From: Gary Britt 

Thanks.

No it wasn't limited to just some premium brands.  Menu Foods provided food
under so many brand names (about 100) it covered the range from cheaper
brands to some premium brands.  We've always used "Purina Fancy
Feast" for wet food which is a premium brand not affected by the
recall, but with 3 cats we had taken to mixing in "Special Kitty"
wet food which looked similar and the cats seemed to like it. 
"Special Kitty" sold for 1/3 the price of Fancy Feast.  We also
mix in some people tuna (like Tony) from time to time, and deli cat dry
food was always sitting out for them.

When I noticed that the cat that almost died wasn't really eating at all
and wasn't eating dry food any longer and seemed very sleepy/lethargic, we
went into emergency mode trying to get her to eat and drink.  Due to my
experiences with my first cat that did have kidney failure I recognized the
dangers.  I took to carrying her to the food and water several times a day
and she would eat.  She had been throwing up and we thought it was the deli
cat which she had stopped eating, so we searched for a dry food replacement
and came up with Science Diet For Sensitive Stomachs.  That was a lucky
accident for all the cats because it was poison free and they liked to eat
it.  We've switched to the Science Diet permanently.  Science Diet is
probably the best quality cat and dog food you can get, but even one
particular kind of Science Diet Wet Dog Food was part of the recall.  I
became familiar with the Science Diet food with my prior cat that had
kidney failure.  They have a special kind just for cats with Kidney Failure
and we used it for years with that cat.

Hitting cats worse than dogs is probably a matter of body weight translates
to more blood volume and bigger kidneys.  More blood volume means the
poison per liter of blood would be lower.  Bigger kidneys might be able to
stand more damage than smaller ones.  It could also be related to how dogs
and cats react to being sick.  Cats are more likely to go off and try and
wait it out on their own.  Of course if they stop eating and especially if
they stop drinking fluids, their damaged kidneys can't keep their blood
clean which makes them less hungry, more weak, more sour stomach and it
becomes a vicious cycle.

To stimulate my one cat I went and got heavy whipping cream and half and
half cream and started offering it to her where she was laying.  Then she
really reacted well to the smell and taste of the Science Diet dry food and
would try to eat it when I took it to her.  She began to get stronger and
after a week I didn't have to carry her to the food any longer.  She's lost
40% of her body weight.  She's still drinking a LOT of water which is a
good thing.  Damaged kidneys can still clean the blood if you run enough
water through them, but the fact that she is still drinking a lot of water
(so are the other cats) even after the poisoned food has been removed from
their diets could be an indication of permanent kidney damage.  That's why
I say the cats aren't out of the woods yet.

One of the cats we think figured out something was wrong with the poisoned
food.  That cat took to making the motion of burying the food when we gave
it to that cat.  We thought the cat had suddenly turned picky on that
particular flavor or something, but after learning of the recall we believe
that cat could smell or taste the difference with the poisoned food and had
made the connection between that smell/taste and not feeling well after
eating it.  It wouldn't matter how hungry he should have been he would go
through the "bury this" motions any time we tried to give him the
poisoned stuff.

I still want to know how long Menu Foods knew the food was poisoned before
they did the recall.  We know they knew the food was poisoned when 9 out 25
test cats died.  What we don't know and no news organization is smart
enough to ask is "WHEN" did those test cats die.  How long did
they die before the recall?

Gary



Frank Haber wrote:
> I'm really sorry about your sick cats.  Our last dog lived a nice long
> life, but his death really flattened us; we were surprised how flat.
>
> The tainted brands were "super-premium," right?  Iams, etc.?  And only
> moist food?  And cats got hit worse than dogs?  Body weight, or because
> they're cats?  It's a disgusting situation.

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