Purina Brand Cat Food Killing Kitties

Quentin Nokov

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Another member on here (I've forgotten who) had posted this link in their signature:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/ralston.html

I've also been feeding my two cats Purina naturals cat chow. It has increased their throwing up and they also have bloody stool.

Never had an issue and then all of a sudden my poor girl was having bladder issues and blood in her urine along with constantly throwing up. I was extremely worried and ended up taking her to the Vet. She ended up staying in the clinic for 10 days under constant observation.

I bought my cat a new bag of Purina cat chow indoor formula last night. 20 minutes after feeding him from the new bag he was vomiting blood, foaming at the mouth, voiding his bladder and thrashing around the house. We left for the vet within minutes but it didn't matter. He died in my daughter's arms on the way to the vet.

Animals have been throwing up and many have actually died. When member-unknown had brought this to my attention I--being an overprotective cat parent--stopped buying Purina for a while. I ended up buying just two cans of Fancy Feast because Murdoch was out of food and it was just to hold him over 'til I got paid and could go to PetSmart for safe cat food. I figured he'd be okay. The whole "it can't happen to me" attitude.

Well, the one can he ate there were no complaints--the second can he threw up. Perhaps he threw up because I picked him up and upset his stomach, I don't know. But I'm afraid the cat food might have been poisoned or something and that's why he threw up. He's okay, but I've written off Purina entirely.

Yesterday my sister's pen-pal in Indiana feed her outdoor cats Friskies. Several threw up, one died, and the other had slinked off inside her Dad's garage. When she found the cat, it was lethargic and dehydrated. She nursed it back to health and it's better today.

What's going on with Purina? Has anyone heard anything? Is there a recall I don't know about?

---

P.S. Thank you member who's name I have forgotten for putting the link in your signature. Scary to think that Murdoch could have been one of those poor kitty-cats.
 
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alleycat

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I've fed both of my cats Fancy Feast canned food for a long time and there was never a problem with it. My first cat lived to be 15. My current cat is 11.

I often give my cat "human grade" canned food such as canned chicken. I'm not sure but it may actually be cheaper that the better grades of canned cat food. The cans of chicken are $1.50 and she can make at least three meals out of a can. The canned chicken does have a lot of liquid--my cat likes lapping it up.
 

Marlys

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No recall at the moment--Purina tweeted that there are no product issues. Snopes says nothing has been proven, and they add this very commonsensical observation:

It's important to note Purina and related brands (such as Friskies) are consumed by millions of pets across America on a daily basis, and pets who become ill are likely to have consumed that brand's products simply due to their ubiquity in stores and pet food bowls nationwide.
 

Quentin Nokov

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I've been buying chicken and hamburg for Murdoch and the wet cat food is "Blue". It lasts him about 3 meals. I've also turned to Nature's Way and Simply Nourish. Iams is the dry cat food of choice right now. They seem to settle fine. But I'm worried now about giving my cats Purina. Even if it's remote cases, it still freaks me out.
 
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People tend to connect illness to specific things, especially anything that changed recently. Also cats on one food for a long term will often have digestion problems when switched to any other food. That is why similar messages are available online for every kind of pet food there is as well as a number of cleaning products and other household stuff. FWIW I feed my dogs a Purina brand and have confidence in it, as much as you ever can with a bulk manufactured product.
 

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I've fed both of my cats Fancy Feast canned food for a long time and there was never a problem with it. My first cat lived to be 15. My current cat is 11.

I often give my cat "human grade" canned food such as canned chicken. I'm not sure but it may actually be cheaper that the better grades of canned cat food. The cans of chicken are $1.50 and she can make at least three meals out of a can. The canned chicken does have a lot of liquid--my cat likes lapping it up.

Cats need specific minerals and stuff, like taurine, that's not readily available in stuff like human tinned chicken. I believe it's because it's mostly in entrails, that cats would consume in the wild if hunting, that isn't mostly in human food. Cat food is calibrated to have the nutrient profile they need - cats are obligate carnivores, not omnivores like dogs or humans.

I know you said she's 11 and it's not her only food and you've had cats and all, just saying in case someone else might think they could just feed their cat only human food - it can cause problems.
 

Quentin Nokov

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just saying in case someone else might think they could just feed their cat only human food - it can cause problems.

Yup. I did that once with Roxanne because she would not eat cat food for the life of her so I improvised with scrambled eggs and stuff--she got terribly, terribly ill. I finally got her to eat the dry cat food, but it took a while.
 

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One of my cats, Smokey, gets a can of Fancy Feast a day, in addition to dry (Hills). Before he came to me, he ate Meow Mix.

He's a spry, active, happy, affectionate cat without health problems.

The *other* cat, Michael, who ate,for most of his life, high-end high protein dry (Orijin) developed kidney issues, which now has him on a low-protein food for that (Hills), and blood pressure medicine. And Miralax for constipation. He's loving and affectionate, but not all that spry.

Go figure.

In reality, it's likely genetic. Smokey was a stray and a mixed shorthair. Michael is a purebred Burmese (adopted as a rescue). Mike's also 15. Smokey is...10-ish? I think?
 

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Yup. I did that once with Roxanne because she would not eat cat food for the life of her so I improvised with scrambled eggs and stuff--she got terribly, terribly ill. I finally got her to eat the dry cat food, but it took a while.

Yah - there are homemade diets that can work, but you have to know exactly what you're doing and add specific stuff and all.

There's a vet school/hospital that will help you create a homemade diet plan for your cat, usually for cats with special dietary needs. It costs like $100 for the online consultation/plans I think, but it's all very nutritionally specific and tailored to the individual kitty.
 

Quentin Nokov

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Cornflake, I tried homemade diets but I had a hard time balancing the nutrition :p Eating chicken and beef was fine, but not 100% substantial.

The *other* cat, Michael, who ate,for most of his life, high-end high protein dry (Orijin) developed kidney issues
Yikes. My aunt had a cat who had kidney issues and had to be put on special food.

In reality, it's likely genetic.

I kind of wonder if the animals who had reactions to Purina or whatever it was, had some sort of genetic susceptibility to it. Like they had weak kidneys or already sensitive stomachs and maybe something in the food tipped them over the edge? It's hard to say because cats can get into a lot of things that can be potentially lethal--especially outdoor cats. Like my sister's pen-pal, her cat was an outdoor cat and two of her cats previous died from anesthesia. So, I don't know.
 

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Yeah, with outdoor cats, I'd assume either an untreated infection, eating a poisoned rodent, ingesting pesticides or something like that before bad food if there aren't a lot of other documented cases.
 

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Jezzie eats Purina Naturals and is just fine, but when it was mixed with Purina Healthy Weight the first time, and again when I briefly gave her just the Healthy Weight food (months after I started mixing it), she reacted poorly to it. Bad bacteria filled her stomach and she kept throwing up and wouldn't eat (and she is a bottomless pit usually). The vet said that it was likely that she has an allergy to something in the Healthy Weight formula. I switched back to Naturals only, and she hasn't had a problem.
 

Quentin Nokov

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Yeah, with outdoor cats, I'd assume either an untreated infection, eating a poisoned rodent, ingesting pesticides or something like that before bad food if there aren't a lot of other documented cases.

Well, the thing that concerns me is there are nearly 800 cases, possibly more. But the cases were documented on a consumer complaint website and one person said that the site isn't reliable, except I think it could be reliable now that my friend lost a cat. All her cats who ate Friskies Grillers vomited "massively" and they all got sick with one cat dying. So it seems odd that all her cats would have gotten sick especially the fact they all got sick after eating Friskies.
 

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Cats need specific minerals and stuff, like taurine, that's not readily available in stuff like human tinned chicken. I believe it's because it's mostly in entrails, that cats would consume in the wild if hunting, that isn't mostly in human food. Cat food is calibrated to have the nutrient profile they need - cats are obligate carnivores, not omnivores like dogs or humans.

I know you said she's 11 and it's not her only food and you've had cats and all, just saying in case someone else might think they could just feed their cat only human food - it can cause problems.

I do keep dry cat food out for her all the time and she eats quite a bit of that. And I mix up her canned diet--sometimes she's gets something like canned chicken and sometimes a can of Fancy Feast.

I do have my doubt about the expert's opinions on cat nutrition however. They don't understand human nutrition so I'm guessing that don't understand animal nutrition any better. Just a personal opinion.
 

Quentin Nokov

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Jezzie eats Purina Naturals and is just fine, but when it was mixed with Purina Healthy Weight the first time, and again when I briefly gave her just the Healthy Weight food (months after I started mixing it), she reacted poorly to it. Bad bacteria filled her stomach and she kept throwing up and wouldn't eat (and she is a bottomless pit usually). The vet said that it was likely that she has an allergy to something in the Healthy Weight formula. I switched back to Naturals only, and she hasn't had a problem.

That's interesting.

I know that out of the millions of cans and bags of cat food that get shipped around the U.S. 800 cases still makes the cases rare and remote, but I'm nervous about feeding it to my cats now.

I bought Eukanuba for my cat once--back in 2008--and my cat got sick and wouldn't eat it; he seemed lethargic. I only gave him a little, but I stopped it immediately and returned it to Tractor Supply where I bought it. He got better once I switched him to a different food.
 

Quentin Nokov

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I do have my doubt about the expert's opinions on cat nutrition however. They don't understand human nutrition so I'm guessing that don't understand animal nutrition any better. Just a personal opinion.

Like when my vet told me not to feed my animals raw meat, but I don't see why I can't since wild animals don't build campfires and cook their prey before eating it. Just my thought.
 

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When Jezzie got sick, I also took her into the vet both times and got two meds. One killed all the bacteria in her stomach and the other added good bacteria back (mixed with wet food). As soon as she started taking those meds, she recovered completely and started eating normally.

Just like described above, she was lethargic and hiding and wouldn't eat. Maybe there is a bacteria in that food, and she just happened to get it both times when I switched to the Healthy Weight at different degrees. But whether it was an allergy or a bacteria, Jezzie gave me every clue that she wasn't feeling good, and it was easy to fix the problem.
 

Marlys

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Like when my vet told me not to feed my animals raw meat, but I don't see why I can't since wild animals don't build campfires and cook their prey before eating it. Just my thought.

The problem here isn't wild animals--it's farmed ones. Pets, like humans, are susceptible to salmonella, e. coli, and other forms of food poisoning, and thanks to meat-farming practices, the stuff you pick up at the grocery store is generally more likely to be contaminated than the sort of thing your pets would be killing for themselves in the wild (although wild birds often carry salmonella, so maybe commercial pet food is the best way to go).

More info here.
 

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Given how much Purina sells, and how inclined people are to blame spontaneous health problems on food, I don't see hundreds of cases as a lot. Especially once the suggestion is out their and people will start blaming things on Purina even when it was not a newly introduced food but one their cat has eaten for years. That happened with things like the 'swiffer liquid kills dogs' outbreak of a few years ago.