Nutro Dog Food Reviews

Not only do we use the brand ourselves, but we also ask our adopters to continue to use it, as we want the best in health for our rescues.

Sally Hull,
Executive Director

Hull's Haven Border Collie Rescue

www.hullshaven.org

We then adopted a 8 month old puppy, Bernese Mountain Dog who came to us in good health but she stopped growing and began to lose weight also. This seemed to work. We switched her to another holistic puppy food. She is now on target to where she needs to be. We adopted a 6 1/2 year old BMD and she has lost 10 pounds in the 6 weeks we have had her. She has also started to vomit bile 2-3 times a day. Yes, we have bought our last back of this brand. It seems too much of the same thing for 3 dogs at three different ages, from 3 different backgrounds to have the same symptons.

I usually feed other brands to my cats, but one has cancer and it has been difficult to get him to eat at times. He really likes certain varities of the Max Gourmet Classics canned food. He is actually doing very well physically and has had no problems with the food. I feed him the Max Gourmet Classics when he refuses the brand I prefer. If I believed it was making him sick in any way, I sure would speak up. That is my experience with just one product produced by Nutro Max as of March 24, 2008.

After about 2 weeks on a diet of only rice and chicken that we prepared, her stools were once again fairly normal. As soon as we started her on the Nutro dog food again, she began with the bloody diarrhea. We threw that food away & began her on another commercial brand after more chicken & rice. She has never been the same since.

She has developed some lumps on her side and a growth on her mouth and also seems to have some type of breathing difficulties. I don't know if that has anything to do with the Nutro episode but as I said, she has not been the same since.

The vet bill was $280.00 but that was nothing compared to the agony of not knowing what and why this was happening. I also had to take time off work to be with her when she was so weak and to take her to veterinary appointments or from being up most of the night with her. I am so tired of companies worrying about their economic bottom line instead of a quality product! There is no excuse for so many pets to be negatively affected by companies that should be experts in the field! Pet Smart should also be liable for not posting informational warnings.

So far, my 50 pd Heinz 57 mix has been fine, although she did have some intermittent pale stools last month that I did not connect to her food (I suspected some new treats) both because the issue was intermittent and because she's been on this food for the last 4.5 years (Nutro Natural Choice L&R puppy prior to that). But now you've got me very concerned that perhaps it was her food, and could be a growing problem! Maybe it was intermittent because in all likelihood there is more than one bag of food mixed in the container in which I keep it? So some days she gets more of one bag and on some days more of another? I'll be sure to speak to my vet about this as she is due in April for her annual vaccinations.

It would be really helpful, I think, if people would include the lot numbers of the product they purchased so consumers can get a better sense of whether this is a problem limited to certain batches/lots of product or whether there is a broad potential contamination. If it is certain batches/lots, that in no way absolves Nutro/Mars of any responsibility, but it might be easier to track and verify the problem if it is traceable to specific batches/lots of product.

My heart to goes out to all of you who have lost a pet or have seen your pets suffer. Such a terrible loss!

When he plays with his buddy too much he gets to coughing and hacking like an old man. He's not as playful as he was when I first got him and he almost seems depressed a lot (maybe he's just in pain...?).

He repeatedly tests negative for stomach parasites and we have been uncertain what the problem was until I received an email about Nutro foods from the shelter he came from. I know I will be weening him off Nutro IMMEDIATELY! In the meantime, is anything being done about this???

I have had vet bills and just constant concern about my little sweety because he's been so unstable and not himself and I don't know what to do about it...

One night he came out of our bedroom, stumbling as if he was drunk. He fell over, cried weakly, and urinated uncontrollably. Off to the emergency vet, where $800 later they wanted to keep him overnight in a bare, stainless steel cage, above a constantly barking large dog. I was in tears, they couldn't figure out what was wrong with our guy. He just wanted me to hold him, and wailed if I put him down; I couldn't leave him there to suffer. We took him home, spending a long night in tears with our sweet boy curled between our heads, on a puppy pad to protect our bed from his constantly flowing urine, and next morning took him to our regular vet. She diagnosed him with kidney failure, and he was so far gone we had him put to sleep. I was heartbroken; it took me a good year to be able to think about him without crying.

Oh, and the kittens his mother was expecting? Our eldest queen, with the impeccable mothering skills and healthy strong babies? Dropped one by one over the course of several days, little kidneys unable to hold any fluid. Same with the next litter from a different queen. I called Nutro, not to seek retribution, but to tell them what had happened and ask how their products were tested. The man I spoke with refused to answer my questions, just kept shouting a nonsense, scripted reply. I told him losing Jack had been terrible and I wanted to make sure everyone else would be safe but he LAUGHED. Yes, Laughed.

Jackie is buried under the peach tree in our yard, everyone now eats Blue Buffalo and thrives. No more dead kittens, no more young adults dying and ripping our hearts out. I am beyond lucky we didn't lose any of our other adults. Our pets will be switching to home raised raw food soon, even though Blue has been good, I just shudder a bit still every time I think of how ours suffered.

Consequences... apart from two broken human hearts and a couple feline ones (don't ever let someone tell you animals don't grieve) as an altered bengal male, Jack could have been sold for $400, not that I ever would have willingly parted with him. The eight babies, anywhere from $400-$1000 each. The vet bills, which are still racking up on my credit card, are now $1200. Oh, not to mention all the food wasted on Nutro for three years before all this happened.

So far none, though possible upcoming emergency vet bills, lost time at work due to pet illness, and cleaning fees / new carpet caused by sick dogs.

I'm on disability and I'm sure having 2 dogs affected by this will be extraordinarily expensive. I don't know how I will afford this.

I am a widow and I lost my companion!

I took stool samples to my vet and all the dogs on Nutro were clean, no parasites. The only dog I wasn't having problems with was the old dog that can only eat raw meat, no dog food at all.

My youngest dog, a puppy, just wasn't growing like she should be and I thought there was something wrong with her, she looked like she had been starved and her coat looked real bad.

I stopped feeding the Nutro a month ago and put all my dogs on a raw diet. They had all gained weight and their hair is growing again.

I thought it was just my dogs but glad I found this web site and see it isn't only mine that are having problems with Nutro. Now that I know others are having problems I will be contacting the company.

My puppy is 10 months old now and her growth seems to be stunted, I have never had this happen in the 40 years I have been showing and breeding dogs. I'm not sure this show quality puppy will now get big enough to show or breed, it is so heart breaking to see such a good quality dog not live up to her potential because of a dog food.

My dogs have tummy problems and one is refusing to eat. Loose stools or totally watery stools. Vet bills will be incurred again.

I faxed pages and pages of this information to my veterinarian, who became alarmed, and told me to stop feeding Nutro Natural Choice immediately. Within a couple of days being off this food, my border collie started acting like he felt better. Within a week, he had regained 2 pounds and after 2 weeks, his liver enzymes were still high but improving. I can tell he is continuing to gain weight and his energy level is as good as it has ever been. My veterinarian and I are convinced it was the food. I cannot explain why this happened all of a sudden since he has been eating this food for years, but I know my dog and I know it was the food. He was not responding to any medical treatment until we stopped the food. So far, this event has cost $500, but even more important than the money, I almost lost my dog, whom I adore. I cannot believe that a company that sells their product as safe and natural is, instead, injuring and killing pets. If I had not been informed about other pet owners' experiences with Nutro Natural Choice, my dog would be dead. It is my hope that some consumer group or authority will begin to investigate this company and its products before other pets are affected.

I placed a call to Nutro yesterday and spoke to a customer service rep. She said they had NEVER heard of any dogs having problems like the ones I described. And then, the next day, I found your site and saw the numerous complaints. I am NOT PLEASED.

Vet bills and meds are upwards of $100; and, of course, a bag of food cost me in the amount of $35--plus the emotional cost of hours of worry and physically running back and forth to the vet, plus gasoline expense.

However, the vomiting continued over the next week and a half, with at lease one of the dogs throwing up each day, occasionally accompanied by loose stools. Finally, on 2/19, after 2 weeks on Nutro Max, the vomiting suddenly increased. While on a walk, the puppy threw up bile 3 times in a row. Less than a minute later, the Papillon threw up a large amount of food. When we came inside, I looked online and found numerous complaints all detailing similar symptoms. During that time, the adult dog threw up bile three times in a row. I took away the food, and followed vet advice to fast them for 12 hours, followed by boiled chicken and rice. We've switched to a different dry food, and after almost 48 hours there has been no more vomiting. There were absolutely no other changes in their diet or lifestyle over the last 2 weeks. The vomiting started within one day of starting the new food, and affected both dogs. It has stopped now that they have stopped eating Nutro Max.

All of this, combined with other consumer complaints, as well as a review here:

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=1593&cat=6

Luckily, just a wasted 20 pound bag of food. Dogs have seemed to returned to normal health, and have not warranted a vet visit.

At 1030 PM, sitting next to me,Zoe screamed out and died. I tried to get her to breathe again but to no avail. Zoe was 9 years old and in very good health. She was a small dog (8 lbs), a Maltese-Pomerian mix, which we found in Hawaii six years ago. Our daughter who is also 9 years old, asked where Zoe was the next morning and we told her she was sleeping under the bed but we were taking her to the veterinarian. Later that day we had to tell our daughter, that Zoe had to be put down on the advice of the veterinarian. She was crushed as was my wife and I.

Took her back and she was x-rayed,given barrium to check for blockage,put on IV and catheder and admitted to ICU. Blood test revealed high way above average kidney,phosporus,and Bun levels. Dr suggest recent ingention of anitfreeze (she is strictly indoor kitten) no chemicals present we do have one older cat and dog. She was dyagnosed with renal kidney failure by ingestion of toxin/heavy meal. The only change was her food. She died this morning. I am left with a $800.00+ vet bill for a kitten that was only 5 months old had her spayed and all shots. This is a nightmare I found her on the side of the road abandon, she blossemed into a beautiful wonderful cat and all the time and energy spend to care for her I am left with nothing but a big vet bill I can not afford. Everything she received was paid out of my pocket befor this. I was doing a good deed as we have not animal orginazation around her that cared to help me.
called again 1/24/07 and was forwared to him after explaining my kitten had died in all fairness he said he was sorry for my loss, I told him I wanted tp speak with someone who could expedite this so I it was the food another animal would not die,he said he would give my claim to suppervisor since the kitten had died. I feel the is urgent I dont want soemone else to have the pain our family has gone through Claim Number 628604 Also this kitten was fed Nutro kitten canned food for the first three month of her life 3oz can were these recalled?

seriousness of the cats death was not taken as a priority, other cats could be at risk if they did find something in the food. I feed all my pets Nutro and will discoutinue until I get an answer. Idid got to the Pets Plus store tonight where the food was purchased amd they did give my their sales reps name and phone number, I will contact be reguarding this issue to see if he can get this issue expedited before more animals are harmed. I could have this food tested locally be the expense I can not afford as I am spent emotionaly and financially.

My dog died alone in our backyard, probably of kidney failure from the toxins in the food.

My second dog who ate the same food spent the weekend in the emergency care. He will be going for emergency surgery for a mouth growth they are expecting to be cancer. Again, caused by the Nutro. This company should be closed. This weekend cost me another $1,100. Who is protecting our animals? I believed the store. I paid money to kill my dogs. When I was picking up my dog from the emergency care tonight, there was a woman waiting for her dog who was being treated for its cancer. Guess what is being blamed for that dog's problems? Nutro Dog food. When will someone do something?

Here we are watching our dogs die while Nutro lies about their products and makes money and so does Pet Supermarket. Two weeks ago I was in there and a woman was recommended Nutro by the manager. I told them not to sell that and for her not to buy it. I explained my horror story, but he said he did not know anything about the problems with Nutro. If I know about it HOW COULD THE MANAGER NOT KNOW ABOUT IT?

The consequences of my situation were that I spent about three hundred dollars at the vet's office and some serious worry about whether or not our dog would survive, and totally wasted my time in the false belief that the people at Nutro were concerned enough about the animals who use their product to follow through with the promised testing of a suspect bag of their dog food.

Because I didn't connect this with the food they were eating, my other dog continued to eat Nutro. This week she became extremely sick with vomiting, severe weight loss, lack of appetite and lethargy. She, too, was diagnosed with extremely high enzyme levels in her liver and as of today she is in the hospital on IV fluids.

I have no doubt that the Nutro dog food caused this -- my dogs are fed very carefully and especially so after the first one became sick.

My dogs have been in terrible pain for days on end. We've spent many hours at the vet and in the hospital. It has cost nearly $1000 in vet bills and one of my dogs is still in the hospital. If she survives she will need to be on medication for months to regenerate her damaged liver. My other dog needs dental treatment but she can't have it because the anesthesia could further harm her damaged liver.

This has been very expensive, time consuming and most important, it has caused great pain and damage to my dogs.

Suddenly this afternoon (10 days after purchase) he developed hives all over his body. I took him to the vet. The vet gave Hooper a couple of shots and prescriptions for Metron/flagyl and Diphenhydramine and orders to stop feeding the new bag of Neutro.

So far it's the physical indications I've described above and a $210 vet bill. My concern is for other dogs and not for any compensation for expenses.

When we picked her up on day 6, her report showed she had been throwing up bile some for a couple of days and not eating well. That night we brought her home she ate very little of her dinner and I counldn't entice her to eat more. That night about midnight we woke to hear her throwing up bile. The next morning she wouldn't eat at all. This is highly unusual for her as she is typically not a picky eater at all.

I remembered the nightmare of the recent past in the dog food arena and did a little research online and learned of the recent issues with Nutro products so I immediately call our vet and took her in. The vet did blood work and an urinalysis. Thsi morning he called and said the bloodwork results looked normal however the urinalysis showed the beginnings of a bladder infection.

I feel strongly this is related to her food intake of the nureo Natural Choice product. I have the balance of this food and I underatand there are places it can be sent for testing but that it costs $200 or more. I feel confident that something in this poduct has made our labradoodle sick.

May 17, 2007, I receive a letter from Hartford Insurance stating our investigation has dtermined that our insured (Nutro) is not responsible.

This dog was perfectly healthy with a clean bill of health about 1 month before eating the tainted dog food.

We were hours from putting the dog down, and the Vet asked us to hold out for 1 more day and we did. The dog slowly began eating table food, and his health improved. I firmly believe from the stories of other pet owners that the Nutro Dry was responsible for this issue.

$3,000 vet bill, and a lifetime of prescription drugs that cost $80 per month. The dog is now in good condition, but has a damaged liver due to this pet food.

That evening she got a lot worse and my husband took her back in. That night they ran an IV on her. The next morning they were performing a barium series test on her and once again she got worse. At this time I received a call from the vet stating if they didn't do surgery she would die and she could still die from the surgery. I informed him to do the surgery.

Juliet made it through the surgery however was filled with blood in her abdomen and all organs were bleeding. They closed her up and started a blood transfusion. Several hours later she was placed on a ventilator. At that point we asked the vet to let her go. I was told the cause of death was lack of blood coagulation due to a toxin.

I never thought it could be her food the dry Nutro Max Puppy until I started doing research. I called Nutro and explained what happened and they ask that I mail in her food for testing. I am very sad that our puppy who was only 6 months old and only part of our family for 6 weeks could be dead because the food that I thought was good to feed her.

We have lost over $3000 in the purchase of Juliet and in vet bills. All of which I have receipts for. Also my family has suffered a loss of an important family member.

She had no record in any of her prior bloodwork that showed anything was wrong before until I switched her food to the Nutro, which I did before the recall was made. I thought Nutro to be a good brand of dog food and my vet even recommended it. I am in a lot of pain emotionally because she was the world's sweetest little dog. Her name was 'Hope'! And she would always greet anyone with a kiss a a wag of her tail. Thank you for listening.

Upon checking the appropriate recall and news websites, we were once again relieved to find no mention of our dog's product. His bowels never did return to normal, and he became increasingly lethargic, and now he is dead after having a series of grand mal seizures, a result of liver damage.

My dog was mature, but his vet called him the spunkiest 12 year old I've ever seen. He still had a lot of puppy in him and loved to play. I had no idea he was so close to death.

I offered to send samples to FDA and Nutro but both turned it down. Now the recommendation to continue feeding a different brand makes me wonder what they know that they are not saying. My dogs are doing well now. And because I was suspicious about the dry food from the beginning of recalls so kept close eye on my dogs behavior and as soon as I noticed the change I quit feeding the Nutro. So I was at least spared a vet bill.

This needs to be stopped. The company refuses to acknowledge there is a problem, but if you just to a search on the internet you will find many many people saying the exact same thing happened to them. This food needs to be recalled NOW.

I kept purchasing Max Cat cans for almost a month after the original recall, and then discovered that on April 10, 2007, that brand of cans was subsequently recalled. I had been feeding my cat food that might have been tainted for an extende period of time. I fail to understand how Nutro was evidently unaware of the possible contamination of ingredients in their own products at the initial time of the pet food recall. I will never purchase Nutro products again. If it was the case, I hope somebody throws them UNDER THE JAIL.

The primary cat that I feed soft food to has a tooth that tends to get infected. He was born in my house and his mother died right after giving birth to him. I fed him with a bottle to keep him alive. He is now an adult cat, but he is my baby. Any threat to his health is a serious matter in my book.

There has been problems with the food dating back farther than what they are saying in all the recall information. My cat has abnormal renal blood test results. My dog has normal resutls but continues to have urinary issues.

Not only the emotional stress of watching your pet be sick and no one can figure out why but it also cost thousands of dollars in vet bills.

December 27, 2006 started out like any other. However around 3 p.m. Jasmine came over to me appearing anxious. She then retreated to the spot she normally would go to vomit and simply laid down. After a few minutes she vomited at least four times. She did not respond to the Pepcid antacid I normally gave her for upset stomach and immediately began to tremor violently and simultaneously lost all control of her hind legs and swayed as if she had no balance control. She salivated terribly and continued to try and use her back legs, paddling furiously. She continued violently tremoring all the way to the vet's office. She was given valium and a seizure medication but was simply not responding. She was labeled critical and we decided euthanizing her was the only choice as the symptoms she presented with we were told looked like multiple neurological issues and even with testing and/or treatment we might never know. She had now been in violent tremors for over 2 hours and we had no choice but to ease her suffering and let her go.

The horror of that day never leaves me. Also in light of the pet food recall, my anxiety has tripled. I think back to that day the day she seemed fine and all of a sudden acted like a dog poisoned. She had all the hallmark symptoms of rat poison but not all the ones being published.

After that I started trying other dry foods like Eukanuba and Nutro. She never would eat wet cat food and I did try to find one that she would eat because of her age. Sometime if February of this year the rash returned on her back and she still wouldn't gain enough weight. The vet found a bacterial infection in her kidneys, but her values remained only slightly elevated. I was sent home with antibiotics and Hills Prescription k/b dry cat food. The first couple of days on the antibiotic she seemd to perk up a little and then started to noticably go downhill. I thought the antibiotics might be too strong so I discontinued them but kept feeding her the Prescription Diet food.

She didn't seem too thrilled with the food and kept deteriorating for the next couple of weeks until she was so bad that she wandered aimlessly and could hardly stand up. She also seemed to be going blind. Her eyes had broken blood vessels that you could see.

I didn't have enough money at the time to pay for an advanced blood test so the vet put him on Lasik (a diuretic) and said to bring him back for in in five days. During this time I took him off the Nutro Max food and started feeding him chicken and rice that I cooked myself. He ate only that for 5 days. When he returned to the vet after 5 days, his weight have dropped from 99 lbs to 93 lbs and the belly was going down. The vet took more blood and this time I had enough money to send it out for sophisticated analysis.

The vet called me the next day and said to take himn off the Lasik. His creatine and other levels were quite high. I took him off the lasik and started him back on the Nutro Max food for three days. Immediately his belly began to swell up again. That same week the new reported about the tainted pet foods and when I saw Nutro Max was on the list, I immediately stopped feeding it to Ayden -- even though it was dry food and all the articles said only wet foods were contaminated. Since taking Ayden off the Nutro Max, his belly is back to normal, his breathing and his energy. We took our first walk together this weekend. I am hopeful this story will have a happy ending. I am convenced that the dry food was also contaminated with the poison.