Pet Food Recalls - The Truth About Melamine 

Here is the story. We as veterinarians and all the researchers and the FDA have not been able to figure out exactly why this chemical called melamine is causing kidney failure in pets. YET, it does. The only thing we know is there are crystals that can be found in the urine or kidneys and tests can be run to validate that melamine is present in the food or urine.

So the way to be safe about feeding your pets is to keep updated on the recalls and better yet, use a food that doesn't use any products from China. For recall data go to https://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/petfood.html Here is a food I use on my own cats and even though it is more expensive, they do really really well on it.

Here is a food I use on my own cats and even though it is more expensive, they do really really well on it. https://www.healthypetslife.com

You can also, cook for your pet which is probably the safest at this point. Usually it is recommended to supplement the foods with vitamins and minerals (See our products list). Here are a couple of sites that are pretty good as far as recommendations of how to cook for your dog or cat. https://www.ehow.com/how_12698_make-homemade-cat.html and https://www.ehow.com/how_12697_make-homemade-dog.html

Of course, if you have a special needs pet (has some medical problem) be sure to consult your personal veterinarian on what is the best as far as home cooked diets. Always change diets gradually to not upset the pets digestive system.

If you suspect your dog or cat has gotten some of the tainted food, it is a good idea to go to a veterinarian and get kidney tests done before clinical signs appear., Almost 75 % of the kidney tissue can be lost before obvious signs appear in some cases. Better to catch it before it goes that far.

If you have a perfectly healthy pet, it is a great ida to go in for "healthy pet labwork", otherwise known as baseline normals. Not all pets fit in the "normal range" of the bell curve of a laboratory. Say your dog normally has a kidney value at the low end of the lab "normal" range. Yet, you don't know this as no tests were done when the dog was healthy. So the dog feels ill and you do the tests and it come back at the high end of the normal range. Well, for your dog, that is abnormal, even though according to the lab it is normal.

So, prevention is the best medicine.

If you do experience a pet with kidney failure, see my article on the site in regards to that. Here's hoping you never need that data.

Recommended viewing: (Human toxin-may be hard to comfortably watch, but very important to have this knowledge to protect our future and our future generation.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSZ9YTnSkLc

Until next time,

May you and your pets be happy and healthy,

Dr. Jan