By Pat LewandowskiMontgomery Advertiser
MILLBROOK -- Ginger Thomas wants pet owners to realize the current pet food recall is no joke. The Millbrook woman's 14-year-old black poodle, Peppy, likely will die soon from kidney failure.
"People need to put all that food up and not use it," Thomas said Sunday as her dog struggled with symptoms linked to kidney failure. "I can't believe there are pet owners out there still feeding this food to their pets. They are not taking this seriously."
Thomas said Dr. A.D. Kocher of Ark Animal Hospital in Millbrook confirmed her dog was suffering from kidney failure, but could not link the pet food to the illness without more tests. They did find Peppy's favorite food, Ol' Roy, on the U.S. Food & Drug Administration list of recalled products.
More than 60 million containers of dog and cat food manufactured by Menu Foods under several brand names have been recalled, according to a statement on the FDA Web site. The FDA has estimated the number of animal deaths at 16, but Menu Foods officials have attributed only one death to the tainted food.
The FDA statement says "cuts and gravy" mixes sold in pouches and cans by Wal-Mart, Kroger, Safeway and other stores have been contaminated with aminopterin, a chemical used to treat cancer, induce abortions and kill rats. Its use as a rat poison is banned in the U.S.
While Peppy is being treated with antibiotics and IV therapy, Robert and Susan Farrell are mourning the death of Topaz, a 10-year-old Persian cat. They fed their two cats Special Kitty gravy mix as part of their regular diet over the last two years.
"Topaz was healthy, although we had her on Special Kitty for the last couple of years," said Robert Farrell of Prattville. "She started getting sick a little over a week ago."
On Tuesday, the Farrells were told the cat's kidneys were failing and she had to be euthanized.
Kocher also treated Topaz and discovered that the cat's enzyme levels were more than 15 times higher than a normal cat's, a condition that led to failure of the animal's kidneys.
"I took some biopsies of the animal's kidneys," Kocher said. "We don't know yet if the food caused the cat's kidney failure or not. We have been trying to get in touch with the federal health people to have the biopsies tested, but we don't know who to officially report it to. (The USDA's) phone lines have been busy every time we called."
Ginger Lyndall, manager of Pet Supplies Plus on East Boulevard in Montgomery, said the best thing pet owners can do is to look for information posted on the food manufacturer's and FDA Web sites.
"We've had a few concerned customers come in, but we don't stock many of the products that's involved in the recall," Lyndall said. "We have offered exchanges of food not listed on the recall just to make customers more comfortable."
Prattville Progress contributed to this report.