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Nutro Pet Foods

Jo of North Canton, OH September 7, 2009

Our Lab has eaten Nutro puppy food products all his life. Now that he is a year old I decided it was time to put him on an adult product. Sept.3rd I gave him his first bowl of Nutro Max Natural. In the AM on Sept.4th he had a second serving. That evening he developed severe diarrhea, which quickly turned to watery diarrhea. By 8am on the 5th the watery diarrhea was accompanied with bright red blood. He was seen by a vet at 10:00am. His temp was 104+ but all tests showed no parasites. Dr. believed he had ingested some type of poison. He gave him some shots (not sure what exactly they were), an antibiotic, and med to slow down the diarrhea.

Today is Sept 6th, the bleeding seems to have stopped but he has to be coxed into drinking water. I am afraid he will become dehydrated now. I just don't feel the battle for his life is over yet. He never goes outside without being on a leash and is in a crate when we are not home with him. There is no chance that he ate anything without me knowing. I truly believe this Nutro Max is the culprit. To date I have spent 510 on vet bill but he is still not 100% so we may be making another trip to the vet.

Lisa of Courtland, ON September 6, 2009

I have e-mailed and called Nutro numerous times. I have had no one call me back or e-mail regarding my complaints that i have submited to comsumer affairs.com and to Nutro it self. I have A bag of Nutro Lamb and Rice that I want tested but am unsure where to take it. This company needs to take our complaints seriously befor more of our pets die or get sick !!!!

Susan of Newburyport, MA September 5, 2009

I just spent 800.00 at the Vet on my 3yr old dog whose been vomiting yellow bile for a month, then drinking excessively, throwing up everything, dehydrated, lethargic, sore all over, just plain miserable. Graham is still very sick, Vet has no idea why. On Wednesday Sept 2, 2009 he was so sick I was worried he might not make it through the night. I am hoping he is getting better, he is eating again(a new food prescribed by my vet along with many probiotics, antibiotics and pills that suppress vomiting, but he can barely walk, I have to carry him around and hold him up so he can go to the bathroom. The food was around 50.00 and so far I have spent 800.00 in Vet bills and I'm not sure he's "out of the woods" yet!

Alie of Brooklyn, NY September 3, 2009

My 12-year-old cat had been eating Nutro foods for about 5 years. She's an indoor cat, so there is very little trouble she can get herself into. It seemed things were fine, but, reading all of these reports, I'm thinking twice - especially since she died two days ago, out of the blue. She recently began meowling at her food dish. She had done that from time to time, it became really persistent lately. I thought it was because she really wanted the treats that I had been giving her instead. But she started meowling so persistently, looking at her food dish... In the last few years, she had started vomitting from time to time, and the vet told me it was probably stress. The vet suggested that she was probably gorging herself when she ate - I work a lot, so she'd often be alone. I got her an automatic feeder so she'd always know that her meal would be there. The vomitting improved, but didn't go away. But hey, cats do that, they vomit - but do they vomit water? She started doing that.

Then there was the bloated stomach. She kinda had some extra weight on here, but her stomach seemed to be disproportionate. She had also lost interest in playing. Some of her favorite toys had gone untouched for so long. I thought she was just getting older. Then, out of nowhwere, she just died two days ago. She was fine, she was her usual affectionate self, she was roaming around the apartment as usual. I was working from home, and I saw nothing wrong. I went out for a couple hours to have some lunch and sit in the park for a bit - and I found her dead on the floor when I got back, like she'd had a seizure or heart attack or something. It didn't make any sense, until I started reading these comments. It's the only explanation for a cat that seemed mostly OK. She'd been eating the recently recalled foods that were high in zinc and low in potassium. I think I'll have a necropsy and toxicology test done.

Alie of Brooklyn, NY September 3, 2009

My 12-year-old cat had been eating Nutro foods for about 5 years. She's an indoor cat, so there is very little trouble she can get herself into. It seemed things were fine, but, reading all of these reports, I'm thinking twice - especially since she died two days ago, out of the blue. She recently began meowling at her food dish. She had done that from time to time, it became really persistent lately. I thought it was because she really wanted the treats that I had been giving her instead. But she started meowling so persistently, looking at her food dish... In the last few years, she had started vomitting from time to time, and the vet told me it was probably stress. The vet suggested that she was probably gorging herself when she ate - I work a lot, so she'd often be alone. I got her an automatic feeder so she'd always know that her meal would be there. The vomitting improved, but didn't go away. But hey, cats do that, they vomit - but do they vomit water? She started doing that.

Then there was the bloated stomach. She kinda had some extra weight on here, but her stomach seemed to be disproportionate. She had also lost interest in playing. Some of her favorite toys had gone untouched for so long. I thought she was just getting older.

Then, out of nowhwere, she just died two days ago. She was fine, she was her usual affectionate self, she was roaming around the apartment as usual. I was working from home, and I saw nothing wrong. I went out for a couple hours to have some lunch and sit in the park for a bit - and I found her dead on the floor when I got back, like she'd had a seizure or heart attack or something. It didn't make any sense, until I started reading these comments. It's the only explanation for a cat that seemed mostly OK. She'd been eating the recently recalled foods that were high in zinc and low in potassium. I think I'll have a necropsy and toxicology test done.

Bridget of Shermans Dale, PA September 3, 2009

My Pug puppy is 1 year old and has had a clean bill of health from the time we brought her home. She has been on Nutro Puppy food from Nov 2008 until Aug 31 2009 (with no problems) however, when I tried to slowly introduce her to Nutro Mini Chunk. After the first night of adding a few pieces of the Mini Chunk to the Puppy food she woke up in the middle of the night vomiting.

Then on the morning of Sept 1 she woke up at 4 am with diarrhea. Sept 2 she ate a few bites of the same Mini Chunks mixed w/the Puppy food and then had diarrhea and was lethargic for most of the day, and refused to eat any more food, she had severe vomiting in the evening.

I later fed her rice and hamburger, which she ate then seemed to bounce back. (keeping my fingers crossed) After reading these horrific stories I refuse to feed her anymore Nutro! I have also sent an email to Nutro and am awaiting a response.

laura of harvard, MA September 2, 2009

Started our healthy 14 week old puppy on Nutro dry food - Large Breed Puppy. Almost immediately she developed diarrhea and terrible gas. Also somewhat lethargic. Stopped the food after 5 days, and she is already improving on a new dry food. We did not make a gradual change because her sx were too severe. Even with the abrupt change she is dramatically improved. I hope there are no long term problems.

Suzanne of Palmyra, NJ September 1, 2009

I have (2) dogs, both under the age of two yrs. and have given them Nutro Dog Food for sensitive stomachs for over a year now. Ironicallly, they both continue to have diarrhea on a consistent basis and it's getting worse instead of better. In fact, my Maltipoo (who is only 1.5 yrs old) never had a problem with her stomach until I put her on the Nutro food because they eat eachother's food I decided to put them on the same food.

I've spend a small fortune in vet bills, taking each of them numerous times with the same symptoms of diarrhea and vomiting. I receive rxs for immodium and stomach relaxers- they improve a bit then I introduce the dry food back into their diet and they're right back where they were. I've taken them off of all treats, thinking that it was the treats that caused the problem however, it's worse than ever! My friend (who also has her dog on Nutro for sensitive stomachs) told me about the complaints against the company and I just researched it for myself- I am shocked an amazed at the number of complaints, all of which are similar to the problems I am having. We do so much to care for our pets, it is incomprehendible that a pet food company could continue to manufacture such a deadly product! I will be changing their food today!

Jenn of Melbourne, FL August 28, 2009

I have two dogs, which were on seperate foods for about 2 years. and recently within the last 7 months they have been on the same food. I switched to Nutro (chicken meal, rice and oatmeal formula). I have had nothing but problems my lab mix has a sensitive stomach and my cocker spaniel has a tuff tummy. But when it came to this, they both have had diaherria upset stomachs, throwing up, etc. The poor things were getting poisned. I smelt the food yesterday and didnt realize that it smelt nothing like her food usually does. It smelt like a poison was in it. I couldnt believe it, I felt so bad that my two dogs were getting so sick and everything. Just wanted to say that i will never buy Nutro again!

Lauren of Rancho Cordova, CA August 26, 2009

Our family has had animals all our lives and we have been feeding Nutro for over 20 years. However, about 5-6 yrs ago our beloved pet died of stomach/ liver/ pancreas related problems. We were devastated and spent about 10 k trying to nurse him back to health before it became too much of a financial burden and we had to put him to sleep.

About a yr after that, we lost our other dog who experienced a very similar type of sudden degradation of health condition as the 1st dog. Still reeling from our last vet bills, we simply could not afford to provide the second dog the same treatment, so we opted for euthanasia without the drastic medical treatments. we were shocked, she was still only about 10 yrs old and had been so well taken care of but I guess these things happen.

I never thought their food could be poisoning them. Then our cat died also of stomach related problems and I thought wow all our animals going so close to each other, well, he was an older cat so I figured ok it must be time, but it was surprising how he also had liver / kidney failure. I was devastated. we had only our sweet elderly lady cat who we believed was next. She began throwing up more frequently and would not eat much at all, I had begun to prepare myself emotionally to say goodbye when by luck I happened to see an article on the very under publicized Nutro pet food recall and immediately realized that my previous 3 animals all must have been victims of their food.

I immediately switched our cat and our brand new puppies foods without even slowly switching their foods, expecting that they would all experience some bowel problems, and to my shock none of them had any problems with the immediate change in food! Nutro was sold to Mars. inc sometime fairly recently and evidently since their takeover, has been slipping small amounts of toxins into our animals foods. One might ask why a company would have a motive for doing that intentionally. Well, Mars, also owns Banfield pet hospital. Who has also been very dirty in their handling of customers. I personally had to ask the bbb for help in dealing with them.

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