We've received an alert below regarding croquette food for dogs which have caused the poisoning of about 20 dogs in France.
The newspaper "Le Parisien" has published this alert to warn as many people as possible against this dangerous product.
Here is a brief translation of the article covering the issue of the toxic croquettes:
ALERT
A batch of "croquettes food" for dogs has been identified as poison and might have already caused the deathy of 20 dogs these past weeks in the region od "Aude" (south of France). Many other cases of intoxication have been identified in other regions such as Isère (that's around the city of Grenoble).
The CEO of the selling company has therefore decided to publish this warning in order to retrieve 50 to 100 bags of toxic croquettes which have been sold already.
These croquettes are sold in a white package (quantity 20 kilos) with this label «croquettes chien ACTIVE 28/14» (fabriqués en Espagne = produced in Spain).
These croquettes packages show the following numbers : «922112007 6 2014 2130616».
They have been sold between June 26th and August 6th in the stores named PCEB in the following cities :
Carcassonne, Rieux-Minervois, Douzens, Montlaur, Villasavary et Limoux
Such positive news, John, and I hope Tam continues to improve. I'm surprised that the change came almost instantaneously which makes you wonder what the hell is in those biscuits. I'm not surprised, however, at your anger. It's obvious Tam isn't just "a dog" but getting that across to the manufacturers or legal system is a different matter.
Ok update I found out about this problem only yesterday on this web site, the sack of contaminated feed was almost all gone and I've put up some of the symptoms which Tam had suffered with, so last night was the first time in 3 weeks that he'd had a unpoisoned meal, the impact was almost immediate, suddenly I'd got my old super lively mate back, our late night walk was not punctuated by coughing and resting every few hundred metres and the bloodshot eyes have started to clear. I assume we are on the recovery road but await the vets input. I'm bloody angry with the manufacturer though, 40 + dogs killed by these people so far and of course it still might not cost them much, difficult to see how the legal system values an individual pet. The food stuff was quite cheap which tends to imply that customers of modest means were buying it, not I'd guess the best equipped group to tackle this company. Just a replacement bag of feed and the cost of the visit to the vet does not seem to be sufficient penalty. I shudder to think how I'd feel if my Tam had died he's my only companion.
That's right, Celia, these things have only been coming to light over the past few years. I remember from my 'youth' people used to give little chocolate treats to their dogs. Nobody was any the wiser.
I did actually post about this awful toxic dog food a few days ago but I think it got lost in a multitude of other postings so thank you Sue for revitalising it because it's extremely important.
John, all my best wishes that Tam makes a fast recovery.
Thanks John. So sorry to hear about your dog and hope she pulls through quickly.
In the past, my collie cross dog went round all the cake plates at my child's party cleaning up as was her wont. 17 piles of vomit later she was fine. I'd no idea 30-odd years ago that chocolate was bad for animals and this particular cake was pretty heavy in that ingredient so we were lucky.
My current best friend liked to help with the grape harvest only she doesn't put them in the basket, they somehow get swallowed first. I now understand that grapes are potentially dangerous to a dog's system although I saw no after effects at all.
OK this might be the cause I quote from Wikipedia:- Theobromine Serious poisoning happens more frequently in domestic animals, which metabolize theobromine much more slowly than humans, and can easily consume enough chocolate to cause chocolate poisoning. If large numbers of filled chocolate candies are consumed another serious danger is posed by the fat and sugar in the fillings which can sometimes trigger life threatening pancreatitis several days later. The most common victims of theobromine poisoning are dogs, for which it can be fatal. The toxic dose for cats is even lower than for dogs. However, cats are less prone to eating chocolate since they are unable to taste sweetness. Theobromine is much less toxic to rats and mice, due to their relative genetic similarity to primates; they and humans all have an LD50 of about 1,000 mg/kg. In dogs, the half-life of theobromine is 17.5 hours; in severe cases, clinical symptoms of theobromine poisoning can persist for 72 hours. Medical treatment performed by a veterinarian involves inducing vomiting within two hours of ingestion and administration of benzodiazepines or barbiturates for seizures, antiarrhythmics for heart arrhythmias, and fluid diuresis. Theobromine is also suspected to induce right atrial cardiomyopathy after long term exposure at levels equivalent to ~15 g of dark chocolate per kg of weight and per day. A typical 20 kg (44 lb) dog will normally experience intestinal distress after eating less than 240 g (8.5 oz) of dark chocolate, but won't necessarily experience bradycardia or tachyarrhythmia unless it eats at least 0.5 kg (1.1 lb) of milk chocolate. According to the Merck Veterinary Manual, baker's chocolate of approximately 1.3 g/kg (0.02 oz/lb) of a dog's body weight is sufficient to cause symptoms of toxicity. For example, 2.25-ounce (64 g) of baker's chocolate would be enough to produce symptoms in a 20-pound (9.1 kg) dog; however, other types of chocolate (such as milk chocolate candies) contain significantly less theobromine and so require the dog to ingest more before showing symptoms. Chemists with the USDA are investigating the use of theobromine as a toxicant to control coyotes that prey on livestock.
Thanks for this info...my dog has been affected by this particular feedstuff. Tam is a medium to large 3 year old Border Collie -since having this feed these have been the symptoms. We didn't connect these until now, and they are apparently typical, Firstly it starts with a cough as thought the dog has swallowed a seed head or something, the dog appears to be more out of breath, and generally lethargic, then there was a couple of instances of vomiting, then loss of appetite. My dog went also to a non house trained one a couple of times during the last week, and also developed a pretty insidious flatulence. He's still not right and I have no idea what the poison was. We took the nearly empty bag back to PCEB Limoux where there is a recall notice on the door. We were told that the manufacturer still don't know what was wrong with their product and have sent samples to an independent Lab, I'm taking my dog to the vets tomorrow and may have more information then. Incidentally PCEB offered another full sack of the same stuff to me but I refused and wanted a different manufacturer they said no problem and gave us a sack of the most expensive one they carry telling me that the original company would pick up this bill and any vets bills. Please if you're affected by this issue, do the same, the only way most of us to express real concern about shoddy manufacturer's is to hit them in their profits. If we ever find out what caused the problem I'm betting someone somewhere has tried a bit of cost cutting. I hope you can tell from my tone that I'm not a happy chappie today.....