WARNING – NUTRO Making Dogs Sick
A vet passed this info along to me and I did some checking and wanted to pass it along to you. There is no recall and Nutro insists their food is fine but Consumer Affairs is getting an awful lot of complaints and with just a little searching, I’m finding there are probably many, many more not even making it onto the Consumer Affairs website. There complaints are recent and many are from people who have been using NUTRO for years. Not every dog or cat eating NUTRO is experiencing problems but there are enough problems and complaints to be concerned, especially if you are feeding your pet NUTRO and they have become sick and you can’t figure out why.
From Consumer Affairs article dated April 18, 2008
A worrisome health trend among dogs and cats across the country has surfaced in the past few months. Scores of pets from California to South Carolina have experienced sudden and recurring bouts of diarrhea, vomiting, and other digestive problems.
Through an examination of reports submitted by readers, ConsumerAffairs.com has uncovered a common link among these pets: They all ate the same brand of food: NUTRO pet food.
In all of the cases we’ve examined, the animals’ conditions improved once their owners switched them to another brand of food.
“I’ve been feeding my chocolate Lab, Indy, NUTRO for almost four years,” said Laura F. of Las Vegas, Nevada. “He’s always been happy, healthy, and big. Recently I switched him to NUTRO (Natural Choice) Lite at my vet’s request. Three weeks ago, he started vomiting uncontrollably.”
Laura said her veterinarian initially thought Indy had pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreas. The vet prescribed some medication and Indy’s condition gradually improved.
“Now, three weeks later, he started vomiting again,” she said, adding she continued to feed her dog NUTRO. “He’s now lost about 8 pounds in three weeks and is weak and lethargic.
“The vet believes — as do I — that it is the food,” she said.
Laura switched brands of dog food and Indy’s health improved. After a while, Laura tried mixing in the NUTRO with the new food. But that turned out to be a bad idea.
“The vomiting started again,” Laura said. “I also noticed that he only ate about half his food and was actually dropping the NUTRO out and trying to only eat the Science Diet. I think even my dog knows there is something wrong with the NUTRO food.
“I will never feed any of my pets NUTRO again.”
Similar stories
We’ve heard similar stories and sentiment from scores of pet owners nationwide — many of whom are loyal NUTRO customers. We’ve also heard from a pet store employee, who noticed these same digestive problems with her clients’ pets that ate NUTRO products.
A pet owner in South Carolina told us that she found foreign objects in her last few bags of NUTRO foods.
And a disabled woman in California said all these pets’ health problems have given her a horrible sense of déjà vu. Her service dog, she said, experienced these same digestive problems a few years ago – after eating NUTRO food.
“I would not venture to give any pet one nugget of NUTRO food after what my dog went through,” said Maggie D. of San Francisco.
NUTRO respondsNUTRO, however, defended its products.
A spokeswoman told us she is unaware of any substantiated medical problems like these linked to her company’s pet food.
Many NUTRO customers also tout the food, saying it’s an excellent product. Veterinarians told ConsumerAffairs.com that many factors can cause gastrointestinal problems in dogs and cats, including changes in diet, newly-developed sensitivities to pet food, or viral infections.
But scores of pet owners who’ve contacted us are convinced that something is now wrong with NUTRO’s food.
They’re pet owners like Lynn C. of Cabot, Arkansas.
“I’ve used NUTRO for years and never had any problems,” she told us. “But my 10-year-old border collie, Boo, became sick six weeks ago. He was lethargic, lost weight, and when evaluated by a veterinarian, his liver enzymes were critical. They were elevated…off the chart. My vet said we’ve got to do something.
“She put him on antibiotics and a strong amino acid, but he continued to deteriorate.”
A week into Boo’s treatment, a co-worker told Lynn about problems she’d read about regarding NUTRO’s pet food.
“I had never dreamed it could be the food,” she said. “I’m feeding all four of my dogs the food, so why all of the sudden would it affect Boo? The other three are still thriving. But they’re younger—and he’s the smallest dog.”
Lynn did some digging and found the complaints filed by pet owners on ConsumerAffairs.com.
“I was shocked at the information that I found on NUTRO,” she said. “I faxed pages and pages of this information to my veterinarian, who became alarmed and told me to stop feeding him the NUTRO.”
Within days, Boo’s condition improved.
“He started acting like he felt better,” Lynn said. “It’s amazing. He wasn’t responding until I took him off the NUTRO food. Within a week, he had regained two pounds, and after two weeks, his liver enzymes were still high, but improving.
“I cannot explain why this happened all of the sudden since Boo has been eating this food for years. But I know my dog and I know it was the food.”
Another pet owner in the small town of Cabot, Arkansas, who shows Westies, said her dogs experienced the same problems with NUTRO’s food.
“I started using NUTRO Natural Choice for my show dogs last fall,” said Judy Y., who has fed dogs NUTRO on and off for years. “With the last two bags my dogs started to lose weight and their stools were extremely soft. One litter had constant diarrhea. They were losing weight, their coats were not in the condition they should be. And after they ate, they would suck up water like they hadn’t had any all day.
“The only dog I wasn’t having problems with was the old dog that can only eat raw meat, no dog food at all.”
Judy also noticed that one of her puppies wasn’t growing.
“She was growing fine until I put her on NUTRO,” Judy said. “And then it was like she just stopped growing. She looked like she had been starved and her coat looked real bad.”
Judy’s vet examined the dogs — and their stools — and didn’t find any problems.
“So I said the heck with the commercial dog food and I started feeding all my dogs raw food,” Judy said. “They’ve all bounced back. They have all gained weight and their hair is growing again.”
The only exception is the puppy that had growth problems.
“My puppy is 10 months old now and her growth seems to be stunted,” Judy said. “I have never had this happen in the 40 years I have been showing and breeding dogs. I’m not sure this show quality puppy will now get big enough to show or breed. It is so heart breaking to see such a good quality dog not live up to her potential because of a dog food.”
Some of the specific complaints
Barry of Midlothian VA (05/05/08)
I have fed our 13 yr old mixed breed dog Nutro Lamb and Rice for several years. About a year ago we switched to their Chicken and Rice product for Sensitive Stomachs because our dog was occasionally vomiting and had very soft bowel movements. The condition persisted even after switching to the Sensitive Stomach formula but we continued with it anyway.In the past two weeks she had became lethargic, lost her appetite, losing body weight, and her condition in general seemed to be declining. She also has had several bouts of muscle/joint pain in her right front leg and has been limping severely.
This week I happened upon your web site and the info about problems with Nutro dog food. Many of the pet owner’s experiences were similar to mine so I switched to another brand of food. My dog showed marked improvement within 24 hours. Today, she eats vigorously, her bowel movements are firmer, and she has perked up noticably. She couldn’t go for a walk yesterday but walked with me tonight from 2 miles without any problem or limping. I am going to take the Nutro food I purchased last week back to Petsmart for a refund and will never use Nutro products again. I am convinced there is something wrong with the food I purchased.
Christy of Waterford MI (05/04/08)
May 2008 Our dog Maya ( a 3 year old bichon mix) became very sick from a new bag of Nutro DRY dog food Lamb and Rice. She was throwing up, eating grass, diarehea, bad gas, and not eating. Her stool and throw up started getting some blood in it. We took her to the vet and she had blood tests in which her protien levels were very low.The vet immediately put her on an IV and had us handfeed her boiled chicken and cottage cheese over the next couple of days. She started to feel better and a week later we tryed to reintroduce her to the Nutro dog food – and she started to get sick again. We stopped feeding her the dog food and she got better. We are now feeding her baby food and chicken and cottage cheese with a multivitiman. We do not trust the dog food companys anymore. We thought we were buying her premium food only to find out we were lied to and our dogs health put in jeapordy.
Lin of Fresno CA (04/30/08)
Everyone, please do your research regarding the Nutro products and make your own educated decisions. I have recently learned that: 1. Nutro has changed their formula 2. They could be using different suppliers. 3. They were purchased by Mars, Inc. 4. Mars Inc. also purchased Menu Foods. If you dogs are getting sick, have it vet checked and have tests run. Have the food tested by an independent lab, and send samples to Nutro for comparison testing, as I have done.Find an alternative food to use until the situation is corrected for you pets. Most of all, stay in touch with the rep you contact. Remember, the sticky wheel gets the most attention! Keep in mind, too, that most companies will not volunteer information unless you ask the right question. I have to keep probing to get the answers I seek. I stress…. DO YOUR RESEARCH! Don’t just post complaints. Have your facts in hand when you place your calls.
This is only a few of the dozens of complaints. You can read them all HERE.
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We have nine dogs who have recently been experiencing vomitting and other problems. I’ve fed Nutro for years and years…..guess its time to switch. We’ve had several of our older dogs to the vets and they have been baffled.
I have 4 Large Goldens and 1 Standard Poodle. I have fed Nutro for years. I have switched around from Natural Choice to Max to Ultra, back to Max. My dogs are beautiful and thrive on any of the Nutro products. Back when I fed another brand, I had a Golden get stomach cancer. Now none of the 5 have a thing to complain about. I am complaining because I am so concerned over what seems to be so much negative bashing about pet foods. I get that it is a dog-eat-dog world in corporate America but leave us consumers, paranoid or otherwise, out of your wars and your negative blogging. We love Nutro, ingredients and price and performance.
I’m so glad this is finally becoming public-someone passed their site to me in Jan, and I was scared since there are a couple complaints very local to me since Oct.
After Christmas I got a bag of Nutro Ultra Max(purple-ish bag)because they didn’t have the normal Nutro I had been feeding them(mixed with human food)in the size I needed for 4 strong, healthy dogs. Within 2 days; each of my dogs became sick-vomiting, and their urine smelled something awful-much like something rotten, is the only way to describe it. I immediately took them off the food, giving them only human food, and returned the bag-not thinking to keep a sample for Cornell, or another independent lab to test. They all stopped vomiting, but my beloved babygirl; Maggie, swiftly declined; and somehow developed Hemangiosarcoma-taking her final earthly journey on Jan 31,08 during an emergency splenectomy to try to save her precious life.
Cancer being what it is-no one attributed her deadly condition to the food-but I DO. She was healthy and running,romping and playing with her much larger and younger “brothers”-with no tumor I could feel on Christmas day.
While I can prove nothing, I just know what my heart tells me.
Thank you for spreading the word.
Mary, your story echoes many others, people who had been feeding Nutro for years without problems then all of the sudden, sick dogs. I hope yours are ok and bounce back with a new diet. Please let me know.
Kathy, I’m so sorry to hear the loss of your precious baby, Maggie. At least your quick thinking helped your other dogs and now all we can do is get the word out and warn people. My heart goes out to you.
I had three Labs and they were all fed Nutro.
My black girl died last December a couple days shy of 12, she had liver cancer. I rememberd the recent problems with food recalls, but really doubted that was the cause.
Basically, in the last couple months of her life, she slowly stopped eating. I tried different brands of dry and canned food, but she wasn’t really interested. She didn’t really even want people food.
Remember, the last recall was food produced by Menu Foods. I find it hard to believe that only one brand, Nutro, would be affected since many come from the same place.
Some of these people said their dogs were throwing up. Is it possible they were just sick and their getting better when their food was changed was just a coincidence?
Steve, anything’s possible but it’s an awful lot of coincidence. Actually many of the different dog foods have their own place of manufacturer. Just because their owned by the same company doesn’t mean they’re made in the same processing plant or even use the same ingredients.
I adopted a cocker spaniel Nov 2006. I fed him some Nutro that I had left from my Rottweiler. He was Ok with it for about 3 weeks – then he started vomitting – it started out maybe once a week – then more frequently. I took him to the vet and when I told him what I was feeding “Change his food now”. He said he has a lot of “patients” that cannot tolerate Nutro.
I switched him cold turkey to Foster/Smith and he was fine and has been ever since.
Now as I look back – my Rotti occasionally would vomit bile and now I know it was the food. Poor thing and I had no clue and didn’t pursue it as she had other multiple issues.
I was feeding my Chocolate Lab Nutro dry food
since I got him in November of 2007. He was fine
and healthy until around April of 2008.
He started vomiting & was very lethargic. It
really worried me, so I took him to the Vet
They said it was pancreatitus and he was in the
Hospital with IV’s, antiboitics for 2-3 days.
When I brought him home he was on a special
precription diet. They told me when he was done
with the special food, to put him back on his regular diet (which was nutro)
He got sick after that,I had him at the Vets again. They did more testing & this time said it was not pancreatitus and gave him antibotics. He got sick again 3rd time and went to the Vet again with IV’s, meds and another stay at the hospital.
As soon as I took him off the Nutro again, he is getting much better. I hope that they take responsibility and remove this food from the stores. I have had Vet bills that are astronomical, plus what my Dog went through. I would hate to have other Dogs go through what my has gone through. My Dog was lucky, but who knows what damage has been done to his organs.
Wow! What a shock it is to come across this. I’ve been feeding my two terriers Nutro Ultra Small Breed for the past couple of months now. I am very concious of what type of food I give them(my husband thinks I’m crazy), as I want them to be healthy. I’ve noticed that their stools have been extremely soft lately, and my rat terrier mix has had extremely bad gas(the extra stinky type). My Jack Russell has been a bit lethargic lately, which is completely out of the norm. I was attributing these things to different factors, but I tonight I have official thrown their Nutro in the garbage.
I too have a Nutro story. My 2 Airedales have been on Nutro for years; the oldest for 7 and youngest for 3. Both have been healthy their entire lives. In early June both dogs were eating considerable amounts of grass, vomiting and runny stool. I assumed they got into something and that it would be better in a day. It continued for a little more than a week when I started to suspect the food. I took them off Nutro and within 2 days they were better. Faster than expected seeing I changed their food abruptly.
I am convinced they have a problem with their food source and it is causing animals to get sick all across the country.
I fed my rotti Nutro for years – but she always ate a lot of grass and occasionally vomitted. Then when she passed away I had some left over to which I started feeding to my rescue cocker spaniel. Within 2 weeks he started vomitting. He was so bad I took him to the vet and his first question was “what kind of dog food are you feeding?” When I told him Nutro – he said “GET RID OF THAT NOW!” He said it is one of the worse dog foods for dogs to digest. I switched cold turkey to canidae and after the first meal – no more vomitting.
I have been feeding my dogs Neutro for yeares and have had no complaints. My sister has three dogs and began feeding them Neutro several months ago. About a month ago she noticed that her dogs were lethargic and not wanting to eat. Shortly after the lethargy set in, the dogs began to vomit. Her intuition told her that it was the food, she searched for information online and realized that many other pet owner had the same concerns. She switched food and the dogs began to miraculously feel better. I thought maybe her dogs were just sick and she was over-reacting. Until just now. My dogs vomited two nights ago and I thought maybe they had been given some table food that upset their stomachs. My smaller dog is still vomiting, but only bile is coming up as he heaves. They are avoiding their dish like the plague. Too bad. Another company is probably going under. You can’t quickly overcome this type of negative publicity.
I switched our three little dogs over to Nutro Ultra (for small breeds)two years ago and was pleasantly surprised at how much healthier they were! My 11 year-old dog was overweight, lethargic, itchy, and had a horrible coat. The other two were starting to head down the same path.
After starting the Nutro the 11 year-old started losing lbs., his coat became thick and shiny, he stopped wheezing and itching, and he started bouncing around like a new dog! The other two did well on this food too. I recommended this miracle dog food to my family and friends!
I bought a new bag of Nutro Ultra two weeks ago and soon after all three dogs started vomiting and became lethargic. I assumed they must have eaten something outside they shouldn’t have. My oldest dog became very sick. He immediatley got well when I started feeding him and the other dogs homecooked dog food.
When they were better I slowly started reintroducing their Nutro. They became sick again and this time my littlest dog is very ill. It’s late on a Sunday night, but I’m up keeping watch because she’s pacing, whining, and can’t urinate. She hasn’t eaten in two days and looks very poorly all of a sudden. The other dogs started vomiting again and have been very lethargic. I’m worried I may need to rush the littlest one in to the emergency clinic in the middle of the night!
I signed onto the internet to look up possible reasons and maybe some way to help her feel better and found so many complaints against Nutro. I’m shocked and angry, to say the least! I trusted them with my dogs lives and they’ve failed to keep them healthy.
They can continue to deny, deny, deny all they want, but I am sending my dog food to an independant lab. They better hope my dogs do not die or they’re going to have one angry mama and her lawyer to contend with!