Lynne wrote:
on Sat, 31 Mar 2007 22:02:49 GMT, Dale Atkin
wrote:

Things tend to go in phases in veterinary practice. You'll go months
without seeing a case of x, and then all of a sudden 5 will walk
through your door. Its not surprising that at least some of the vets
were experiencing an upturn in cases of renal failure. Looking back
its easy to 'tie' it to the problems we see now, but is it? Do they
have any data as far as what food these dogs/cats were eating?

I'm sure the owners know what they were eating.

You'd be surprised. That's one of the standard questions clients get at
their pets annual health review at the clinic I'm at. Most can't answer
the specific formulation their pet is on. Then there are the multitude
of pets who aren't on a particular diet for more than a bag at a time.
One week its this food, next week its another. My neighbor feeds her dog
whatever is cheapest at Superstore.
My parents feed our cat what ever wet food they pick up, on a package by
package basis (I only feed the cat one brand, and try to discourage
mucking with his diet, but he's not my cat...). I doubt anyone could
name the brand of wet food he ate last week.

If his kidneys were to give out though, I'm sure I'd look over the list
and see a brand that looks familiar, and probably be able to convince
myself that that was the food he was getting.

Are you a lawyer for
Menu Foods?


No, I'm just sitting here watching these threads, and I'm seeing very
few real *FACTS* going around, and a lot of speculation, and people
getting more and more worried. So much so that people are throwing out
any and all pet foods in their house containing wheat gluten. (Has it
even been definitively tied to the wheat gluten yet? I was under the
impression that they weren't able to confirm its presence in the raw
materials yet?)

Now that the FDA has determined that the tainted wheat gluten contains
melamine, it can potentially be used as a marker to determine if animals
have consumed the affected food. Unfortunately, there is no way of
looking for malamine in animals who have already died and been cremated
or buried (maybe?). I also wonder how long it is excreted in the urine
and present in tissue and therefore just how useful of a marker it will
be for animals who were sick and are recovering and who are no longer
eating the poison food...

I'm curious, do we know that other foods have been shown *not* to
contain melamine? I only ask as it seems like a rather easy foreign
contaminant for a food to have.


As an aside, from everything I have read, melamine probably is NOT the
cause of the kidney problems. If that's true, there's got to be
something else, yet to be identified.

I'm not saying its not caused by the food, but just trying to point
out that there are other possibilities.

Of course there are other possibilities, but the reports I read about
"dramatic increases in kidney failure" in young animals are pretty
friggen suspicious... It's not like any of those cases are going to be
able to be tied to the food anyway, so what's your point?

My point is that the numbers *may* not be as bad as some groups are
making them out to be. There are many things which would cause them to
look worse than they really are, and there are definitely people
interested in making them look as bad as possible.



I feel horrible for people whose pets died suddenly from renal failure
and will never know if it's because of the food they fed them.


So do I.

Dale