Proctor and Gamble Dry Pet Food Recall

Proctor and Gamble has voluntarily recalled a number of their dry pet food brands for possible salmonella contaminations. No salmonella related illnesses have been reported in conjunction with these foods.

Included in the recall are a number of Eukanuba dry dog foods, Iams dry dog foods, and Iams dry cat foods. You can follow this link to see the sizes, lot codes, UPC codes, and best by dates.

If you have questions and/or concerns, you can contact

Proctor & Gamble: P&G Consumer Relations: 800-208-0172 (Monday through Friday, 9 am to 6 pm Eastern). The media contact is Jason Taylor, at 513-622-1111

You can also contact them via website at iams.com or at eukanuba.com

If you have any of the listed foods, they advise that consumers should discontinue use, discard, and contact Proctor and Gamble through one of the means I've listed for you above.

Natura Dog Food Recall

Natura Pet Products has now recalled all of its dry dog food lines. 

Quoted from Dogster.com:

This recall involves ALL lot codes and ALL package sizes of the following products, affecting ALL expiration dates prior to June 10, 2014:
Innova Dry dog and cat food and biscuits/bars/treats
EVO dry dog, cat and ferret food and biscuits/bars/treats
California Natural dry dog and cat foods and biscuits/bars/treats
Healthwise dry dog and cat foods
Karma dry dog foods
Mother Nature biscuits/bars/treats

According to the Natura web site, this was due to a single positive test of Salmonella in product that was manufactured April 3. This is a voluntary recall, and I have to say that unlike the Taste of the Wild recall, Natura didn't drop the news on a Friday and go home for the weekend. They also have downloads for a replacement or refund voucher right on their web site, which is a nice touch, and if necessary, can be contact via phone at (800) 224-6123.

Taste of the Wild Giveaway Winner!

Wow, guys, we had 38 entries for the Taste of the Wild giveaway! That's very exciting.

What's less exciting is my pictures of the winner selection. Elka, you see, was focusing very hard on this freaked out looking squeaky chicken that I got her from Wal-Mart. I figured, "Okay, she can do that while I write down all of these names, then I'll throw the names on the floor, per usual, and she'll pick one up and go back to chicken squeaking."

Taste of the Wild: review and giveaway!

I used to feed Elka Taste of the Wild. When the voluntary recall happened back in May, though, I jumped ship for the time being. My most recently purchased bag of food had fallen in the recall, and I was just squidged out, frankly. Well, as it turns out, no Taste of the Wild actually tested positive for the Salmonella. Which is a pretty rad thing.

Interestingly, when I was contacted by a rep to see if I wanted to sample Taste of the Wild's new flavor, Southwest Canyon, and do a (very generous, I feel) giveaway for my readers, it was exceedingly good timing. Elka, though she'd previously been happy with the Blue Buffalo switch, appears to have become disillusioned with it. Overall, Elka is not a picky eater. Back in November, I groused about how she only wanted to eat from puzzle toys, but after I'd put them away for awhile, she returned to the bowl well enough. Poking around in her mouth, she doesn't appear to have developed anything wrong in there which would make eating kibble aversive, either, so I wondered if it was time for a switch. And then I got the email.

Still Buffaloed

Happily, I'm still satisfied with how Elka does on the Blue Buffalo food. All of the flavors, in fact; she's tried the Salmon, the Duck, and the Chicken. I ran out of my initial bag, bought after the initial recall panic, and the Mr. Chewy bag that I got, and so headed off to the Feed and Seed to get some more (seriously, this dog just keeps eating! Granted, they were the smaller bags.)

I was also happy to walk into the store, go to the Blue Buffalo section, and see this sign:

Elka wasn't unhappy, precisely. She was far more interested in eating the food than wearing the bandana.

Diamond Pet Food Recall part deux: Missouri plant

On Friday, April 18, Diamond Pet Foods announced another recall, this one for foods manufactured from a plant in Missouri. Once again, it was one of those "drop and run" recall announcements.

So,

The recall announced Friday applies to samples, 6-pound bags and 18-pound bags of Diamond Naturals Small Breed Adult Dog Lamb & Rice Formula dry dog food manufactured on Aug. 26, 2011.

For bags with codes:

-- DSL0801, 26-Aug-2012
-- DSL0801, 27-Sept-2012
-- DSL0801, 18-Oct-2012
-- DSL0801 (samples)

Here is the link to the updated information on the Diamond Pet web site. 

Something that weirds me out about this one? "Product manufactured on Aug. 26, 2011 and packaged on Sept. 27, 2011" I am obviously ignorant about factory and manufacturing settings but...if you're making food, wouldn't you package it when you made it? I thought that was the last logical step on the assembly line: food comes in, kibble forms, feeds through, gets into bag, bag seals.


I guess I should stop making assumptions. I end up looking foolish, more often than not.

FDA inspection on Diamond Pet Foods plant

So, apparently, from April 12 to April 20, there was an FDA inspection of the Diamond Pet Foods plant. April 10 is when I'd posted about their initial 2012 recall, and said that I "applaudeded" them for doing it voluntarily. With the information that I have now, including dates (and the fact that they'd had recalls in what, 2007? So, before I ever got Elka), I really think that they knew exactly what they were doing. Timing is everything, right? Well, apparently Diamond was notified as of April 2 that Salmonella had been detected in random testing of one of their foods.

May 4 is when I posted about the recall expansion (still voluntary), that included Elka's food.

And hey, you know what? Apparently the plant started operations again. On April 30.

But, here's the FDA report on the plant. Not only is there no place for employees to do basic things like wash their hands, but it also seems as though there are ingredients present that aren't actually on the ingredients lists of the dog foods produced there. Animal digest? No, I don't think Taste of the Wild has that.

So, why am I (and others) paying for premium food, if weird stuff like that is apparently included in the processing? Who's cutting the corners here? I can't help but think of a statement I made while talking about chicken jerky sickening animals: if this was baby food, people would be losing their shit. But it's only dogs, right?

Well. Handling contaminated dog food, and interacting with dogs who have consumed contaminated food can spread the infection to humans. According to the CDC, at least 14 humans have become sickened with salmonella from this food. I still haven't seen any official announcement that dogs have gotten sick, though people have been perfectly willing to snark at me in comments on other peoples' blogs about it. If it isn't reported, by you or your vet, than people don't know. I have finally seen an article about Salmonella confirmed in 2 dogs, in one of the homes in which a human had been sickened as well.



Information for Pet owners: on the CDC web site.

Tasty Tuesday May 8, 2012: Where the buffalo roam

So, after last week's Diamond Pet Food recalls, including their Friday "as we go out the door" announcement of recall expansion, we aren't doing Taste of the Wild anymore. I'm not saying that we're dropping it forever, necessarily, but definitely for the foreseeable future.

What have we gone with, you ask? Blue Buffalo Wilderness.

I actually had to sing the first verse of "Home on the Range" to remember the line about the buffalo. I hope you appreciate me. Elka did not.

Online Store Review: Mr. Chewy

Just before Thanksgiving, I got an email from a representative of Mr. Chewy.

He flattered me, which is always a great thing, saying "your blog speaks directly to our target demographic and you've clearly created an influential presence". This has been my goal to a degree, besides having an outlet for talking about Elka, and dogs, when nobody else I knew in person wanted to much hear about dogs anymore. I try to cover important topics, and things that are important to me. Brant at Mr. Chewy extended a coupon offer to me, so that I would check them out and review them here.


First step was, of course, to find out whether Mr. Chewy was in fact a real web site that is a store that sells people things, and not a scam. It is, in fact! 

Free advice Thursday

All my advice here is free.  All of my advice in person is free, too (at least 'til I can call myself a canine professional).  Sometimes I just can't help giving advice, really, but there are times I keep my mouth shut (if you can believe it), for various reasons. Sometimes it's safer for Elka and I to just move on, sometimes I recognize the person from about town and know that they won't listen to any advice I have to give, and sometimes I'm in the car driving by, and think it's super sketchy to pull over and leap from a vehicle to hand out free dog-handling advice (I'd need a cape and a mask for that).  So. I'm  unbottling all of that advice that I kept to myself, and sharing it here with you.

We Won A Contest!

Or, more correctly, it was a Giveaway from Modern Dog magazine.

I entered the giveaway for Canine Caviar sometime in July, and then mostly forgot about it.  This blogging and social networking thing can be hard work!  The Internet is so big, you get stretched out all over the place.  Then, August 3, I received the email: we won!  Elka was very excited.

Rachael Ray's "Nutrish"; meditations on a free sample

As I discussed in my What's For Dinner? post, I feed Elka Taste of the Wild, Wetlands fowl flavor.  So why, you might ask me, do I have a tiny bag of Rachael Ray's "Nutrish" in my house?  Open, no less?

Well, it was free.

I saw the free sample offer and thought, "eh, what the heck".  Especially since I've gotten the Just 6 treats for Elka, and she's liked them, and I've appreciated that the ingredients list was, in fact, comprised of only six items.

What's for dinner?

Elka gets some pretty classy kibble.

Currently, we feed her Taste of the Wild Wetlands formula.  It's grain free, has wholesome-for-dogs ingredients in it, and Elka really really likes it.  Before we got Elka, I didn't really know much about pet food.  I didn't buy what we fed the cats, nor did I research animal nutrition at all.

That isn't to say I've become a nutrition expert, mind you.  Per agreement with the breeder, I use the Whole Dog Journal approved list for my choices, and then head over to Dog Food Analysis to have a further look.  Then I see what's actually available in my area.