So many of you are probably already aware but there is a pretty darn big dog food recall going on right now. Sadly many of the higher end brands are doing voluntary recalls simply because their foods were made in the same plant where the tainted foods were found. Check out more info here and here. This largely applies to the east coast but you may as well take a look to make sure your brand/state is not affected
Normally these recalls don’t apply to me, part of the reason I have stayed with Great Life since I found it, but I will pass them around facebook as I have a lot of friends with dogs who do eat these foods. But this time it was a good thing I read further into the article. Many Diamond based foods were part of this recall (I hear that Diamond has been recalled quite a bit, especially in last year) some simply because they were made in the same plant (who knew??)
On a recent trip to Costco I noticed they started carrying a grain free food. I checked out the ingredients and they did not look half bad at all… nor was the price. SO I wrote info down and went home to check it out further on some of the dog food review sites I use (DogFoodReview and DogFoodAdvisor). I think they only had possible problems with 2 ingredients, and it came highly recommended on both sites. I took that as a green light and picked up a bag the next time I was in town. I have been cutting the dogs food with this food half and half for probably 2 weeks now. Both took to it wonderfully and there have been no loose stools, extra gas or any other problems with the 4-leggers since it was added.
Then I checked the recall list and noticed this food was on it ARGH! I checked the product code and dates and both were in the clear…. so I think I am going to keep this bag and just keep an eye on them. Plus I am a firm believer that a good healthy dog can handle some salmonella anyhow, it is usually us who are at more risk.
As you can see nobody in this house (even me the vegetarian) is squeamish about meat and so far nobody has gotten sick… Sure I am not wiping my face with the towel she eats on or licking the counters but we probably don’t sanitize around here like some do and nobody is worse for it.
BUT due to the risk of salmonella in the kibble lately please PLEASE wash your hands after you feed your dogs or touch their bowls… More and more people are getting sick after this recent dog food recall.
It is so hard to know what to feed your dogs these days, there are so many opinions out there. How many of us have childhood dogs who ate crappy old school food and did fine… living into the double digits easily with minimal care? (yeah I admit I did not know HALF of what I know now, back then… sure they got table scraps and grocery story foods, would you be able to tell?) Plenty of dogs eat corn and grains, and then there are others who swear they are killing their dogs by feeding them such (no I am not one of those people)… oh then you have the people who feed raw, or try to sometimes, and even then you have different opinions about how that should be done (omnivores or carnivores??) Where does one even begin to know what is right or wrong? I personally hope I can get Luna on a totally raw diet one day (probably the whole prey model) but for now I will have to settle for a high end kibble with occasional raw.
And I will continue to make my own treats as much as time allows… My dogs are thankfully not picky and love the dried sweet potato treats I make… and heaven knows they will not turn down the dried liver or meat I do for them too.
Speaking of treats do you feed chicken jerky treats??? Have you checked where they are made (not packaged people, read closer)?????? If they are made in China please do your dog a favor and trash them. There have been countless cases of dogs getting sick and some even dying who feed chicken treats made in China…. the company will not issue a recall but upwards of 6 dogs have reported this after feeding these treats. IMO it is totally not worth the risk. I follow the “don’t buy anything food related” from China whenever I can, whether it is for me or the 4-leggers. Reasoning??? They simply don’t have the regulations we do here, and it is not worth the risk to me when there is plenty of more local options.
Like this liver, which was semi-dried by a local butcher… who I am hoping to score more beef body parts from in the future.
I will try and post the link about the chicken jerky treats when I find it. Didn’t mean to get on a rant about this issue at all, just trying to pass info along and help you all keep your pets safe.
EDIT: Here is a link with a bit of info on chicken jerky treats
Thanks for sharing this link DogDaz
Speaking of food/treats I think I am going to do a treat give-away soon so stay tuned. Gotta figure out how to do one of those through the blog (any suggestions/help welcome).
Vizsla Inspiration 
Here is my post of the Chicken Jerky http://dogdaz.com/2012/04/22/3-worst-offenders-in-chicken-jerky-poisoning-cases/ Anna, I am in Maryland too (for 20 years), it is definitely a different state of mind. – Lorian of DogDaz
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It is so scary when this happens. So far my brand (Canine Caviar) has only been involved with one recall, and it was their canned food only. It is one of the reasons I have stuck with them (even when they changed formulas, made their bags smaller, increased prices, etc.) Several times I have been tempted to switch foods due to the above mentioned things, but through it all the quality of the food HAS remained constant…which is a very good thing.
I can see why you would stay with them. I had a couple trial bags of their food back when I was looking for a less gassy food for Luna but she never seemed to care much for it, and it was not easy for me to find either. Happy we now have found Great Life as they really work hard to provide a quality food… and rather than jack up prices they even changed the bag packaging so it would be cheaper and cut costs for them and their customers. Maybe this means I should stop looking and just stick with Great Life as I have lol. Glad you are not affected!
I have been feeding my guys the Nature’s Domain, Turkey and Sweet potato food for about two years now and their poops have always been so nice, and they do love it. I am looking to switch though because of all the diamond recalls.
I am having problems with Amber and her poo. Since we first started wondering whether she had cancer or something else wrong with her I have been cooking for her. Rye gets some of it too, mixed with his kibble. I wanted her to be on as low a carb food as possible, to help slow the growth of the cancer hopefully. I was giving her a cooked meat of some sort, a little liver, cottage cheese or yogurt, scrambled eggs and some steamed and pured veggies. She had been doing pretty well on it until a few weeks ago and then started to have very loose, very skinny long weird poops. I have tried raw before but she always ends up with some sort of stomach upset. I really wish we could do raw, it just sounds so healthy!
So I switched her to canned food, mostly the Before Grain varieties, her favorite being the canned tripe. I pick the low carb foods only. Her poo is still weird and very soft! I am so frustrated. I don’t want to go back to kibble, it’s almost all so high in carbs, even if it’s just potato carbs, not grains. I feel like I’d be feeding that cancer with kibble! But I’m getting tired of the soft poops.
Anyway, sorry to go on and on about poo on your blog! I love talking about dog food. Any suggestions?
Have you looked into a raw diet?? There is a raw feeding idea called “whole prey model” which basically is a diet soley consisting of 80% meat, 10% Bone and 10% organ… no carbs of any kind. And they like to feed in a whole meaty bone fashion as much as they can for a mental and muscle workout, rather than ground. May be something to look into. I totally understand it is not for everyone, I myself have not been able to make the switch yet, but I plan to one day. It would be an easy way to limit grains for sure.
There are lots of grain free options out there, but then usually they use peas or potato to include the carb aspect so you would still be fighting that. I know the food I feed has some grain free options but I believe that means potato and pea is stepping in for the carb and fat option.. but I know quite a few who have switched to Great Life and are very happy… but it’s really to each their own. My food is hard to find, as they don’t sell to chains.
There are two sites you can check out for options and reviews dogfoodanalysis.com and dogfoodadvisor.com they rate them and explain ingredients. Maybe you can find a forum about diets for those with Cancer. I am thinking raw is your best bet if you are comfortable with it. Here is a FB page I am a part of… I read a lot of what people post and usually don’t comment as they are kinda purists.. but there is a lot to learn on that page by watching. They also have 20+ documents all about raw diet and why they do it and the breakdown for nutritional info, you may want to become a member and watch the group. Be sure to read all the documents before you ask anything though.
Thanks for your question, hope some of this helped.
Sorry here is the link to the group. there are several groups out there.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/261761471359/
Thanks, Anna! Yes, I have tried raw before but either I’m not doing it right or she has a sensitive stomach because the first time, after eating a half a raw cornish game hen, we had to rush her to the vet because she couldn’t walk! We thought there was something wrong in her spine. It turned out she had gas so bad that she couldn’t walk. I’ve had a few other similar situations so now I’m afraid of it.
I actually found Great Life at our local co-op! I got a bag of the dry for Rye and a bunch of cans for Amber, the cans looked much lower carb than the dry. Ooh, it looks so healthy!
Hey Claire, so glad you found some! I would totally read up more on the raw, it can be a bit of a trickier transition for some but you just gotta take it as slow as the dog needs. Some will feed less of a meal so they can eventually build up.. maybe a different protein source would work better. Also gotta make sure the meat is not enhanced. There should be less than 100mg sodium per 4oz serving. Check out that FB page if you are on FB and read up for a while, you may try and give it a go still. But until then I hope the great life food works well for you, let me know.
A
I believe the primary issue with this particular recall is not that it is making the dogs sick, but it is making humans sick because of the salmonella on the food. Pretty scary because many of the foods involved are high quality. Luckily dogs have shorter GI tracts than us which makes them less susceptible to bacteria like salmonella. We feed Ilsa and Gumbo an entirely raw based diet and use a grain-free diet. Gumbo has never eaten anything other than raw, and we saw a huge change (for the better) in Ilsa when we switched her over to raw. It wasn’t easy for her to change as she seemed to have issues with the texture and will still only eat turkey (we’ve tried every protein imaginable too). Seeing the changes in Ilsa (energy/coat quality) makes me a firm believer in raw even compared to all the quality ingredient kibbles/canned foods we’ve tried.
Good point about all of this Ben… people have gotten sick after handling these foods in 9 states thus far. It does seem like it is affecting people more this time around than last. I honestly and simply getting sick of the recalls… I have been really really wanting to move Luna over to raw but have not figured out the logistics yet and the Mr. is skeptical. All I hear is good things though, and honestly am ready to fight people on my stance with her if I need to. Luna used to have texture issues too, but once she became more of an eater overall (age 1) she now will tackle anything I give her to try, I am lucky if she actually chews it like I want her to.
Do let me know if you ever do a post on your raw diet/plan for your 4-leggers. Thanks for the comment
Thanks for the info. We feed Diamond foods. Our very active dogs do well on them and we are able to keep weight on them (which can be difficult during training season). We have tried other bands, but with no so great results. I have always known that I am supposed to wash hands after touching dog food, but it is easy to forget.
I totally hear ya on it being hard to find foods that keep weight on the hard working dogs. Mine maintain really well on the Great Life food they are on, and many feed Purina for this same reason (and cost). Hopefully none of your food was affected. An easy way to sanitize might be to just put those liquid sanitizes near the food prep area. Least it might kill it. Seems sometimes the food issue can bring up just as much debate as training methods lol.
Haha so true. Pet owner’s are nothing if not passionate. Our requirements for dog food is that the food can be purchased locally, for a fair price, no refrigeration required and we do not have to feed a large amount of it. Of course that is not to say that those requirements are, or should be, the same for everyone.
Good idea on the sanitizer. See I think that people who feed raw food are probably more accustomed to washing their hands after handling the food. One thing that I think kibble does is to give a false sense of security. Any food that is processed and if not cooked enough can carry salmonella. Heck veggies can carry it….lol…as my very fav sandwich at Jimmie Johns no longer has sprouts on it due to salmonella.