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Pet food company issues alert after toxin found in dog and cat food

12/21/05

NEWS 10NBC has learned that a brand of dog and cat food sold in stores in the Rochester area have been removed from sale due to a toxic chemical in the product. Officials at Diamond Pet Food say they have discovered Aflatoxin in a product manufactured at their plant in Gaston, South Carolina. The company says Aflatoxin is a naturally occurring toxic chemical by-product from the growth of the fungus Aspergillus flavus, on corn and other crops.

The following products have been removed from sale: Diamond Low Fat Dog Food, Diamond Hi-Energy Dog Food, Diamond Maintenance Dog Food, Diamond Performance Dog Food, Diamond Premium Adult Dog Food, Diamond Puppy Food, Country Value Puppy, Country Value Adult Dog, Country Value High Energy Dog Professional Chicken & Rice, Senior Dog Food Professional Reduced Fat Chicken & Rice Dog Food, Professional Adult Dog Food, Professional Large-Breed Puppy Food, Professional Puppy Food, Diamond Maintenance Cat Food, Diamond Professional Cat Food, Professional Reduced Fat Cat Food, Professional Adult Cat Food, and Country Value Adult Cat Food.

The company says if your pet eats Diamond Pet Food and shows symptoms of sluggishness, a reluctance to eat, diarrhea and yellow eyes take the animal to the vet immediately.

When I worked at Petco there were several recalls........

Bumping this up with current info:





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You may think the Diamond food scare is over, or that only a limited amount of product is involved. Not so. On Monday, March 6 - after 3 feedings of Diamond's Premium Edge Chicken, Rice and Vegetables - we almost lost 3 of our 4 GSDs. The only reason it didn't effect the 16 week old is because we kept her on other feed. Within 20 minutes of ingesting their dinner, 2 of the dogs proceeded to vomit dark green undigested food and within another 2 minutes they were foaming at the mouth and stiff-leg gaiting. Another 5 minutes and they were having what I - as a nurse - would refer to as petit mal seizures. After a traumatic night at the local emergency clinic, the diagnosis was "food intoxication from Premium Edge kibble".

The following day, upon contacting Diamond in Meta, Missouri, I was assured they would work with me in this and stand behind their product....the reimbursement for any and all vet care, etc was also discussed. Upon asking for financial assistance for a test Diamond requested at Cornell ($300.00/dog minimum) - a test that per my vet and those at Cornell said was a CYA call on Diamond's part - they changed their mind on "helping out". I refused that particular test, awaiting results from another analysis on samples.

Notification came yesterday from University of Missouri Vet Met Diagnostic Lab: "Each of the four submitted samples of dog food contained approximately 0.5 ppm of vomitoxin, as detected by thin layer chromotography...".

Judging from no reference to this on Premium Edge's website (incredible how many products Diamond makes but very difficult to trace back to them - each feed/product seems to have it's own website/contact), no contact as of yet from Diamond and certainly no "standing behind" their product it appears they are not overly concerned about their consumers.

Research your food thoroughly. If it is even remotely related to Diamond - DO NOT FEED!! If you are so inclined, please write concerns to Diamond - you can reference me if so desired. My particular contact was Dr. Brookshire, Director of Veterinary Services.

Christine Buff

Sr. K9 Handler/Trainer, Highland SAR

Member, Rescue International

K9 Director, New York State Federation of SAR