Rusty Stickers Mom

Both have been eating the prescription canned ID food from the Vet. Stickers has been fine for about 4 days as far as throwing up and attitude so with the Vet's approval we decided to feed her their kibble, Natural Balance Ultra Premium. Dave gave her this for breakfast & lunch and she has vomited twice!! It HAS to be the food! We empty the kibble into a storage container as soon as we open it so I don't have that bag. I do send the UPC code to Kathy for the Suncoast Rescue but Dave forgot to save it for that bag so I have no way of tracking that information. It can't be a coincidence that she gets ill the same day she starts eating the food again. I called the Vet and she agree and said to stop feeding the food. She said to keep Stickers on the canned food for another 24 hours and keep Rusty on it till Saturday. I will go back to Eagle Pack Duck & Oatmeal which I use to feed. I switched because it was getting too expensive and a friend recommended Natural Balance. They did fine on Eagle Pack so I should have left well enough alone.

The worst part is I called Natural Balance and the lady in their Customer Service Dept could care less!! She repeatedly asked me for the UPC code. I told her I didn't have it. Didn't care what store I bought it at or my name & number. She offered me a replacement coupon! SHe finally gave me the information for their CA office where Dave will write a letter! The Petco where I bought it cared more than the company who makes the food. The manager at Petco feeds his dog this food and was very concerned and will follow up. The Vet said it could just be an isolated incident but was disappointed in the companys response.

We are all exhausted from this experience. Thankfully Rusty is on his way to recovery and was actually jumping on me for kisses. I'm sure Stickers will be fine soon but I feel bad that I was feeding something that was making them so sick. I spoke to the manager at our local Petco where we bought the Natural Balance. He was very upset as he feeds the same food to his dogs. He said even without having the bag he would refund our money. Just dump the food into a plastic bag and he'd be happy to return it. He was more concerned than Natural Balance was. He too was disappointed in their response. Dave went today and bought a small bag of Holistic Select Chicken Formula. Stickers just had 1/2 of that & 1/2 of the canned ID. Rusty had 90% canned ID and 10% kibble. So far so good. It's great to see them running and playing today. They actually played for the first time in well over a week. I will scrub the container and rinse in hot water first, I will know keep the UPC bar code in the container with the food till we finish a bag. This past week has been hell. It's a shame their food was making them sick. I will be so happy when things return to normal. All I want to do is rest this weekend. It's been a long long week!

BubbaLeroy

I know you are smiling today after a very long week with two sick Bassets. I'm so glad you have found the source of their illness, and they are on their way back to being healthy once again.

When you scrub the container you might do a weak solution of bleach/clorox to sanitize the container and then rinse well. I do hope Petco will follow up on this, so the dog food company will pursue what caused this in their dog food so this won't happen to anyone else. Petco will have a lot more clout that one dog owner.

Get some rest and give those fur kids lots of TLC and belly rubs.

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You don't own a Basset, a Basset owns you!!
Aroooooos from Bogie !! - Trumbull's Who's Teasin Bogart CGC- Born April 21, 2005
ATB: Bubba - (Trumbull's Surley It's Stormin Norman) Sept. 8, 1998 - Dec. 20, 2005

Beverly Anne

Crazy, isn't it? You try to do the best for your little guys and it totally backfires.
Well, I'm glad they're on the mend.

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Francis's Bevy