[Cliff R]

If you care about your best friend, this is a MUST read.

As many of you know, we recently lost our male Min Pin before he reached his 3rd birthday. He died from "acute Luekemia", which is a rare disease in dogs right to start with, and extremely rare in young dogs. He went from perfect health to dead in 9 days, and nothing we could do to help him.

Anyhow, I told my daughter at the time that I did NOT agree with the Vet completely as to the cause of his death. I suspected something environmental or ingested contributed to his death, like he was poisoned, and to some extent I was correct.

We did some research, and found out that the top name brand food we had been feeding him contains "recycled pets". Yes, under the "meat by-products" portion of the label they are allowed to use recycled pets, or pets that have been "put down". They are also allowed to use chickens and beef that are not fit for human consumption. This could mean that they died or were potentially diseased. Government regulations in this area are vague and/or virtually non-existant.

Anyhow, the drug(s) used to youthanize pets is trapped at the cell level and is still present in the dog food. It has been DIRECTLY linked to Leukemia in dogs. (My daughter is a nutritionist and researched these drugs in depth).

Further research discovered that the food we were feeding Tucker is under scrutiny currently for potentially contributing to Luekemia and other disorders in dogs. At this time I will not put the brand name in Public Forum, but I strongly suggest that dog owners take a few minutes and do some research on your dog's food.

As a coincidence, I was talking to my best friend about this (I tell everyone) a couple of days ago. He said that his girlfriends 2 year old Black Lab has the SAME symptoms that Tucker did. He'd been ill for about a week, and his blood test results showed extremely high white blood cell and luekocyte counts! He called her while we were talking, and she is using the EXACT same brand and type of dog food that Tucker was on.

Anyhow, once we educated ourselves on this subject, we IMMEDIATELY threw out all of our old dog food, and I went on line and bought Blue Buffalo "Wilderness" brand food for my dogs. It is also grain and cereal/filler free, which is another topic all in of itself. It is one of the highest rated dog foods, there are quite a few others that rate equally as well.

Basically, dogs are carnivores, and any glutin, grain, fillers, etc impede nutrient transfer in the small intestine, so much of the food passes on to the large intestine without effectively being absorbed. On this new food, which is about 3 times the price of the old food we had them on, they eat much less (they also don't crap nearly as much either). We calculated out that it will be no more expensive to feed them this 37 percent protien food with no fillers as it was to feed them the 21 percent crap they were on full of grains, fillers, by-products, etc.......Cliff

[72pontiac]

we are going through dog food dilema trying to get her maltese to eat. we notice he eats a lot more of this one food then another thought it was because he liked it. guess i better start the research. thanks for the heads up. sorry you lost your pet.

[BDHABT]

Its disgusting.There is also road kill and dead cows thrown in the mix;whole.Fur,feet everything.If there`s a sickness or medication in the animal,its now in the dog food.
There are videos out there of this,you just have to find them.

The guy that runs the local meat store informed me about this a few years ago.He makes raw dog food,and this is the only thing we feed our Greyhounds.Its chicken,turkey,or beef and blanched veggies,thats all.cant get any more healthy than that.

Mark.

[Cliff R]

There is also a guy we read about on line that feeds his dogs cut up meat. They live a LOT longer than that breed typically lives on dog food. My daughters research also indicated that the life span of some breeds of dogs should be almost 30 years, but they die in the 15-18 years range as a general rule.

Also interesting is that with the exception of Tucker, that ALL of my dogs have lived 14-18 years, and they all died in the same manner, cancerous growths on various parts of their bodies to a point where we had to put them down. Is this all related to what they are eating?......Cliff

[Cliff R]

"we notice he eats a lot more of this one food then another thought it was because he liked it."

A classic indicator that he's NOT getting the nutrients that he needs from that particular food.

On this new food, my dogs eat about 1/2 cup per day, they were eating 2-3 times that much of the old food. They are equally as active, with TONS of energy, so they are getting plenty of nutrition.....Cliff

[68gtoMN]

So...are you going to inform us about your new choice by name or is that forbidden?

[Cliff R]

The new food is Blue Buffalo "Wilderness", it's in the original post. It is their "grain free" line of food. As much as it costs, we may be eating it as well!...LOL

Seriously, I'm not going to bad mouth the dog food that Tucker was on by name, but they are getting slandered enough on line currently. It is one of the largest and most trusted brands in the industry, so they have the "resources" to get away with more and the money to import whatever they want to grind up and put in their dog food, or so it would seem?.....Cliff

[beemergary]

I have a newfoundland that only eats about 2 cups a day. I feed him Nutro Ultra tomato-spinach-pumpkin-blueberry-egg(protien)-oatmeal-pomegranate(a fruit with antioxidants)-alfalfa meal-sunflower oil-flaxseed-carrots-avocado-cranberry-brown rye(easy digestiblenutrient rich grain). Not cheap but my Big Buddy is priceless. My last to golden retrivers never stop eating a major brand and died of cancerat 9 1/2 years. Good Post Cliff

[Old Goat 67]

I see where Pet Smart carries it.
http://www.petsmart.com/search/index...atId=&view=all

Funny, never heard of it before? Thanks Cliff.

Charles

[Region Warrior]

Years ago our vet told us basically the same thing about cat food.
He only rec's 3 brands do to high concentrations of fish(bad for male urinary trac) and get this; the same gylco used in antifreeze!
Of course they cost double to triple. But do eat less and smells less out the other end.

[GETRIDAONE]

We got a new puppy last Feb. Papillon/Chihuahua mix. My wife bought a training CD because this mix breed is very hard to get house trained. The guy that did it went into great detail about food & training treats. He had a whole list of manufacturers, good & bad. It contained all the things Cliff has mentioned. We tried the “Blue” but she wouldn’t eat it. We found that she likes a brand called “Halo” and as others have said she doesn’t require as much of it. Also we mix some canned food in the dry and she tends not to drink as much water because of the moisture in the food.

[2002Z4CSS]

Interesting thread. I'll check the dog food bag when I get home.

[Cliff R]

I don't know if it's "politically correct" to post here, but we went to a site called K-9 Cuisine. I ordered the Blue Buffalo, and got 10 free samples of different types with the order. Every day in the afternoon after they have had food in their bowls all day, I'll open up one of the samples. Some of it they will NOT touch, others they like pretty well.

They really like the salmon/sweet potato Wilderness we chose for them, so at least that's good news.

Yep, I felt compelled to go public with this information, I left out a lot of details about some of the other "crap" they put in your pets food.

The best news of all here is that it really doesn't cost much more to feed them the good stuff, and hopefully we'll give them many additional years to enjoy our company...or visa versa!......Cliff

PS: I left out the companies name that supplied the food Tucker was on because of slander, and I didn't want this post to run like a "they killed my dog" deal. We're smarter now because of his early death, no need to throw any stones at any company, best to just learn from the experience.....

[KenM]

It's ok Cliff,

I wouldn't consider making the public aware of hazerdous ingredients which led to the death of your dog slanderous in any way, shape or form. Especially if this company has been exposed already.

Why would you even hesitate to?

I'm sorry about your dog.

[rohrt]

Instead of saying what dog food it is, could you say what dog food it isn't.

Is it IAMS?

[Jim Scites]

I have a 5 year old Llewellin Setter, we had her spayed when she was less than 2 years old. We started having a problem with her "Leaking" especially when she was asleep. We went to the vet, who told us that her sphincter muscle didn't function normally due to not enough estrogen being produced. They gave us estrogen supplement pills and we started giving them to her.
I did some reading on the internet about problems with pet foods and things being misdiagnosed by vets with the same symptoms that my dog has. The problem was allergies to gluten, I changed her diet to "Natural Balance" sweet potato and fish and she only has problems now when someone feeds her table scraps or something with flour.
I know a few years ago the Chinese made some soft dog food in pouches that was poison and killed a lot of dogs. My dog was eating that brand and barfed it up whenever my wife gave it to her.

[Jim Scites]

http://www.epinions.com/review/Hill_...t_112046870148
I bet this is who Cliff was talking about.

[68lemans462]

Well, I'm not afraid to mention food brands, I want to get the word out on this!! I've been feeding my 4 yr old yellow lab "blue" or blue buffalo for the past 2 years. I did some research on Iams/Eukanuba/Science diet which I was feeding her for the first 2 years, and found some HORRENDOUS things about the food! As a result, I have changed and never look back. I'd never feed my dog anything but "blue" now that I'm armed with this information. All of the mentioned brands above are GARBAGE! I verified this with a co-worker who is a dog breeder and she said the same thing! Since switching, her coat is much better, she is more energetic, and she CHOWS the food... More good info here:

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/

I use the chicken with brown rice, but I have bought different "flavors" when they are on sale. My dog seems to like them all!

[68lemans462]

Here's a pic of my dog "B.B." from a recent camping trip in the Flat tops wilderness of Colorado!

[Cliff R]

Thanks for the link, and the food that contributed (IMHO) to Tucker's early death is listed in that article.

Here's a very important exert:

"FACT: Animal fat is rendered from an unkown mix of animals that includes euthanized pets, roadkill, tumors, fetal tissue, and dead, dying, diseased & disabled animals in various stages of decay that do no meet USDA standards. The euthanized pets often contain Pheno Barbital, which is the drug used to euthanize them. This drug survives the rendering process and thus makes it into pet food."

Not being regulated means that they can purchase whatever dead, diseased or dying animal or animal products that they want to, then grind it up and put it in dog food. They get to shove a lot of other crap into the food under the "meat by-products" insert as well.

There are DIRECT links between this practice and Leukemia and other cancers in dog. The pheno barbitol for example, doesn't break down at the cellular level when the tissue is processed, so it goes into the digestive tract of the dogs eating it. Very young dogs, like Tucker, are killed very quickly when these chemicals go into the bone marrow. He was a very lean and muscular dog, so he lacked any fat storage capabilities, so the chemicals produced troubles for him early in his life.

All these chemicals don't kill every single dog, obviously, but they no doubt shorter their life span and cause many other problems requiring expensive care while they are alive. (Maybe I'm on to something here??)

Anyhow, what's most important is that we become AWARE of what's going on. We can also carry this practice into looking at what we eat as well. There is a LOT of additives/chemicals in food comsumed by humans as well, although it is much more tightly regulated than dog food.....Cliff