Cat deaths linked to Orijen

[GreyGhost]

This is starting to worry me. If this reaches further then the word needs to get out. I am telling anyone that will listen. We all know how I feel about the fools at champion. They are absolutely sickening. I feel so bad for all these kitties and their parents. I can't imagine going through something like this and being treated with  total disrespect. I will continue to spread the word and hopefully one by one champion will feel the pain. Especially after launching their ancana line here in the states at the same time. Makes you wonder. I guess they can't be bothered with us little peons. I am so pissed. I better stop now before my mouth gets going.

[coontuffy]

Gizmo and my 5 other cats were exposed to poisoned pet food here in the United States in Feb and March of 2007.  He was taken on April 1st to my vet of 12 years for extensive blood work and a urinalysis called a microalbuminaria.  My vet ran all these tests with a HUGE chip on his shoulder as he really had no idea what was going on with the poisoned food.  According to the associate doctor, all my cats tests were "wonderfully normal".  Except the associate missed something with Gizmo bloods......elevated protein.  I missed it too, as despite my repeated requests for copies of all cats' tests, I didn't get them from the staff.  On July 17, 2007 Gizmo, a 4 foot long 28 pound pure bred Maine Coon cat, did not come for his breakfast.  He had just turned 9 on June 30, 2007.  Gizmo was diagnosed at age 5 with HCM.....mild LV hypertrophy.  Every 6 months we did echocardiograms and he was showing improvement due to my choice to use certain nutritional supplements.  Gizmo was on no prescription medication.

I rushed him to the vet and he had a fever that was too high to register on the thermometer.  It was over 106 F.  More blood was taken and I was told to "take him home and throw him in a tub and hose him down".  It took 3 days of cool compresses for the fever to break and all was well.  Blood work came back and protein was slightly higher.  Additional tests were run for FIV/FLEUK and toxo.  All were negative.  A serum electrophoresis was run and the gamma protein was elevated, all other serum proteins, alpha, alpha1 and beta were normal.

I can go on with his story if you want me too, but it's long.  I will tell you, there is no way on earth that any of the vets I took him too would be willing to talk or cooperate.  I left my vet of 12 years after the death of Gizmo and would never go back.

Peg

[Frosty]

Here are the links to our beloved Gizmo's story if itchmo ever comes back up.  

Multiple Myeloma
http://itchmoforums.com/help-with-my-sick-pet/multiple-myeloma-t2097.0.html

Gizmo has Multiple Myeloma
http://itchmoforums.com/help-with-my-sick-pet/gizmo-has-multiple-myeloma-t2117.0.html;msg26974#msg26974

Many Many tests for Gizmo
http://itchmoforums.com/help-with-my-sick-pet/many-many-tests-for-gizmo-t2178.0.html

[kaffe]

First entry in the Gizmo threa dated Oct 3, 2007

Maincoonpeg:
"Still no REAL answers............
He was an absolute doll yesterday, despite them taking bone marrow from him.
Double cavity ultra sound
Many more x-rays
Blood and urine...........
4-7 days for the radiology interpretation"

Maybe we should read all of this thread again...  I wonder if Coontuffy kept a copy?  I copy all of my threads...

[kaffe]

  Kaffe, not sure if this is the one you were referring to but this is what I found. There is a person here who posted on February 9th whose cat was showing similar simptoms. http://www.theinternetpetvet.com/toxic-orijen-cat-food

That's it!  Thanks Bonkers!  I was already wondering if someone had it pulled!

OY! Guys!  We need investigative minds here now!  I'm going to comb the German forums... read a Malaysian one about Orijen... nothing turned up there that I could see - yet.  My goodness, my goodness...

[kaffe]

Here are the links to our beloved Gizmo's story if itchmo ever comes back up.  

Multiple Myeloma
http://itchmoforums.com/help-with-my-sick-pet/multiple-myeloma-t2097.0.html

Gizmo has Multiple Myeloma
http://itchmoforums.com/help-with-my-sick-pet/gizmo-has-multiple-myeloma-t2117.0.html;msg26974#msg26974

Many Many tests for Gizmo
http://itchmoforums.com/help-with-my-sick-pet/many-many-tests-for-gizmo-t2178.0.html

Frosty - I'm impressed! 

[coontuffy]

In the middle of August, Gizmo was a bit grumpy and was not eating very well.  He went back to the vet and more blood was taken and gamma protein was even more elevated.  My vet gave me a diagnosis of multiple myeloma.  I requested x-rays of his hind legs and vet hesitated, he did not want to x-ray Gizmo without anesthesia.  I wore the lead shield and held him in position while the films were shot w/o anesthesia.  The vet said he saw lesions around the hip joints and I disputed what he saw.  I am in the medical profession and often shoot x-rays myself, which is why I argued.  Vet begrudgingly sent the films to a veterinary radiologist in the state of Texas.  Her report was that she saw no signs of lytic lesions, but did see early hip dysplasia.  And then we were off to the best veterinary specialty clinic.

[coontuffy]

Are the Gizmo links working for all of you?
They do not come up for me.

Thanks for finding them all you super sleuths   
Thanks Frosty, Bonkers, Kaffe and Persues and GG

Gizmo began to receive Orijen kibble at the end of October 2006.
It was the only kibble he received 1 cup 2 times per day.  He also was fed wet food 4 times per day.  The other 5 cats in the house were kept solely on wet food.  Maybe once a week each kitty received 2-3 pieces of the Orijen kibble.

[Frosty]

No, the itchmo links that I just posted will not work unless itchmo comes back online.

Sorry the 'archive' link does not work, but maybe this will.

When you go to this link
http://www.archive.org/index.php

paste this in the little 'box' and hit search
www.itchmoforums.com

It will take you to a page that lists a few pages. Follow a link and then there should be a link that says,
"Search for all pages on the site itchmoforums.com/"

Click on the itchmo link and a bunch more pages will come up.

[coontuffy]

Thanks Frosty.
Sadly, it looks like all the Itchmo info is gone.

I am more than willing to go through the whole story if anyone wants.
This was July 2007 to January 22, 2008.

[Frosty]

Thanks Frosty.
Sadly, it looks like all the Itchmo info is gone.

I am more than willing to go through the whole story if anyone wants.
This was July 2007 to January 22, 2008.

When you do the 'google' thing - are you clicking on the 'cached' link? That is where I've been getting the pages.

[kaffe]

Peg - click "cached" an then "text only version" - try that... it worked for me.

Interesting and alarming claim in Posts number 18 and 19 about Orijen in the link that Bonkers supplied.  Post #18 describes a cat named Maia whose legs turned wobbly after eating Orijen... Post #19 from the owner of Maia caiming that Champion Petfoods asked her for a retraction  

What's going on?  I find I can't dismiss these claims as mere coincidence!

[maxymia]

This is alarmimg. How on earth can Champion ask these people to retract their comments without seeing if they are viable. Obvoiusly thinking about their hip pockets than our beloved animals. I find this disgusting from a company that claims to care for animals.

We need to get the word out that there are a few unconfirmed cases and if anyone suspects their cat is or has showed these symptoms we need to contact them.

Being from Australia I don't really know which forums here are popular. Can someone please help me with this. If this is happening elsewhere I can't sit back and do nothing (like Champion) knowing what these poor cats go through

[raggiesrule]

A Nth American friend wrote to Orijen regarding what was happening to us and below is the response she received from Champion foods.

Poor J...... now has steam coming out her ears as she is no more a fool then the rest of us and and has read the CW and Itchmo forum threads  and is aware of what Champion company representatives have said on these forums.


Hello J.....,

Thank you for taking the time to write to us, and I would like to address the concerns you expressed in your email. 

On November 20, 2008, Champion Petfoods announced a voluntary recall of its ORIJEN Cat food brand sold in Australia.  The recall was restricted to AUSTRALIA ONLY and was issued in response to reports from the Australian veterinary community of cats showing symptoms of a neurological syndrome after consuming ORIJEN CAT food.

The recall was unique to Australia and did not affect any of the other 50 countries to which ORIJEN is exported. Champion Petfoods believes the Australian cases resulted from the high-level irradiation (exceeding 50kGY) applied to ORIJEN upon entering Australia. Champion Petfoods no longer exports or sells its ORIJEN pet foods in Australia.

We didn’t know our foods were to be irradiated – we only learned AFTER our products had entered the country and had already been irradiated. We only learned the ORIJEN was irradiated when our importer complained to us about the high cost they had been charged for the irradiation process.  When we learned of this we immediately contacted the Canadian Consulate in Sydney and asked them, on our behalf, to ask the Australian authorities why our foods were irradiated.  At this time we also began to investigate the affect of irradiation but found that it is generally recognized as safe.  It wasn’t until we began to experience problems (that only happened in Australia) that we began to research the irradiation issue more.  Even then, the impact of irradiation upon cat food is not a widely studied subject so it was difficult to reach any clear conclusions at the beginning of our study. It was only after extensive testing and consultation with experts that we were able to make conclusions regarding the negative effect of irradiation and how this impacted cats.  In a perfect world, our importer would have been aware and notified us of the irradiation process. We in turn would have studied its impact on our foods before a shipment ever reached Australia.

We do not nor have we every used any synthetic preservatives or antioxidants in ORIJEN, instead we use natural antioxidants such as rosemary extract, mixed tocopherols (forms of vitamin E) and citric acid. Everything that we use in our products are listed on the packages.

Regarding the cat owners that have be affected by the recall, we are helping pay their veterinary and non veterinary costs up to $2000 per cat.  There was a miss communication regarding the time that they had to have their applications in by.  It is May 31st not February 28th as the email first indicated to them, we have apologized for this error and the extra stress this has caused them.

We have been nothing but honest regarding this voluntary recall and we have posted any updates regarding this on our website on our home page.  www.championpetfood s.com.

I hope that I have addressed your concerns and please contact us again with any further questions or concerns.

Warm regards,

Diana Mick
Customer Service
Champion Petfoods Ltd

She posted Orijen'sresponse on a raggie forum we are both on and as everyone is not as well informed as Janice I responded - my response below:

Thanks J.....,
 
It's certainly interesting especially given what their company representatives have already stated on public forums - it would appear they are again being frugal with the truth.
 
A representative of their own company was the one that admitted that both BHA and BHT were found on testing in their food when I challenged him with his claims of no toxins found. They apparently did not add it - it was present in dried chicken they had used. Given their claims to use only fresh ingredients the use of dried chicken came as a surprise too.
 
He also stated:
 
“ In the study at MSU done on our foods, there were a few compounds discovered. The summary from the veterinary toxicologist at MSU was that they did not find any chemical compounds that are known to cause neurotoxicity.”
 
This statement does not say there were no toxins found just no neurotoxins - since they are yet to provide these results who knows what toxins were actually found in their food on testing.
 
The company representative was Clark Stride and he made these statements on the Itchmo forums way back in December.

Also Michelle Granger another Champion foods rep posted on cat world on Dec 1st - introducing herself post #240 & stating they were aware their food was irradiated #242

http://www.cat- world.com. au/forums/ index.php? showtopic= 87540&st=240
 
Also worth noting on the Cat World thread is post #279 which asks why the company press release states the company did not know about the irradiation and Michelle's answer at post #282 and again this was way back on Dec 2nd. Yet again the company telling australians one thing and having a second story ready for their Nth American consumers which puts them in a so much better light.
 
So why over 2 mths later are they still stating they didn't know to concerned Nth Americans and why has their press release not been corrected?
 
Jo (not at all surprised that they continue to try and make this someone else's fault - no doubt the person that read the import permit, arranged the export documentation, signed the paperwork to allow the irradiation to occur and paid for the treatment and arranged the goods to be taken to and picked up from the treatment facility. Or are they expecting us to believe this was all done magically without a company representative knowing about it, arranging and signing documentation and paying for it!)[/quote]

[raggiesrule]

Itchmo is up again for those that were looking for it, Off to try and find information on Gizmo.

Jo