Skip to content

Tag: joey

Greyhounds Doing Better and on the Way to Greyt

After eating several bowls of a poisonous batch of Natural Balance’s Venison & Brown Rice, I am happy to report that it looks like all three hounds will pull through. Daphne and Phoebe are at home again tonight. They have to go back for one more day of subcutaneous fluids, but they will be fine. Joey will remain hospitalized on an IV until Friday, but he will also be fine, and he’ll get to go home on Friday afternoon. His vet says he’s doing great and expects a full recovery.

Thanks to all of you who sent good wishes, thoughts, prayers and nice words for our hounds. There are much worse things in the world the past few days than some blogger’s sick pups and so we appreciate it all the more.

As to the food… well, we’re beyond angry, but very relieved that this wasn’t fatal for our dogs. Sadly, not every pet owner can say that as you can see if your read the (very long and often depressing) comments section on this post at Itchmo. There is also another post at Itchmo regarding more suspect foods that are not yet under any recall. In fact, Itchmo seems to be more on top of this mess than anyone else.

For all you pet lovers reading this, please consider making your own dog or cat food, at least for the time being. Ours really liked the kidney friendly food we made for them last night.

Update on the Hounds

After 36 hours on a kidney flush IV as a result of eating the recalled Natural Balance Venison & Brown Rice dog food, Daphne and Phoebe’s levels have returned to a normal range.

Joey’s, however, are still very high. Higher than they were originally. We had to take him to a specialist in south Austin, an amazing veterinary internist who treated Morrison’s diabetes, and in whom we have total confidence.

Joey is producing urine as well as monster turds, one of which he left in the lobby for them, and he seems to be feeling well. These are very good signs.

The vets are optimistic about Joey, but he will have to remain hospitalized and on an IV for the next few days. The girls will go back to the vet tomorrow for observation and to have some more fluid injected under their skin. Phoebe got this today and came home looking like a camel, but her hump has since gone down.

It seems the contamination in the pet food – melamine – is once again the culprit in this latest pet food recall. This time, however, it was found in the brown rice, not wheat gluten. And, once again, this is from food imported from China.

Despite the fact that Joey isn’t out of the woods yet, I’m feeling very fortunate. Yesterday, we wondered if we would have any pets by the end of the week.

Tonight, we cooked up a giant batch of homemade food from a recipe for a kidney diet we got from the vet (courtesy of Hill’s Pet Products):

¼ lb ground beef (not lean ground chuck)
2 cups white rice, no salt
1 hard-boiled egg, chopped
3 slices white bread, crumbled
1 tsp calcium carbonate (ground eggshells)

It was the finest meal they’ve ever eaten.

We’re trying to find something for Simon.

I just can’t pour kibble into their bowls right now.

As for Joey, we’ve always said he’s an optimistic dog, and so we will follow the way of the Joe monster and remain optimistic as well. He will – hopefully – come home before the end of the week.

Thanks to those of you who have wished them well. We really appreciate it.

Not Fit for a Dog

The short version:

Beware of Natural Balance’s venison and brown rice dry dog food and venison and green pea dry cat food.

The long version:

I picked up some dog food for the hounds on Wednesday: Dick Van Patten’s Natural Balance, since it’s all natural and not involved in the pet food recalls. I wasn’t sure what flavor to get since we had considered a few when we first stated them on it a month ago, but we were pretty sure it was venison and brown rice.

But it looked funny – the color was off – when I opened it on Thursday night. I figured we must have actually been feeding them a different flavor, probably duck and potato. Phoebe wouldn’t touch it, but Joey and Daphne ate it.

Thursday night Daphne got up to pee. Nothing unusual there, but so did Joey. That’s odd, but not that odd. It happens.

Friday morning, Phoebe still wouldn’t eat, and Daphne only picked at her food. I came home on Friday night to a house literally flooded with urine. In places it was ¼ inch deep. There are sometimes small accidents when we’re gone a long time, but always on the tile by the front door. This wasn’t an accident; this was something wrong. Plus, the water bowl was bone dry, and they don’t drink when we aren’t home.

I made a vet appointment for the next morning. That night Joey and Daphne kept getting up to go outside. In the morning, No one would eat except Joey who grudgingly ate about half his food, which was the first time since we’ve had him that he didn’t clean his bowl.

They took blood and urine at the vet and told us they’d have results on Monday.

I stopped at Petco on the way home to pick up a different flavor since I had my suspicions about the food. When I got there, every single one of the bags of Natural Balance venison and brown rice was gone. The gal at the counter told me they’d been selling it like crazy since the pet food recalls started.

All day Saturday, Daphne and Joey drank large amounts of water and went outside to pee (and chase squirrels). They both seemed run down and a bit off, but not really too bad. Occasionally Joey would vomit a clear fluid. For dinner, they had the duck and potato. They all cleaned their bowls.

Sunday, after another meal of duck and potato, things seemed mostly back to normal except that there was still way too much of the drink/urinate cycle going on. Sunday night, they each got up to go out twice.

This morning, I took Joey and Daphne to the vet. When I got to work, I Googled “natural balance venison brown rice” and got nothing. Then I tried it with Google’s blogsearch and discovered a bevy of posts from the last 24 hours about problems with Natural Balance’s venison and brown rice formula for dogs as well as one for cats (not the one Simon eats.) Itchmo seems to have been the site to break the story. Nothing in the mainstream media, of course.

Natural Balance’s site had no info. I called Petco and learned that they had been advised to remove it from the shelves for unspecified quality control reasons.

When the blood work came in, the results were consistent with the kidney issues associated with all of the pet food recalls. Daphne and Joey are now on a 24-hour kidney flush IV. They will spend the night at animal emergency so that their treatment can continue. Our awesome vets are confident that they will be okay.

We’re going to have Phoebe go through the treatment just in case, but she did have the good sense (of smell, I suppose) not to eat the food in question.

As of now, here’s what it says on the Natural Balance site:

NOTICE:
We are receiving consumer complaints regarding the Venison & Brown Rice Dry Dog Food, and Venison & Green Pea Dry Cat Foods. We do not know what is wrong with the food at this time, but we have heard that animals are vomiting and experiencing kidney problems. Although the problems seem to be focused on one particular lot, as a precautionary measure, we are pulling all dates of Venison & Brown Rice Dry Dog Food and Venison & Green Pea Dry Cat Food from the shelves.

Please discontinue feeding all Venison and Brown Rice Dry Dog Food, and Venison and Green Pea Dry Cat Food.

We are working closely with the FDA.
We will update this website today, as more information comes available.

NO OTHER NATURAL BALANCE PRODUCTS ARE AFFECTED.

There seems to be something very wrong with the pet food industry right now. I don’t trust it, and this just sickens me. The thought of losing all my dogs at once…

Assuming they all come through this okay, we’ll probably start feeding them a canine-healthy blend of people food (pizza, cheese, chili dogs, beer).

I think I’m through with packaged pet food.

Weekend Hound Blogging: Holding Down the Couch

This couch ain’t goin’ nowhere.

Let’s see, moving from left to right…

On Friday, Phoebe ate some CD jewel box. It seemed to be pretty tasty, but that meant I had to induce vomiting. The last time we played that game, I measured out her dose in tablespoons (while she talked of Michelangelo), which meant she had a chance to flee while I refilled. This time I loaded the full dose of H2O2 into a baster and got it all in at once. She immediately threw up her dinner along with the sharp pieces of plastic. She seems to have forgiven me.

Joey is now off his trancs. He’s doing fine and there have been no changes in his personality. He’s been sober for six days now.

Daphne is, as always, a good girl. She’s working on her sleeping and well on her way to perfecting the art of the nap.

***

Want to make a fast friend by saving a greyhound in Central Texas? Check these pups out. Or go here to find a greyhound near you. You can also go here to find out why greyhounds are running for their lives.

If you have dogs who need proven leadership, go here to find a cat.

Weekend Hound Blogging: A Morning Cup and Joe

Joey always has trouble focusing before my first cup of coffee.

And speaking of drugs, he’s down to a quarter of his dose of tranquilizers and doing great. We’re going to have him completely off the junk by Tuesday.

***

Want to make a fast friend by saving a greyhound in Central Texas? Check these pups out. Or go here to find a greyhound near you. You can also go here to find out why greyhounds are running for their lives.

If you have dogs who need proven leadership, go here to find a cat.

A Very Special Holiday Weekend Hound Blogging: New Kitchens and Couches

For Christmas, three pups in one post each enjoying their vacation.

Joey checks out the kitchen, looking for easy openings…

Phoebe looking good on a red couch…

And, Daphne in a ball, doing what she does best…

***

Want to make a fast friend by saving a greyhound in Central Texas? Check these pups out. Or go here to find a greyhound near you. You can also go here to find out why greyhounds are running for their lives.

If you have dogs who need proven leadership, go here to find a cat.

Weekend Hound Blogging: Houndspotting

Joey came to us an addict. He takes tranquilizers for his anxiety, but we’ve been trying to ween him off. He’s down to half his dose of junk and, so far, no dead puppies have been seen crawling across the ceiling. He’s a few weeks away from his final hit, but I think he’ll be fine without it.

Of course, there’s final hits and then there’s final hits, but in the meantime using Phoebe as a pillow is a good way to relax.

***

Want to make a fast friend by saving a greyhound in Central Texas? Check these pups out. Or go here to find a greyhound near you. You can also go here to find out why greyhounds are running for their lives.

If you have dogs who need proven leadership, go here to find a cat.