Grain mites in dog food...
This is discusting, but true....
My partner that I work with reccently purchased a bag of Beneful dog food. Normaly she feeds Merrick food but was out and just stopped into a walgreens on her way home and Beneful was what they had.
Angel, her Akita mix got sick after just one serving of this food. My partner didn't think anything of it and assumed it was the sudden change in diet she put the bad in her pantry and purchased her regular dog food the next day. This was just three weeks ago. It is important to note that this bag of food was in date and was stored at her home in a tupperware type container.
Yesterday I get a really angry and frantic phone call from my partner concerning this bag of food. Apparently she noticed what she first thought to be mold around the corners of her pantry cabnets, then upon further inspection she noticed this same mold on the side her her fridge right next to her pantry and on the ceiling above. Gross. She started poking around and pulling thing out of her pantry and she pulled out the container that had the bag of beneful in it. It is COVERED in this mold like substance. She clipped a bit of the bag and took it into the vet clinic who looked at under a micropscope. What they found was not mold or fungus, it was grain mites. She came home and jumped online to do some research on the subject and I am shocked and discusted by what she found. Try it for youself, type in "Grain mites and dog food" into your search engine and see what pops up. Beneful seems to be the main source and the very first result I got when I looked it up, (at her request) was an article about how this food was pulled from shelves in Virginia in Spet 2008. I spoke to the purnia comapany after seeing the bag of food (now tripped baged and sealed in an airtight container) for myself. My partner is devestated that in her mind she could have caused serious damange to her reccently adopted dog who is still recovering from treatment for what the vet said was one of the most serious cases of heartworms he's seen in a long time. The purinia company's response was barely civil at best and downright hostile on the second phone call. The first time we spoke to them, they tried to say that this was the first they'd ever heard of something like this. The proceeded to give detailed instructions on how to rid the infested kitchen of the mites.... ???? The second call was no better, a higher up called the shop today and tried to blame the whole thing on my partner. Meanwhile in searches on the internet for customer complaints about benefull we found several from a neighboring town, only about 40 minutes from the walgreens where the offending food was purchased. My partner just called me and reported that she had just gotten off the phone with the FDA. The lady she spoke with is appalled and took down a ton of info and requested samples of the food and the bag numbers and so on. She also did a keyword search on the food and the mites and according to clair was extremely surprised. She said that it might not be the first complaint to the FDA about this food in reccent months but it IS the first one she has delt with.
Apparently grain mites are extremely difficult to get rid of, not even bleach kills the little suckers.
I'nm not one to give in to he said she said and freak out about what I might read online about this food or that. However, after seeing with my own eyes, (and hearing representatives of this company with my own ears,) I came home from work and tossed every single purnia product in my home. Treats, cat food, the little bag of ONE that jazz is usuing to transition to Blue with, all of it along with the containers holding it. Jazz has been voiting every so often since being put on Purina ONE up from the pedigree she was eating when I got her.... It isn't worth taking the chance in my opinion.
My partner that I work with reccently purchased a bag of Beneful dog food. Normaly she feeds Merrick food but was out and just stopped into a walgreens on her way home and Beneful was what they had.
Angel, her Akita mix got sick after just one serving of this food. My partner didn't think anything of it and assumed it was the sudden change in diet she put the bad in her pantry and purchased her regular dog food the next day. This was just three weeks ago. It is important to note that this bag of food was in date and was stored at her home in a tupperware type container.
Yesterday I get a really angry and frantic phone call from my partner concerning this bag of food. Apparently she noticed what she first thought to be mold around the corners of her pantry cabnets, then upon further inspection she noticed this same mold on the side her her fridge right next to her pantry and on the ceiling above. Gross. She started poking around and pulling thing out of her pantry and she pulled out the container that had the bag of beneful in it. It is COVERED in this mold like substance. She clipped a bit of the bag and took it into the vet clinic who looked at under a micropscope. What they found was not mold or fungus, it was grain mites. She came home and jumped online to do some research on the subject and I am shocked and discusted by what she found. Try it for youself, type in "Grain mites and dog food" into your search engine and see what pops up. Beneful seems to be the main source and the very first result I got when I looked it up, (at her request) was an article about how this food was pulled from shelves in Virginia in Spet 2008. I spoke to the purnia comapany after seeing the bag of food (now tripped baged and sealed in an airtight container) for myself. My partner is devestated that in her mind she could have caused serious damange to her reccently adopted dog who is still recovering from treatment for what the vet said was one of the most serious cases of heartworms he's seen in a long time. The purinia company's response was barely civil at best and downright hostile on the second phone call. The first time we spoke to them, they tried to say that this was the first they'd ever heard of something like this. The proceeded to give detailed instructions on how to rid the infested kitchen of the mites.... ???? The second call was no better, a higher up called the shop today and tried to blame the whole thing on my partner. Meanwhile in searches on the internet for customer complaints about benefull we found several from a neighboring town, only about 40 minutes from the walgreens where the offending food was purchased. My partner just called me and reported that she had just gotten off the phone with the FDA. The lady she spoke with is appalled and took down a ton of info and requested samples of the food and the bag numbers and so on. She also did a keyword search on the food and the mites and according to clair was extremely surprised. She said that it might not be the first complaint to the FDA about this food in reccent months but it IS the first one she has delt with.
Apparently grain mites are extremely difficult to get rid of, not even bleach kills the little suckers.
I'nm not one to give in to he said she said and freak out about what I might read online about this food or that. However, after seeing with my own eyes, (and hearing representatives of this company with my own ears,) I came home from work and tossed every single purnia product in my home. Treats, cat food, the little bag of ONE that jazz is usuing to transition to Blue with, all of it along with the containers holding it. Jazz has been voiting every so often since being put on Purina ONE up from the pedigree she was eating when I got her.... It isn't worth taking the chance in my opinion.
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HOW AWFUL!
I can believe it though...when we got Casey that was what her previous owner was feeding her and talk about awful smelling poo!
I switched her straight over to our brand and didn't buy any of the Beneful to do a gradual transition...glad I didn't!
She had one of the most stubborn cases of round worms my vet had ever seen...I wonder if that had something to do with it. Normally one or 2 does of Drontal Plus works fine, but she took 4 months and 4 treatments just to get rid of them!
She has been with us now for awhile but she has a very sensitive stomach...I thought it was from having the worms for who knows how long, but sounds like being on that food didn't help her at all!
I hope that everything works out for her and her poor furkid...how awful for the both of them.
I have heard that Purina is less than "understanding" when an animal comes up sick and it turns out to be caused by one of their products. I hope that everything turns out well for them!
I can believe it though...when we got Casey that was what her previous owner was feeding her and talk about awful smelling poo!
I switched her straight over to our brand and didn't buy any of the Beneful to do a gradual transition...glad I didn't!
She had one of the most stubborn cases of round worms my vet had ever seen...I wonder if that had something to do with it. Normally one or 2 does of Drontal Plus works fine, but she took 4 months and 4 treatments just to get rid of them!
She has been with us now for awhile but she has a very sensitive stomach...I thought it was from having the worms for who knows how long, but sounds like being on that food didn't help her at all!
I hope that everything works out for her and her poor furkid...how awful for the both of them.
I have heard that Purina is less than "understanding" when an animal comes up sick and it turns out to be caused by one of their products. I hope that everything turns out well for them!
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No Angel had heartworms when my partner adopted her, she went through treatment but it was really tough on her. She had a bad reactions to the second round of treatment, poor baby. Angel is everyones baby so of course we are upset at purina's response. Thankfuly she only ate one meal and threw most of that up shortly after. I am soooo glad her momma didn't make her eat the whole bag of food, it might have made her really sick
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Thats just terrible. I have to admit that the poor responce sounds about right from a company that puts ingredients into dog food that is hard for dogs to digest. Even so, its pretty bad that the represenative of Purina would be rude rather then sympathetic about the situation.
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Now there's and idea....
The claims department for Purina was in touch today. It's kind of sad that a dog food company even has a claims department just because of what that implies but there ya go... FDA was also in contact again today to get more info on the bag numbers and such. Hopefuly they can do something about this. If you reseach this issues you come up with some disturbing info on the health risks these things pose. Not just to your dog, but to YOU! Nasty! *shivers* kind of grosses me out to think about it.
The claims department for Purina was in touch today. It's kind of sad that a dog food company even has a claims department just because of what that implies but there ya go... FDA was also in contact again today to get more info on the bag numbers and such. Hopefuly they can do something about this. If you reseach this issues you come up with some disturbing info on the health risks these things pose. Not just to your dog, but to YOU! Nasty! *shivers* kind of grosses me out to think about it.
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