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Sunshyne4u
Member
06-17-2003
| Saturday, May 05, 2007 - 10:51 pm
Glycine or Glycerine. That article was a great example of mislabelling of product due to "english as a second language". I truly dont believe china deliberately tried to poison people. *** I really hope that this pet food contamination opens everyone's eyes to what their food contains....and what OUR food can possibly contain. Someone earlier posted how melamine is in feed for some Chickens and hogs. The authorities are saying taht the meat is Safe. I disagree emphatically. Lately my chemical sensitivities has made it impossible to eat chicken without illness. This is NEW and I wonder if it has something to do with the Feed, drugs etc that might be used. Now I am sensitive to stuff but most people I know dont have a problem. Will they end up with a higher rate of cancer or some other problem because of the chemical contamination of the meat?? Organic beef and Chicken...certfied grainfed is perfectly fine.
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Sunday, May 06, 2007 - 2:34 pm
Sea, if Angelina kitty wolfed food down and then threw up, it wasn't necessarily because of the food. Costa, on occasion, will do the same thing. If he throws up food right after eating, or does the hairball hurk, I don't worry. It's on the (very rare) occasion when he throws up just bile that I keep an eye on him. (Thankfully, not lately and not often!) That homemade food? Turns out I'm thinking (because I wouldn't eat it) it was bland. When a tablespoon of homemade is mixed with a teaspoon of Wellness canned, they both ate every bit. And most of the homemade food recipes call for some sort of seasoning that I didn't use (salt, kelp, garlic powder, soy sauce). I wouldn't add salt (I tried to keep Costa on a low salt diet until the ONE company that didn't add salt went out of the canned food business years ago). So the next batch will include a bit of low sodium soy sauce and see if that helps the brats. My mom swears that they can't taste salt but... bet me!
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Sunday, May 06, 2007 - 3:17 pm
I hear ya, Costa. I was actually wincing thinking of the times she ate that stuff that may well have been bad and didn't throw it up. Critter was throwing up way too much lately with the spa select dry, perhaps too rich for her, even the "mature". So far so good with the Royal Canin mature, and she really does like it. Dogs love garlic taste, not sure about cats.
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Landi
Member
07-29-2002
| Sunday, May 06, 2007 - 9:32 pm
considering my cat ariel loves green olives (she only gets a smidgen) i would believe they like a little salt now and then.
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Sunshyne4u
Member
06-17-2003
| Monday, May 07, 2007 - 12:57 am
I personally have used Missing Link as a flavour enhancer for Homemade foods. http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/products/Missing-Link-Feline-Formula/168006.aspx snip* Flaxseed, rice bran, primary dried yeast, blackstrap molasses, freeze dried beef liver, sunflower seed, dehydrated alfalfa, dried carrot, shark cartilage powder, freeze dried fish protein powder, freeze dried oyster powder, barley grass leaf powder, dried kelp, zinc monomethionine, lecithin, chromium yeast, selenium yeast, niacin, pyridoxine hydrochloride, garlic powder, taurine, yucca schidigera extract, riboflavin, thiamine hydrochloride, folic acid and cobalamin you can see the ingredients are full of flavour hence no need for salt or fermented Soya sauce.
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Serate
Member
08-21-2001
| Monday, May 07, 2007 - 11:40 am
My mom swears that they can't taste salt but... bet me! We have to watch Zippy or he'll steal french fries and lick them. Must be the salt.
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Monday, May 07, 2007 - 1:10 pm
I thought I'd posted this but... Costa loves tortilla chips! With salsa and guac! He gets only a teensy tiny bit, but he'll sit and beg till he gets it. And yeah, my cat begs just like a dog! I don't eat fries, but if I did, I think he'd try to steal 'em too! 
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, May 07, 2007 - 2:52 pm
Sun, that sounds like a seasoner a cat could love.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, May 07, 2007 - 2:52 pm
(or, even a seasoning..)
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Sunshyne4u
Member
06-17-2003
| Monday, May 07, 2007 - 10:49 pm
I'll suggest that the cat isnt craving salt but that certain sharp flavour. Stuff like Kelp, yeast and fish powders would add a natural saltiness to the food. by the way, Missing Link is also made for dogs. My Holistic Vet has all kinds of interesting stuff.
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Hypermom
Member
08-13-2001
| Monday, May 07, 2007 - 11:13 pm
Cdbga, thank you for keeping us all informed. Sea, I read back about what you wrote about Angelina and the Iams. I really would like to know how long there has been a problem? Samantha and Holly were both on Iams. Last summer, they wouldn't always eat the Iams, which was strange because they had always loved it. Then, we found out Samantha had cancer, and Holly had the kidney problem within 30 days of each other. It bothers me about Holly's problem, because it came on so fast and was fatal for her....as was Samanthas. 
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, May 07, 2007 - 11:37 pm
Hypermom, I'm SO sorry for your horrible double loss. Hard to imagine. Was it the Iams cuts in gravy pouch food? That's one of the pouch foods that Angelina had, along with the Nutro pouches. Somewhere here I think it was Cd who posted that one of them had added lots that went back more in the past than originally listed. I'm not sure if it was Iams but I'd think if any of the foods that used the same wheat gluten had a longer history of problems, then all would.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, May 07, 2007 - 11:44 pm
Holly's situation sounds more like what they are describing, the sudden kidney problems. Angelina's cancer seemed fast but of course I'd never had her xrayed previously. Her bloodwork on March 21 was pretty much all normal, same with urine, a few days later she had the xrays and they looked bad and by April 9 her lungs were much worse and she'd gone from 7.9lb on March 21 to 4 lb (She'd been as high as 12 lb less than two years ago).
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Tuesday, May 08, 2007 - 8:01 am
Happymom, I'm sorry for your loss. That said, though, I'd like to point out that kidney failure is one of the more common diseases in cats. And it does come on sudden, without much warning. Cats are great at hiding illness or injury (goes back to their undomesticated roots). I'm not sure I'd blame pet food for all of our cats' diseases. Kidney failure is VERY common, can take a long time until symptoms appear. Usually the only way to diagnose kidney problems is with a blood test, and unless that cat exhibits symptoms, vets don't usually run the blood panel. Caught early enuf, subcu fluids can help, and diet can be managed. Costa was actually on a k/d diet when he was first diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, since Hills didn't make a heart diet in dry form.
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Calamity
Member
10-18-2001
| Tuesday, May 08, 2007 - 9:16 am
A vet told us that cat food does taste saltier than dog food which is why dogs often try to scarf kitty chow. Thanks all for the updates and my thoughts and prayers to everyone affected by this awful situation.
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Tuesday, May 08, 2007 - 9:42 am
LOL. I thought dogs loved to eat cat food cause, well, they love to eat!!!! 
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Happymom
Member
01-20-2003
| Tuesday, May 08, 2007 - 10:58 am
Hi Costa, I think maybe you meant Hypermom. (It's been 15 mos and 13 mos since I lost my kitties. They are testaments to what you posted about kidney failure. Oreo hadn't been in kidney failure very long, I think it was just too hard on her without her sister after 19 years, they were littermates. Cashmere lived for years with kidney failure and that is not what she died from. And now with the recalls, there are some dying so quickly from kidney failure. It is so tragic.) Hypermom, I'm so sorry about Holly and Samantha. I know what you're going through. (((Hypermom)))
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Hypermom
Member
08-13-2001
| Tuesday, May 08, 2007 - 11:48 am
Sea, we used the Iams pouches, can food, and the dry. When Holly originally went to the vet, I had mentioned that both cats didn't want to eat the Iams pouched or canned food. The vet made a comment that it might have been a bad batch. But, like I said, this was last summer. Costa, Holly was eating the Iams kidney dry food after we found out she had the problem. She had the subcu fluids also. The first vet told us we'd have a year or two with her, but she died within 3 months. Sam died three months prior to her. It may not have anything to do with the food, but it was just strange to me that all this is coming to light now. Happy, thanks! Sorry about your babies too! I miss my girls. We adopted a 5 month old kitten 5 months ago, so she has helped fill that void a bit.
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Tuesday, May 08, 2007 - 12:09 pm
Happy, Hyper... ack! Yeah, sorry about that! Y'alls are happy hyper moms! And I'm sorry for both of your losses. My dad lost one of his cats to kidney failure last year. They did do the subcu fluids for a while, but Rosie wasn't getting much better, so they decided to let him go naturally. He dd go pretty quickly but the vet thought he'd been sick a while.
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Sunshyne4u
Member
06-17-2003
| Wednesday, May 09, 2007 - 3:22 am
neither of my cats would eat Iams. Even Booboo the chow hound! Kidney failure is VERY common, can take a long time until symptoms appear. Usually the only way to diagnose kidney problems is with a blood test, an easy way to tell if your animal is starting to have problems---- Clumping Cat litter. Your cat's urine will make a ball and you can see the size of it. When the kidneys start showing damage the ball will get bigger since the Kidney ahve difficulty concentrating the urine. That is how I could tell Booboo was sick. She went from a small egg to a goose egg sized pee clump. I kind of worry about this food problem though. Booboo started having kidney probs right when I was trying out all kinds of different brands of cat food. Coincidental? who knows.
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Cdbga
Member
10-04-2004
| Wednesday, May 09, 2007 - 5:29 am
Good morning y'all. Sorry I wasn't here to update the past few days. I had to go back to Macon over the weekend and ended up being there longer than planned (you can see details on that in my folder, if interested). When I got back Monday and started my catching up, I was just getting so angry from some of what I was reading, that I needed to take a posting break. But I'm back this morning...with a vengeance. There is a lot and I am still playing catch-up (I've been skimming headlines, but not reading articles the past few days), so it may take me a few posts to get everything. 1. The top news: Fish meant for humans fed tainted food As always, the FDA says that there is little danger to humans. But, honestly, their argument with chicken was that since the human diet is composed of so much more than just chicken, there was a dilution effect (compared to pets who tend to eat the same thing every day). They said the same thing with pork. I am guessing they say the same thing with fish. But the more things they add to that list...really, how can your dilution argument keep working? And, also, what just struck me this morning was whether any of this tainted meat might end up in pet food as well. They don't raise meat specifically for pet food, they use meat that didn't make the grade for humans, right? I haven't seen this addressed anywhere, though. 2. Wheat Flour was sold as wheat gluten So, the duplicity goes even further. Not only was melamine added to make the "gluten" seem higher in protein, but it was actually added to wheat FLOUR, then sold as wheat gluten (ditto for the rice protein). That would be why so much melamine was added, since wheat flour is naturally much lower in protein that gluten. And, AGAIN, do these pet food makers inspect their ingredients at all? From what I've read, gluten and flour may look the same at first, but...well, here's a quote from another site that says it all "the two products have different color and texture. Mix in a little water and rub it between your fingers, and you can tell the difference with your eyes closed". So, apparently, again, I have to make the observation that I am required to do a more thorough QC for my television material than these manufacturers do with food. I KNOW they use massive quantities of the stuff, but opening each bag and making sure it is the right thing hardly seems like too much to ask (because if you did that, even if you didn't know how wheat gluten was supposed to look/feel, you'd notice that it was different at the very least). 3. Cyanuric acid is also commonly added to animal feed in China. Notable from this article is that Cyanuric acid is also commonly added to animal feed in China (because it is an even cheaper way of making the product seem higher in protein). You may remember that scientists are saying that it is the reaction of melamine and cyanuric acid that causes the formulation of crystals in the kidneys, which has caused the pet deaths illnesses. Nice to know the Chinese routinely add BOTH to pet food. 4. Pet Connection is reporting that the FDA says another recall may be coming. From the Pet Connection post: On May 4, a company called Cereal Byproducts issued a recall of rice protein concentrate it obtained from what it called a “local domestic importer.” the release says the concentrate was sold to three customers of Cereal Byproducts, only two of which have issued voluntary recalls of pet food products since that time. The FDA’s Kimberly Rawlings today by phone confirmed that the third company may, at some unspecified time in the future, also recall some pet food products, saying, “Cereal Byproducts recalled the rice protein concentrate they sold to three firms. This recall may result in additional pet food being recalled.” She said she was unable to put any kind of timeframe on such a recall. Neither FDA nor Cereal Byproducts would identify the third company, although Cereal Byproducts did say all three customers were “in the Midwest.” Alright, y'all that is all for now. I'm going off to my folder to post about my weekend. But, coming up in a little while, I'll be giving the FDA their own post. They've been up to quite a bit...pretty much all of which has me seething.
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Wednesday, May 09, 2007 - 7:22 am
I read about the fish food this morning. So what kind of salmon did I buy the other day, when I was making my homemade food for the kids? Farm-raised salmon (no wild salmon was available). Dammit! I'm gonna stick with organic chicken now, I guess. This really sucks, y'know. And I'm so pissed at China (including the problems with the chemical that killed the people in Panama) that I think we should refuse all exports except for material goods.
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Happymom
Member
01-20-2003
| Wednesday, May 09, 2007 - 8:55 am
Sun...that's a good point about the clumping cat litter. At the check ups the vet always asked about the cats drinking. It is unusual to see a cat drink much. Over the last years of her life, Cashmere was drinking progressively more and more...and so of course I ended up spending a fortune in litter by the end (well, the fortune was more in vet bills I guess...all very worth it). Anyway, she decided to do blood work just based on the fact that she had lost a little weight, was older, and I'd noticed her drinking more (not a lot at first). That is when the kidney failure was first detected. She never had any other symptoms though, which was really great. I'm so glad she never got sick from it and was never uncomfortable at all from it. She was lucky, and like I mentioned, she didn't die from it either. Hyper, thanks. I am happy for you that you have a new little kitty! (well, not so little any more, they sure grow quickly!) I wasn't up to going into the cats thread for a long time, you probably mentioned your addition in there. I'd love to get another cat or two. I really miss my girls so much. But we have a 12 year old dog and it would really make her miserable if we added any other pets to the family right now. The cats required so much extra attention the last couple of years and our poor dog got so jealous. It wouldn't be fair to her. I came in here to post about the fish news. Cdbga, thanks for being so up on this. I am so infuriated and saddened by this. It is really making me more aware (and scared) of what we eat too. Costa, I'm with you on refusing the exports.
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Cdbga
Member
10-04-2004
| Wednesday, May 09, 2007 - 11:18 am
Costa, I'm also in agreement about refusing exports from China. Unfortunately, the FDA isn't on the same page with us. Ahhh, the FDA: 1. In an article from May 5, The FDA's new food czar (Dr. David Acheson) said that Americans should not worry about serving pet food to their dogs and cats, because, apparently, the situation is completely under control. He also said the search for the pet food contaminant is "virtually closed" and investigators have a "very good handle" on its distribution. Oh, and "Globalization of food is here. It's here to stay." The US won't be banning food imports from China. If you can read that article and not want to slap that man (or feed him a steady diet of Chinese imports) then you are a better person than I. 2. ChemNutra Says FDA Had Fish Feed Info For Weeks Now if all this has you as annoyed/angry/tired as I am, here are a couple of things that might make you laugh... 3. FDA memo to food manufacturers on their legal obligation to use safe ingredients. Funny only because it is so absurd that the FDA has to even issue this. 4. FDA...We Make FEMA Look Good. If you'd like that on a T-shirt or mug, this is the site for you!
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Wednesday, May 09, 2007 - 2:40 pm
The FDA needs to buy a clue. So how long was the manufacturer adding an ingredient into Blue Buffalo's food products, without telling them? So that, although we were diligently reading the labels, the labels were incorrect? How long did they know about the poultry feed contamination, and yet they did not release the names of the producers who had fed the contaminated feed to their birds? Ditto to the fish. I'd like to know which fish farms and which fish had been fed possibly contaminated fish meal. It's MY choice as to whether I want to take the chance to eat food that has been contaminated by feed. (Well, actually, OK, I'm a vegetarian so that doesn't apply to me, but still... I'm feeding my cats this!). Sheesh. Seriously, when this is all said and done (and by no means do I think it's "done"), the FDA will really have egg on their faces. D'ya think it'll be from chickens who ate contaminated feed?
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