Dog food recalled again

FDA Alerts Pet Owners about Potentially Toxic Levels of Vitamin D in Several Dry Pet Foods

December 3, 2018

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating the presence of elevated, potentially toxic levels of vitamin D in several dry pet foods.

Fast Facts

• The FDA is alerting pet owners and veterinary professionals about recalls of several dry dog foods after receiving complaints that dogs eating the food experienced vitamin D toxicity.
• Testing found that samples of the dog food contained excessive, potentially toxic amounts of vitamin D. Vitamin D is an essential nutrient for dogs, but very high amounts can cause serious health problems like kidney failure or death.
• At this time, the only pet products that have been impacted are food made for dogs.
• Pet owners should discontinue feeding these recalled products.
• The FDA is asking veterinarians who suspect vitamin D toxicity in their patients to report them through the Safety Reporting Portal or by calling their local FDA Consumer Complaint Coordinators. Pet owners can also report suspect cases to the FDA.
• This is a developing situation and additional recalls may be announced.

What is the Problem?

The FDA has become aware of reports of vitamin D toxicity in dogs that ate dry dog food common contract manufacturer and marketed under several different brand names. This is a developing situation, and the FDA will update this page with additional information as it becomes available.

What are the Symptoms of Vitamin D Toxicity?

Excess vitamin D in the diet can cause vomiting, loss of appetite, increased thirst, increased urination, excessive drooling and weight loss. Vitamin D at toxic levels can cause kidney failure and death. Pet owners whose dogs have been eating the recalled brands and are showing these symptoms should contact their veterinarians.

What Brands Have Been Recalled?

This is a developing situation and this list may not be complete. The FDA will update this list as more information becomes available.

The list of recalled dry dog food products provided to the FDA include:

• Nutrisca
  • Chicken and Chickpea Dry Dog Food
    • UPC 8-84244-12495-7 – 4 lb. bag
    • UPC 8-84244-12795-8 – 15 lb. bag
    • UPC 8-84244-12895-5 – 28 lb. bag
    • Best by date range: February 25, 2020 through September 13, 2020
• Natural Life Pet Products
  • Chicken & Potato Dry Dog Food
    • UPC 0-12344-08175-1 – 17.5 lb. bag
      • Best by dates range: December 4, 2019 through August 10, 2020
• Sunshine Mills, Inc.
  • Evolve Chicken & Rice Puppy Dry Dog Food
    • UPC 0-73657-00862-0 – 14 lb. bag
    • UPC 0-73657-00863-7 – 28 lb. bag
  • Sportsman’s Pride Large Breed Puppy Dry Dog Food
    • UPC 0-70155-10566-0 – 40 lb. bag
    • UPC 0-70155-10564-0 – 40 lb. bag
  • Triumph Chicken & Rice Recipe Dry Dog Food
    • UPC 0-73657-00873-6 – 3.5 lb. bag
    • UPC 0-73657-00874-3 – 16 lb. bag
    • UPC 0-73657-00875-0 – 30 lb. bag
• ANF, Inc.
  • ANF Lamb and Rice Dry Dog Food
    • UPC 9097231622 – 3 kg bag
      • Best by Nov 23 2019
    • UPC 9097203300 – 7.5 kg bag
      • Best by Nov 20 2019
• Lidl (Orlando brand)
  • Orlando Grain-Free Chicken & Chickpea Superfood Recipe Dog Food
    • Lidl product number 215662
      • TI1 3 Mar 2019
      • TB2 21 Mar 2019
      • TB3 21 Mar 2019
      • TA2 19 Apr 2019
      • TB1 15 May 2019
      • TB2 15 May 2019
• Kroger 
  • Abound Chicken and Brown Rice Recipe Dog Food
    • UPC 11110-83556 – 4 lb. bag, all lots
    • UPC 11110-83573 – 14 lb. bag
      • All lot codes
    • UPC 11110-89076 – 24 lb. bag
      • All lot codes
• ELM Pet Foods, Inc.
  • ELM Chicken and Chickpea Recipe
    • UPC 0-70155-22507-8 – 3 lb. bag
      • D2 26 FEB 2019
      • TE1 30 APR 2019
      • TD1 5 SEP 2019
      • TD2 5 SEP 2019
    • UPC 0-70155-22513-9 – 28 lb. bag
      • TB3 6 APR 2019
      • TA1 2 JULY 2019
      • TI1 2 JULY 2019
  • ELM K9 Naturals Chicken Recipe
    • UPC 0-70155-22522-9 – 40 lb. bag
      • TB3 14 Sep 2019
      • TA2 22 Sep 2019
      • TB2 11 Oct 2019
• Ahold Delhaize
  • Nature’s Promise Chicken & Brown Rice Dog Food
    • UPC 068826718472 – 14 lb. bag
      • All lot codes
    • UPC 068826718471 – 28 lb. bag
      • All lot codes
    • UPC 068826718473 – 4 lb. bag
      • All lot codes
  • Nature’s Place Real Country Chicken and Brown Rice Dog Food
    • UPC 72543998959 – 5 lb. bag
      • All lot codes
    • UPC 72543998960 – 15 lb. bag
      • All lot codes

The recalled products were sold nationwide.

What is FDA doing to address the situation?

After receiving complaints from pet owners about dogs with vitamin D toxicity, one of the firms reported to the FDA that it was recalling dry pet food due to potentially toxic levels of vitamin D. Many other brands with a common contract manufacturer have also been recalled. The FDA is working with the contract manufacturer to provide a comprehensive list of affected brands.

FDA scientists are still analyzing reports and the information currently available to determine whether the illnesses are definitively connected to diet.

FDA scientists have evaluated samples of some of these products, and State and private lab test results indicate that the food contained as much as approximately 70 times the intended amount of vitamin D. Consuming food with such high levels of vitamin D is potentially toxic to dogs and in severe cases may lead to kidney failure and/or death.

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What Do Retailers Need To Do?

Don’t sell the recalled foods. Contact the manufacturer for further instructions. The FDA also encourages retailers to contact consumers who have purchased recalled products, if they have the means to do so (such as through shopper’s card records or point-of-sale signs).

What Do Pet Owners Need To Do?

If your pet is having symptoms of vitamin D toxicity, contact a veterinarian immediately. Provide a full diet history to your veterinarian. You may find it helpful to take a picture of the pet food label, including the lot number.

Don’t feed the recalled products to your pets or any other animal. Contact the company listed on the package for further instructions or throw the products away in a way that children, pets and wildlife cannot access them.

You can report suspected illness to the FDA electronically through the Safety Reporting Portal or by calling your state’s FDA Consumer Complaint Coordinators. It’s most helpful if you can work with your veterinarian to submit your pet’s medical records as part of your report. For an explanation of the information and level of detail that would be helpful to include in a complaint to the FDA, please see How to Report a Pet Food Complaint.

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What Do Veterinarians Need To Do?

The FDA encourages veterinarians treating vitamin D toxicity to ask their clients for a diet history. We also welcome case reports, especially those confirmed through diagnostics. You can submit these reports electronically through the Safety Reporting Portal or by calling your state’s FDA Consumer Complaint Coordinators. For an explanation of the information and level of detail that would be helpful to include in a complaint to the FDA, please see How to Report a Pet Food Complaint.

Veterinarians should also be aware that vitamin D toxicity may present as hypercalcemia, similar to dogs that have consumed rodenticide. In these cases, we suggest that you confirm diet history to verify whether the dog has been eating any of the recalled products.

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The information in this release reflects the FDA’s best efforts to communicate what it has learned from the manufacturer and parties involved in the investigation. The agency will update this page as more information becomes available.

Additional Information

• Nutrisca Recall Press Release
• Natural Life Pet Products Recall Press Release
• Sunshine Mills Recall Press Release
• ANF Pet Inc. Recall Press Release
• Orlando/Lidl Recall Press Release
• ELM Recall Press Release

Pet food sure can be a nightmare as of late

Laura Northrup had just a classic line last month: “…pentobarbital is not supposed to be in anyone’s food.”

Party Animal Recalls Dog Food Due To Potential Presence of Pentobarbital

The safety of pets is and always will be our first priority. We sincerely regret the reports of the discomfort experienced by the pet who consumed this food. As pet parents ourselves, we take this matter seriously. On April 13, a retailer in Texas notified us that their customer had presented samples of our 13-ounce-can Cocolicious Beef & Turkey dog food (Lot #0136E15204 04, best by July 2019) and 13-ounce-can Cocolicious Chicken & Beef dog food (Lot #0134E15 237 13, best by August 2019) to a testing lab, and that the results had tested positive for pentobarbital. We have requested those results.

When we were notified, we immediately tracked the lot numbers of the food in question and determined that the food had been manufactured and distributed in 2015. We then contacted the two probable retailers that had sold the customer the food and asked them to isolate all remaining cans from these lots. If pet parents have cans with either of those lot numbers in their possession, they should return them to the place of purchase and will of course receive a full refund.

We also requested that the retailers send all of the cans from those lots to us so that we can forward them on to an accredited independent laboratory for independent testing. We expect to receive the receive the results in 7 to 10 days. We first saw the formal report from the lab at Texas A&M regarding the customer’s samples, today, April 17.

Out of an abundance of caution, we are retrieving the remainder of these two lots nationwide. We are working with our distributors and retailers to determine if any additional beef-flavored products manufactured during this 2015 production period remain on shelves and, if so, to retrieve them from shelves, immediately, as well.

Party Animal wishes to emphasize that we have submitted many recent lots of our beef flavors for testing and all have tested negative for any pentobarbital. We have also had extensive discussions with our manufacturer regarding the potential cause of the reported contamination of the 2015 lots, and we will continue with such discussions even as we await testing results for the 2015 lots. In order to ensure adherence to our commitment to the safety of pets, we are also actively re-examining our manufacturing processes.