Chicken Jerky Causes Illness

[Beryl]

This is scary to me because I live in this area and bought this product several times at a PetsMart. Also, I specifically called the manufacturer of these and was told that they'd verified that their strips were not tainted. In fact, human employees eat them. My dogs seem to be OK but I am very concerned about kidney damage.

http://www.timescall.com/News_Story.asp?id=4508

Publish Date: 11/8/2007

Local doctors say 4 dogs’ illnesses traced to jerky

By Susan Glairon
Longmont Times-Call

LONGMONT — Several weeks ago, Johanna Ohlsson noticed her dog, Emma, was eating less but drinking more. About 10 days ago, the dog stopped eating.

By that time, the 6-year-old dog’s weight had dropped to 19 pounds from 24 pounds.

“When we could encourage her to eat a little bit, she vomited,” said Ohlsson, 51, a Niwot resident.

Tests at a veterinarian’s office Oct. 29 produced curious results. Glucose and proteins were found in Emma’s urine, but those values were normal in her blood, said Tricia Hartwig, a veterinarian with Tender Loving Care in Longmont. The results indicated Fanconi syndrome, an inherited disease affecting kidney function, known to occur only in Basenji dogs, she said. Emma is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

Hartwig consulted with Dr. Ellen Miller, an internal medicine specialist at Flatiron Veterinary Clinic, who said those symptoms have recently been connected to pet jerky treats made in China. Smaller breeds seem to be the most affected.

Ohlsson had fed Emma Smokehouse brand treats, including chicken poppers, chicken tenders and duck tenders, she said.

Six months ago, problems with tainted wheat gluten found in pet food manufactured in China caused a massive pet food recall. The jerky treats haven’t been recalled, and there is no list available linking the illness to specific brands of jerky treats, said Lauren Prause, a veterinarian who specializes in small animal internal medicine at Flatiron Veterinary Clinic.

But reports linking lethargy, poor appetite, vomiting, increased drinking and blood and urine abnormalities to dog jerky treats are on veterinary bulletins and Web sites of the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine.

“We heard about the (pet) food recall months ago, and we thought all the bad stuff was gone,” Ohlsson said. “I don’t think it should be a crapshoot when you buy food for your pets.”

Flatiron Veterinary Clinic recently treated at least three dogs with symptoms linked to the jerky treats. Prause said she recognized the symptoms after receiving a warning through a veterinary internal medicine specialty listserve.

Prause said there’s no treatment to reverse the process, except to stop feeding the dog the suspected jerky treats and keep the dogs hydrated, which sometimes requires intravenous therapy.

“The signs are nonspecific and may seem pretty mild and not make them think that they need vet care right away, but if they have been feeding them the treats, I would seek veterinary care because they could go into renal failure,” Prause said.

Ohlsson said she purchased the treats at PetSmart on Hover Street.

Bruce Richardson, a spokesman at PetSmart’s corporate headquarters in Phoenix, Ariz., said PetSmart pulled jerky treats when the American Veterinary Medical Association put out an advisory Sept. 13, but later restocked them when no one could directly link the dogs’ illnesses to the treats. The FDA, PetSmart and other laboratories have performed tests, and no one has been able to draw a direct link between the treats and the illnesses, so the jerky treats have been placed back on the shelves, he said.

“In all that extensive work, no one was able to draw a direct link between the treats and those sicknesses,” Richardson said, adding that the Smokehouse dog treat items were never recalled. He also added that some people may be overfeeding their pets jerky treats, which are high in protein, and that manufacturers are planning to release new feeding guidelines.

Ohlsson said she never fed Emma more than the recommended amount.

Emma is still ill. Sometimes she has bursts of energy and other days she’s lethargic, Ohlsson said. Some days she refuses to eat, and other days she eats a little.

“We just made a big mistake,” Ohlsson said. “We didn’t look that it was a product of China. Now I want to research and make sure nothing is from China.”

Susan Glairon can be reached at 303-684-5224 or sglairon@times-call.com.

[dogs4life]

Wow, I'd be worried too. You can always call your vet and get a kidney panel done. Also, in every state there seems to be a dialysis center for dogs, they are the most specialized in kidney function and you might want to consult if you are super worried and suspect renal failure. In California, UCDavis is most commonly used. When I was working at UCDavis, I used to see dogs, cats and even a turtle hooked up.

Unless there were toxins present in the snack, I'm not sure your dogs would be affected. Like the article said, if you feed too much concentrated protein at once without any other macro nutrients, you do run the risk of damaging the kidneys. This alone is one main argument against the Adkins's diet for humans and a strong argument for a well rounded view of nutrition when your dogs are concerned. If you only feed meat without bones, fat, cartridge, skin, feathers, fur...your dog is missing the whole nutritional benefit of the food.

I'd recommend only little nips (enough to taste but not chew such as training treats) or none of these types of snacks.

I just Googled dog kidney failure and came up with info on nutrition. Some say low phosphorus diets help slow progression and also low protein diets were not endorsed for dogs since they are carnivores, just better quality protein was suggested.