Dairy Queen for Good Dogs

Do your dogs whine, bark, twist in the seat, or stomp on you as you drive past a Dairy Queen red roof? Ours have learned what the local soft-serve stand - including the distinctive red roof - looks like. And, they expect to stop for a treat!

This local DQ give out free drippings, about 4 ounces of ice cream in a plastic cup, for dogs. However, our two spoiled pouches expect to eat the container when the cold, yummy vanilla ice cream has been licked and chomped - thus we purchase cones.

The alpha dog - our husky / german shepherd mix - used to eat her cone at a reasonable pace. With the advent of her doggie competitor, she began to wolf down the cone in about three big bites. You'd be in danger of missing fingers when she got to the cone (not really - but the fingers might hurt) because of her hurry to finish. My husband (aka "the guy") now pulls her cone back as she licks and bites the ice cream to slow her down. He can get the two dogs to finish more or less at the same time. As you can see from the picture at right, she's ahead on this day.

We also are quite memorable, I guess, when we visit our local DQ. People want to come and watch these gorgeous dogs enjoy their ice cream, and ask to pet them when they are done with the treat. That's an important point - always ask an owner first about approaching and touching a strange animal. Our mixed dog is very friendly, and eager to be pet. The husky, as a rehabilitation in process rescue dog, is still a bit shy.

Get out and enjoy the warmer weather, and treat the dogs!

Pet Food Related Deaths - the Contaminate Is... ??

Update on March 31, now the F.D.A. reports that the recalled pet foods were ...

"... found to have been made with a batch of wheat gluten shipped to the United States from China that the F.D.A. said was laced with melamine." ( nytimes.com )

However, there is confusion as to why compound would sicken and kill cats and dogs. Apparently, melamine is used as a fertilizer in China, but not in the U.S. Also reported by the NY Times online was that the list of recalled pet foods could be found at the F.D.A. website (http://www.fda.gov/).

As of March 23, 2007, rat poison is being blamed for cat and dog deaths (bloomberg.com). As noted in my blog, below, Menu Foods, Ltd. was the manufacturer of cans and pouches of "cuts and gravy" style wet food that caused the death of pets in the U.S.

Aminopterin is the chemical, and it is used as rat poison - though the chemical is banned in the United States. According to the Bloomberg.com article, this folic acid derivative can cause birth defects in people, and renal (kidney) damage in cats and dogs. The amount of aminopterim discovered in the food samples tested was 40 parts per million ( www.boston.com ), which is enough to cause the failure of dog and cat kidneys.

Pet Food Recall "cuts and gravy"

A major recall of dog and cat foods has begun in the middle of March 2007. Pay attention to this recall, and don't feed the named (see links, below) wet-style foods to your pet, as the reported problems include kidney failure and death of the pet. Symptoms can include excessive thirst, vomiting, diarrhea, and lethargy. If you feed the named foods, and your pet has any of these symptoms, contact your veterinarian right away!

Menu Foods is the manufacturer of at least 88 different brands of this wet-style cat and dog foods that are affected. The food may be in a pouch or a can, and is - according to reports - a gravy food such as "cuts and gravy." The pet food is manufactured for branded big-names such as Eukanuba, Iams, Special Kitty, OlRoy, and more. As of now, Menu Foods believes that tainted wheat gluten, used as a filler ingredient, is the cause of the problem. The manufacturer reported that reports of pet problems and deaths coincided with the use of a new item from a new supplier in their food (LA Times online).

Business Week (online) reports that the investigation on the federal level is centering around a wheat gluten ingredient. The wheat gluten is used as a protein source and a filler. Menu Foods says that they have changed suppliers for that item. According to the federal investigators, there must be some contaminant in the wheat gluten, such as a heavy metal or fungal toxin, to cause the extreme illnesses (sometimes leading to death) that have been reported by pet owners.

What bothers me the most is that it's reported that Menu Foods started hearing from pet owners as long ago as February 20 regarding cat and dog deaths. The company started their own testing a week later, using between 40 and 50 cats and dogs. Seven of those animals died, apparently from renal (kidney) failure (CBS News online). Reports were that cats are more likely to have trouble that dogs. Why did it take until now to hear about the high death rate and the recall of suspected foods?

According to this report (CBC.ca online news), a Menu Foods spokesperson is telling consumers to hang on to veterinarian bill receipts and packaging (from the offending foods) just in case a compensation offer is made in the future. Hopefully, none of us will be needing reimbursement for any pet illness!

For the full listing of recalled foods, see: http://www.menufoods.com/recall/.

The other trouble with commercially available dog foods that I've encountered involved dry dog kibble in 2005. Apparently, corn used in the food was tainted with aflatoxin - a chemical that is made by a fungus that grows on corn and some other crops (source: MSNBC.com). That recall involved Diamond, Country Value, and Professional brands of dog food. There were deaths of dogs involved with that recalled product as well.