the cat food poisonings?

[Shannon Nelson]

Hi Irene,
Do you have anything you can share at this point about the cat food
poisonings in the news?
Just wondering!
Shannon

[Irene de Villiers]

Robert & Shannon Nelson wrote:

Please forward my private response for now?

....Irene
--
Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom.
P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220.
www.angelfire.com/fl/furryboots/clickhere.html (Veterinary Homeopath.)
"Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it."

[Irene de Villiers]

> Hi Irene,

Hi,
I've not been posting my updates here as I was not sure it would be
considered sufficiently topical, I do post them on Vethom-friends and
Catwell lists. But it's a rare person who has no dog or cat - and a rare
homeopath who would not help if they could - so in the interests of
being more informed, here goes some detail:
Most of it is about what food is bad as opposed to the few listed - and
the features of melamine as a toxin. My little para on homeopathy is
between *********** rows.
There is a disgusting (IMO) conspiracy afoot to hide the products
affected to let as many food producers as possible "appear innocent",
so that only proven poisonings are getting forced onto the FDA list,
which is a terribly small minority of affected cases.
Hence daily we hear of more products being added to the toxic
list. In other words the toxic list is TOTALLY USELESS here - and is
actually causing trouble because people are assuming that what's not on
the list is safe. This could not be further from the truth.

People MUST use the detailed ingredients list of ALL foods - which is
required by law to be on the container. Do this for canned or dry or
pouch food. Look for "wheat gluten" or "wheat". If either is there do
NOT use the product until you KNOW where that wheat comes from. (Do nto
accept company claims that it is "not from China". Find out where it is
from. That's my firm advice on comercial products.

I've also been trying to find some that are known to be safe. So far
only one:
ProPAc - which happens to be the brand I usually recommend.

There are also a few "holistic" brands that have no Chinese ingredients
- but they do have other toxins for carnivores or inappropriate
ingredients - so I do not recommend them for other reasons.

ProPAc's Cindy Montgomery answered my request by return email:
From Cindy Montgomery of ProPac, VP Marketing, her email to me includes:
QUOTE:
I've been checking on all of our ingredients in the past week since all
of the emails have been flooding in.
* All of our ingredients are purchased here in the US except for Lamb
Meal which comes from Australia.
* We use no wheat gluten in any of our PRO PAC formulas. The wheat that
we use in our dog biscuits and wheat germ in our kitten formula dry food
comes from wheat grown in the Midwest.
* We mill the wheat and manufacture all of our products in own own
company owned pet food facilities here in the US.
* We also test grain coming in for aflatoxin and other conditions
before it goes into any of our products.
* Every supplier that we purchase ingredients from is inspected yearly
and must pass our standards (and the combined standards for the European
Union, Australia, China, Taiwan, etc.) for export. Our plants are
inspected each year.
* ALSO - We use the HACCP system. HACCP is the Hazard Analysis Critical
Control Points system that was developed to ensure the safety of food
for human consumption in the United States."
UNQUOTE

To try to find out what foods are still out there and toxic, members of
my Cat health list have tried to contact manufacturers despite jammed
phone lines in a concerted effort and/or done internet research to try
to see who owns whom and how the contaminated product is distributed - a
secret hard to uncover. So far with credit to persistence from list
members especially ChrisB at Catwell:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Contaminated Wheat Gluten came from Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology
Development Co. in Wangdien, China. ( we knew that already)
http://www.xzay.com/english/index.asp

Total quantity of wheat gluten shipped was 792 metric tons, imported
by ChemNutra, Inc., Las Vegas, Nevada, Sally Miller, President,
Stephen Miller, CEO http://www.chemnutra.com

ChemNutra shipped from its Kansas City Warehouse to 3 petfood makers
and a single distributor who in turn supplies the pet food industry,
from November 9, 2006 and ended march 8, 2007, but they refuse to
tell who they distributed to. MenuFoods seems to be the only one
that the public is allowed to know about.
http://www.chemnutra.com/pr.pdf

More research revealed:

The three major companies are Doane Pet Care, Diamond, and Menu
Foods. [If you remember Diamond - who also makes Costco and other
sub-brands - was involved in the previous recall last year due to
aflatoxin causing illness and deaths]
Recently Doane Pet Care was bought out by Mars, Inc.
(MasterFoods USA).
http://www.freshfields.com/news/dynamic ... wsitem=835

Doane Pet Care Enterprises manufactures dry pet food under 350 store
brands including Maxximum nutrition [Walmart's brand], Special Kitty,
Sportsman's Choice, Kirkland Signature, Pathmark, Ol Roy, etc. They
didn't list all the brands unfortunately.
www.secinfo.com/dsvRu.6x2.htm
http://www.api4animals.org/facts.php?p=359&more=1

We know some of the brands manufactured by MenuFoods.. they are on
the recall list.
[The rest are trying to stay off!]

Here is an interesting blog: http://petsitusa.com/blog/?p=210 lists
companies who verify they do not use MenuFoods producst.
But we do not know who uses products from the other main two sources
other than Menu Foods.

So this is why I say - read the ingredients list and not the recall list!!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Even the toxin/s involved are not being properly divulged. We had
statements originally that both Menu Foods plants were shown to have
40ppm in their foods of the rat poison come cancer drug toxin, aminopterin.
I've seen no retraction of that, but now FDA says there is melamine
found in the kidneys of animals dying from the food. There is also
evidence some food manufacturers tried to put melamine in the food
intentionally to see if it is\was "safe" to feed. (Who knows why - as a
cheap filler?!!!)
SO proof of what toxin is in there is still not for sure - maybe both,
who knows.
It does not help the animals affected, that nobody is "coming clean" on
this.

There's a blog on line which attempts to state which food is involved
how - but I would not trust it despite the hard work put into it -
because companies are not telling the truth.
For example Chris uncovered the distribution chain with Mars as owner of
a company that does use the tainted food from the Chinese supplier - yet
Mars is stating otherwise as listed on the blog here:
http://petsitusa.com/blog/?p=210
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Calling the company to check yourself often gets you in circles -
Walmart for example changed their recording today to remove options to
speak to anyone - it just goes in circles denying responsibility - yet
their Maxximum brand IS on the distributor chain Chris uncovered,.
....
Annmaet's website is conveniently down.
.......
The ethical companies who will answer emails, phone calls and whatever
else you want - have a statement up front on the website as well.
Propacpetfoods.com for example; they are few and far between.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

So that is my warning - do NOT trust food on the shelves unless you KNOW
(not just get a company statement but KNOW) the true source of its
ingredients. "Not involved in recall" is not the same as "We source at
out own wheat farms in the Midwest USA and own the processing plant etc."
-----------------------------------------------------------------
************************************************************************
Homeopathy is complicated by not really knowing what is causing the
kidney failure. If anything homeopathy has an advantage over the vets as
they NEED the cause to be able to think of a response. We can at least
still repertorize on the symptoms.

Those I discussed before are still valid - the inappetance, refusal to
eat (or drink), copious urination, lassitude and sudden acute kidney
failure.
*************************************************************************
Something about melamine:
Melamine is a strong organic base with the chemical formula C3H6N6, with
the IUPAC name 1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine. It is produced from urea,
mainly by either of two methods: catalyzed gas-phase production or high
pressure liquid-phase production.

Melamine, dicyandiamide (or cyanoguanidine) and cyanamide are related.
The first is considered the trimer and the second the dimer of the
third. All contain 66% nitrogen and provide fire retardant properties to
resin formulas by releasing nitrogen when burned or charred.
Melamine is primarily used to produce melamine resin, which when
combined with formaldehyde produces a very durable thermosetting plastic.

On 30 March 2007, the US Food and Drug Administration reported it found
melamine in the recalled pet food, in samples of wheat gluten imported
from China used in the production of the food, as well as in crystalline
form in the kidneys and in the urine of affected animals. The compound's
presence has not been conclusively linked to the animals' deaths. It is
important to note that this was melamine proper, a monomer, and not a
melamine polymer as those used in household products

From Melamine Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS of Sep 2003):
In animal studies, ingestion of large amounts of melamine in monomer
form may lead to kidney stones, cancer or reproductive damage
The substance decomposes on heating or on burning producing toxic and
irritating fumes including hydrogen cyanide, nitrogen oxides, and
ammonia. Incompatible with strong acids, strong oxidizing agents.
(Carnivore urine is stronly acid). Harmful if swallowed, inhaled or
absorbed through the skin.
Chronic exposure may cause cancer or reproductive damage. Eye, skin and
respiratory irritant.
Irritation of eyes, skin, and mucous membranes; dermatitis; in animals:
chronic inflammation of kidneys (female rats); ulceration of urinary
bladder epithelium (mice), urolithiasis (rats and mice); bladder cancer
(male rats).
Notes:
1. The main constituents of the stones in the urinary bladders of
rats given melamine in the diet were reported to be unchanged melamine
and uric acid in a 1:1 molar ratio.
2. Dimelamine phosphate was reported to be a urinary product of
melamine in dogs and rats, which showed a diuretic response to melamine.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I notice that where acute kidney failure is sometimes accompanied by
inability to urinate this is the opposite - and the animals do void in
quantity. This does seem to suggest melamine is at least one of the
toxins involved.

Namaste,
Irene
--
Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom.
P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220.
www.angelfire.com/fl/furryboots/clickhere.html (Veterinary Homeopath.)
"Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it."

[Dale Moss]

A former teacher of mine who's had some experience recently treating cats & dogs poisoned by the epidemic of tainted feed found Lycopodium almost a specific. In those animals tested, liver enzymes were through the roof.
Peace,
Dale

[Irene de Villiers]

Dale Moss wrote:

High liver enzymes and Lyc make sense - but the cases I have seen so far
have normal liver and high creatinine.

It's very confusing not knowing what toxin/s we are dealing with. The
Lab set up after 9/11 for toxin analysis for national security in
biowarfare etc - is the one that found the rat poison and they are
standing by their finding. The FDA lab is the one claiming to have found
melamine. (Perhaps because melamine WAS fond in Menu Foods earlier this
year? And it's still there?) Did they look for toxins too, it would need
a pretty specific test. Is melamine enough to explain what we see? (I
have my doubts but who knows?)

For now we will have to go on individual case symptoms.
NAmaste,
Irene
--
Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom.
P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220.
www.angelfire.com/fl/furryboots/clickhere.html (Veterinary Homeopath.)
"Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it."