ACETAMINOPHEN DETECTED
THERE WAS A TREATMENT FOR MISS PIGGY
Right about now I'm sitting here in tears as I write this. My instincts, especially with Miss Piggy were correct. I kept begging for her to be given fluids supplemented with potassium, and other nutriants, but they did not give her that specific kind of supplement and fluid. When she was given a specific IV she perked up. Then, when pulled off it and given solid food is when she went into the coma. It is possible, if we had known this, my precious little kitten could have had a chance to survive. Right now I'm very upset. I know a number of other cat owners who are going to feel this way, too.
This fits the exact information we were getting about Miss Piggy, and the tox report that came in after her death. I need to also face the fact that she was only born with one kidney so recovery may have been impossible. I am hoping though, that this will help other kitties survive.
The PDF on the test results
The acetaminophen connection:
The Pet Food Safety Alliance
Dog food acetaminophen recall - end of September
And - Miss Piggy was being fed Hills Science Diet. So was Georgie.
Did Menu Foods Lie?
ACETAMINOPHEN POISONING
This is exactly what happened to Miss Piggy, almost down to the tox reports.
THIS READS LIKE MISS PIGGY'S STORY
Trackposted to Nuke's, Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson's Website, third world county, DragonLady's World, The Populist, Shadowscope, Pirate's Cove, Webloggin, Leaning Straight Up, The Bullwinkle Blog, Conservative Cat, High Desert Wanderer, Right Voices, and Conservative Thoughts, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe."> THERE WAS A TREATMENT FOR MISS PIGGY
Right about now I'm sitting here in tears as I write this. My instincts, especially with Miss Piggy were correct. I kept begging for her to be given fluids supplemented with potassium, and other nutriants, but they did not give her that specific kind of supplement and fluid. When she was given a specific IV she perked up. Then, when pulled off it and given solid food is when she went into the coma. It is possible, if we had known this, my precious little kitten could have had a chance to survive. Right now I'm very upset. I know a number of other cat owners who are going to feel this way, too.
This fits the exact information we were getting about Miss Piggy, and the tox report that came in after her death. I need to also face the fact that she was only born with one kidney so recovery may have been impossible. I am hoping though, that this will help other kitties survive.
The PDF on the test results
“…NTIAL Details: **Melamine & Acetaminophen Detected; Cyanuric Acid Non- Detected. Sample Type: Composite of Special Kitty "with beef in gravy" Lot DEC 08 08 13:53, Special Kitty "mixed grill in gravy" Lot DEC 07 08 01:39, and Special Kitty "with turkey & giblets in gravy" Lot DEC 06 08 13:47. All samples arrived un-opened in original package….” Testing of the above product does not warrant that all products of this particular brand, lot or batch will produce the same results nor indicate that the entire product line is safe or not safe for consumption. This analysis is based on a small representative sample of the product provided and does not constitute full analysis of the entire product line, lot or batch. The results provided analysis from the sample submitted utilizing GC/MS...."
The acetaminophen connection:
“…New laboratory tests have detected the pain killer acetaminophen in yet another brand of pet food, ConsumerAffairs.com has learned. These results add to the growing number of cases in which toxicologists at ExperTox Analytical Laboratories in Texas have detected the over-the-counter pain medicine in dog or cat food.The latest findings (pdf file) came in a composite of three flavors of Menu Foods’ Special Kitty food -- Special Kitty with beef and gravy, Special Kitty mixed grill in gravy, and Special Kitty with turkey & giblets in gravy.The tests performed by ExperTox earlier this month also detected another toxin in the foods: melamine. That’s the chemical that triggered Menu Foods’ massive recall in March of more than 60 million containers of pet food…."
The Pet Food Safety Alliance
Dog food acetaminophen recall - end of September
"...A total of 6 NON-recalled pet foods that we know about have tested positive for acetaminophen in tests done by Expertox, they include:
Innova Dry Dog Food
Hills Science Diet Light Adult Dry Cat Food
Hills Science Diet Sensitive Stomach Dry Cat Food
Pet Pride Turkey & Giblets Canned Cat Food..."
Innova Dry Dog Food
Hills Science Diet Light Adult Dry Cat Food
Hills Science Diet Sensitive Stomach Dry Cat Food
Pet Pride Turkey & Giblets Canned Cat Food..."
And - Miss Piggy was being fed Hills Science Diet. So was Georgie.
Did Menu Foods Lie?
"...Once again, we are able to prove conclusively that both Menu Foods and the FDA are engaged in fraud. We know that ALL of the suspect grain products from China contained melamine. For the food to contain cyanuric acid, but NO melamine, proves it DID NOT come from China. As we know cyanuric acid, being high in nitrogen content, falsely inflates the apparent protein content in the food, and that it was not introduced into the food by the Chinese, it can only have been added by the folks at Menu Foods.
While this proves Menu Foods is engaged in fraud, the question of how acetaminophen got into the food still needs to be explained. While the possibility of sabotage is not impossible, there would be no reason for Menu Foods to engage in a 6 month long cover up. A quick criminal investigation, an indictment, a recall of the batches contaminated by the criminal, and the usual PR fluff about how sorry, etc.. It would have been a done deal last December.
A more likely scenario is that Menu Foods, after suffering massive losses the previous year, with no cash cushion due to a policy to pay out all profits to shareholders, having briefly returned to profitability as a result of the cyanuric acid scam, found the cyanuric acid to be contaminated. As the least enlightened citizen knows these days, adulterating food with industrial chemicals for fun and profit is against the law. Intentionally doing so means heap big trouble and massive liabilities, both civil and criminal. Among other considerations, Menu Foods' product liability insurance would not provide coverage for intentional adulteration of the pet food by the company.
Chemicals such as acetaminophen don't come from the factory in neat little pills. It is shipped in bulk and has to be packaged for further distribution. While you would not want acetaminophen to be present in food intended for cats and dogs, it would not be a major concern if it was present in cyanuric acid intended to be mixed with 10,000 gallons of swimming pool water. In our corner cutting, modern industrial world, while some care to clean packaging equipment before processing acetaminophen would be in order, getting fussy about cleaning the equipment for a subsequent cyanuric acid run just means lost productivity and a higher cost of doing business.
While a claim of grain products unknowingly contaminated with melamine makes for a convenient business lie. That doesn't work for cyanuric acid contaminated with acetaminophen, which is not allowed in food under any circumstances.
Perhaps the most patently absurd lie being told by Menu Foods is the claim they were unaware they were distributing pet food containing deadly toxins for over 4 months before they noticed it. The claim is they accidentally discovered the problem as a result of "regular" food testing trials at the end of February. The initial claim was such tests are conducted at least quarterly. Menu Foods has also admitted the manufacture of contaminated food dates back to at least November. That being the case, Menu Foods was well aware the food contained poisons deadly to pets no later than December as a result of the previous quarter's taste tests.
You might ask why Menu Foods would delay the recall for months, knowing pets were dying slow and terrible deaths with every hour the recall was delayed. $350 million in annual revenue is why. With a third of a billion dollar market share at stake, criminals do not admit to criminal acts. The cover up required that they allow enough time to pass to let every last can of poisoned food be consumed by pets, or discarded by the pet's owner after the death of the pet, in order to destroy the evidence...."
While this proves Menu Foods is engaged in fraud, the question of how acetaminophen got into the food still needs to be explained. While the possibility of sabotage is not impossible, there would be no reason for Menu Foods to engage in a 6 month long cover up. A quick criminal investigation, an indictment, a recall of the batches contaminated by the criminal, and the usual PR fluff about how sorry, etc.. It would have been a done deal last December.
A more likely scenario is that Menu Foods, after suffering massive losses the previous year, with no cash cushion due to a policy to pay out all profits to shareholders, having briefly returned to profitability as a result of the cyanuric acid scam, found the cyanuric acid to be contaminated. As the least enlightened citizen knows these days, adulterating food with industrial chemicals for fun and profit is against the law. Intentionally doing so means heap big trouble and massive liabilities, both civil and criminal. Among other considerations, Menu Foods' product liability insurance would not provide coverage for intentional adulteration of the pet food by the company.
Chemicals such as acetaminophen don't come from the factory in neat little pills. It is shipped in bulk and has to be packaged for further distribution. While you would not want acetaminophen to be present in food intended for cats and dogs, it would not be a major concern if it was present in cyanuric acid intended to be mixed with 10,000 gallons of swimming pool water. In our corner cutting, modern industrial world, while some care to clean packaging equipment before processing acetaminophen would be in order, getting fussy about cleaning the equipment for a subsequent cyanuric acid run just means lost productivity and a higher cost of doing business.
While a claim of grain products unknowingly contaminated with melamine makes for a convenient business lie. That doesn't work for cyanuric acid contaminated with acetaminophen, which is not allowed in food under any circumstances.
Perhaps the most patently absurd lie being told by Menu Foods is the claim they were unaware they were distributing pet food containing deadly toxins for over 4 months before they noticed it. The claim is they accidentally discovered the problem as a result of "regular" food testing trials at the end of February. The initial claim was such tests are conducted at least quarterly. Menu Foods has also admitted the manufacture of contaminated food dates back to at least November. That being the case, Menu Foods was well aware the food contained poisons deadly to pets no later than December as a result of the previous quarter's taste tests.
You might ask why Menu Foods would delay the recall for months, knowing pets were dying slow and terrible deaths with every hour the recall was delayed. $350 million in annual revenue is why. With a third of a billion dollar market share at stake, criminals do not admit to criminal acts. The cover up required that they allow enough time to pass to let every last can of poisoned food be consumed by pets, or discarded by the pet's owner after the death of the pet, in order to destroy the evidence...."
ACETAMINOPHEN POISONING
This is exactly what happened to Miss Piggy, almost down to the tox reports.
"...According to the Merck Manual(12)an acetaminophen overdose in humans follows a 4 step pattern. The first 24 hours the symptoms are anorexia, nausea, and vomiting. 24 to 72 hours abdominal pain is added. At 72 to 96 hours liver and kidney failure may occur. Sometime after 5 days, you either get better or drop dead when your organs fail.
This article(13) also describes kidney failure in people from acetaminophen overdoses, although in language not in common usage by the layman. Renal means kidneys. Hepatic means liver. Necrosis means it kills the cells. Those three terms will help us layman through the high points in the piece. Unfortunately, the pattern on acetaminophen information seems to be the more credible the source, the more bogged down with technical jargon it becomes.
This site(14) describes some of what goes into handling and packaging materials shipped in bulk, and lists both acetaminophen and cyanuric acid as being substances they handle. I wish to stress at this point that this company, to the best of my knowledge, has absolutely no connection to the pet food recall whatsoever. I include the reference solely to illustrate that a wide variety of substances are handled at any given packaging plant.
While there are many references available which describe the symptoms and effects of a massive single dose acetaminophen poisoning incident, there does not appear to be any references on the effects of small doses received with every meal over the course of days. There also appears to be little consensus on what constitutes a lethal dose of acetaminophen in cats. One site gives half a 325 mg. tablet, or 160 mg., as being lethal, (15)while another gives a range of 50-100 mg. per kg. of body weight, which would be a dose of 200 to 400 mg. (16) The ASPCA quotes a figure of 10 mg. per kg. of body weight, which would be about 40 mg. for an average size cat, as being potentially lethal, and concludes, "Perhaps the safest way to look at acetaminophen toxicity in cats is that no dose is safe.".(17)
In addition to questions on dosage, symptoms appear to vary. For example, edema (swelling) of the face is viewed as a classic symptom of acetaminophen poisoning in cats, but in one study where 4 cats were given massive doses of the drug, one cat did not display this symptom.(18)
It is perhaps impossible to form a conclusion on exactly what symptoms would appear in connection with smaller, but repeated doses of acetaminophen in cats and dogs. More uncertainty is added if cyanuric acid affects the toxic effect of the drug. Much of the available information related to the pet food recall is consistent with acetaminophen poisoning. Dogs are less affected than cats. Lethargy, vomiting, loss of appetite and anemia are consistent with both kidney failure and acetaminophen poisoning. Elevated BUN and creatinine levels are also seen in both cases. Dark urine associated with acetaminophen poisoning would likely be missed in the liter box if it occurs at all with lower doses. Acetaminophen is known to cause kidney damage in studies of animals and humans, both from heavy usage over a period of time and from overdoses. While it may be argued the symptoms of a massive acetaminophen overdose in cats is not completely consistent with the publicized recall symptoms, the publicized recall symptoms are anecdotal at best, and the situation is not one of a single dose poisoning incident.
The two things we do know with certainty is that acetaminophen is poisonous to cats in any amount, and, that independent tests are detecting acetaminophen in pet food samples...."
This article(13) also describes kidney failure in people from acetaminophen overdoses, although in language not in common usage by the layman. Renal means kidneys. Hepatic means liver. Necrosis means it kills the cells. Those three terms will help us layman through the high points in the piece. Unfortunately, the pattern on acetaminophen information seems to be the more credible the source, the more bogged down with technical jargon it becomes.
This site(14) describes some of what goes into handling and packaging materials shipped in bulk, and lists both acetaminophen and cyanuric acid as being substances they handle. I wish to stress at this point that this company, to the best of my knowledge, has absolutely no connection to the pet food recall whatsoever. I include the reference solely to illustrate that a wide variety of substances are handled at any given packaging plant.
While there are many references available which describe the symptoms and effects of a massive single dose acetaminophen poisoning incident, there does not appear to be any references on the effects of small doses received with every meal over the course of days. There also appears to be little consensus on what constitutes a lethal dose of acetaminophen in cats. One site gives half a 325 mg. tablet, or 160 mg., as being lethal, (15)while another gives a range of 50-100 mg. per kg. of body weight, which would be a dose of 200 to 400 mg. (16) The ASPCA quotes a figure of 10 mg. per kg. of body weight, which would be about 40 mg. for an average size cat, as being potentially lethal, and concludes, "Perhaps the safest way to look at acetaminophen toxicity in cats is that no dose is safe.".(17)
In addition to questions on dosage, symptoms appear to vary. For example, edema (swelling) of the face is viewed as a classic symptom of acetaminophen poisoning in cats, but in one study where 4 cats were given massive doses of the drug, one cat did not display this symptom.(18)
It is perhaps impossible to form a conclusion on exactly what symptoms would appear in connection with smaller, but repeated doses of acetaminophen in cats and dogs. More uncertainty is added if cyanuric acid affects the toxic effect of the drug. Much of the available information related to the pet food recall is consistent with acetaminophen poisoning. Dogs are less affected than cats. Lethargy, vomiting, loss of appetite and anemia are consistent with both kidney failure and acetaminophen poisoning. Elevated BUN and creatinine levels are also seen in both cases. Dark urine associated with acetaminophen poisoning would likely be missed in the liter box if it occurs at all with lower doses. Acetaminophen is known to cause kidney damage in studies of animals and humans, both from heavy usage over a period of time and from overdoses. While it may be argued the symptoms of a massive acetaminophen overdose in cats is not completely consistent with the publicized recall symptoms, the publicized recall symptoms are anecdotal at best, and the situation is not one of a single dose poisoning incident.
The two things we do know with certainty is that acetaminophen is poisonous to cats in any amount, and, that independent tests are detecting acetaminophen in pet food samples...."
THIS READS LIKE MISS PIGGY'S STORY
"...Carol rushed the 15-year-old Tabby cat to the family’s veterinarian. “He did a urinalysis and discovered her kidneys were failing,” Carol said. “We thought we would have to euthanize her. “But our vet said that because Jessica she’d seemed fine the day before, he wanted to presume this was something he could treat.” For the next few days, Jessica received fluids, potassium supplements, the heartburn medicine Pepcid AC, and an antibiotic. “We decided that if this didn’t work…if she was suffering…we wouldn’t continue with the treatment,” Carol said. But Jessica’s condition slowly improved. “Her back legs were getting stronger and she seemed to be getting better. So we continued giving her more fluids and sticking with this same treatment program. Carol’s vet also emphasized the importance of getting Jessica to eat. “So I tried to force fed her the Special Kitty food,” Carol said, adding this occurred a few weeks before Menu Foods announced its recall. “Jessica refused. I even poured tuna fish oil on the Special Kitty food to entice her to eat, but she walked away.” Smudge, however, continued to gobble up the Special Kitty food. And on March 12 -- four days before Menu Foods announced its recall – the Calico cat suddenly became seriously ill. “She could hardly stand up, she was staggering, and her breath smelled foul,” Carol said. “I thought that she had whatever Jessica had…that maybe it was a virus.”
![Pink Flamingo [Home]](http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii147/blog_photos_album/flamingo_crossing.jpg)
