[BillyBoy]

Everything is starting to make sense now! My 2 dogs, a 6 yr. old male yellow lab (Billy) and a 5 yr old female cocker (Macy) have been on TOTW Pacific Stream for almost a year. They were doing really well on it...until suddenly a month ago Billy started having digestive problems. He has been having episodes of loud noise in his tummy from gas (but would not actually pass gas) at night and will refuse his food the next day. He has also had some bouts vomiting and diarrhea. This was happening on-and-off for a few weeks so I took him to the vet. They did a fecal test and found nothing, an X-ray and found nothing and a blood work-up and again found nothing. The vet even prescribed a Panacur to get rid of any worms that wouldn't show on a fecal exam. He took the meds, but to no avail. Finally, I figured he may have developed an allergy to the food so I have been searching for a food without fish and without lamb (the cocker doesn't tolerate lamb).

Just today I went out and bought a bag of Blue Buffalo Chicken and brown rice, which wasn't my first choice but brands like Wellness that I wanted to try had fish meal so I was afraid to get it thinking that Billy might have an allergy to it. Now I'm thinking we may have just got a few bad bags of TOTW! I keep all of their food in a container and throw out the bag so I have no idea what batch the past two bags came from. I wish I would have heard of these problems before. Now I am considering going with the Wellness after all.

Just curious did anyone that has a bad experience with Pacific Stream purchase them in Milford, CT? That's where I buy mine.

[KarliMom]

My crew are half way through a large bag of TOTW Pacific Stream formula no problems what so ever . Thanks for the heads up but as long as my crew stay healthy and happy on it I'm not switching .

[Taz Monkey]

Every animal in my house (12 cats and 3 dogs) has been on TOTW for over a year and I've finally found a food that agrees with everyone.

[grab]

We've fed TOTW for well over a year (first Wetlands formula, then Pacific Stream for the past 6 or 7 months) and have had no issues with any digestive upsets. (and we have to buy a bag every three weeks or so) Aesop doesn't like a lot of food (we've tried pretty much every brand available) or gets horrible diarrhea on most. This is one that he really enjoys (rare for him) and has normal digestive functions on. As long as we have no issues, we'll stick with it. If we were to see any reluctance to eat or some sign of illness, we'd obviously reconsider, but have had no such issues.

Our cats have eaten TOTW as well for quite some time (about a year) and look great as well. We adopted a second Persian a month ago and the difference in coat after just a few weeks on the food was quite impressive.

[pugmom]

2 of my guys have been on TOTW HP formula for over a year....they are doing great!...they have great muscle tone and there coats are shinny...they were previously on Wellness and were having a lot of gas

[luckysmom]

I'm new here and was made aware of other peoples pets getting sick from taste of the wild food through another forum. I wanted to share my TOTW experience and hopefully prevent any other dogs from getting sick.

I was feeding my dogs TOTW pacific salmon for 2 1/2 weeks up until October 28, '09 and my dogs were very very sick. One developed sores around his mouth diarrhea, renal / urinary problems, and were so lethargic they would not even get up except to go to the bathroom. My younger dog was urinating so frequently he started refusing to come in- he slept by the back door only getting up to pee.

We took them to 2 different vets, and Cornell veterinary school and were told they thought our older dog had cancer, lupus, or kidney stones. Because the younger dog had refused to eat the food at first we thought he was getting the canine flu or a UTI. Unfortunately we were slow to make the connection and after 2 1/2 weeks both dogs were so sick we knew it could only be the food.

We had a rep from Cornell call Diamond about it and the only thing they would admit was that there was a recall in July 09'- but it was only on a few bags from a certain factory due to too much moisture. We then called about it and she initially denied a recall on Taste of the Wild until my husband flat out asked "was there a recall on this food?" they then confirmed the recall and they said it was due to low-moisture.

To shorten this up a bit- my dogs are still exhibiting renal problems but are finally begin to wag their tails again and get their mojo back. I have sent the food to 2 different labs for independent testing and I hope to have some answers within a week....

Please contact me if your dog has gotten sick as well. I want to compare symptoms for having the food tested. I guess they know what to test for based upon a dogs symptoms?! As of right now I am having the food tested for melamine, aflotoxins, and heavy metals.... but the more symptoms we have the easier it should be to narrow it down.

And has anyone else noticed that diamond has given at least 2-3 different accounts as why this food was recalled?

I also think we should change the title of this thread from "potential warning" to "WARNING TO ALL TOTW FEEDERS!!! DANGER WILL ROBINSON! DANGER!!!!!!"

ALSO Wellness is made by the same company that makes TOTW!!! Diamond pet foods manufactures many different pet foods under various names!

[BillyBoy]

Originally Posted by luckysmom

I
ALSO Wellness is made by the same company that makes TOTW!!! Diamond pet foods manufactures many different pet foods under various names!

First off, I just want to say I am sorry to hear about your dogs' poor health. I hope they get well soon. My dog's problems while on TOTW were intestinal upset, refusal to eat, bloody & mucus covered diarrhea, and vomiting. I just switched him to Wellness Core and he is starting to do better.

I checked into who manufactures Wellness and it does appear that Diamond manufactures some of Wellness' formulas...but it does not own Wellness like it does TOTW. Wellness (owned by WellPet) uses several manufacturing plants, but they provide their own ingredients and perform their own inspections of the plants. TOTW however is owned by Diamond and therefore has its ingredients provided by Diamond. I wish Diamond didn't manufacture any of Wellness foods, but my guys seem to be doing well on it, and since they use their own ingredients I think I'll stick with it for now.

Please keep us all updated on your findings.

[ladyshadowhollyjc]

Originally Posted by luckysmom

I was feeding my dogs TOTW pacific salmon for 2 1/2 weeks up until October 28, '09 and my dogs were very very sick. One developed sores around his mouth diarrhea, renal / urinary problems, and were so lethargic they would not even get up except to go to the bathroom. My younger dog was urinating so frequently he started refusing to come in- he slept by the back door only getting up to pee.

We took them to 2 different vets, and Cornell veterinary school and were told they thought our older dog had cancer, lupus, or kidney stones. Because the younger dog had refused to eat the food at first we thought he was getting the canine flu or a UTI. Unfortunately we were slow to make the connection and after 2 1/2 weeks both dogs were so sick we knew it could only be the food.

I'm just trying to get the story straight, but you're saying that feeding this food for 2 1/2 weeks caused one of your dogs to either get cancer, lupus, or kidney stones?

I'm curious as to what your test results will uncover.

[nikelodeon79]

Aside from all other issues mentioned in this thread about TOTW, I did want to make everyone aware that it does indeed contain ethoxyquin.

My canine nutritionist called Diamond/TOTW (along with several other dog food manufacturers) and confirmed that TOTW does indeed contain ethoxyquin. Not only is this troubling because ethoxyquin is a known carcinogen, but it is also upsetting because TOTW/Diamond has stated in the past that their foods DO NOT contain ethoxyquin. So... basically a lie/mistruth.

Additionally, Diamond tried to say that ethoxyquin breaks down during the heating process used to make kibble. This is also NOT true. (Some other more truthful dog food companies actually admitted that it DOES NOT break down in heat. When asked why they use fish meal preserved with ethoxyquin, they honestly replied that it was cheaper... and they'd have to charge more for their food if they got fish meal from sources that did not use ethoxyquin as a preservative. (FYI ethoxyquin is banned from use in food intended for human consumption.. it is a pesticide and has been known to cause reproductive problems, birth defects, cancer, liver and kidney failure).

For those interested, here is a list of foods that do not contain ethoxyquin:
ANY Natura product (Innova, Evo, California Naturals)
Blue Buffalo
By Nature
Flint River Ranch
Fromm
Merrick
Petcurean
Timberwolf
Wellness
Orijen
Acana
Nature's Variety
Life's Abundance
Halo
Horizon
Pinnacle
Canine Caviar
Eagle Pack

Just some "food" for thought...

[luckysmom]

I'm just trying to get the story straight, but you're saying that feeding this food for 2 1/2 weeks caused one of your dogs to either get cancer, lupus, or kidney stones?

Oops- I was so angry about the whole thing and on such a mission to tell people to beware, I guess I didn't describe the whole scenario clearly.

One of my dogs was on taste of the wild salmon formula while the other was on Orijens. I decided to put them both on taste of the wild because the calorie content was much lower than Orijens. In the beginning of October I slowly put them both on and they were fine. Both of my dogs ate it, loved it and seemed to do really well on it.

On October 14th I bought a new bag and on the 15th my younger dog refused to eat, and and my older dog became very anxious and developed very bad diarrhea. He was acting very strange so we took him to the vet- who thought perhaps he ate something outside and gave him antibiotics. In the meantime the younger dog still refused to eat it so I gave him some mixed with the remaining Orijens and he still wanted no part of it.

Figuring maybe the younger caught something at doggie daycare and brought it home I did not even consider the food as a source of their illness. After about 3-5 days on the TOTW the older dog developed sores, renal issues, and was acting so strange we were sure it something far more serious than a flu. At that time the younger dog was slowly beginning to eat and seemed fine. So we ended up traveling to take the older to see the vets at Cornell and while there we left the younger with his daycare. The vets at Cornell thought it could be one of the following- kidney stones, bladder cancer, lupus, or he could have had a reaction to something. They told us to wait another week or 2, and if the sores spread bring him in for a biopsy.

When we got home we picked up our other dog and the daycare said he refused to eat while there! After a day or 2 so we began to notice he was also beginning to exhibit anxiety, lethargy, urinate frequently and drink copious amounts of water. It was then that we realized it had to be something in the food.

We immediately took them off the food and within days the sores on my older dogs face began to clear up. We stopped feeding them the TOTW on Oct. 28, and they are both slowly getting back to themselves but still urinating and drinking quit a bit.

Our biggest issue is that we contacted diamond and had reps from Cornell contact Diamond and we've heard numerous different answers and denials about the recall. We just want answers so we can figure out what caused our dogs to get sick and help them get better. Without some idea of what was in the food their vets have no idea what caused them to get so sick.

Since they started to get better almost immediately after taking them off and Diamond denied the recall on the food, we knew it had to be the food. So the end result is we don't think they got cancer or lupus from the food- but we do think something in the food made them ill and mimicked symptoms of other diseases. Our best guess is aflotoxins which could develop if the foods moisture content or cooking procedure is off. As a side note their blood tests which were off when they were on the food also began to return to normal after taking them off of it.

I am very angry and wanted to let people know about this because Diamond has lied to us and as well as to reps from Cornell we had call them. By lying, refusing to admit the recall or reason as to why they recalled the food it tells us something was off about the food and they were aware of it.

I would feel a million times better if I thought they had no idea there was problem with the food. I pray the food testing comes back negative because I don't know if I could accept or even wrap my head around the idea that they would knowingly sicken or endanger the life of my dog for a $40. bag of dog food!!!

Thanks for that info on ethoxyquin- it gives us another idea of what could have made our dogs sick as well as something we should test for.

[luckysmom]

Hey I just attached a picture of the sores on my dogs face- (hopefully I did it right...) Anyway when you see the picture it will give a better idea as to why the vets weren't sure if it was some kind of canine melanoma or lupus.

Because we initially thought it was canine melanoma we took pictures every day in order to tell how quickly it was spreading. After stopping the food started to clear up within days.

[spitzmaus]

Sorry I won't feed my animals anything that's made by
Diamond, also for everyone who are feeding Costco brand
it's made by Diamond.

[nikelodeon79]

Originally Posted by luckysmom

ALSO Wellness is made by the same company that makes TOTW!!! Diamond pet foods manufactures many different pet foods under various names!

I just checked on this. Wellness is not manufactured by Diamond. It is manufactured by Wellpet, Inc. (Wellpet is also now manufacturing Eagle Pack).

Canidae, on the other hand, is manufactured by Diamond (their dry food, not their wet food).