I just want to add to this:  A few weeks before the vomiting and diarrhea started, all 3 kitties went through a bad case of chin acne.  The oldest one got it the worst, and had to be treated by a vet.  His entire chin was infected with about 30 different little sores.  I take all the precautions to avoid chin acne (no plastic, no chemicals, nothing changed/new in the house, etc).

Again, I don't know if there's any relation to the Wellness food.  All 3 continue to do excellent now that Wellness has been removed from their diets.

Coontuffy, my kitties are continuing to do great, hope yours are also over it by now.

I didn't contact Wellness because I'm not convinced it was their food.  I just put this out there in case anyone could see a pattern.  I have no idea if the cans I have were done through American Nutrition or not.

I saw the Simmons article and that also prompted me to be more suspicious about Wellness, as well as being carried in a mass retailer now.

I do have the Director of Quality Control's info at Wellness if you'd like it.  I was going to take my cans back for a refund, but I've decided to hold on to them so they don't go back on the shelf for sale to someone else.

Coontuffy, You said another person had problems with:
Turkey  5.5 oz                         
Best by 23 June 13                 
MW9 17:53

My cans are exactly the same, except the time stamp is 17:01.

The vomiting started first (yellow bile), then the diarrhea so you may be in that cycle now.  The feces sliding out of him, exactly what I had.  They weren't even in the litter box, it was just running out as they walked.  I couldn't even wash them, I had to lock them in the shower with me and clip it off.  There is no fur left on their behinds....

They are now back to 100% normal.  Eating like piggies, playing like crazy, and all their normal daily cat tricks.

Just a heads up:  I just went through 10 days of vomiting and diarrhea with my 3 kitties.  One is 10 years old and the others are siblings that are 2.5 years old.  I feed a raw diet, but occasionally have given them Wellness canned grain free and a few pieces of Wellness Complete Health kibble as treats.  They also stopped eating off and on during this period.

I don't know if the Wellness caused it or not, but after stopping it all and giving them just Felines Pride raw, it cleared up almost overnight and hasn't occurred again for 5 days now.  The 10 year old was hit the hardest, was taken to the vet and a complete blood panel didn't show any problems except some slight dehydration.

I live in California and always keep a "stash" of Wellness canned and dry on hand, in case the big one hits and we lose power (which has already happened, for over a week with no power).   But I have to rotate the canned and dry so it doesn't expire and that's why we feed it occasionally. 

The canned grain free dates are:
23JUN13  MW9
18JUN13  MW11

I also feed RadCat and Aunt Jeni raw, but I buy in huge bulk amounts and the same batches have been eaten for a few months now without any problems.  The Wellness was new batches however. 

So I don't know if it's the Wellness or not but I would be interested in knowing if anyone else has had problems.

That is such a beautiful picture of Jinx and I know he had a beautiful soul too.  I'm so sorry for what you are going through with the loss of two precious kitties so close together.  They each had such a loving, long life with you and your family as you are such a caring, kind person that lives to take care of others.

Rest in peace, beautiful kitties, knowing that your mommy will be waiting for you.

Since you didn't actually see the piece of metal come out of the bag, could it be that it was already on your floor?  It sounds like the company did everything they could to investigate this.  I know I've actually tipped over a bag of kibble once from a counter top, and those little pieces really spread out over a large area on the floor.  Just one more consideration of where it possibly came from.

I'm so sorry Bonkers and I know you did everything you could.  Tink Tink loved you and your family very much and she had a lovely life with you.  God bless her little soul and talk to her until you meet again.

I’m posting some additional information I received from the owner of Feline’s Pride today.  I can’t believe how this has spiraled out of control against them, from people making fun of the Flash opening on the FP website, to FP wrote the FDA press release and assigned the class number, to the integrity of the lab that has done their testing for 5 years and finally to pure censorship of any other side or explanation of the recall.  From Shelby Gomas:

“We didn’t write the press release.  Without any advice from counsel, or any of our questions being answered.  We were literally forced to issue that statement without even supplying us with their labs reports which are questionable.  The way samples were gathered on premises and containers used to hold product is something we would never use.  Our ten pound shipments have a minimum of 6 lbs. of refrigerant used.  Over 50 lbs. they gathered had less than 3 lbs. that I could observe.  The gov’t agencies are not advocates for business, they are the hindrance of business and many mistakes are made at each companies expense.

The recall, should have been a class 3 recall.  Neither person or pet had incurred any illness.  We applied for federal registration and requested that the FDA come and visit our facility.  The Buffalo FDA office are extremely nice to deal with and we were trying to establish a compliant relationship with them as we wanted to make them aware of everything we do and invite them to perform inspections.  Our plant is nothing but stainless steel equipment and tile everywhere which approximates USDA qualifications.  We do have FDA registration now and a facility number.  They requested samples and they sent them off to FDA labs in Jamaica, New York.  According to the lab reports they received the food and the color was brown.  Our food is never brown unless it has been exposed to heat. 

We have requested hearings with the FDA as our samples are normally sent to a State lab in New Jersey, called New Jersey Feed Labs.  All of our tests have come back negative for salmonella.  Why do they (FDA) find salmonella and our labs don’t?  It’s indicative of the food being compromised somewhere along the line somewhere.  There are many issues surrounding this recall as we were forced to expedite this without any access to counsel or the FDA’s ombudsman who still haven’t returned calls or e mails.  During this whole fiasco we have been totally compliant and cooperative with their requests and at the expense of our company’s reputation of quality over the last 5 years.”

I saw the facilities where the food was made, met the people and have complete confidence in Feline's Pride. And I am  super neurotic when it comes to the kitties and what they eat, so that is saying a lot.

anabelle_katie, thanks for mentioning this about the facility.  It means a lot to know someone has actually toured there and approve with what they saw.  I'm neurotic too about what they eat.  I would hate to see this impact a small quality company like they are and please feel free to repost this info on other sites!

I have been feeding my kitties Feline’s Pride for 3 years now, without a single incident.  In fact, my kitties absolutely thrive on this food and I have had nothing but amazing results.  Even though I didn’t have one of the chicken tubs in question, I went ahead and emailed them and asked for a phone call to explain what exactly happened.  Within less than an hour, the owner of Feline’s Pride, Shelby Gomas, called me personally.  Here’s what he had to say.

Feline’s Pride has been sending samples of their batches to the FDA testing laboratory in Virginia for 5 years now, without any negative results whatsoever.  They recently applied to become a federally registered processing facility; and as part of the certification had FDA representatives come to the facility for an inspection.  Their facility is all stainless steel equipment, floors, utensils, etc., and sanitized in between all batches.  Written procedures are all in place, and there was no problem with this portion of the inspection.  The FDA representatives took a batch of the frozen chicken food for testing.  The food sample was red and frozen when they took it.  They sent it first to Jamaica, NY; and then to the laboratory in Virginia.  By the time the food arrived in Virginia, it was brown (unfrozen).  They went ahead and tested it, and of course salmonella had been detected.  The samples were obviously compromised, but they still performed the testing.

The FDA immediately issued a class 1 recall notice (when in fact it should have been a class 3 recall because there were no reports of sick cats or people).  

Feline’s Pride has now had to engage their legal counsel and has started litigation against the FDA.  Dr. Lisa Pierson of www.catinfo.org and a large contributor to Feline’s Pride’s formulas will also be issuing a statement about the above shortly.  

Shelby stated  “I work from my heart and not my cash register” and that his 16 cats all eat the same food, which he “loves to death” and would never do anything to hurt them in any way.  All his ingredients are from the US only, including the vitamin pre-mix and he “wouldn’t touch an ingredient from China ever.”

I believe Shelby and also know that the FDA isn’t some stellar organization either.   I’ll continue to feed Feline’s Pride without any hesitation until any of this is proven otherwise.  Please feel free to re-post on other cat sites as I’m seeing a lot of speculation and untruths already circulating around with accusations of poor testing procedures and quality control (and these same people feed crap like Nutro and Fancy Feast and think it's great food).

My conversation was approved by Shelby to post on pet food forums and blogs.

[terminated service to the business]

More on this story, apparently the gas company terminated the service to Evanger's once the illegal diversion was discovered.  Wonder how they "continue to operate successfully and without interruption"?

NICOR representatives on Dec. 5 discovered an illegal line that had been capped off, but before they finished their investigation, they were ordered off the premises by Joel Sher, according to the state's attorneys' report.  NICOR employees returned later to find underground piping that diverted the gas. The company then terminated service to the business because of the unsafe conditions created by the illegal diversion.

Full story: http://bit.ly/bLZRpR

Hannie, I just knew that letter was forthcoming....it seems this company has had problems for a while.

"Jimmy Chinn, who works at the neighboring Fresh Island Beverage Company, said, "It's been an ongoing fight with these people here. We're not surprised by anything that they do."

Other neighbors in the industrial park said the pet food company has been a nuisance neighbor since the Shers purchased it in 2003. They claimed workers have stolen drinking water from faucets, among other problems. The village of Wheeling reported that several complaints have been filed against the firm, ranging from property maintenance to sanitary concerns.

"You see over here they have meat companies that bring bones," Chinn said. "Sometimes they dump the buckets here and there's blood all over the place."

Full story: http://bit.ly/9BqITQ

The more I read about this, the more I'm blown away.  Just who are these people?

"This isn't the first encounter with authorities for Evanger's.

The village of Wheeling has issued a number of code violations dating back to 2006, mostly dealing with public nuisance, property maintenance and exterior sanitation. One issue involved a strong odor permeating from the property. Two of the cases are still pending in court, Village Manager Jon Sfondilis said.

In 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found the company deviated from certain requirements that could result in botulism in under-processed pet food. The agency issued a temporary emergency permit, but subsequent inspections showed the company was still noncompliant.

The FDA suspended the permit last June, meaning Evanger's could no longer ship pet food in interstate commerce. Spokesman Ira Allen said there is no record of the FDA ever lifting the suspension."

Full story here: http://bit.ly/aaDMLs

"The worker was ordered to use a jackhammer to tear up concrete and asphalt so gas could be diverted to the plant in Wheeling. The smell of gas fumes wasn't unusual at Evanger's Dog & Cat Food Co."

Full story here: http://bit.ly/bPHnSY

Here's a video on their plant in Wheeling, IL: http://bit.ly/9Jp5nI

Interesting that the Sher's each have their own lawyer representing them....

Here's an updated news release by AP: it states the Sher's made their own employees dig through concrete to divert the gas lines and high voltage lines!

"The brazen nature of these thefts is exceeded only by the dangerous conditions that these individuals were willing to expose their employees to, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said."

They could have killed people.  I think that is a fair statement.  Let's see what a jury thinks.

Full story here: http://bit.ly/cnBnUJ