Okay Loungites, my dog is in need of some good loungey vibes . . .

[ET Awful]

We had to take Frankie to the vet last night, he'd been just not himself for a few days, and he'd stopped eating and starting throwing up and drinking a LOT of water.

My girlfriend noticed he also looked a bit "yellow."

So, I came home early from work and we took him to the vet. There, we discovered that he had major renal failure.

My girlfriend is very conscientious about checking every type of pet food she buys to make sure that nothing is on any of the FDA recall lists.

We typically add a pouch of moist food to his dry food to make sure he gets some oil in his diet, etc. (helps his skin tremendously). Well, we'd been giving him some Nutro brand stuff that allegedly was NOT on the recall list (same flavor but different SKU number). Last night, we discovered that the SKU number had been altered. They (not the store, we know they're reputable), most likely the distributor or Nutro themselves, had put an adhesive barcode label OVER the original barcode, when you peeled back this label, you saw, to nobody's surprise at that point, one of the recalled SKU numbers. We probably wouldn't have thought to try to peel the label if we hadn't noticed that the "Best Before" date was in the date range listed for recall, but the SKU wasn't. Look at the pics below and you can clearly see a different SKU number between the label and the original.

Now, I could understand if they'd used an old run of packaging and used the labels to cover up the old SKU when making a new lot of food, but in this case, it looks like they willfully violated an FDA mandated recall and reissued known defective product (NOTE: this is pure conjecture at this point, we're not POSITIVE).

Frankie had only been fed 2 small pouches of this food, but so far we have no other explanation for his illness. At this point, we aren't sure whether he's going to pull through or not, he's a very sick doggie.

[jeff30997]

1. Sending good vibes.

Get well Frankie.

[JenaLaw]

2. aww, Poor Frankie

I hope he pulls through this for you! He is a very handsome boy (my 2 female pups are panting at his picture)

As for the label switch - this is an outrage! And sadly, I can not see something like this happening 'accidentally'. Please keep us up to date on what is happening.

sending doggie hugs from JaMoCo to your sick friend!

[MissHoneychurch]

3. Sending vibes over the pond

Get well Frankie!!!!

~~~~ VIBES ~~~~~

[hobbit709]

4. Poor Frankie, hope he pulls through

Save the pouch, it could be analyzed for traces. I hate greedy people who try to save a buck by screwing somebody.

[mikeytherat]

5. Vibes for Frankie

Such a sweet looking pooch!

mikey_the_rat

[AirmensMom]

6. Vibes for Frankie ...

~~~~~vibes~~~~~

I hope he gets better. You didn't say, but is he on any meds?

Damn, I'd never buy Nutro again. :grr:

[blueraven95]

7. sending vibes

poor Frankie! :hug:

[wartrace]

8. ALL my vibes are headed Frankie's way.

PLEASE investigate this further. If it is a recalled product that has been altered whoever did it deserves to go to prison. I can think of fewer things lower than intentionally injuring peoples pets for profits.


I hope your vet can help the poor guy, he looks like a sweet dog.

[zanne]

9. How could anybody not love a dog who sticks his tongue out like that?

I'm pulling for you, Frankie!

[Eurobabe]

10. Oh poor pup!! Of course sending vibes....

from all of us. :grouphug:

[BarenakedLady]

11. I hope he's ok.

:hug:

[Madrone]

12. :(

That's a beautiful dog, and I remember when you got him. F'ing Nutro - I hope you rattle some cages on this one. My best to the doggie.... :hug: I'm so sorry he's ill. :cry:

[ET Awful]

13. Thanks everybody - UPDATE

The vet is leaning more towards diagnosing it as leptospirosis than anything to do with the food.

But, I personally don't see how he would have contracted leptospirosis since he's never around any standing bodies of water and would never be allowed to drink from them in any event, and he very rarely is in an area where he could come in contact with it any other way (especially recently, he hasn't been anywhere near a region I would suspect of it in at least a month).

I'm personally still leaning towards the food being the explanation.

Anyway, thanks for your concern everybody.

[PeaceNikki]

14. Hope he's better soon.

:(

He's beautiful.

[GardeningGal]

15. I hope he gets well soon and I would also be very suspicious

of Nutro food. I took my dogs off that food 1.5 years ago after reading some experiences others had with Nutro. It happened to correspond to one of my dogs starting to have seizures. After consulting with my vet, I took him off his medication to see if the changing of food made a difference and he hasn't had another seizure since, even though he's no longer on medication.

Here's a link to people's experiences with Nutro.

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