Jack's Pet Store, and they suggested the Nutro Small Bits Puppy Chow. So, we tried that one and come to find out that our puppy seems to be doing worse. He has vomited on several occasions all his puppy food, and refuses to almost eat the Nutro Puppy food. Except, when he hasn't been eating anything for extensive amount of time, he will nibble at the food. But, just doesn't like it anymore. I believe that he has associated the puppy chow with vomiting and does not want it now. I will not shop at the store responsible for selling me this poor product until there is a recall, product is pulled from shelf and warning label attached to the bag in the future.

So, whomever sells this product beware of sacrifice to customer loss. Maybe if we hurt the companies that purchase this food one by one you will we will be able to enlighten Nutro not to produce such horrible quality of Dog food.

All three dogs ate Nutro Natural Choice dog food. My bassets ate the Weight Control formula and my sister's ate the Rice and Lamb formula. Ironically, she gave me her dog's food after she died and I was slowly introducing it to my male basset's diet, as he was no longer in need of the weight control formula. Coincidence? I don't know but after reading your posts on this issue, I am very concernd and want to at least inform you that three other dogs became ill and died.

Then we found that, about the time our dog started having trouble was also about the time that the Mars Candy people had bought out the old manufacturing Nutro. We have since switched his feed to Halo Spot's Stew wild Salmon, and his appetite is slowly returning. We also asked our vet if it was possible that the food and not the Rimadyl was the cause of the elevated liver enzyme, since he had been on the Rimadyl for about 6 years with no problems, then suddenly had trouble when the food was changed. He agreed and the dog is back on Rimadyl with no trouble at all. It appears that the food was the cause of the trouble all along. The dog is getting better with the new food.

Our dog, a Rhodesian Ridgeback/Retriever cross, who has always been strong, active, healthy, alert, and had a healthy appetite, began exhibiting symptoms of lethargy, diarrhea, vomiting, fur loss and weight loss at almost the exact time that Nutro was taken over by Mars Inc. We have had a lot of vet bills over this but the major consequence to us has been the horrible realization that our beloved family member, who trusts us to safeguard his health and welfare, was evidently being poisoned by the food we were feeding him. This has been going on for a couple years, 14 years, from a dog's perspective, of misery and illness.

My wife and I are sick and angry about this. I would suggest that, if antifreeze poisoning was determined to be the cause of death in one of the Nutro cases I read about, even though it wasn't found in the food tested, there is some connection. Maybe it was missed, or even tested for, or maybe it isn't in every sample. All I know is that our dog has been deprived of the enjoyment of a very significant fraction of his limited life span, and we have been deprived of some of the best years of his life as well. We'll never get those back, and we have yet to know if he'll ever be the same.

There was no indication on the bag of Nutro that there was a change, so we contacted the company to see if they have made any changes. We have not, to date, heard from the Nutro Company. Because of our experience, we will never use a Nutro product again! Lou became lethargic and not his self. We had to spend money for a vet visit that was not needed plus the cost of the food we threw in the garbage. Overall, $300.00 was lost; but no dollar amount can account for our dog's suffering.

With regards to the mini chunks, over the years my dog has been vomiting, I had the vet check her out and they didn't find anything wrong so I went merrily on my way feeding her the Nutro Max mini chunks. After reading these posts, I now realize that her vomiting was caused by the Nutro! Holy moly! This week, I've ran up a $500 vet bill and am now making her wet food. Also, I'm going to change her dry food too. After two bad experiences in about a year, I'm scared for my dog. What else will these dog food company think of?

Please investigate this company that owns the Nutro brand. My daughter, whose Golden Retriever was starving because he would no longer eat the Nutro, notified me of the information found on the Nutro website. They also had a Lhasa Apso die of seizures a year ago. Thank you on behalf of all the animal owners who may not be aware of these problems and for reading this. Extensive vet bills for visits and medications, and a miserable little Lady who is scratching herself raw.

By the second week, I told my husband that I realized that it all started when I switched her to the Nutro Natural Choice food. He thought I was crazy. Then, I did some research online and could not believe what I was reading on this website. People were having the same exact problems I was. I immediately stopped the food and switched to Science Diet mixed with chicken and rice at the recommendation of my vet.

One week later, she is already better. I will be sending Nutro Company copies of my receipts for the food itself as well as my vet bills. If they do not reimburse me I will get a lawyer and sue them for negligence as well as the pain and suffering that my puppy and my family have endured. I am tired of these corporations putting profits before lives and I will make it my life's goal to make sure that everyone knows it. But mainly I want people to know "Do not feed any Nutro pet food to your pets, it is poison.

I have in my family 7 other Boxers that live in another state that were on Nutro at the same time. They became sick. The males were leaking urine and throwing up. They changed their food and they are now doing better. The only connection that they have is Nutro dog food. They live in different locations, different bags of Nutro food.

My pets have been on Nutro for several months. Our local Pet Supplies Plus recently had a grand opening and the Nutro Rep was there, talking up their products, handing out coupons. I bought the Nutro Ultra Holistic Superfood Adult Formula for the dog. The bag advertises Heart Health, Sharp Vision, Healthy Skin and Coat! How could we go wrong? I don't mind paying more for all that! I bought Max Cat Roasted Chicken for the cat. It was several weeks later when the dog started having diarrhea and I took her to the vet for a full workup and stool culture, and they couldn't find anything wrong. They asked me what I was feeding her and I told them Nutro; they said it was a good brand. They put her on an anti-nausea medication and sent us home after paying them $150 for the visit.

Several weeks went by and the loose stools didn't clear up. I didn't relate it to Nutro, thinking I was feeding her nearly the best dog food you could buy. The other night while I was walking her, she had a bright red, bloody stool and my heart nearly stopped beating when I saw it. I told myself it was probably from the new treats I bought her (rawhide rolls with reddish bone marrow wrapped inside). I told myself it was okay. She would pass a normal stool in the morning. But the next morning, it was another bloody stool, worse than the night before. I freaked out. I called the vet and they asked me to bring the stool sample in to run a culture. In the meantime, the dog has been panting heavily along with the bloody diarrhea, drinking more water than normal, no longer playful. Her abdomen is bloated up.

Since I've never seen bloody stools and had to wait 24 hours for the test results, I spent hours online that evening, trying to self-diagnose my dog (since I'm running out of money on vet bills). I Googled Nutro making dogs sick, and found this site. I immediately knew what made my pets sick -this disgusting poisonous food. I honestly felt like I was in shock. I couldn't sleep all night, feeling guilty that I nearly killed my own darling pets.

I called the vet this morning for the stool results and they said her culture came back negative for parasites. They said to bring the dog back in for blood work, liver panels, more testing, etc. I have decided not to bring her back, as I'm certain what is making her sick. If I had not found this site and stopped feeding her Nutro, this food probably would have killed her had I kept feeding it. Thank God for this information and for all the people who took time to write. My dog is now on a diet of boiled chicken, rice, Activia Yogurt, and children's Pepto Bismol. The bloody stools have continued and if they don't stop in a few days, I have no choice but to take her back to the vet.

What makes me really angry is the night I took my cat in, I asked my vet for the names of the best pet foods and Nutro was on the list she wrote down. When I told the vet that I suspect Nutro is what sickened my pets, she said they receive a regular food recall list and Nutro is not on it. I suggested they do some research and check out this site, because I'm 100% certain that Nutro is what is slowly killing my dog.

It makes me wonder if the vets just don't tell you, hoping you continue to come back for more visits, more testing, more medications, etc. I spend a ton of money on pet food, grooming, pet sitters, vet bills, and then to find out the food you trusted is killing your dog just makes you sick! I am outraged after reading all of these posts, that this food is still on the store shelves. I'm ready to go to my local news to tell my story. I've missed work, lost sleep, lost money and nearly lost my pets over this disgraceful Nutro food. They deserve to be punished.

I am going to write Nutro and ask them to reimburse me for the vet bills and the food. In the meantime, I pray to God that my pets recover from this nightmare.

I have started the dog on a diet of boiled chicken, rice and Activia Yogert along with a dose of children's Pepto Bismol. I don't know how much damage has been done to her colon, or if it's even reversible. Only time and TLC will tell. I only hope a class action lawsuit can be brought against Nutro for the devastation they have inflicted on all of these pet-loving people and their innocent pets. God bless them all.

All along from time to time, all of the dogs would vomit yellow bile, gooey liquid. We thought maybe, they were eating bugs or had been running around too much after drinking water. After reading other accounts, they were doing the same thing with the bile yellow liquid. When we switched Josie over to Nutro Herring and Sweet Potato, she started to have blood in her stool. Then it quickly turned into pure blood with mucus. She would squat at a moment's notice anywhere because she couldn't control her bowels. We brought her several times to the vet who didn't find parasites or the usual suspects. She would get a cortisone shot and antibiotics. This went on for about three months.

Finally, the vet said she had colitis; and she was on a new regimen of meds. We switched her back to the Nutro Lamb and Rice Small Bites, because she didn't like the Venison and she'ss allergic to all the other flavors because of chicken and beef. She was starting to get better, and I purchased a new bag of both foods as they were running out. She vomited from 1 am to 8 am and right before we left for the vet. She wouldn't drink water and was dehydrated. Her bowels let loose on the dining room floor with a lot of blood. Luckily, there was a relief vet on duty that day who put some fresh eyes on her case.

She had to be put on IV Fluids and got a B-12 shot. She was severely anemic and spent the day under observation. She is on pro-biotics, fiber, and a new hypoallergenic food. This poor little girl has been through so much! I feel like it is my fault for feeding her a food that I trusted! During all of this, Big Boy had started to have blood in his stool and vomit too. I have changed all of my dogs' food over to the new hypoallergenic food. Although it is taking time for them to adjust to it, I am hoping this will clear up the problems. We have spent thousands trying to get our babies well. They are like our children, and when they suffer, so do me and my husband. Let the buyer beware about this food. I hope the FDA or someone can stop this mess!

Our dogs are all rescued from the street or the dog pound. They have had a hard enough life before us. We have spent thousands trying to get our babies well. They are like our children and when they suffer, so do me and my husband. I will be happy to provide all of the vet bills and receipts I can find for this food. I also have the food in question and would be happy to send samples if needed.

"I am emailing you to see if you ever received the copy of the vet bills I sent at your request. I have not received any coupons in the mail for dog food. Angel is doing much better since she is back on the lamb and rice. If you would like, I have additional vet bills I can send for Charlie who is know battling skin and ear infections that he has never had before. I have also stopped going to Pet Supermarket who obviously did not take your advice because they are knowingly changing my neighbors dog's food who is a 1 year old King Charles Cavalier.

Fortunately they are changing her from Nutro Ultra to Lamb and Rice. I am going back to Pet World in Lakeland. I hope you do not think I am an opportunist trying to get free dog food because I am not. This whole situation is still very frustrating to me because my vet bills are still escalating in addition to purchasing medicated shampoo and more follow-up visits. These are 2 dogs that only needed to go to the vet for annual physicals. I look forward to your response. If you have changed your mind about sending the coupons, please let me know as I am starting to rethink feeding a product to my animals that have so many adverse effects. Thank you."

Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 10:23 am

"Per our conversation, I am attaching the vet bills for Angel (and Charlie). They have another appointment tomorrow. As I stated, I first thought Angel's problem was a hurt back and/or urinary tract infection. Dr. ** confirmed yesterday that it was abdominal upset. He said the 2 are difficult to differentiate because the symptoms are similar. We are hopeful that her liver values are lower tomorrow. I could not find any receipts for the dog food, but if necessary and can pull credit card statements. I am glad that you are having the Nutro reps educate the pet store personnel. I hope this never happens to any other dogs (or cats). Below is my original email to you as well. Thank you for your willingness to help.

I have 4 dogs and all of them are on Nutro. My 7 year old cockers have been on less active/weight management all their lives. I was in Pet Supermarket about 6 weeks ago and the salesperson told me I need to put them on Nutro Senior. They are on their 4th bag and I have recently spent almost $1,000 in vet bills. I thought my female was just being a picky eater but now I know they are not handling the food well. She was at the emergency vet Saturday and yesterday she was at our vet on IV's due to excessive vomiting. Her ALT liver count is 656. Both dogs have sores all over them.

I told the girl at Pet Supermarket they were on the less active because of skin allergies and she said the Senior food would be fine. I printed the ingredients of both products off your website for my vet and she said the big difference is the chicken products which many animals are allergic to. She said if they were doing fine on the Less Active they should stay on that. I think people at pet stores should not recommend things because they are not veterinarians. My little girl is on a liquid diet and since we got all the food out of her system, she is feeling better than she has since I started giving her the food. I was going to transition Charlie off the Senior but his skin is so bad I'm just going back the Weight Management. My question is, I have 4 dogs. 2 are coon hounds. I buy a bag of Nutro a week, 30 lb or 50 lb. I took my cats off Nutro and they are on the Science Diet due to urine crystals. I would like to be reimbursed for the 5 30-lb bags of Senior. I have almost a full bag that I am going to throw away because I have poured it in containers. I can't go to Pet Supermarket because I don't have the bags or the receipts. I do have all the vet bills to back this up. I initially took my little girl to the emergency clinic thinking it was back pain or urinary tract. I can provide all these bill upon request. I have been a loyal Nutro Customer for 8 years, even through the product recall. Now, I'm not so sure. I look forward to your response."

I am scared because I don't know what to feed my dogs. I trusted Nutro and when I spoke to them on the phone they never told me about any of this!!!!!

I withheld food for twelve hours and went out and bought her a new brand of food and she has not had any sign of illness ever since. Hannah has lost weight, and her meow seems weak (not sure why but I know it's not normal). But she is eating her new brand of food just fine. Her appetite is good. She's producing solid output. She's a great cat and I am happy to report that she seems better. I will never buy any Nutro Max product again. I think it should be taken off the market for good!

After the vet's prediction that he probably had cancer and not long to live, we took him home and decided to home-cook his "last" meals. He quickly began to get better! Then, stupidly, per our vet's advice, we mixed in his Nutro Kibble into his homemade food. And the next day, he's very ill! He's now off Nutro, eating a combo of another brand of dry food and homemade food; and he's perfect! His urine is no longer rust-colored, he stopped trying to eat grass, and he has lots of energy.

I am convinced the Nutro food almost killed our beloved pet and has now caused financial strain with a $600 vet bill. And it seems I am not alone here! What can be done? The consequence of our dog eating Nutro dog food was near death and extreme illness. After he stopped eating the poison death Nutro Kibble, he is fine. Yet, we now suffer the economic damage of a $600 vet bill!

This past week, I bought a new 35 lb bag of food and within 48 hours, puppies were having allergic reaction, faces were swollen and so were the membranes in their rectum. One puppy was so severe that he needed surgery to correct a prolapse colon. I was driving myself crazy trying to figure out what they could be having a reaction to since I hadn't changed anything. It wasn't until my vet asked me if I purchased a new bag of food recently and then I realized I had just gotten that new bag just two days prior to this puppy having this allergic reaction. My vet explained that the only way this puppy would have such a severe reaction from head to his butt would be through his digestive system.

I am so disgusted that I pay good money for my dogs and puppies to be on a good food only to have them be sick from it. My vet bill was over $500 to treat two puppies and for the surgery for one. I have taken the puppies off of the Nutro and my dogs are being taken off as well. I will never feed this food to my dogs again and I will be sure to never recommend it again. Ironically, I sent all of my puppies home with a Nutro puppy packet and a bag of Nutro puppy food as I am on their breeder program so I had to call each one to let them know to switch foods. I could have lost an entire litter of puppies just because a billion dollar company wants to cut corners and cut back on the quality of their products. Shame on you! These animals are why you are in business and if you don't start monitoring your products and following up on complaints, you will go out of business. I have been buying Nutro at the same store for years and they have allowed me to bring back the unfinished bags to allow me to purchase another food. They are aware of the problems this company is having and they are the ones who advised me of this website!

I hate that it took me this long to think that it was his food causing the problems. After researching his dog food and reading all the complaints and dog owners experiencing the same problems as me with this food, I have made a switch to the Science Diet. My dog no longer has any of the symptoms he had. It annoys me to no end that this company has taken so much money from me and others and has harmed my dog and many others in the process! The "food" they are selling has clearly been killing and harming animals for many years! It amazes me that this company is still around!

We obviously became so concerned at this point that we took her to the vet straightaway. The vet did a bunch of checks: listened to her heart and breathing, checked her anal glands (empty), checked inside her mouth, felt on her belly and abdomen, and asked a ton of questions. Because we have a second dog (an 8-week-old puppy) that does all the same things and goes all the same places as our adult dog, we all concluded that the only difference between the dogs was their food. Our puppy was still being weaned from his Purina food from the breeder over to the Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Puppy food, and he had zero symptoms at the time. So we tried to think of a reason why our adult Boxer would all of a sudden become sick because of her food, even though she's had the same food (the only food) since she was a puppy. We realized that we bought her most recent 35 pound bag of Nutro in the middle of April, which was exactly 3-4 weeks ago.

She has been vomiting for approximately 3-4 weeks, and her stools have gradually gotten softer, which in the past few days translates to completely wet and runny stool. Our Golden Retriever puppy (eating Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Puppy) has also been extremely thirsty, and for the past week has had wet runny stool, which he did not have when his breeders fed him Purina or when we were feeding him the same Purina. We realize that companies can put out bad "batches" of product. However, from the severity of our dog's vomiting, extreme thirst, as well as a weird behavior of licking and then actually chewing her feet, we came to the conclusion that the most recent batch of Nutro dog food is, simply put, toxic.

The only explanation for my adult dog's extreme sickness is the Nutro food. We have considered everything else, and it comes down to the food. Obviously, we took the Nutro away immediately, and fed both dogs homemade chicken and rice tonight. We went to the store where we purchased the bags of Nutro (which happens to be the Schofield Barracks, Hawaii commissary) with our food in tow to speak to the manager and warn him of the effects of the Nutro dog food (and we didn't neglect to tell him many of the articles we found online, including the recent deaths since April). The manager said he could not refund my money or pull the food off the shelves because Nutro has not put out a recall. I didn't want a refund; I want to keep the Nutro dog food so I can have it tested by an unbiased professional. What I did want was for him to pull the food, or at least be aware of the problem and do some research on Nutro, and be prepared for the onslaught of poor helpless sick dogs and angry customers.

I am so upset about the fact that I was poisoning my own dog with Nutro food. I'm even more upset that my dog was doing the best she could with the kibble death that was the only thing available to her to eat. I was paying good money for good food, and was proud to have my dogs on Nutro. My poor baby ate so much grass to make herself vomit, that I got upset with her and scolded her every time she went for the grass again. In hindsight, stopping her from eating the grass very easily could have killed her. For the past 3 weeks, I doubt she absorbed as much of the Nutro food as she normally would have, because of all the vomiting. If my dog had died because I was feeding her poison, all because Nutro knew about the issue for months already (and did nothing on purpose), and because I stopped her from eating the grass that we both knew would make her vomit, how do you think I would have felt? I not only would have single-handedly killed my dog with toxins, but also forced her to keep it down and not save herself by vomiting!

I am so distraught, beside myself, and scared by my dog's poor health for the past month, and with the Nutro company for ignoring many, many complaints, and even more mad that Nutro went so far as to deny all allegations and then post on their website that their food is 100% safe and reputable because they have been in business for so long. This is called neglect. This is called grossly bad business practice. This is hideously negligent. How is this company still in business? The food needs to be recalled and taken off the shelves tomorrow, the plants need to be shut down, and those persons responsible need to be held accountable.

And Mars/Nutro need to refund all vet bills provided by customers filing complaints and receipts. This is not only fair, it's necessary. This company needs to pay for the harm they've done, literally and with a formal apology to every single customer, one-on-one. What would happen to a company if all these same things were happening to children? Something much worse would happen to that company, I'm sure. And that's wrong. My dogs are my babies; that's the lifestyle I choose. Mars/Nutro owes us all, and in more ways than one. Oh, and if there is a class-action lawsuit, I'm in. I will spend many sleepless nights thinking about what was very close to happening to my dogs, and I will forever harbor disgust and hatred for Nutro. They need to be brought to justice and make peace with the families they've hurt through their unwavering neglect.

They never admit fault- they do not investigate the problem when consumers notify them. They just keep letting us poison pets using their food. And they still lie, saying they've had no complaints! Too much here from too many people to deny!

This needs to stop now! Mars International- what the hell is wrong with you greedy people?! You are wealthy beyond belief and continue ignoring complaints and even deny you receive them! You are murderers and liars!

Any attorney interested in a lucrative class action lawsuit against Mars/Nutro to stop the murders? Our pet was lucky- it just cost over $2,000 and major heartache. One of the worst parts is Mars/Nutro lying about their ingredients and total lack of Quality, in spite of repeated problems.

We can test the food, prove the ingredients are not what the bag states and what they should be (it's toxic), but it's almost impossible to prove the toxicity is what's causing pets to go into almost immediate kidney or liver failure. Mars- this is America and you are accountable! Someone will help us stop your murderous greed!

Note: Mars owns many companies, focus on candy, but a huge portion of their profit is based on pet food/pet treats manufacture. They also own Royal Canin and Whiskas, among other companies. Spread the word about Mars/Nutro pet foods and the company's total lack of concern over how many pets die at their hands!

I contacted the Nutro rep named Nicole whom stated that they had had no complaints about the food and no other issues concerning other animals with loose bowls, vomiting, or any of the symptoms I had mentioned. Her offer of compensation was a check for the replacement of the bag of food which I had saved and had given her the lot information since I had suspected the food I kept the bag and gave her the numbers she requested. The dog food was the only common denominator that the dogs shared. The pups got the problems first then the older shepherds and then the youngsters. We have 6 shepherds in total and all had the same problem, so we took Zuke to the vet whom had the issues the longest and we took the puppies. They had never been in the same proximity with any of the other shepherds except their mother.

All of our shepherds appear to have recovered now that we are feeding the Science Diet except for Zuke whom has 75 percent damage to his kidneys and according to our vet may eventually have to be put to sleep at a later date. He is on 2 different types of medication as well as a prescription diet food made by Science Diet. He has a total of 5 pills we have to force in him and he is disgusted--when he sees us grab a pill bottle he runs. He is fearful of vets offices now since he had to be put in seclusion for 4 days in a vet’s office and given fluids for those days. His whole demeanor has changed and he is scared of every thing and anyone. He was a very confident and healthy shepherd until feeding Nutro. I am hurt and sickened with the fact that neither the vets which we had 3 opinions or the Nutro company will admit to the food being the culprit. And since reading your website I felt it my duty to my shepherds and other pet owners to make aware that there is a problem and I whole heartedly believe that Nutro food caused these issues. So as an end result we now have Zuke whom has kidney problems liver problems and low potassium and well as extremely high createne levels and must be on medication and prescription foods for what is left of his life. I cringe every time I have to give him the medication the vet prescribed to him and am hurt that I feed him the food that caused the problems.

I will never feed this animal poison again. We have put our pets through test after test and nothing could be found, but I think we have finally found the problem. I believe Nutro needs to step up and remove this junk off the shelves, so that our pets don't have to be poisoned by food that is supposed to be good for them. They say that Nutro is life-changing, maybe someone should explain what that means because it is not a good life-changing experience. Stop poisoning and killing our pets Mars Co.!

In March 2010, after reading on this site that Nutro had recall of puppy food and that other Nutro food was still making dogs and cats sick. I suspected all Nutro food was poisonous. I called the pet store and they said to bring the bag for a full refund (which they did), as Nutro guarantees all their food despite purchasing 3 months ago.

Before going to the store, I researched alternative food as I did not want to purchase another bag of poison. To replace this food, I purchased a 6# bag of Wellness Super 5Mix Complete Health for $16 and immediately starting feeding to my dogs mixed with small amounts of container of remaining Nutro. The two dogs still had some incidents of symptoms for about a week and 1/2.

Within one week of being on just the Wellness food, all their symptoms are gone! They are happy, healthy, and full of energy. They no longer eat all the food in their bowls, only until they are full. Wellness is made by Old Mother Hubbard, Inc. in Indiana, which merged with Eagle Pack into Wellpet LLC in Tewksbury, MA. Please investigate Nutro and stop them from selling poison. I will be submitting a report to the FDA as well.

At this point, it is uncertain what damage the 1-year old suffered from the poor quality and poisonous food. She was fed the Nutro puppy food her whole first year. She now seems to be filling out and seems less anxious, so perhaps she is able to repair with proper nutrition. The 7-year old may be more at risk for permanent damage but until the investigation determines what is in the Nutro and why the food is bad, we will not know what to look for and will not be able to try and correct. So again please investigate Nutro and make them stop selling poison to our dogs.

Due to these symptoms, we took her to our vet, and he said that she's got bilirubin in her urine (a sign of liver problems) and her red blood cell count was low. He asked us if anything recently changed, and the only thing that has changed is that we've been feeding her this food. Unfortunately, we may be too late, but we have ceased feeding her Nutro products. Our vet said that if we have diagnosed the primary cause of all of these symptoms, we can possibly save her. We will never feed this brand to her again based on all of the other reports I've read here with similar symptoms.

Two months later, I acquired a one year old female cat from a rescue organization. This new cat had access to some of the same food for about a week and promptly got sick and showed some of the same symptoms that the older cat had before he died.

This prompted me to suspect the food as the culprit, as it was the only common factor in this issue. Smelling of the food closely, revealed a chemical/mineral or "oily" odor so I set it aside, sterilized all of the cat's dishes and care items and switched to a different brand of cat food. However, the new cat is still awfully sick and will be at the vet for testing this week, although she does seem to be improving and is at least eating fairly well again.

I took a sample of the tainted pet food over to UC Davis Animal Health Laboratory for screening for toxins, in an effort to find out what is going on. I hope to have the results of those tests back this week. I was not aware that there had been issues resulting in pet food recalls until a friend mentioned it and when I checked Nutro's web site, I find that this particular type of pet food, "Senior" is not on the list of those that have been recalled by Nutro.

Important Note: The Pet Food Products Safety Alliance (PFPSA.com) has just posted a 3/22/2010 warning about Nutro Pet Foods! The independent laboratory they used reported a 3/12/2010 result showing another batch of Nutro food again shows toxic levels of zinc! In addition, the calcium to phosphorus ratio is significantly off!

How many more pets must die? How many more pet owners will buy toxic Nutro pet food? There is no excuse for Mars International (yep, the candy giant!), who owns Nutro, to continue poisoning our pets and then saying we can't prove their illness and/or death was due to the Nutro food, so they are not responsible!

Mars/Nutro, you have proven you cannot be trusted! Even after being caught with major food production problems, you still have not fixed your problems! I am out over $2,000 and almost had 1 pet die thanks to your poison! But I'm lucky. Other people's pets have died and many are still sick or dying!

Pet food oversight is inadequate. Stop the poisoning of our pets! Mars/Nutro, you should be held accountable! No excuse for your pet food production problems continuing. You've had more than ample chance to fix your problems! Class action lawsuits may be necessary, since you won't do the right thing on your own.

Stop saying you've had no consumer complaints! That is a lie! Be responsible; fix the problem, cover our vet bills, implement quality control measures to ensure your products do not continue to poison our pets! Start by documenting our calls--take our names, get the best by date from our packaging, take our lot number info, and fix your problem! Stop the unnecessary suffering and deaths!

After consulting with my vet, I contacted an independent lab to see about testing the food myself. The lab informed me that dog food companies are very vigilant about checking for melamine and that was the only thing my vet could think they should test for which would cause renal failure. Several weeks later, I heard from Diana at Nutro who said the food tested okay (of course they'd say this) but that she would turn our claim over to their insurance carrier anyway.

The other day I received a letter from their insurance saying that since food sample tested okay, any claim for reimbursement of our vet bills was being denied. I still believe it was the Nutro food that killed him and I will always believe it. I tell everyone I know who is a dog lover to not feed Nutro. I cannot believe there have been so many more cases of pets becoming ill and dying because of Nutro since our Buster died in December. It's such a tragedy.

Finally in Sept, we had to spend hundreds of dollars on all kinds of meds due to crystals in her urine, seizures. She got better for all of two weeks and then the morning of Nov. 9th 2009, she passed away just out of the blue. The vets said due to being poisoned. I have spoken to Petsmart about the food contamination etc. and they of course denied it. But after seeing the website for all the Nutro complaints and pets lost I believe it was the food. At $50 a bag, you would not think that it would kill your pet!

My wife purchased a brand new bag of Nutro on Monday, 03/15. I was amazed to discover inside the newly opened bag, two (2) candy wrappers for 'Fazer Mule' Orange-Mango'. I have never heard of this candy; however, I did read that Mars Corp. purchased Nutro Inc. Now, I am very concerned for the safety and well-being of my dog. I will be contacting Nutro and then return this product for an exchange to a different brand.

The diarrhea came back and I switched him to a homemade meal of chicken and rice for a week and all seemed fine again. I switched him back to the dog food and he continually got diarrhea, but now he also was breaking out in a rash on his groin area. I took him to the vet and they gave him a topical spray to help with the itching.

At this point, my puppy was 8-9 months old so I switched his food to a different brand and a specialized diet of venison and potatoes. This helped him for the first couple of months but then he began to itch and his groin area broke out in a rash and turned a gray color. I took him to the vet and they thought he might have allergies.

This continued until he was 1 1/2 years old. I wonder if the reaction to his dog food when he was younger could have an effect on his immune system and maybe broke it down to a weakened state? The breeder I got him from has had 7 litters of puppies with the same male and female that my dog came from and not one pup has had allergies thus far. I do not want to place blame but there is a "what if" factor!

Now today, my 100lb boy is lying lethargic and white gummed on the couch. Now, I have no doubt now that it is a result of the Kibble. I am just mad at myself that it took me three days and three dogs being sick to figure this out. Google "Lamb Meal" or "meat rendering plants" and see what it really is that is in the "lamb meal". I was sick to my stomach when I saw what I have been feeding my dogs. It is no wonder that they are ill right now. But never again will I feed Nutro Products or any pet product made by Mars.

My cat would not switch to another cat food and I could not find another with low magnesium. So now, my five year old cat has urinary tract problems. Did not have a blockage, but came very close. The vet bill was over $500.00. He has to eat a special diet prescribed by the vet. It is very disturbing that they changed their formula without advising people. I cannot imagine how many other people have cats that are now having urinary tract problems because of this. I had over $500 in veterinary bills. They hook your cat on their food and then make changes to their formula that cause harm to your pet.

Well, we have that in writing from Nutro so they are certainly implying the HVP recall does not have any bearing on the pet foods. I wonder if the statement is also true for the other Mars owned pet food companies: Pedigree, Royal Canin and Whiskas?

From what I'm reading, many people feeding Nutro pet foods have mysteriously found their pets seriously ill, with no follow-up or concern by Nutro that I am aware of. I am still awaiting testing results of a sealed bag of Nutro food with the same "best by" date and lot number, so maybe we'll find out whatever Nutro doesn't care to investigate or admit this time. I find it unacceptable that a huge conglomerate like Mars, who owns Nutro and many other pet food brands, appears to show absolutely no concern for our repetitive complaints about our pets getting ill on their foods! Shame on you, Mars!

I first contacted Nutro over a month ago, but I doubt they documented my calls. Recently, there has been a new FDA recall involving human food products containing Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP) that might be contaminated with salmonella. This same ingredient is commonly added to pet foods, but the FDA allows the pet food labels to identify it as "natural flavoring"! Since the bags of Nutro I recently purchased (which made my cats sick) have highlighted on the bag "Improved Taste- New Look" and they do list "natural flavoring", this may actually be related to what is harming our pets.

I contacted Nutro via their website last night and sent this: "Do any of the Nutro pet foods use the hydrolyzed vegetable protein that was just recalled (human food involvement) due to possible contamination? In particular, I want to know about Nutro Max Dry Adult Roasted Chicken. Over the last few weeks I have contacted Nutro multiple times, both on the phone & via your website, because 2 of my cats became ill shortly after eating from recently purchased bags of Nutro food. Please tell us immediately if you use this recalled flavoring agent HVP. This inquiry is being copied to several groups that are concerned- we know it may just be listed as "natural flavoring" on your actual packaging."

I have been home all day and have not received any response from Nutro via email or phone. I have also contacted several other entities, trying to find out if this tainted ingredient is indeed in the Nutro foods making our pets sick. I will update here as I learn more. Nutro has publicly denounced this site, implying we're just a bunch of complainers with no proof of anything. I challenge you, Mars/Nutro, with the deep pockets, to start documenting our calls and complaints. Start tracking them for possible trends that just might alert you to a problem with your products that could be making our pets sick! Or even killing some.

The repeated "we've received no complaints" is not true and we're not happy to keep reading it. Yes, it might cost you money, but isn't it time you started to build a solid reputation again with us, the common people, who actually buy your products? Unknown long-term prognosis. I am so sad to see the continued complaints from people with ill/dead pets, who have been using Nutro pet foods. Mars- stand up and do right by us!

Blood test was done and I was told she had kidney failure. She also refused to eat, but would drink water like she could not get enough. She lost half her weight. All her life she always weighed around 8-9 pounds and was active, she was down to 3 pounds when she passed. Her last days on earth, she suffered.

I called Nutra and spoke with Nicole and she swears it is not their product. They tested the 2 cups that I sent. I told her if it was only one cat I would believe her and it may be something else, but two cats something is wrong. I asked her many times how safe the food is and she assured me it was safe. She tried to tell me Salem had cancer. I know they will never admit. Nicole suggested that I take the cat food to PetSmart for a refund. Nutra just announced a recall on their cat food and the bag that I have matched the UPC code, but the expiration date. I called Nicole and she assured me that my bag was fine.

The dates are May 12, 2010 and August 22, 2010. My bag is September 1, 2010. I'm sure I've bought those dates before my present one, but have no proof. The recall is due to incorrect levels of zinc and potassium. The symptoms your cat may have are not eating, losing weight, vomiting and diarrhea. My cats had those symptoms. I know nothing will bring them back, but something needs to be done. This company needs to be accountable.

I did take the bag back to the store where I purchased the bag. They gladly exchanged the remainder of the Nutro for a completely different brand of food. My cats seem to be doing better, and their stools are firming up. To me, this is conclusive evidence that the cat food is somehow tainted.

With all of the complaints that I'm seeing on the Consumer Affairs website, there are more complaints and sick animals than the company is admitting to. Their website and the FDA website both say that they have not had complaints of sick animals. I know that they have one complaint now, I have it documented. I filed a complaint with both the company and the FDA; however, I have not had a response from either.

I think that I caught the tainted food in time to keep my animals from having lasting damage. However, as severe as the diarrhea was becoming, I would be concerned about other people's animals that weren't watched so closely. There may be many dead animals if more of the food isn't recalled.

Our 2 dachshunds throw up yellow bile at least 2-3 times a week. It's always the same times, early in the morning. I also have noticed in that time that they both seem to drink an excessive amount of water. Neither show any other sign of illness. I was beginning to think it was an allergy but then again why would both dogs have the same allergy. We started cutting out dog cookies, raw hides and raw vegetables with no results. I decided maybe a food change was in order.

In looking into foods for sensitive stomachs, I discovered that the Nutro chicken is recommended for sensitive stomachs. My dogs have eaten the chicken, lamb, and most recently the senior formula. Completely by accident in my investigating food choices for my dogs, I came across all the sick and deceased dogs allegedly from Nutro products. I was totally devastated when I realized all my dogs symptoms were the very same with all these other dogs have experienced.

I know as of yet nothing has been proven but come on. How can all these dogs have all the same symptoms and the one thing in common is the Nutro food? On my way home from work tonight I stopped at our local feed store and bought a new brand of dog food and threw out what we had left of the Nutro. I know it isn't recommended to just switch food without doing a gradual change over, but I will never feed my dogs Nutro again. I don't care if nothing is ever proven.

To me it's too much coincidence and I will not put my babies at risk any more than I already have. I just hope whatever that horrible food was doing to their intestines and organs that there is no permanent damage and a new healthy dog food will stop their vomiting. I hope the investigation into the Nutro company continues. I would hate to think of any more dogs suffering because of this food.

A few months later, we adopted a healthy lab puppy, again went with Nutro and the very same thing happened with Cody. Cody suddenly started urinating blood, but the vet could find no cause, gave antibiotics and sent us home. In less then a week, Cody also died. He was not eating well, and in his last few hours was not breathing right, and could hardly stand. It's a horrible thing to think you caused the death of 2 wonderful pets that your family members were just beginning to know. The vet says we somehow must have poisoned our pets. I don't know anything that could be further from the truth! I now believe that Nutro foods, pushed on us by salespersons that were pushed on by Nutro, caused the death of Sadie and Cody.

I reminded her the package says "Improved taste" & both she & another Nutro phone rep previously confirmed the formula changed with additional chicken meal. I guess I need to start recording these conversations.

So my cat was now hospitalized 2 days & force fed. Vet bills for the 2 cats sickened after eating the recent Nutro are now about $1500 & I am getting the food tested by an independent lab, at extra cost. My cat is home & eating a little on her own. I'm tempting her with stinky wet food & it seems that helps. It is worth the expense to see if Nutro does actually have another production problem. I want to save pet lives! Too bad when we call them to advise of the food problems they do not want UPC codes or lot identifiers. They don't want to even check.

I don't know about you, but when we have pets get sick from food, I want answers & a company that cares about doing what's right. If there's a problem, investigate & fix it to avoid sick and/or dying pets.

Will my cat make it through this? I sure hope so. She is much loved. I have several investigational entities working on this, trying to figure out what's wrong with the food. I wish Nutro/Mars was part of that team!

Even the vet commented on the foul smell of the diarrhea. The blood work appeared fine, but exam showed abdominal distress/intestinal swelling. It appeared the food has caused his digestive problems and we were given medication for him to reduce the symptoms. So 2 of my 3 healthy pets have suddenly had blood in the urine or feces after eating the recent Nutro "improved taste" product!

Considering the recent recall of Nutro products because of serious excessive zinc and inadequate potassium, I have no idea what else they may have done wrong. There are way too many complaints about their food. I am taking my still very sick girl to an emergency clinic tomorrow. Could this be salmonella? Nutro has had a recall in the past due to possible salmonella contamination. I will ask tomorrow at the emergency hospital.

My local Petco only had bags with the same "best by" date as mine, so I had to drive 25 minutes to another location. I opened the new bag and got the same reaction, my cats would not go near it!

While I was at Petco last night, an employee was talking about a friend's cat, who used the same food I did, had recently started getting sick and she changed to another non-Nutro food.

The pet store told me it's easier on a cat's digestive tract to mix a little of the existing food with the new food I was switching to for about a week. All my cats (almost 8 years old) are indoors, healthy babies and have regular vet check-ups. My girl went to sleep on my bed early last night and hasn't left the bed for over 24 hours. She obviously doesn't feel well and I am taking her to the vet tomorrow morning. I will have her checked for kidney/liver function and her blood for inappropriate zinc/potassium. Her teeth were cleaned late June and I had the extra pre-anesthesia testing done beforehand , so we have a benchmark on those blood levels. She was fine, so if anything dramatic has happened since then, I will have the Nutro food tested.

When I tried to call Nutro today about my sick cat, they were closed and I sent my concerns via their website. But then I happened upon all the complaints here on ** and I am terrified she may have liver and/or kidney damage as a result of their food. Why didn't they ask me to send them a sample for testing? Why didn't they mention possible toxicity due to their excessive zinc and/or low potassium level problems? I had my bag and they didn't mention any possible problem, other than rancidity. They assured me their product was not changed at all other than additional chicken meal! I know they don't want to lose money and openly admit they have a problem, but I don't want to feed toxic food to my feline children! They should have been willing to investigate my 2 calls about this. I hope it's not too late for any of my fur-babies, but I will not use Nutro again. Since Mars bought the company, it appears that quality is no longer crucial.

This went on throughout the night. My biggest regret happened next when I got up the next morning and saw her still as sick as she was. I had just started a new job and was afraid to call out of work, so I proceeded to go to work and figured I would take her to the vet when I got home. She never made it. I had my mother go to my house to check on her while I was at work and she was dead. So in less than 24 hours my dog was dead. The vet had no real explanation, just a list of possibilities. I did not conduct an autopsy, although now I wish I did. My heart broke and ached for weeks--and still does to this day. After researching online and seeing similar stories of other dogs that were on Nutro, I figured I should share my story. I believe that there is something terribly wrong going on and something needs to be done! A 3-year old dog doesn't just die like that one day out of the blue! It just doesn't happen. No words can describe the loss of my best friend Stella!

I have had a lot of issues with food. The really good food often causes loose stool, so I decided that I would go back to the lamb and rice since she did well on it as a puppy plus the Nutro sales person they had at Petsmart talked me into it, again. At first her stool got much better and I finally thought I found a great food for her until a little over half of her 40 pound bag was gone. Now we're right back to the vomiting. I thought a couple days ago it was just coincidence, but she has vomited the past 3 nights before eating. I'm very upset with this company and my vet doesn't like the food either. She said many dogs will do fine on it for a while and then developed a lot of issues that were easily resolved with a diet change. I will never feed my dog this food again and I want to tell everyone to do the same if they love their pets!

I have finally figured it out! It is the only possible connection as I live in neither the same house nor even the same town as before. I don't use any harsh cleaning products either. I have switched my dog's food permanently. When my old dog was 7, I remember I had changed his food to a different brand with fewer calories and without me realizing it that "cured" him.

Physical damage was repeated painful bladder problems, damage to furniture and rugs with urine and blood stains, thousands of dollars in veterinary expenses, and now, emotional damage from realizing I was inadvertently poisoning my poor old dog with what I thought was a premium dog food. I will never use Nutro again. I am now throwing away a 17.5-lb bag which cost $35.88 plus tax. I hope the company goes out of business. I will never buy anything from China again. I make sure the dog food I buy now has no ingredients from China.

The Vet immediately stated that he had been poisoned and figured it was something around our home. In our home we only use organic cleaning products which he never got into. I had been home constantly with him based on house rest for pregnancy, so I knew exactly what he had been doing. Within 24 hours, he passed away. To this day I know something was terribly wrong and I held onto the dog food because that was the only variable that changed just truly believing something was wrong. The costs for care were obviously not inexpensive however I did not care at the time because I just wanted our puppy better! I still have all receipts for care and have the vet records and food stored away.

I read your stories tonight and felt compelled to share mine. Immediately after he passed, I looked for similar stories and did not find them until now. I would like to have the food tested but do not know where to turn.

Just then, we saw a posting from a friend on Facebook that her mom's cat had gotten very sick and they thought it was from eating Nutro cat food. She described the symptoms which matched what we saw in Noodle. We went online and saw that there had been a recall the previous May and that people said that as soon as they stopped feeding their cats the Nutro, most of them improved. So that's what we did, we switched both of our cats to another brand and waited. Noodle did not improve so we took her to the vet again. In the exam room, we learned that she had dropped from 11.6 to 8.9 pounds. And we were startled to see how yellow she was. She was completely jaundiced. An ultra sound of her liver showed quite a bit of fibrosis. The vet put her on round the clock IV fluids expecting to clear up the jaundice in a few days.

Eight days later, she was still very yellow and still very sick. We requested a Zinc test since that is what we have read is the issue with the Nutro food. After a week off the food and several days of IV, they drew her blood for the test which came back at .9 for zinc which is the highest level in the normal range. We took our younger cat in, she's 2 years old, and found that she has blood in her urine as the same condition Noodle had last October but her liver enzymes were normal. So we are hoping that we caught it in time for her. So far, the vet bills have come to over $1600. Noodle is home and we are giving her 6-8 pills a day and 300 ccs of subcutaneous fluids every day. She is finally eating a little because one of her pills stimulates the appetite but she is still very sick.

We began feeding him table scraps and canned dog food to coax him to eat, which he did. Then when things seemed better and the vomiting had stopped, we'd start reintroducing the dry Nutro, and once again he would start vomiting. I reported to the vet that it seemed the dog was worse every time we restarted the Nutro dry food. When the vet asked me to get the ingredients for the food, I went online. I was shocked to see all of the vomiting claims reported by dog owners using Nutro.

We have taken our dog off Nutro and the vomiting has completely stopped. I only wish I had known of these claims sooner so that my dog would not have suffered for so long. It was heart-breaking watching him decline.

This got worse over about two weeks, and both dogs became lethargic, so I took them off the Nutro and fed them plain (human food) boiled rice and chicken. The vomiting stopped within 24 hours of the switch. I've now weaned them onto California Naturals Lamb & Rice and still no vomiting. Their energy levels have increased and they are more alert now.

I gave her a bath which seemed to settle her down but at that time is when I noticed how much weight she had lost. She was previously 4.5-5 pounds overweight, so I never really noticed the change over the last couple of months as she seemed to be at a fit weight once again. I rushed her into the emergency vet on Dec 26 as she was very lethargic, not eating and not drinking.

From Oct. to now, she had lost 10 pounds weighing in at 14.5 pounds. The vet had noticed that she had an infection in her anal glands at this time, squeezed them out for comfort and gave me medication for anti-vomiting, Tylenol and an antibiotic for her infection. She noted that this would not cause the vomiting she was experiencing though. I decided to decline on the blood work at this time, as I was going to take her to my family vet the next morning to get blood work done there to find out if there was something else ailing her. I did not get a chance to do that though as she passed away at 5:00 the next morning at home.

Just last week, I gave my dog food to a friend of mine who as well has a senior dog as I did not want to see the food/expense go to waste. Within 2 days of feeding my dog food to her family dog, her dog was vomiting. She thought that maybe he was adjusting from switching dog food brands. Over the last 4 days the vomiting is still persisting. She now has taken her dog off the food. That is today, so hopefully her dog will recover if it is from the food. After searching through the net, is when I have now realized that there has been a lot of issues with the food.

Can anything be done as far as analyzing this dog food to find out if it was poisoning my dog and if so, what can be done about taking it off the shelves before more pets take ill or die and to make the company accountable? Can you please advise me what the process is to find anything out regarding this?

I noticed right away when I started feeding him the new formula that my cat began to wolf down the new food. He'd just stand there and gobble it like a large dog gobbles their food. He could eat enough. This is very unusual for my cat since he nibbles and he doesn't gobble and gulp. The eating habit continued until he'd become grossly obese and so constipated, I thought I'd have to take him to the vet to get his plumbing going again.

So I bought a vegetable based hair ball remedy to get his digestive tract working again. It took my cat a couple of very large doses. His fur had begun to look really ratty while he was on the New Nutro diet. I changed his diet to another brand and have been monitoring him. He's eating normally now while being picky and nibbling.

He is no longer constipated whereas before,on the new formula Nutro, he had dry stools protruding from his anus and he could not pass them. His hair had gotten dry and was falling out while he was on the Nutro food. Now that he's on another brand he's beginning to look better. His fur is not so patchy but rather, it is glossier. No more constipation. Over all, he's much healthier.

The economic impact is that I had to throw out a $30 bag of food. I had to purchase a $15 tube of vegetable laxative/furball remedy to get his digestive tract moving. I had to pay for one vet visit at $70 to find out if he had a tumor in his abdomen. I'd had a cat several years ago that looked like this and it was due to a tumor. The vet says there is no tumor in this cat. Just too much fat and way too constipated.

There is no doubt in my mind that it was the Nutro food that was making Happy sick. This is not to blame the dog food company because it could just be that Happy reacts badly to one of the ingredients used in the formula; however, one has to wonder after reading of so many similar stories on the web concerning the Nutro. How many more untold stories must be out there? I don't usually write on these forums, but thought that if this contribution could just help one pet owner, then it would be worth it.

I used to be a loyal Nutro customer, but never again will I make that mistake. I am not a vet and have no vested interest in pet food companies. I am just a dog owner who went through the experience above. If you are experiencing similar situation with your pet, you may want to consider switching dog food right away. Don't wait like I did. I regret that my dog went ill unnecessarily as long as he did because I didn't switch sooner.

I then tossed the Nutro and gave her some regular dry dog food. Usually, she'll scoff at dry food but she ate it right up. Whatever was in that Nutro lamb tray caused a serious allergic reaction in my 5 pound Chihuahua. So, I went online and looked up Nutro. Here we are. Stay away!

Our vet told us to stop feeding Nutro cat and dog food to our animals. He stated he would not recommend any cat or dog food unless it was tested. Shame on Nutro and selfish corporate greedy Mars. They were just trying to fatten their wallets and reap their profits at the expense of our poor defenseless animals! When we dialed their 800 number, they told us their food is safe! Then why have thousands of irate consumers complained? Our household believes the product had to be fermented and contaminated to make so many animals sick. Nutro (Mars) has the nerve to send us a coupon for a free bag of food? We can no longer trust Nutro or their products!

In early November, my two year old, neutered, male cat (also an inside/outside cat) first had an episode of diarrhea, anorexia and weakness for five days. I stopped his dry Nutro Max Salmon food and gave him another manufacturer's can of moist for stomach-sensitive cat food, supplemented with select table scraps to entice his appetite. He perked up and seemed to get over his ailment. I went back to feeding him Nutro.

My cat then disappeared indoors on Thanksgiving day. I thought it was because he was shy about guests. Day by day he became weaker with stiff-like back legs, only able to hold his head an inch from the floor. He couldn't coordinate jumping into the recliner as usual, falling backwards on to his spine. He deteriorated into not looking when spoken to and having a dull gaze with constant sleepiness. His hair was falling out in massive shedding. He laid in lethargy.

It finally dawned on me to do an internet search of Nutro pet foods. I found two lots of six pound bags of Nutro Max Salmon had been recalled during the summer. A called to my retailer revealed and they did pull Nutro products off their shelves. They did not have means of contacting consumers who'd already taken these products home. My only treatment was to stop the Nutro Max Salmon dry cat food. Knowing cats require immediate rehydration to stave off kidney failure, I then provided Charlie with wet canned tuna, turkey scraps, grated cheese and moist meat/egg/cheese/gravy combo cat foods from another manufacturer.

He slowly began eating and drinking again. Day by day, he's regaining strength, coordination and eye brightness. Five days after discontinuing the Nutro food, he's approaching a more normal demeanor with renewed appetite. Time will tell if any residual health effects remain. I've stopped any provision of Nutro pet foods and I'm telling my friends to do the same.

I filed a brief synopsis online at Nutro's website. A Nutro representative (MARS Petcare US) heeded my plea to call me, but seemed to want to discount my every detail. I replied that the FDA did have two lots of Max Cat Salmon listed as recalled and that my farm store confirmed they'd pulled Nutro products in the recent past. Nutro is sending me a container to obtain two cups of product for testing. Charlie had just finished a six pound bag, leaving me without that product or lot number to submit.

I will always save lot numbers and dates fed from this point forward. Reading the stories posted here and using your online links to resources appear to have saved my cat's life. Thank you! My farm store pet food supplier is taking our incident very serious. I believe Charlie ate one or more of the recalled six pound bags. We may have checkbook records to document dates of purchase. I hope our story helps you in time to save your pet's life.

After more research (using only government, university and AVMA information), I found that she most likely got this bacterial kidney infection from a tainted water source (such as a pond in GA where Lepto is quite common). The moral of the story is don't be so quick to point a finger at your dog's food. Dogs get sick just like people. There are a multitude of viruses and bacterial infections as well as food allergies and intolerance that pets can get that have absolutely nothing to do with the food you feed. These illnesses can have the same symptoms that a lot of people attribute to food.

A prime example is vomiting and diarrhea. Sure, it can be caused by food, but it can also be caused by any number of bacterial infections or overpopulation of beneficial bacteria in the gut, etc. The symptoms can last anywhere from 24 hours to 7 days or more. I myself have had the occasional stomach bug as I'm sure most of you have. Most people who think the food is the issue change their dog's diet within a few days of the onset of symptoms (which can cause problems itself), but if the bug was only going to last a few days, how can you be sure it was the food?

If your pet has a problem, take it to the vet. Do the tests, they're worth the money. Had I wasted time changing food every time there was a problem, Lucie may not be here now.

Yes her stool was loose and she was sick several times. We continued. After about three weeks, her fur began to grow back. Regular visits to our vet revealed all the major ailments she had first been diagnosed with have begun to clear up. Her original weight at the time we adopted her was 100lbs. Now she weighs 170 and is just as healthy as the older dog. We also have three cats, one of them is over twenty years old. Last winter (2008-2009), I was convinced by her condition that she was not going to see the next season. We tried Nutro for cats and within one month, she became as active as any other member of our household.

We are not breeders nor have we been asked by Nutro to write anything for them. I simply want the best for my family. When you have lost some members of your family to diseases, which can be related to nutrition, you become very selective.

Also please note, with regard to the so-called FDA investigation, well I went to FDA's website and I quote: FDA statement on Nutro Products, Inc., April 28, 2009 "FDA is clarifying that Nutro Products, Inc. is not currently under investigation. FDA does not typically confirm or deny the existence of an FDA investigation. It has recently come to our attention, however, that a media report incorrectly concluded and reported that Nutro Products, Inc. was the subject of an investigation."

I returned the food to Petco and was given a refund to purchase a different brand. Our dogs seem to be fine now. Hopefully no permanent health problems were caused from this food. After reading about other pet owners' stories, we feel very lucky that we didn't lose our dogs. We are surprised this food is still on the shelves and hope there are no other deaths caused from this food.

Hold on to your packaging. Any leftover food you may have, do not throw any of it out. If you suspect there is something wrong with your Nutro food, have it tested, and keep some extra for yourself for further testing. Report your situation to the FDA. I've been working with a very attentive representative at the FDA who is collecting all of my information.

Isn't it amazing that in Nutro's eyes, this is not proof that the toxin that poisoned her wasn't zinc? Even more amazing is the money that we are spending on our pets while three members of the Mars family rank in at number 19 of the top wealthiest Americans with 11 billion dollars each! Now we know that they are saving their money by putting things in our pets' food that don't belong there and providing no quality control. Check out their quality assurance statement on their website.

Do you think the food we are buying has been checked like they say? It's no coincidence that they just withdrew their puppy food. It's amazing that they didn't withdraw the cat food that was made on the same exact machine as this puppy food where a worker's hat supposedly got sucked into a machine. Do you think production was stopped immediately when this happened? If it did, would several varieties of puppy food be withdrawn or one? It makes no sense at all. All I know is, Nutro is still getting away with killing our pets and the owners are living high on the hog while we struggle to pay the vet bills and watch our pets suffer the consequences. I wonder how safe their candy is that they are producing? We sure won't find out and the FDA won't care also. I have never heard a word back from them about my complaint and they refused to take my food that has tested so high. What has this world come to?

I tried a few things that I wanted to in my mind (changing diet, etc.) and that didn't help and with his water consistency diarrhea. I opted for the ultrasound. I was there for the procedure - not that I could tell much - and had to make more calls to get the results that I thought I should have and they think it might be a loop in his intestine and there might be a tumor but since he's not clinical, to play it by ear but elective exploratory surgery was suggested (1st vet). It's up to me but if I wait too long I might be faced with a ruptured intestine but surgery was also suggested (2nd vet).

I have an appointment today with a 3rd vet who I have heard good things about as far as honesty and integrity and I will hopefully get all the pieces put together. I am tired of hearing that he's not clinical - of course he's not. I refer back Nutro to them but they don't seem interested in consumers' experiences which makes me mad because everyone that has posted here who has had issues mirror mine exactly. I'll keep you posted as to what she says/what the surgery reveals if I have it done. Since there are so many posts here, I also would like to see CA set up some kind of way to contact other posters. It might be helpful if a bunch of us in the same state/area all go to one vet with our files - then maybe they would listen.

When we had finally discovered the common element in all of their sicknesses, my fiance started searching the internet (he didn't have to search far). It seems that in February of 2008, Menu Foods purchased Nutro (you may remember Menu Foods as one of the companies responsible for the contaminated pet food back in 2007). It was around that time we started to notice a change in the appearance of the cat kibble.

In March of 2008, one of our oldest cats, Sebastian, had stopped eating and so we took him to the vet. They did X-Rays and said he had cancer of the intestines. We didn't want him to suffer and because of his advanced years (he was 16), we decided that the most humane thing to do was to have him put down. In the mean time, one of our newest cats, Tiger, had taken to not eating. We couldn't figure out why. We took him to the vet as well and they started doing tests. He would get better for a few days and then slip back to his old habits. In August, we finally took him to a Vet of Specialists. They told us that he had a blocked intestine and had to have surgery immediately. They did the surgery and removed a large chunk of his upper intestine. Needless to say, he never recovered from his surgery.

When our next cat became sick and was diagnosed with an intestinal problem, my fiance knew something was wrong and figured he would check out the cat food we were feeding them. Bingo! We stopped feeding the Nutro immediately. Unfortunately, Esmeralda never recovered and had to be put to sleep. Well, we thought the threat was over. We had found the cause as to why we were losing cats. What we didn't realize at the time was that heavy metal poisoning did not stop when you stop feeding them the contaminated food. Heavy metal is also extremely hard to get out of the cat's system once it's there. In February of this year, we lost Dolly. Because she was only 3 to 4 weeks old when we found her, she didn't have any chance to recover with levels of toxins so high.

So when our last cat, McGuffy, stopped eating in March, we couldn't believe that it was because of the food. Our vet told us that it was again something in the intestines. We tried to nurse him back to health but again he was far too gone for the efforts to help.

Now, to set the record straight. After the death of Esmeralda, I did contact Nutro and told them what I knew to be true. They informed me that all the web hype was caused by a vicious blogger and a rival food company. As I explained that most of the information I had was on personal observation after reading just a few of the claimants on the Consumer Affairs website, I was told they would make note of my findings, contact my vet and then contact me with a decision whether or not to pay for the vet costs. Of course, I didn't hear anything back. So when Dolly passed on, I called them again and was told the same thing with the same response. I did hear back from them one last time saying it was not conclusive that any of our deaths were caused by the Nutro we had been feeding them.

Note that we also had 2 previous cat deaths that may or may not have been caused by Nutro cat kibble but at the time the vet just said it was something with the intestines.

Once Apollo and I were at the emergency vet, I was asked if Apollo got into anything. My answer was clearly no. My parents are retired; therefore, Apollo and Lola are always home with someone when I am at work. After three hours of waiting, blood work, and radiographs, I was told by the ER vet that Apollo suffered from dietary indiscretion. I asked the ER vet if the Nutro Ultra Holistic Superfood was the cause. She told me more than likely yes. I'm also an assistant manager for a tri-state area pet chain, so I also know firsthand what this superfood is doing. I have been told by customers that their dogs are violently throwing up, getting rashes, and their dogs will simply not even go near the food. Now that I am a consumer with this problem myself, I am totally livid and disgusted!

I tried to email Nutro that night about Apollo's $547.00 ER vet bill. I received an error message on the website that emails were not being processed. I waited until the next morning to call. I got a customer service rep on the phone and told her exactly what happened. After I told my side of the story, she was trying to tell me if the issue was dietary I would see the dog (not even using my dog's name which I mentioned several times, seems impersonal to me). I asked, "Who I am going to believe, an ER vet or you!?" Needless to say, I continued with my story. I also said now that I am a consumer with a problem. I am not happy. I hear first hand from my customers what is going on. She said, "Oh yes, I know they call." I said that's all fine for you but I get them face to face! I suggested that Nutro pay my $547 bill. That wasn't going to happen. I told her that I am not going to recommend her products to my customers but if it came down to it, I would because that is my job.

My working motto is I won't recommend products to my customers that I won't use myself. She completely understood that. I said if you can't help with the bill then why not send me some coupons that I can give to the remaining customers who will actually buy your product. She said, "Oh no, I don't have any coupons." Well, that's a bit strange. I am calling a customer service line and they do not have coupons to send to customers? This comment came after I told her I put Lola back on Science Diet, who also lowered the prices on their food. She also asked if I had the bag and receipt for the bag of food that I purchased. She was going to issue a refund if I could give her the lot code and the amount I paid for the bag of food. (Honestly, what difference is $11 going to make vs. $547?) I said, "Let's be honest. If you leave your product in the bag, it spoils. Also, why am I going to hold onto the receipt if at the time of purchase, I was buying the same product that I have been using?"

To sum up this incredibly long story, I received a coupon in the mail today for a free 4 lb or 4.5 lb bag of Ultra food. Now, how did I get this coupon if she didn't have any? I gave the customer service rep all of my contact information. I also have yet to hear from a supervisor, even making any small attempt to ask if Apollo is okay or even to check if I was satisfied with the service I received after speaking to the customer service rep. I would like to add that I called the 1-800 line back. I got the same rep again and I did thank her for acting professionally. That I will not take away from her. She was merely doing her job and has nothing to do with what happened. Now, as a consumer, I am completely unhappy. All in all, Apollo is much better. He was on immodium and metronidazole since his visit to ER vet. He will be on Science Diet W/D as per my vet's instructions.

All off our animals have always been pampered and spoiled with the best care and nutrition. The dogs have been eating the Small Bites Lamb and Rice formula (Bright Green Bag) and the cats have been eating the Indoor Max Cat formula. We are devastated with the loss of our chihuahua and are in $3,000 in debt for all the care and bills that our chihuahua got at the vet only to lose her on Sept. 13th, 2009. Just to take her on a Wednesday morning at 4 am cost us about $800. We have consulted with a lawyer and are pursuing with a class action lawsuit, if there hasn't been one already done again for this company. If there has been one, please contact me via phone or e-mail. Hope to hear from you and thank you.

I wrote both the vomiting and the gagging off as "he ate too fast". But then he would vomit throughout the day and he only eats in the morning and at night. I have spent well over $500, not including the monthly fee for the Banfield insurance plan of $20 (now almost $40/month), taking him in for exams with the skin problem and now vomiting. The vomiting was never really diagnosed as anything other than "eating too fast". Tests were normal. Is there a specific test we should be asking for? Is it their digestive system that's being harmed? For those of you with seizures and deaths, was a cause determined? Needless to say, I went and bought a small bag of Eukanuba. We'll see how he does with that.

After trying to figure out how this could be happening, my fiance looked up Nutro Max dog foods and realized that he had all the symptoms other dogs had from the complaints on the internet. I can’t believe I switched my dog’s food without looking into it first and switched from Iams when he never had a problem. I am hopefully lucky in the fact that we figured it out before he had permanent damage done like some of the other customers of Nutro Max's pet food did. I can’t believe Petco would allow a salesrep from a company that obviously has many complaints and impending lawsuits push their products in their stores.

My husband and I have paid out over $1600 trying to find out what is wrong with him including a very expensive blood test that was sent to Texas A&M. They came back with a folic acid deficiency. Now he is back at the vet's office and has been since last Friday because he came home and the symptoms which had cleared up have started again. We are waiting for the bill for the current stay. Someone needs to start digging into why this is happening to so many animals. This goes across breeds in both dogs and cats and the age of the animal does not seem to matter.

My dog suffered miserably. She is now dead. My vet bills are over $1000 plus I have two other dogs which must have ultrasounds and blood work to see if they too have the same problem. If they do, and I can link this to Nutro dog food, I would like to sue or join in a class action suit. Nutro should be shut down and put out of business. I feel sick over this. I trusted that stupid pet food company and because I did, my dog is dead and my other dogs may be at risk. I'm furious. Why did pet food stores continue to stock this brand? If they knew, why wasn't I warned each time I spent 200 dollars or so, stocking up on Nutro poison?

Our son's dog has many of the same problems. He went to the store yesterday to purchase more Nutro and was told about the problems and advised not to buy it. I wish he had told me before I gave our dog his breakfast. We are returning the remaining Nutro today. I expect a big change in our dog soon.

After a couple of weeks, we noticed that the dog was drinking much larger quantities of water and would occasionally belch. We just assumed that it was due to her gaining in size and the warm, summer weather. We also noticed that she occasionally had loose stools but assumed it was due to the newer, better quality food. This all continued but on 9/14/09, she seemed lethargic and not interested in her food anymore. She vomited later that evening. The next day, she wouldn't really eat either but seemed to have a little more energy.

On Wed., 9/16, she ate 2 meals and proceeded to vomit about 5 times between 9 pm and 10:20 pm. Today, 9/17, I looked online for Nutro dog food recalls or problems and came across this site. I have to say, I was very alarmed considering there have been numerous illnesses and even deaths caused from this food. I called our vet and took her in today. He seemed to think that everything was okay. There was that concerned him when he checked her stomach and digestive area. He gave an Rx to help with digestion and gave us the go ahead to change the food based on what I learned. He also said to file a complaint with the FDA which I plan to do.

The vet bill was $70 and hopefully our puppy will return to normal. We are trying out Merrick Puppy food which is supposed to be really good as well. I hope we caught this early enough and hope we will be fortunate enough to not incur any additional problems. I am grateful for the internet and that we were able to learn of this potentially life-threatening issue that seems to be related to this food. I hope that people band together to fix this problem and put this company out of business if an investigation proves they are not using the quality ingredients they claim.

My daughter found this site and began reading all of the symptoms associated with other owners who were feeding their pets Nutro brand products. We immediately took him off it and changed to Royal Canin and health diet soft foods. After two days, he began to turn around and eat a little more as well as drink more water. We took him to another vet that gave him a steroid shot as well as antibiotics. We contacted Nutro but they denied everything. We believe that if we had continued feeding him this product, he most certainly would have died from it.

Every time I started introducing his Nutro food into the chicken/rice mix, his bloody diarrhea came right back. The vets had no idea what was wrong. In August, when both dogs were peeing/pooping blood, the news about the recent Nutro cat food recall got me looking on the web and I found the complaints of sick dogs. I stopped feeding Nutro and both dogs have stopped peeing and pooping blood. It's been about a month & they are starting their second bag of another dog food and are doing just fine. Nothing changed except I stopped feeding them Nutro!

We spent almost $600 in vet bills and the vets were considering an ultrasound test on our Beardie's GI tract which costs about $300. I will never feed Nutro again. When you buy premium food, you expect it to be good for your pets - not make them seriously ill. I have a zip-lock bag of the suspect Nutro kibble in my freezer if anyone wants to test it.

Considering how unhelpful and unconcerned Nutro has been behaving, I would suggest getting a source outside the company to test the food in addition to having Nutro test it. I wouldn't trust them for one minute to give me accurate results on any test. If your animal is suffering, request a blood toxicity test for zinc, check his/her potassium levels, test for liver enzyme counts, check blood platelet and white blood cell counts, and look into kidney problems. Report your problem to the FDA, go to ** to find the FDA regional office for Consumer Complaints for your state.

Today is Sept. 6th, the bleeding seems to have stopped but he has to be coxed into drinking water. I am afraid that he will become dehydrated now. I just don't feel the battle for his life is over yet. He never goes outside without being on a leash and is in a crate when we are not home with him. There is no chance that he ate anything without me knowing. I truly believe this Nutro Max is the culprit. To date, I have spent $510 on vet bill, but he is still not 100% so we may be making another trip to the vet.

I got her an automatic feeder so she'd always know that her meal would be there. The vomiting improved, but didn't go away. But hey, cats do that. They vomit, but do they vomit water? She started doing that. Then, there was the bloated stomach. She kinda had some extra weight on here, but her stomach seemed to be disproportionate. She had also lost interest in playing. Some of her favorite toys had gone untouched for so long I thought she was just getting older. Then out of nowhere, she just died two days ago. She was fine. She was her usual affectionate self. She was roaming around the apartment as usual. I was working from home and I saw nothing wrong.

I went out for a couple of hours to have some lunch and sit in the park for a bit. I found her dead on the floor when I got back, like she had a seizure or heart attack or something. It didn't make any sense until I started reading these comments. It's the only explanation for a cat that seemed mostly OK. She'd been eating the recently recalled foods that were high in zinc and low in potassium. I think I'll have a necropsy and toxicology test done.

She recently began mewling at her food dish. She had done that from time to time. It became really persistent lately. I thought it was because she really wanted the treats that I had been giving her instead. But she started mewling so persistently, looking at her food dish. In the last few years, she had started vomiting from time to time, and the vet told me it was probably stress. The vet suggested that she was probably gorging her self when she ate. I work a lot, so she'd often be alone. I got her an automatic feeder, so she'd always know that her meal would be there. The vomiting improved but didn't go away. But hey, cats do that. They vomit, but do they vomit water? She started doing that.

Then there was the bloated stomach. She kinda had some extra weight on here, but her stomach seemed to be disproportionate. She had also lost interest in playing. Some of her favorite toys had gone untouched for so long. I thought she was just getting older. Then, out of nowhere, she just died two days ago. She was fine. She was her usual affectionate self. She was roaming around the apartment as usual. I was working from home, and I saw nothing wrong. I went out for a couple hours to have some lunch and sit in the park for a bit. Then, I found her dead on the floor when I got back, like she'd had a seizure, heart attack, or something.

It didn't make any sense, until I started reading these comments. It's the only explanation for a cat that seemed mostly ok. She'd been eating the recently recalled foods that were high in zinc and low in potassium. I think I'll have a necropsy and toxicology test done.

Then on the morning of September 1, she woke up at 4 am with diarrhea. On September 2, she ate a few bites of the same Mini Chunks mixed with the puppy food and then had diarrhea and was lethargic for most of the day. Also, she refused to eat any more food, and she had severe vomiting in the evening. I later fed her rice and hamburger, which she ate. Then, she seemed to bounce back. (I'm keeping my fingers crossed.) After reading these horrific stories, I refuse to feed her any more Nutro! I have also sent an email to Nutro and am awaiting a response.

I've spent a small fortune in vet bills, taking each of them numerous times with the same symptoms of diarrhea and vomiting. I receive Rxs for Imodium and stomach relaxers - they improve a bit, then I introduce the dry food back into their diet and they're right back where they were. I've taken them off all treats, thinking that it was the treats that caused the problem. However, it's worse than ever! My friend (who also has her dog on Nutro for sensitive stomachs) told me about the complaints against the company and I just researched it for myself.

I am shocked and amazed at the number of complaints, all of which are similar to the problems I am having. We do so much to care for our pets. It is incomprehensible that a pet food company could continue to manufacture such a deadly product! I will be changing their food today!

We were shocked, she was still only about 10 years old and had been so well taken care of, but I guess these things happen. I never thought their food could be poisoning them. Then our cat died also of stomach-related problems and I thought, wow, all our animals going so close to each other. Well, he was an older cat so I figured okay, it must be time, but it was surprising how he also had liver/kidney failure. I was devastated. We had only our sweet elderly lady cat who we believed was next. She began throwing up more frequently and would not eat much at all. I had begun to prepare myself emotionally to say goodbye when by luck, I happened to see an article on the very under publicized Nutro pet food recall and immediately realized that my previous 3 animals all must have been victims of their food.

I immediately switched our cat and our brand new puppies’ foods without even slowly switching their foods, expecting that they would all experience some bowel problems, and to my shock none of them had any problems with the immediate change in food. I changed to a brand called Dick Van Patten’s Natural Balance, and our elderly cat has since gained some weight, she no longer has that hollowed old cat face and has even been tearing around our house like she was a kitten again! Nutro was sold to Mars, Inc. sometime fairly recently and evidently since their takeover, has been slipping small amounts of toxins into our animals’ foods. One might ask why a company would have a motive for doing that intentionally. Well, Mars also owns Banfield pet hospital. Who has also been very dirty in their handling of customers. I personally had to ask the BBB for help in dealing with them.

Mars, Inc. has quite the racket - slip small amounts of toxins that slowly poison and weaken the system which filters toxins, then at least a portion of them will end up at their Banfield pet hospitals where they can make even more money! People and animal lovers, I urge you to boycott Mars, Inc. products for you and your animals lives! Besides the majority of Mars products are candy so you'll be healthier to enjoy the additional time you'll have with your beloved pets.

The next day, he was on death's door and we had to take him to a specialty hospital for an ultrasound and be admitted to ICU. We were informed he was in total renal failure with one kidney already lost and the other very oversized! He was hospitalized there for 3 days, and we were told his chances were very slim as the only thing in his favor was his young age. The hospital has been remarkable, and he is now working as an outpatient, going to have his kidneys flushed out with IV treatments at a very costly and long stressful time for us! Nutro continues to say no cats have been sick so far? We thought buying a high quality cat food would assure us of a healthy cat, but we feel we were misled!

I took him off of his regular Nutro diet and put him on a rice and cottage cheese diet. His blood work showed some improvement but not significant enough to be cheering victory. I have one more test next week to see if his blood levels improve and his energy returns. He will be approximately 10 days off of his Nutro Diet. If his symptoms go away or his blood levels improve, I will attribute his illness to the Nutro dog food I was feeding him, as this is the only thing I can see that has been altered in his life over the past three months. If there is no improvement, I will wait until the vet diagnosis the issues with my dog and move on from the food issue with Nutro. However, I do think it has something to do with his food, as he has never been this sick before and he has always been a healthy dog. These sudden changes in his health are not typical of my dog and, in my opinion, are diet related.

My dog and I have been to 3 veterinary visits for blood work and checkups ($400.00). My dog has not had any energy. The vet has not yet diagnosed why the dog is sick. He cannot pin point his low red blood cell count to a disease. Next visit will be an ultra sound and another series of tests. I have taken him off of the Nutro food and he is now on another diet prescribed by the vet to see if changes occur.

It's a high fiber diet and helped her stools to become normal again. When I gradually began weaning her off that and mixing in some of the Nutro kibble, the stools became a bit loose. By the time I got her to mostly kibble - very loose. That's when I decided to research her dog food and found this site. I talked to my vet this morning and related all this info here, his response was: "If you research any dog food on the internet, you are going to see complaints." I haven't done that, but will. Meanwhile, I will also note that my other dog, now gone was also fed this same food, until she developed pancreatitis at age 5 - never overweight, or fed scraps. My dog, who is now sick, will go back on the Hills RD and I will wean her off that again, but with a different kibble. I do believe all these problems to be from the Nutro.

Now I read these complaints, and I am horrified that this dog food was probably responsible for my dog's illness. And I can't believe that I could have just taken him off this food and maybe saved him. We got a little female of the same breed, and in the last two weeks, she has started to show some of the symptoms enough for me to take her to the vet. No problems could be found. I thought, oh my god, here we go again. Thank goodness, I read these complaints today and found out about Nutro Products. We got rid of all the Nutro/Max food in the house. I will tell everyone I know about this. Shame on this company for putting this product out! I hope that by making these complaints, they will be stopped.

I have not only incurred the loss of a puppy to a disease that typically only affects small, older dogs (per vet) but also $6,000.00 in costs in 3 weeks. After speaking with Nutro yesterday, it seems that approximately 10 months ago, they changed formula from all beef to all chicken, and for some strange reason (?) they are now in the process of switching all the US plants back to all beef. The Canadian plants will remain all chicken. This just seems kind of odd that all of a sudden, the formula is changing again. I currently have a case number with Nutro and am waiting for them to send me return envelopes in order to submit the food for testing. They have also asked for me to send the vet records of both of my dogs along with the food. I took all the remaining food back last night to Petco for full refund and have switched food.

The emotional and financial stress of this situation is quite overwhelming. To watch 2 year old puppies and see the life going right out of them, is more than anyone should bear and I have done this twice now in the last month. My pets are fed only homemade dog biscuits and have never had table food. I am known as a complete maniac about table food to my dogs. They have never even had a piece of bread. The Nutro food seems to be the only common denominator and the only thing going into their systems. As a pet owner, I feel terribly responsible for the death of my dog and even more responsible for the illness of his brother.

According to the vet, pancreatitis can easily come back once the dog has had it. It is just a waiting game for when it will return. I know have a lifetime to watch for this and go through the agony and expense when this disease will most definitely occur again. I have read that the FDA is not investigating Nutro Products Inc. but I think that someone should, and soon, before any more lives are lost.

There had been one incident of vomiting. There had been one incident of diarrhea. We were concerned, but not overly concerned, having been reassured by a representative of Nutro Products, Inc. that the recall was strictly "voluntary". We were sent a coupon for a free 16-pound replacement bag of Nutro MAX CAT adult food roasted chicken flavor by Nutro Products, Inc. It was several weeks after the recall before the cat food made it back on to local pet store shelves. We purchased a 16-pound replacement bag of Nutro MAX CAT adult food roasted chicken flavor with the coupon provided by Nutro Products, Inc. A little more than a week has passed since we started feeding our two cats Nutro MAX CAT adult food roasted chicken flavor again. There have been two incidents of vomiting. The replacement bag of cat food is labeled "Best by 09 01 10 88 2 925E2UICO3 09: 38 CAPFOOO24.” We are done with Nutro Products, Inc. We would like our two cats to be thoroughly examined and tested by a licensed veterinarian and we expect Nutro Products, Inc. to pay for it.

Since her illness started, I researched everything I could to learn more about allergies and skin infections. I then by pure accident went onto the FDA website. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for or what I would find but I was desperate to find the answer to my dog’s illness. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a headline that read FDA confirms probe of Nutro pet illness. I quickly opened up the article to read it and couldn’t believe my eyes. I had to read the article twice to soak it in. It has been Nutro dog food that has been making my dog so ill. It was in front of me the whole time. I would have never thought that her dog food could do this to her. The vet even asked me what kind of food I fed my dog. I couldn’t believe that vets are so unaware of such a potential danger to dogs.

I have so many thoughts and feeling running through my head it’s hard to choose just which one of them to act upon. I have been feeding my dog Nutro for 5 years and swore to everyone how good her dog food is. Little did I know I was poisoning my own dog. It all made sense now why none of her medication has really worked. I am so disgusted by Nutro pet food. How can a company be so aware of the 100s of dogs falling ill because their product (FDA has confirmed this) and do nothing about it? I’ll tell you why, greed! A big company (Mars) like Nutro pet food only cares about the bottom line. Shame on you!

I have started to warn everyone about the poison Nutro pet food is selling to dogs. I’m faxing the FDA article to every vet in the state of Arizona. I’ve posted the FDA article on my blog, MySpace and Facebook websites. I feel everyone must be warned of the potential sickness and sometimes fatal outcome that is affecting dogs all over the country. I can’t sue a big company like Mars but I sure can bring some bad PR their way. Consequences: My dog has trouble walking and cannot control her bowel movements. She seems very uncomfortable, panting a lot. The time has come to put her down.

Why am I so mad? I had an 18 year old healthy cat named Snoopy; she was a beautiful orange and white cat that used to crawl under the covers every night with me. She was the most loving cat I have ever known. Snoopy was on Nutro Max chicken for most of her life. Late last fall 2008, Snoopy started to lose a lot of weight and started to howl. The vet told me she had become deaf and did not know why she was losing weight or why she kept getting sick of yellow liquid. It seemed every time she ate she would throw up.

At the beginning of December 2008, I came home and my beloved Snoopy could barely stand up without falling over. Her body felt like a rack of bones. I had to take my Snoopy to the vets and have her put down, she had suffered enough. Her regular blood work showed no problem, her kidneys were working and she had no worms. Yes she was 16 years old but the fast weight loss, even with extra feedings, and the throwing up after each meal, makes me wonder if the problems with Nutro go a lot further then what they are saying.

Why the cover up at my pet stores? Nutro told me max shelf life was 14 months. Can someone explain to me if the cat food they are recalling was made in December 2008 and has a best before date May and Aug 2010, how is that possible? That’s 17 months, from Dec 2008 to May 2010. Sounds very odd, did they just pull those dates out of a hat? How long has this problem really been going on? All the garbage about how safe their food is and the QC on their website is false! Today, my youngest daughter watched her cat who is going through the weight loss, just fall over in the kitchen. She has asked me to phone the vets and make an appointment to put her cat down so that suffering will stop. If Nutro had been more honest, I may have saved our cats.

She has recently had another bout of bloody diarrhea, vomiting, pain, and bloated belly 20 minutes after eating her PM meal (Nutro, Natural Choice, Lamb and Rice Formula). Again to the vet, again her liver enzymes were off the charts. We put her on a rice and cottage cheese diet for one week and had another blood test done at the vet's request. This time it showed her liver enzymes at the normal range of 47. This left the vet a bit miffed as she suspected a possible liver shunt with these types of test results. We wanted to figure out what our dog’s underlying problem was, so we ordered a sonogram. It showed nothing abnormal with the exception of crystals in her bladder.

This led us to suspect her food was tainted in some way, causing her episodic bouts of illness usually occurring after eating her normal meals. My dog’s symptoms are typical with Salmonella poisoning or excessive Zinc ingestion. I have promptly changed her food and am hopeful my dog’s health can be restored fully. My dog's overall condition seems fragile for a dog so young. The vet visits and lab tests have exceeded $4,000 to date.