Please do not feed your dog Purina

[Matej]

Purina Beneful caused both of my dog's kidneys to fail. He stopped eating, vomited daily, and these past few days he was skin and bone, unable to even walk. It was terribly depressing to see him in such a state. After three weeks of suffering the shots and medicine stopped helping, and I was forced to have him put to sleep today.

The vet said he must have swallowed something toxic, such as antifreeze, household chemicals, etc. He was an indoor dog and I always watched closely what he ate. Then I realized that his symptoms started at around the same time as I tried feeding him Purina Beneful. I looked it up, and found out other people's dogs died from the same symptoms after eating it.

I took the food to the vet and asked if that was what killed my dog. She said it is highly improbable, but from the change in her expression I believe she knows it is bad, but does not want to say anything about it in fear of a lawsuit, or perhaps Purina pays the clinic to recommend their product, or some such shady reason.

After doing more research, I found out the food contains ingredients that can actually be toxic to dogs. How can it even be sold legally? There are literally thousands of complaints about it on the internet. I never knew standing in front of the dog food shelf choosing which one to purchase could be a potential matter of life and death for my beloved friend.

Consumer complaints about Beneful Pet Foods (http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/beneful.html)

I only wish I were aware prior to witnessing it first-hand. :(
I never want another pet again, unless I know it will have a longer lifespan than me, because watching my dog slowly die in front of my eyes is something I do not wish upon anyone.

[raz0rbladez909]

Is it possible your dog got into grapes or raisins? They are also proven to cause kidney failure in dogs and show symptoms exactly like you are talking about, I'm sorry to hear for your loss, dogs are always such noble pets

[FRpilot]

I never want another pet again, unless I know it will have a longer lifespan than me, because watching my dog slowly die in front of my eyes is something I do not wish upon anyone.

thanks for the warning and i am sorry for your loss.

btw, i know it hurts to lose a pet which is family, but that's like saying you never want to love again because it hurts too much to get heartbroken. it hurts now, but in time, you will probably welcome the idea of another pet.

[Matej]

Is it possible your dog got into grapes or raisins?
Those two I was actually aware of being bad for dogs. I always made sure to keep him far away from them, or chocolate, the garage, or any potential harm that I knew of.


btw, i know it hurts to lose a pet which is family, but that's like saying you never want to love again because it hurts too much to get heartbroken. it hurts now, but in time, you will probably welcome the idea of another pet.
Sorry for the rant, normally I try not to complain and pour out my heart on the internet, but I am upset today and I just typed whatever came to mind.

[s13 4rey]

I'm so sorry about your dog. I thank you for this post as others will read this.I my self have been feeding my love and my best friend purina for last 2years.I will look in to this,and I will call purina cost,serv,my self and as them my self. my your dog R.I.P

[revcyanide]

I told my girlfriend about this bullshit, we got into a fight because part of her half of expenses is the animal food.

HER dog is eating blue dog food, at 50 dollars a month.
eats a busy bone, every single day because she feels bad leaving her at home while she goes to school (3-6 hours)

my cat eats purina cat chow, because she buys it. and we use purina litter.


she is going to school to be vet, I would have thought she would be outraged by this. I told her i do not want us buying purina products, simply because i do not want to be handing a company money to support this.

She got pissed off saying "you dont understand, there is no other cheap decent cat food and litter"
and "no, i have tried other car litters, purina is the only one that works with how many cats we have" (3 cats, 2 litter boxes.)

My ass, if we can afford 50+$ bags of dog food, we can sure as shit drop 10-20 more bucks a month on my cat.

needless to say, i will be buying the cat shit from now on.

sorry i am pissed as fuck and need to vent.















This is horrible that this has happened to your dog, I feel for you man, i really do :/ it's fucked up that they let a product like this out and not give a shit what it does.

[omgRWDgoodness!]

Sorry for your loss Matej :( If it's any consolation, you can have my dog if you want. That bastard will eat anything and live (and he has).

[chitownguy]

We used to buy our dog Purina but for some reason he hated it, he would avoid eating it as much as possible. After a few weeks we ended up switching to another dog food and he would eat it no problem.

But sorry to hear about your dog, Matej. It really saddens me to hear that this happened and I can't imagine what it must be like to lose your dog that way.

[codyace]

Sucks about the Pet man, that really blows

However Purina isn't selling Toxic food, I just can't believe it.

[x3thelast]

thats terrible! we had a puppy die while it was asleep :(

but as for food we only feed our dogs quality food, just having the piece of mind that theyre getting the very best is priceless. id rather shell out 50$ for dog food versus hundreds at the vets office.

keep your head up buddy. thanks for spreading the warning.

[Jtuned_andy]

Pet food has been known to contain glycol products for many years now. You should always avoid colored pet foods especially if its green or yellow tinted kibble etc.

Corporations fuck with our pet food just the same as putting unhealthy crap into human food. This is nothing new for the scumbags.

[Jtuned_andy]

Stop Feeding Dog Food That Kills (http://www.dogs-4life.com/stop-feeding-dog-food-that-kills.html)

for anyone looking for info about what food to NOT feed their animals.

[revcyanide]

Sucks about the Pet man, that really blows

However Purina isn't selling Toxic food, I just can't believe it.

If this many dogs are having the same reactions, i would beleive it.


I dont think that they INTENTIONALLY are selling toxic food, wtf would a dog food company TRY to kill dogs.

I think what it more than likely is, a large percentage of dogs have a strong allergic reaction (or immuno reaction possibly) to something in the food, this is the same as people food, every once in a while a company sells something, ends up making people sick as shit. look up some of the old low cal sweeteners and the horrible things it did to people. (they have since corrected them)


The thing with dogs, they are not people, the government doesn't really step in when something like this happens. the company is a buisness and is run like one. even if their product is making dogs sick, there is no large coverage of it, there doesnt appear to be a lawsuit, why would they stop making something that is selling well, even if a few dogs get sick?


It's horrible and i don't agree with it, but thats how things work, and that is what this 100% looks like.

if it was just owners being negligent and thinking its connected to the dog food, EVERY dog food would have stories like this, this is too much to not be it.


ALSO something to think about, pet food has almost NO regulation aside from anything self imposed by the company.

cliffs
obviously the company is not diabolically adding toxins to dogfood intentionally to kill dogs, however it is happening and this should be yanked from the shelves immediately.

[tqstarburst]

Purina is the same shit as pedigree. They are both, corn based dog foods. When buying dog food, go to the ingredients at the back of the bag. The first ingredient will be the main base, yellow corn will be among many of the "good" dog foods.

In reality, yellow corn makes your dog shit a'lot(shit will be to watery, will stink), lose or gain un necessary weight among many other things.

Things to look for are chicken, turkey, duck, fish. Look at the protein content.

I can tell you guys that, Science Diet, Iams and almost all of the purina are shitty dog foods. (corn based)

Try chicken soup, Diamond or other premium dog foods.

[Daniel.]

I'm sorry for your loss. This is heartbreaking.

My girlfriend and I did extensive research on animal food and decided on Blue Buffalo for cat food and Evo for our dogfood. It's expensive, but our animals are like our kids.

Those of you looking for natural animal foods should look into these.
Blue Buffalo - Healthy All Natural Cat Food (http://bluebuffalo.com/healthy-cat-food)
EVO Premium Dog Food, Natural Cat Food, Healthy Dog Treats ? Natura Pet Products (http://www.naturapet.com/brands/evo)

[zspeedrft]

sorry to hear..this is why im extremely picky with the food i buy my dog, even if i have to spend 60 bucks for a small bag..

[deolio]

wow. i never really thought about dog food that much. thank you for bringing it to my attention. i've recently been looking into getting a puppy. want to give him a healthy life. lots of good info in here!

sorry for your loss matej :(

[tabasco122]

most pet food is utter crap. i feed my cat innova evo, basically nothing you can find on most pet store shelves. sure as hell not the supermarket. there is one specialty store near me that sells quality food, and its expensive, but imo if you cant afford quality food items for your pet, you shouldnt have one.

[revat619]

I'm really sorry to hear about your loss dude. I know what it's like to have to see your dog going through sickness and then having to put him down. Worst shit ever. I totally empathize with you.

most pet food is utter crap. i feed my cat innova evo, basically nothing you can find on most pet store shelves. sure as hell not the supermarket. there is one specialty store near me that sells quality food, and its expensive, but imo if you cant afford quality food items for your pet, you shouldnt have one.

THIS.

I have 2 boxers now and im SUPER particular about their food. If i run out and forgot to pick up their food i refuse to go to Ralphs or whatever and buy that shit. When that happens i just cook up a bunch of chicken tenderloins plain, throw it in some brown rice and a little bit of low sodium chicken broth and they're good to go. Purina, Iams, Pedrigree, Beneful, Science Diet and all that other supermarket/petsmart stuff is ABSOLUTE SHIT. The first ingredient in all of them is Corn and or animal by-product. Corn allergies are really common in bully breeds, especially boxers so i was damn sure not gonna feed them that. Depending on the dog, I would suggest Canidae, Wellness, Innova or Merrick. Any one of those is an excellent choice. I chose Merrick....well actually my dogs chose Merrick because they liked that one the best out of the 4. They're picky as shit lol. Like what's been said though, it is pricey and you have to get it at specialty stores, but it's totally worth it.

[Mikey McFly]

I definitely want to send a complaint over to Purina's HR and figure out who else I need to go speak to so that stuff liek this doen't keep on happening.
I'm really sorry to hear about this bud. This totally gets at me too. I'd be pretty tore up and pissed if my pup died from just food. You shouldn't let it stop you from getting another friend tho. Definitely have your time to recover but consider rescuing a pup or even an older abandoned dog from the pound. They would love you hardcore for saving them. =]

most pet food is utter crap. i feed my cat innova evo, basically nothing you can find on most pet store shelves. sure as hell not the supermarket. there is one specialty store near me that sells quality food, and its expensive, but imo if you cant afford quality food items for your pet, you shouldnt have one.
I agree with this too.
I'm not saying the OP didn't care about his friend, I'm sure he just wasn't aware of what effects the food had until this event happened.
My wife and I treat our dogs as if they were our kids. *pharaoh hound/dingo mix and a lab/shepherd mix* We're really meticulous about what we feed our pups too.
If you have a bigger dog or a breed that's known for eating meat, I'd recommend Nature's Variety Instinct Raw. They're kind of like premixed and formed raw hamburger patties and you can choose from a beef, buffalo, rabbit, or lamb based patty.*not a mix of the meats* It really allows you to get real specific with your pet's diet. There are no grains either. None. Just straight meat, veggies, and fruits. I steer away from anything containing ANY grain. My dogs are about 70lbs each and their wastes are the same as a chihuahua's waste because they digest everything. They're not pooping out grains and extra filler that general brands *Pedigree, Science Diet, Iams, etc.* put into their foods. Their stamina is always up and their coats always look nice and healthy. Nature's Variety dry food didn't go well with my dogs but it can work well for yours.
Besides the raw, I'd recommend anything from the Orijen or Arcana brand. Probably some of the most expensive bags of dry food you'll ever see, at $80 for a large bag of Orijen, but it's definitely worth it. They have an 80% protein 20% veg/fruit formula in fish or beef that's pretty amazing.
I don't trust any of those generic food that are out in the supermarkets or big chain pet stores.



In case anyone was wondering...
This is what we're feeding our dogs. There's another one with egg in it but we deter from eggs too. Personal preference.
6 Fish Dog (http://www.orijen.ca/orijen/products/6fishdog.aspx)
This is the raw that we normally get too.
Nature's Variety: Instinct Raw Frozen Diets for Dogs and Cats | Nature's Variety (http://www.naturesvariety.com/InstinctRaw/dog/all)
Definitely check in with your dog's breed and find out what they normally eat. Not all dogs can go on a high protein diet like this.

[lucky7]

really shitty man, sorry to hear. and i learned that i shouldn't feed my dog grapes - she actually really likes them. oops!

i can't imagine losing a pet over something that we assume to be safe. that's shitty from every angle.

['97 S14 SE Turbo]

Probably another batch of feed stock from China that's been laced with melamine to increase the Nitrogen content to make the stock seem more nutritious...

[az_240]

Sorry for your loss, I know it's tough seeing your beloved pet go through such agony only to be put down.

It's a possibility that the dog food was contaminated... possibly by a bacteria.
This happens more often than you'd think with the cheap/well known dog foods. Search the internet and you can find tons of horror stories from these brands.

Were you feeding your dogs a fresh bag of food or was it a bag you've had a while?

Dog Food Reviews - Main Index - Powered by ReviewPost (http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/)

Anyone that owns a dog should check out what kind of reviews/ratings YOUR dog food is getting.

I've found the BEST dog food for the money is CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE DOG LOVERS SOUL. It's about a dollar a pound which is right on par with what you should spend. I've been feeding my two border collies this for about a year now. They still love it, look great and are both very active.
If you feel you can't afford that (or own a bunch of big dogs) the next best food I've found is the Kirkland brand from COSTCO.
If you have more money to spend Taste of the Wild and Blue Buffalo are two of the moderately priced premium brands.

When switching foods make sure to do it gradually or they may get sick/vomit... I usually just do half and half for about a week or two before switching over and have never had a problem.

[Chaluska]

ive tried many different brands of dog food with my APBT's. i tried using a small bag of beniful, but we had to mix in some wet food for her to eat it. we ended up chunking about 7 lbs of the food away.. but i have used purina puppy chow, Nutro (dog hated it) blue buffalo (dog didnt care too much for it), purina one, little bites, old roy, kibbles and bits..

my dog is kinda picky, as we give her table scraps.. but we let her free eat, with such a high motabolism, she burns off the calories really quick.. she goes through a "medium sized" bowl of food every 3 days..

one secret we were told was to put a raw egg in with her dry food.. we started doing that, and she went crazy for any brand we fed her.. plus her coat glistened like crazy after about a week

[illvialuver]

just feed your pets holistic food. avoid anything you can buy at the grocery store. Sorry man, that sucks.

[LimeLite Racing]

Sucks about your pup Matej. I used to feed my dog Beneful, and he was shitting like 5 times a day, nasty shits. I switched him up to Blue Buffalo about a quarter of the way through that bag of Beneful shit. His shits are much better now.

[EazyS13]

OP sorry bout your dog bud never good or easy to let one go, and thanks for the heads up i will have watch out for that

[Otto347]

Purina is the same shit as pedigree.


I feed my cats purina one and the first ingredient is turkey. Is the dog food the same?

Sorry for your loss Matej, I look at my cats everyday and am going to have a hard time when they go.

[rage941]

Wow I can't believe I haven't heard of this. I went through the same exact thing with my dog a few years ago. He was was fed Beneful and ended up dying a slow death from kidney failure. It racked up lots of expensive vet bills and he got so bad that we eventually had him put to sleep. I think he was only 4 years old.

oh shit I just checked and my parents are feeding my current dogs beneful. They're 2 and 3 years old and have always been fed that. Stopping that asap, hopefully no damage is done.

[EazyS13]

i just realized we feed our dog pedigree for like 3 years now lol, idk if maybe some dogs cant handle it or what. but it seems like we cant change her food because we have tried befor and she gets allergic reactions when we switch her food up so we have to go back to pedigree.

[allntrlundrgrnd]

This makes me sad. I'm very sorry for your loss.

The bro just adopted a puppy, I'll have to spread the word.

[rc1honda]

I just got my dog at a shelter in Feb. I went and bought some moderately priced science diet thinking it was good food.

After about 2 weeks his shits were green and smelled unreal. He was also shedding really bad and always had really bad eye mucus.

I went online and checked out what it could be and came to site that opened my eyes to commercial dog food. There is virtually no regulation in pet food. There is no animal FDA to watch it. Turns out most commercial dog foods is really corn and grain byproduct with artificial flavoring to get the dog to eat it.

Astounding thing is that most medium sized dogs 30-50lbs should have a average lifespan of 20 years. Most medium to large dogs i have known don't make it much past there 12th year. A lot of experts speculate it's because if the food we feed them.

After switching to Innova my dog shits once a day, only eats about 2 cups a day he weighs 68lbs BTW, and his coat is awesome and the eye mucus has really cleared up.

I go to petco for it. Now one more thing is be careful of the really high protein foods. Protien is good for a dog that is a working dog and can use it. If you have a house dog then there really is no need for 30% protein food. That and it can strain the dogs kidneys as well.

Stick to a holoistic food with that has meat as the first 2 ingredients listed. The the next should be rice and oats and fruit.

[gshadyz]

Thanks for the heads up. And sorry for your loose

[Walperstyle]

Every dog is different, and sometimes they find anti-freeze to drink too...

[WanganRunner]

Wow, this is awful. Sorry to hear it.

I won't buy Purina anything now.

[Toi]

Sorry for your loss, I know it's tough seeing your beloved pet go through such agony only to be put down.

It's a possibility that the dog food was contaminated... possibly by a bacteria.
This happens more often than you'd think with the cheap/well known dog foods. Search the internet and you can find tons of horror stories from these brands.

Were you feeding your dogs a fresh bag of food or was it a bag you've had a while?

Dog Food Reviews - Main Index - Powered by ReviewPost (http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/)

Anyone that owns a dog should check out what kind of reviews/ratings YOUR dog food is getting.

I've found the BEST dog food for the money is CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE DOG LOVERS SOUL. It's about a dollar a pound which is right on par with what you should spend. I've been feeding my two border collies this for about a year now. They still love it, look great and are both very active.
If you feel you can't afford that (or own a bunch of big dogs) the next best food I've found is the Kirkland brand from COSTCO.
If you have more money to spend Taste of the Wild and Blue Buffalo are two of the moderately priced premium brands.

When switching foods make sure to do it gradually or they may get sick/vomit... I usually just do half and half for about a week or two before switching over and have never had a problem.


Real good site, my mother is a vet and also shows Irish Wolf Hounds....That site can make you sick to find out what is in some foods

[Danb]

I am a pretty big nutrition freak with all the GMO products and processed food we have in the market now, i wont eat it. All organic but i have been blind to my dogs nutrition diet until this thread. I feed her purina and she seems to like it, thats why i havent looked into putting her on another brand but now i realize that the lies and marketing gimmicks that are relayed to us for our food is the same structure for our pets. Time to do some reading and become smarter in this field.

[SUPbRAh]

Damnnnnn, I gotta be more careful myself then.

[Matej]

Earlier today I called Purina, related my story, and inquired why they still sell the Beneful brand. So many dogs dying or getting sick with the same symptoms has to be more than a coincidence. They did not address my concern about the food being on store shelves, but they did take down all details I gave them, supposedly to send to the higher-ups or whomever. I was also told I should be receiving a call from their claims department within the next couple days, and they may cover the costs of the veterinary bills. Although if they really do offer to, that is pretty much admitting that their food was responsible.

[rage941]

Wow if they cover the vet bills let us know. My family racked up a few grand with our dog.

[atom]

.... so how many days did you actually feed your dog Beneful?

My parents dog had a funky reaction to IAMS (got all mopey, developed hot spots) and they immediately took her off the food. They feed her Innova now. Some dogs just have bad reactions to certain formulations due to certain ingredients, corn being the biggest offender.

I think its pretty messed up that pet food is more or less unregulated. So much shit out on the market.

[rican_nick]

Sorry for your loss man.

It really sucks if it indeed was the food. My guess would be that your dog along with others may have had an allergic reaction to something in this particular brand dog food.

I think different dogs will have different reactions. My dog has eaten a large cup of Beneful with a can of Alpo on top every day for the last 2+yrs. He's also eaten a 12ft extension cord from end to end when he was 7mths old and recently ate 6bars of soap.. so he obviously has a stomach lined in steel.

He doesnt like other dog foods so we stick to what works but if we add anymore dogs I'll make sure to keep a close eye on it.

[Matej]

.... so how many days did you actually feed your dog Beneful?
It was three or four days, until he refused to eat it completely, but apparently enough damage was done...
The Beneful formula contains garlic and the 'Fiesta' blend even has avocado, both of which can be toxic to dogs, which is pretty outrageous. It sucks learning these things only now, when it is too late. Ironically, I bought the food because from reading the packaging I thought I would treat him to something better than the more plain foods I usually got.

I am sure how it affects a dog mainly depends on the size and breed. Mine was a small rare show breed. He was given to my family as a gift, complete with a gold-embossed dog family tree and such silly things. Even though I fed him regular dog food from Petco instead of the fancy meals the breeder recommended, at his yearly checkups he was always declared 100% healthy and happy.

[TheWolf]

I use "taste of the wild" for my lab and german shepherd. Their waterfowl formula will put meat on any dog. I use the sierra mountain formula for normal activity. It's got a little less protein in it.

Pawsch, The Pet Nutrition People (http://www.pawsch.com)

is where we get it and they deliver it for free to our house. A 30lb bag is $50. My shepherd and my lab will eat a bag every 3 weeks. Quality dog food requires your dogs to eat less of it as it's more calorie dense.

If you don't want to feed your dog kibble. Then goto the fresh meat diet where you serve your dog straight up turkey, chicken, and lamb from the grocery store or meat house.

[Witness]

Sorry for your loss ive always been paranoid about brands and always search info on them.

i feed my dog Prescription diet cost round $80-100 a bag from the vet but she also eats an apple(no seeds) banana and some vegetables on the daily. Her blood work came back today and the Vet was surprised how healthier she was for a 7 year old dog compared to others he gets in the clinic.