::URGENT:: Please read and pass along the following article which was originally printed here ::URGENT::

Eight in One Announces Nationwide Recall of All Lots of Dingo(R) CHICK’N JERKY Treats for Dogs, Cats and Ferrets

CINCINNATI-(Business Wire)-March 31, 2007 - Eight In One, Inc., a division of United Pet Group, Inc., is voluntarily recalling nationally all lots of Dingo(R) CHICK’N JERKY treats due to Company concerns that the jerky treats have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella, which can cause serious infections in dogs and cats, and, if there is cross contamination, in people, especially children, the aged, and people with compromised immune systems. The Food and Drug Administration is aware of this recall.

The products affected were sold at Target, PetSmart and other retailers. The products subject to this voluntary recall are Dingo CHICK’N JERKY 3.5 oz. and 8 oz. for dogs and Dingo Kitty CHICKEN JERKY 1.5 oz. for cats and Dingo Ferret CHICKEN JERKY 1.5 oz for ferrets.

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Please visit the sites listed below for the most updated information regarding the current pet food product recalls.  These sites are updated frequently as additional news breaks.  They offer an abundance of useful information, such as this list of pet foods not affected by the recall.  To receive pet safety alerts add your e-mail here.  I urge you to visit these sites and keep yourself informed as the recall is ongoing!  Thank you to the authors of these sites for doing their part to uncover and disemminate the truth.

• Howl911
• Itchmo
• PetConnection
• PetsitUSA
• vetcetera

It is important that each case of suspected pet poisoning related to these recalls be reported properly so that awareness can be raised about the need for changes in the regulation of pet food.  If your pet has been affected by the recalls I ask that you report such to the PetConnection Database and the FDA.

::URGENT:: Please read and pass along the following article which was originally printed here ::URGENT::

Pet deaths prompt recall of pet food

By ANDREW BRIDGES, Associated Press Writer

Fri Mar 16, 6:49 PM ET

WASHINGTON - A major manufacturer of dog and cat food sold under Wal-Mart, Safeway, Kroger and other store brands recalled 60 million containers of wet pet food Friday after reports of kidney failure and deaths.

An unknown number of cats and dogs suffered kidney failure and about 10 died after eating the affected pet food, Menu Foods said in announcing the North American recall. Product testing has not revealed a link explaining the reported cases of illness and death, the company said.

“At this juncture, we’re not 100 percent sure what’s happened,” said Paul Henderson, the company’s president and chief executive officer. However, the recalled products were made using wheat gluten purchased from a new supplier, since dropped for another source, spokeswoman Sarah Tuite said. Wheat gluten is a source of protein

 The recall covers the company’s “cuts and gravy” style food, which consists of chunks of meat in gravy, sold in cans and small foil pouches between Dec. 3 and March 6 throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

The pet food was sold by stores operated by the Kroger Company, Safeway Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and PetSmart Inc., among others, Henderson said.

Menu Foods did not immediately provide a full list of brand names and lot numbers covered by the recall, saying they would be posted on its Web site — http://www.menufoods.com/recall — early Saturday. Consumers with questions can call (866) 463-6738.

The company said it manufacturers for 17 of the top 20 North American retailers. It is also a contract manufacturer for the top branded pet food companies, including Procter & Gamble Co.

P&G announced Friday the recall of specific 3 oz., 5.5 oz., 6 oz. and 13.2 oz. canned and 3 oz. and 5.3 oz. foil pouch cat and dog wet food products made by Menu Foods but sold under the Iams and Eukanuba brands. The recalled products bear the code dates of 6339 through 7073 followed by the plant code 4197, P&G said.

Menu Foods’ three U.S. and one Canadian factory produce more than 1 billion containers of wet pet food a year. The recall covers pet food made at company plants in Emporia, Kan., and Pennsauken, N.J., Henderson said.

Henderson said the company received an undisclosed number of owner complaints of vomiting and kidney failure in dogs and cats after they had been fed its products. It has tested its products but not found a cause for the sickness.

“To date, the tests have not indicated any problems with the product,” Henderson said.

The company alerted the Food and Drug Administration, which already has inspectors in one of the two plants, Henderson said. The FDA was working to nail down brand names covered by the recall, agency spokesman Mike Herndon said.

Menu Foods is majority owned by the Menu Foods Income Fund, based in Ontario, Canada.

Henderson said the recall would cost the company the Canadian equivalent of $26 million to $34 million.

::URGENT:: Please go here to find out more information about the specific products affected by this recall ::URGENT::

I recently came across Dolittler which is “a veterinary blog for pet lovers, vet voyeurs and the medically curious” written by Dr. Patty Khuly.  This is, hands down, my number one daily read for pet blogs.  In addition to the abundance of real, true-life information and stories I just can’t get enough of the author’s style of blogging.  She is witty, at times sarcastic, honest and completely human.  In a world where pet owners can get lost in veterinary specifics Dr. Patty Khuly breaks down the topics she blogs into fully understandable, even relatable, discussions.  I have a hunch that the dedicated readers of her blog feel the same way as there is never a shortage of comments to her posts.  Kudos to Dr. Patty Khuly for creating such an informative, stimulating and engaging atmosphere that ignites us to participate!  Please take a moment to visit Dolittler as I can promise that you will not be disappointed.

I really really dislike leaving our girls home alone, but every once in a while we do it because, in reality, the girls probably enjoy having a little quiet time with no one around.  Yesterday was one of those rare occasions when we decided to step out for a bit and leave the girls home alone.  They are very well behaved when left alone so they have “the run of the house.”  Oftentimes we talk about what we think Nala, Haley and Gabby are doing when we’ve left them home alone and yesterday we decided to find out!  We spent some time setting up the video camera to record the living room.  There are piles and piles of blankets and two bed/pillow/blanket areas set up for the girls in the living room, plus we leave the TV on a music station with the volume very low.  We also thought about how the girls are always standing in the dining room windows when we get home so they can see us as soon as we turn into the court; we figured we had a 50/50 shot of capturing them in the living room and, if not, we’d try the dining room next time.  Needless to say, we picked the wrong room!  Have you ever wondered what your pets do when they’re home alone?  Have you ever thought about video taping them to see?  Have you ever done as we did and hit record?  Read on to find out what the tape revealed!

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Here is an online veterinary manual from Merck that contains A LOT of information.  Of particular interest to me is the section on Emergency Medicine and Critical Care although the manual covers everything from temperature, heart rate and resting respiratory rate reference guides to congenital and inherited anomalies of every bodily system.  Although there is a large amount of information that probably doesn’t have any significane to pet owners with dogs and cats, such as this section or even this one, there are just as many sections that offer us useful information.  Next time you have an interest in anything veterinary I recommend you give this manual a chance to provide you with the information you’re looking for.  Do a search of the manual rather than a search of the web; you will receive comprehensive, dependable results.  A link to The Merck Veterinary Manual will always be available via the logo in the middle column of this site and I encourage you to bookmark this trusty resource!

Quality time is defined differently for every pet owner as there are many variables to consider such as the breed, size, age, health and the interests of the pet as well as the sex, size, age, health and interests of the owner, to name a few. Each of my 3 dogs has their own definition of what represents quality time with their mom or dad and we know that there are different activities that appeal to each of our girls.  I was reviewing a handy book this morning, 97 Ways to Make Your Dog Smile by Jenny Langbehn and I found myself chuckling as I flipped the pages.  I had read the book cover to cover once before, but never set out to follow the specific instructions provided.  As I re-read some of the pages this morning I was amused by the ways in which several of the 97 suggestions have seeped into play time with Nala, Haley and Gabby; many of them already existed (with some minor alterations) in quality time my husband and I spend with our girls from the beginning!  I am anxiously awaiting the release of 150 Activities for Bored Dogs by Sue Owens Wright in the hopes that I will find many more suggestions on how to increase the quality of QT with my dogs.  I wonder, are there equivalents of these books for cat owners?  To both dog and cat owners, what are some of the ways that you highlight the Q in QT with your companions?

We all, of course, hope that we will never find ourselves in an emergency situation with our pets.  Unfortunately, emergencies creep upon us when we least expect them and it’s important that every pet owner know how to respond.  The worst situation you and your companion animals can find yourselves in is an emergency with no 24-hour veterinary facility near and no one with animal emergency training present.  At the very least, I recommend you take a course in pet first aid.  Oftentimes your local fitness center and/or community college will offer courses in pet first aid, for a small fee.  I encourage you to take a course where there are animal props because the (albeit basic) hands-on training can be life-saving in a future emergency.  The American Safety & Health Institute offers a Pet First Aid program that has the ASPCA seal of approval.  Here you can locate the ASHI training center nearest you.  Please be sure to check with the training center as not all of them offer the Pet First Aid program.

Now here’s a concept that I believe is worthwhile: Peternity Policies!  Thanks to Therese Kopiwoda over at the PetsitUSA.com blog for bringing this idea into the mix.  Unfortunately the link to the Times Online website is not working, but a quick search and I’ve found that peternity policies are becoming a hot topic of debate.  You can find favorable opinions of peternity policies here and here; the former link offers some great advice on how to spend some of that quality time when it’s utilized for welcoming a new pet into your family.  This article is neutral in its reporting while this one makes the author’s opinion of absurdity clear.  What’s your opinion on instituting peternity policies in the workplace?

I have spent quite some time searching for a comprehensive list of 24-hour emergency veterinary facilities.  Most of my searches turned up lists with a combination of emergency and non-emergency hospitals, until I found the website for The Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society.  VECCS’s site has a clinic directory which lists the emergency and critical care facilities in each state (and even some in other nations).  You can browse the directory here or by clicking on the VECCS logo in the middle column.  I encourage you to bookmark their directory as this is a wonderful resource and can be especially helpful when you travel!

v911 is currently seeking volunteers to assist with research and all other aspects of preparation for our spring 2007 launch.  Individuals with experience in the following areas would be extremely helpful, but we would never turn away any volunteer, regardless of experience:

• veterinary experience
• medical experience
• emergency response experience
• business start-up experience
• small business experience
• fundraising experience

If you are interested in volunteering please contact Michelle via e-mail or phone (732.735.8610).

On December 26 my husband went to celebrate the holidays with his family and when he came home his arms were filled with gifts galore, including toys and bones and treats for our girls.  After removing the tags we immediately gave them their new toys to play with; they were so excited!  Haley went about her usual business of seeing how quickly she could tear into their new toys and, in the process, tore a red, round ball off of the hat of their new snowman toy.  I found Nala chewing on the ball and took it away from her because she has a habit of swallowing these toy pieces, but she looked up at me and plead with me to let her have it back.  I gave it back to her, told her not to swallow it and didn’t think about it again.  The next morning Nala vomited, but she does that on occassion and there was nothing abnormal about the color or contents of the vomit.  We went about our usual daily routines until about 5:30 when all of a sudden Nala’s tail dropped, her eyes glazed and she could not get comfortable.  I just knew that something was wrong.  Call it mother’s instinct or anything else; I just knew.

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Every night when we go up to bed the girls are given their bedtime snacks.  They expect them and, when we’re late getting upstairs, they let us know!  One evening last September the girls, my husband and I all headed up to bed armed with a piece of chicken J-E-R-K-Y (I have to spell it because this is one of those words that they know) for each of the girls.  My husband gave them their snacks and we got started on our normal bedtime routines.  I stepped out of the room to place something in my office and when I came back Gabby was going nuts.  She was pawing at her face and gagging and rolling and it was blatantly obvious that there was a problem.  We assumed that she had a piece of jerky stuck in her throat and we proceeded to stick our fingers down her throat to try and dislodge the jerky.  It didn’t work.

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When Haley was about one and a half years old we noticed that she rarely bent her hind knees when she walked and ran and sometimes we would find her limping and holding up (mostly) her right hind leg.  The limping and lameness in both hind legs gradually got worse and so we scheduled x-rays.  Haley had bloodwork done before her x-rays because she had to be sedated for the x-rays.  Our vet called with the results of the bloodwork and we were told that her liver enzyme levels were out of the normal range, but it was nothing to worry about because she presented as a healthy dog and we would just continue to monitor her levels.  She had x-rays done and, as predicted, she had luxating patellas in both hind legs.

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