Dog and cat owners please read

[Ryan925]

Recently we suffered the tragedy in losing our 7 year old pitbull. It has been very tough to cope with the loss of a loved member of our family, especially for our 5 year old who has never known life without his best bud. It is still very tough to talk about so I will spare the details for now

The hardest part was being so helpless as well as how quickly it happened. Essentially we checked him into the er on a Thursday evening and by Saturday morning we got the call to come in and make the decision that no pet owner wants to have to make.

We have really struggled with the fact that we just have no answers as to the cause. It was very tough to see a seemingly healthy, happy, active dog decline so rapidly with no clue of the cause.

Searching for some sort of closure we have been scouring the web looking for some sort of insight into the what's, how's and why's. Much of what we read keeps coming back to the same thing. Diet. Knowing that pitbulls are prone to allergies we have always fed high quality dry food. Grain free, quality protein, etc (so we thought)

We watched a Netflix documentary last night called "pet fooled." I would urge you all to watch it.

Although I am sure not everyone will agree with the position of these veterinarians I am sure the one thing we can all agree upon is how alarming the lack of regulation there is in the pet food industry.

I know how much we scrutinize the nutrition and ingredients of the food we feed our discus and we really should be doing the same with our other pets.

I was astonished to find out that what is on the product packaging doesn't even have to be what's in the bag.

I know how many animal lovers there are here so just hoping to give a little insight

[Ryan925]

I must add I am not stating food as the cause. Could it have been? Possible. I just want to share the info as through our loss it has really opened our eyes.

[RogueDiscus]

Wow Ryan, sorry to hear that. That's rough. My neighbor's golden lab went quickly like that a few years ago due to organ failure. They suspect she got in to something, perhaps a rat poison or something. She was there baby and it was a tough loss. We've lost one to a stroke, and another to old age that we had to let go when she couldn't take care of herself anymore.

[Ryan925]

Wow Ryan, sorry to hear that. That's rough. My neighbor's golden lab went quickly like that a few years ago due to organ failure. They suspect she got in to something, perhaps a rat poison or something. She was there baby and it was a tough loss. We've lost one to a stroke, and another to old age that we had to let go when she couldn't take care of herself anymore.

Thank you. It was quite difficult. The only theories were a potential kidney issue or undetected cancer.

It's just tough to be so helpless for a pet you love

[Jenene]

I am really sorry Ryan, I know that took awhile to be able to talk about.

My heart goes out to you and your family. That sounds like an awful 3 days.

I had no idea about the pet food. I guess I am not surprised though. I see that is something that people will need to get angry enough to get changed. It won't be easy though.

One thing we learned the hard way was how toxic grapes are to some dogs. Some have no reaction while others will get violently ill. I was washing grapes and four fell to the floor. Our yellow lab Flynn, ate them before I could get them but had not remembered they could be toxic until later that night it hit me. He became violently ill and luckily threw them all up but it took him a few days to recover.

I am wondering if there are a chosen few companies that list the actual ingredients of their products?

[Second Hand Pat]

Really sorry to hear this Ryan. Losing a beloved pet is never easy, they are family. :( My daughter turned me on to this website for doing research on dog foods. In case there is any interest here it is http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/. Here's a list of dog food recalls maintained by the same site http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-recalls/. This post almost sounds like one of those email scams :shocked:
Pat

[Disgirl]

Sorry for the loss of your pet Ryan. I assume the same food issues are with cat foods too. I will do some reading. Our vet has told me that for cats, feeding wet foods is way better for them than dry. I feed wet and dry now. Do you have other dogs or cats? When you are ready your family will find another dog in need of you.
Barb

[Ryan925]

I am really sorry Ryan, I know that took awhile to be able to talk about.

My heart goes out to you and your family. That sounds like an awful 3 days.

I had no idea about the pet food. I guess I am not surprised though. I see that is something that people will need to get angry enough to get changed. It won't be easy though.

One thing we learned the hard way was how toxic grapes are to some dogs. Some have no reaction while others will get violently ill. I was washing grapes and four fell to the floor. Our yellow lab Flynn, ate them before I could get them but had not remembered they could be toxic until later that night it hit me. He became violently ill and luckily threw them all up but it took him a few days to recover.

I am wondering if there are a chosen few companies that list the actual ingredients of their products?

Thanks Pal. Oh ya grapes are a big no no for dogs. They will cause renal failure.


Sorry for the loss of your pet Ryan. I assume the same food issues are with cat foods too. I will do some reading. Our vet has told me that for cats, feeding wet foods is way better for them than dry. I feed wet and dry now. Do you have other dogs or cats? When you are ready your family will find another dog in need of you.
Barb


Hi Barb. We do had a frenchie pup that is now about 4 months. We have decided to put him on a raw diet. Well freeze dried not totally raw.

I think one of the biggest prohibiting factors of raw diet is cost. For the frenchie it's manageable as he is only ten pounds and won't be any more than 30. For a large dog or people with multiple dogs it would be very costly.

[Ryan925]

Really sorry to hear this Ryan. Losing a beloved pet is never easy, they are family. :( My daughter turned me on to this website for doing research on dog foods. In case there is any interest here it is http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/. Here's a list of dog food recalls maintained by the same site http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-recalls/. This post almost sounds like one of those email scams :shocked:
Pat

Thanks Pat. I believe the woman that created that site was part of the documentary.

[ssevasta]

Ryan I'm sorry for your loss. Early last year we almost lost one of our family Shih Tzu's named Delilah in a similar way. We noticed that she wasn't acting like her normal perky self so we brought her to the vet and when the vet opened her mouth her gums were totally white. The vet recommended an emergency blood transfusion that would have cost several thousand dollars and said even then that the prognosis wasn't very good. It turned out that something which is still unknown had caused her to become critically anemic. My family couldn't afford the blood transfusion and we didn't have the heart to put her down so the vet prescribed an oral steroid treatment and told us to come back in a week for additional blood work if she was still with us. During that week my mom spent several hours every single day feeding Delilah blended up home made chicken soup with a plastic syringe and basically forcing her to take it down. The vet told me on the phone that she was basically a goner but long story short my mom was able to bring her back from the brink and she's back to her normal perky self happier than ever. We thought that maybe one of our neighbors that we have a horrid relationship with may have poisoned her but now reading this thread has me thinking it may have been something in her dog food. Thanks for sharing.

[Ryan925]

Ryan I'm sorry for your loss. Early last year we almost lost one of our family Shih Tzu's named Delilah in a similar way. We noticed that she wasn't acting like her normal perky self so we brought her to the vet and when the vet opened her mouth her gums were totally white. The vet recommended an emergency blood transfusion that would have cost several thousand dollars and said even then that the prognosis wasn't very good. It turned out that something which is still unknown had caused her to become critically anemic. My family couldn't afford the blood transfusion and we didn't have the heart to put her down so the vet prescribed an oral steroid treatment and told us to come back in a week for additional blood work if she was still with us. During that week my mom spent several hours every single day feeding Delilah blended up home made chicken soup with a plastic syringe and basically forcing her to take it down. The vet told me on the phone that she was basically a goner but long story short my mom was able to bring her back from the brink and she's back to her normal perky self happier than ever. We thought that maybe one of our neighbors that we have a horrid relationship with may have poisoned her but now reading this thread has me thinking it may have been something in her dog food. Thanks for sharing.

Sorry to hear that but glad she came through. When we took our dog to the vet his gums were white as well. They thought maybe internal bleeding. He didn't have any thankfully but they still couldn't figure out the problem. Plasma treatment did help to stabilize him but didn't work too long.

That's the other thing I would highly recommend to pet owners is pet insurance. It cost us nearly $4000 for the two days at the ER and there was nothing we could do for him. It's tough but for a loved pet you try to do everything you can

Our biggest fear was that he would start to improve but need to stay in the er for extended period of time. Obviously we don't have unlimited funds to spend $2000/day

[pitdogg2]

Thanks Pal. Oh ya grapes are a big no no for dogs. They will cause renal failure

This is not true for all dogs. Some yes but my bull terrier and i would sit and eat grapes for hours.
Raisin's are a whole other story they will cause renal failure in dogs. Science has not found the good reason as to why they affect dogs the way they do.

Quick story my bulldog when he was 4mo. old. Well he some got my big tub of dark chocolate covered raisins off the counter got the lid off and went to town on them. I came up from the shower seen his look KNEW HE DID SOMETHING. Might as well of had a placard that said I'm in trouble. Well i found them 3/4 gone. I knew i had to act fast, grabbed a turkey baster filled with hydrogen peroxide gave him the works. I took him outside and 45 seconds later walla big pile of dark chocolate covered raisins. Most not even had begun to melt yet.

Yep stick that in the memory banks need a quick puke hydrogen peroxide safe and gets it done.

[Ryan925]

This is not true for all dogs. Some yes but my bull terrier and i would sit and eat grapes for hours.
Raisin's are a whole other story they will cause renal failure in dogs. Science has not found the good reason as to why they affect dogs the way they do.

Quick story my bulldog when he was 4mo. old. Well he some got my big tub of dark chocolate covered raisins off the counter got the lid off and went to town on them. I came up from the shower seen his look KNEW HE DID SOMETHING. Might as well of had a placard that said I'm in trouble. Well i found them 3/4 gone. I knew i had to act fast, grabbed a turkey baster filled with hydrogen peroxide gave him the works. I took him outside and 45 seconds later walla big pile of dark chocolate covered raisins. Most not even had begun to melt yet.

Yep stick that in the memory banks need a quick puke hydrogen peroxide safe and gets it done.

Wow that's a crazy story. That's some pretty quick thinking

[ssevasta]

Sorry to hear that but glad she came through. When we took our dog to the vet his gums were white as well. They thought maybe internal bleeding. He didn't have any thankfully but they still couldn't figure out the problem. Plasma treatment did help to stabilize him but didn't work too long.

That's the other thing I would highly recommend to pet owners is pet insurance. It cost us nearly $4000 for the two days at the ER and there was nothing we could do for him. It's tough but for a loved pet you try to do everything you can

Our biggest fear was that he would start to improve but need to stay in the er for extended period of time. Obviously we don't have unlimited funds to spend $2000/day

Do you think it was the same thing that happened to both of our dogs then?

[Bethzb]

I actually lost my apbt to an autoimmune reaction to vaccines. Had the adult booster for rabies, distemper, and parvo plus the vet decided to add lymes. 10 months later we gave up the fight as she ended up with encephalitis. We now space out the vaccines. Costs more but I no longer worry so much about vaccine reactions. We then almost lost our staffie to some sort of poisoning that was never determined. She almost went into organ failure, liver and kidneys both. Finally brought her from the brink with frozen yogurt of all things (she would neither eat nor drink at that stage). Unfortunately with dogs, they have a tendency to rapidly ingest anything they think smells good, whether or not it is good for them. I am sorry for your loss. It is amazing how these animals so quickly bury themselves in our hearts.

[White Worm]

Its hard to lose a close family animal and dogs and cats are really susceptible to many every day things we use other than food and they get into everything. I have a list of items/flowers/foods that are toxic to cats and that list has about 400 common things. We lost one to poisoning by lily's. The little prongs in the middle of the flower have poisonous dust on them. I bought the wife flowers and the cat was playing with them when we were weren't looking. The stuff gets on them and then they lick it. Stopped eating and was in liver failure when we went to the ER vet within a couple days. The wife is happy that roses are NOT on the list so she can still get flowers, however, baby's breath (usually comes with roses) IS. So plain roses with some green leaves it is.

[ssevasta]

I actually lost my apbt to an autoimmune reaction to vaccines. Had the adult booster for rabies, distemper, and parvo plus the vet decided to add lymes. 10 months later we gave up the fight as she ended up with encephalitis. We now space out the vaccines. Costs more but I no longer worry so much about vaccine reactions. We then almost lost our staffie to some sort of poisoning that was never determined. She almost went into organ failure, liver and kidneys both. Finally brought her from the brink with frozen yogurt of all things (she would neither eat nor drink at that stage). Unfortunately with dogs, they have a tendency to rapidly ingest anything they think smells good, whether or not it is good for them. I am sorry for your loss. It is amazing how these animals so quickly bury themselves in our hearts.
For our dogs we usually go to either petco or another pets supply store to get their shots on special days when they have a vet visit the store. We save a ton of money that way with our two dogs. They're usually there for about two hours in the morning on the days that they do it. It costs us about $115 per dog compared to almost $400 per dog at the vet.

[Clawhammer]

Condolences Ryan, losing a dog is terribly painful and to lose your buddy in this way has to be that much worse. Thanks for posting about this and letting us know about this risk, I am sure it isn't easy to talk about.

[AquaWoman]

So sorry for your loss. Thank you for the information.

[Ryan925]

Thanks everyone.

It's astonishing to see the practices employed by these major dog food companies.

I was also extremely surprised to find that the huge variety of dog foods you see on the shelves are actually made by only a few different companies

[brewmaster15]

Ryan,
I am really sorry to hear that..Sorry you guys lost your bud like that. :( I too am very disillusioned with commercial pet foods. Its hard to prove that they are the cause of alot of pet illnesses, but I do believe it. Particularly I am growing more and convinced that most cat foods are pure junk and the root cause of my cats current diabetes problems. Lets face it... Dogs and Cats share our physiology far more than they differ. Whats in their food is just as important as whats in ours though sometimes its also whats not in the food.

al

[Ryan925]

Ryan,
I am really sorry to hear that..Sorry you guys lost your bud like that. :( I too am very disillusioned with commercial pet foods. Its hard to prove that they are the cause of alot of pet illnesses, but I do believe it. Particularly I am growing more and convinced that most cat foods are pure junk and the root cause of my cats current diabetes problems. Lets face it... Dogs and Cats share our physiology far more than they differ. Whats in their food is just as important as whats in ours though sometimes its also whats not in the food.

al

Exactly. Watching that documentary was very informative. We were already aware and how poor a lot of the foods were but really had no clue to the extent.

Thanks for the kind words Al

[ssevasta]

This might sound crazy to some but my first Shih Tzu Snuggles that I had for 14 years ate for the most part chicken and he had the most beautiful shiny and soft coat I've ever felt on a dog. You'd be surprised how much of an effect fresh food can have on us and our animals.

[Ryan925]

This might sound crazy to some but my first Shih Tzu Snuggles that I had for 14 years ate for the most part chicken and he had the most beautiful shiny and soft coat I've ever felt on a dog. You'd be surprised how much of an effect fresh food can have on us and our animals.

Diet is very important to a dog's coat and skin. The protein source in many of these dry foods is derived from wheat gluten and things of that nature and not even meat. These foods are packed with carbs, grains and lots of preservatives. Some of them even list preservstices in the ingredients lost that are known to be harmful to both animals and humans.

[CraigJ]

Hi Ryan,

Sorry for your loss, as I lost my 7 year old Whippet to lung cancer last fall. I look forward to viewing Pet Fooled.

Meanwhile, here is a picture of my sister's recent purchase that you might appreciate;

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4334/36333594912_b8a4785ff5_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/XmFaVA)Lucy (https://flic.kr/p/XmFaVA)

[Ryan925]

Hi Ryan,

Sorry for your loss, as I lost my 7 year old Whippet to lung cancer last fall. I look forward to viewing Pet Fooled.

Meanwhile, here is a picture of my sister's recent purchase that you might appreciate;

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4334/36333594912_b8a4785ff5_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/XmFaVA)Lucy (https://flic.kr/p/XmFaVA)

Thanks Craig. Cut pup. This is our first experience with a frenchie and are really enjoying it so far.111819

[pitdogg2]

French bulldogs are pretty cool little dogs. With that said they can be one of the most expensive pets to own vet wise.
Good luck and hang in there.

[Ryan925]

French bulldogs are pretty cool little dogs. With that said they can be one of the most expensive pets to own vet wise.
Good luck and hang in there.

Ya we are well aware. The wife has done tons of research on the breed so we can provide the best care possible. He was a gift from my.parents to my son. We weren't ready to drop that kind of $ on a pup

[pitdogg2]

Ryan it was not meant as a bash, please do not take it that way. I have know many that didn't have the problems associated with the breed. That was a very nice gift:D

[Ryan925]

Ryan it was not meant as a bash, please do not take it that way. I have know many that didn't have the problems associated with the breed. That was a very nice gift:D

Oh no didn't take it that way at all. Sorry may have come off as that way the way I worded it. Just meant that the wife has really been doing her homework.

No harm done :)

[LizStreithorst]

This is so sad. I have 10 dogs but each one has a special place in my heart. I have not yet lost a dog from unknown causes.

Ryan, there is an autoimmune disease called pernicious anemia. Vets who have never seen it don't recognize it. It runs in lines but can show up unexpectedly when the right combination of genes get together. It's treated with steroids and the dogs get better. That was my first thought when I read about your dog.

I'm sorry that you lost your friend.

[Ryan925]

This is so sad. I have 10 dogs but each one has a special place in my heart. I have not yet lost a dog from unknown causes.

Ryan, there is an autoimmune disease called pernicious anemia. Vets who have never seen it don't recognize it. It runs in lines but can show up unexpectedly when the right combination of genes get together. It's treated with steroids and the dogs get better. That was my first thought when I read about your dog.

I'm sorry that you lost your friend.

Thanks Liz

[Ryan925]

This is so sad. I have 10 dogs but each one has a special place in my heart. I have not yet lost a dog from unknown causes.

Ryan, there is an autoimmune disease called pernicious anemia. Vets who have never seen it don't recognize it. It runs in lines but can show up unexpectedly when the right combination of genes get together. It's treated with steroids and the dogs get better. That was my first thought when I read about your dog.

I'm sorry that you lost your friend.

Wow Liz after googling this it's a very real possibility. Their theories mostly had to deal with blood. He started getting this bruising that they couldn't stop from spreading and swelling. They thought maybe a clotting issue but he passed those tests. The vet was saying his blood, for lack of better terms, wasn't doing what it was supposed to. The plasma treatment helped to stabilize a bit but didn't last.

That was the hardest sight to see to see him bruised from his belly to his front legs. Swelling went from belly all the way to the neck. Ugh so hard to relive those memories.

Thanks for the info

[Jenene]

This is so sad. I have 10 dogs but each one has a special place in my heart. I have not yet lost a dog from unknown causes.

Ryan, there is an autoimmune disease called pernicious anemia. Vets who have never seen it don't recognize it. It runs in lines but can show up unexpectedly when the right combination of genes get together. It's treated with steroids and the dogs get better. That was my first thought when I read about your dog.

I'm sorry that you lost your friend.

Wow, that really makes a lot of sense. I think trying to understand what may have happened can give you a little bit of closure Ryan. The unknown just has a way of chewing away at you from the inside out.

Thanks Liz for putting that out there as a possible cause, maybe it can help someone else out there.

[HappyFace]

Recently we suffered the tragedy in losing our 7 year old pitbull. It has been very tough to cope with the loss of a loved member of our family, especially for our 5 year old who has never known life without his best bud. It is still very tough to talk about so I will spare the details for now

I was astonished to find out that what is on the product packaging doesn't even have to be what's in the bag.

I know how many animal lovers there are here so just hoping to give a little insight

I'm so sorry for your loss Ryan. Thank you for sharing this warning.


Really sorry to hear this Ryan. Losing a beloved pet is never easy, they are family. :( My daughter turned me on to this website for doing research on dog foods. In case there is any interest here it is http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/. Here's a list of dog food recalls maintained by the same site http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-recalls/. This post almost sounds like one of those email scams :shocked:
Pat

Thank you for the link Pat.

[geo57]

Sorry Ryan, I have three dogs and one is a blue nose, they are all wonderful, but the blue nose we named Delilah is just the sweetest most loving lil girl. Just painful to loose them.

[LizStreithorst]

Right now I'm dealing with a 14 year old Chow with degenerative arthritis and spondalosis. (The computer says that I spelled that wrong but offered no better choices) I gets 9 pills a day. He looks forward to taking his meds because I put the pills in ground chuck. He sees well enough and he hears well enough. His blood work it perfect. His joints are failing. The best I can do for him is to keep him enjoying life for as long as I can. If I linger on what I will have to do in the future I always end up in tears.

[RuinerM3]

Sorry for your loss. We have a 10 year old Pitbull named Missy that I've owned since she was 6 weeks old and we absolutely love her to death. We were super worried about having a pit when we became parents, even though we knew pits used to be considered "nanny dogs". From the day we brought our first son home from the hospital, she's been by his/their sides. She sat right next to the boys when they were babies, she watches over them when they're playing, comes and gets us when they're getting into trouble and has never shown any aggression towards them. She even lets them play on top of her and sit on her while they're watching movies. She even tried to warn us that something was wrong with my wife before she was diagnosed with cancer.

I cannot imagine a day when she's not in our home .