Blue Buffalo Puppy Food Killed My Puppies

[Shannon]

I have been raising a litter of Puggles that were born on January 1st of this yeaR.
After the vet saw the puppies for their 6 week shots and wormings on February 13th, he said that he'd like Wulfy, Cerast, and Esme (the little ones at 2.6lb) to gain a little more weight. I took that to heart and went right to PetsMart and bought Blue Buffalo chicken and brown rice puppy food, Nutri-Cal puppy, and Blue Buffalo canned food. We started feeding the kibble (moistened of course) to the puppies on Monday night. In case you aren't familiar with it, Blue Buffalo is a very high reputation food. It ranks as one of the top commercial dog food available. And at $50 for a 35 pound bag it should be.

We were feeding this food to the Puggle puppies and to our older, but still puppies French Bulldogs as well.

Wednesday evening Robert (my husband) found Emily lying next to the food dish acting as if she were choking. He brought her right to me and I started trying to help her. First I held her on her back in between my hands and swung her between my knees to try and clear her airways. That didn't work. I stuck my finger down her throat to see if anything was lodged there. Nothing. I did mouth to mouth and chest compressions. After 20 minutes Robert made me stop. She was already gone. We broke the news to the kids, and got her put away to take to the vet for an autopsy the next morning.

Later that same night Robert noticed Cerast shaking and acting very depressed. That was odd for him because he has always been an attention hog. I brought him into the living room with us and tried to get him to eat some canned food. He wouldn't. I did get him to have some of the Nutri-Cal though. I took his temperature and it was a little low but not drastically. I sat on the couch with him until 3:00 am holding him under my shirt to warm him up. He was still shaky but otherwise acting normally so I gave him more Nutri-Cal and put him to bed with the other puppies. I thought maybe the uproar with Emily had just scared him or upset him. I stayed up another hour and checked on him every few minutes. At 4:00 am he was still okay so I went up to bed. Robert got up at 7:00 am and found him, dead.

First thing Thursday morning Robert took both Emily and Cerast's bodies to the vet for autopsies. Dr. Rob couldn't find anything at all wrong with them. So our general assumption was that Emily had swallowed a piece of food wrong and choked. Cerast had us all stumped, but he'd been awfully small at 2.6 pounds so Dr. Rob thought maybe he just hadn't been eating enough or something. He asked us to bring the rest of the puppies (including Frankie) to his office that afternoon. He examined everyone, did ex-rays, fecal checks.... No signs of sickness. Just to be safe though he gave everyone an antibiotic injection and sent antibiotics home with us.

I was terrified when I got up Friday morning. I was scared to go in and see the pups because I was afraid someone else might have died. I can't even explain how relieved I was when everyone popped their head up to start yelling for breakfast. I let the puppies out in the bathroom (with a gate up) to go potty and I got their food ready. They all started pigging out like usual except Wulfy was being pushed out. I got him and put him in the playpen with a potty pad, blankets, and a bowl of soft food. He ate and got on his blankets to sleep. Robert let Jack and Allie out and that woke Wulfy up. He sat at the end of the playpen and wagged his tail at Robert and was fine. Five minutes later he was on his back and not breathing. He died on the way to the vet even though I was giving him CPR.

I was hysterical. We'd already lost George early on, and then the other two puppies just the day before. And Wulfy was the one Jordyn (our oldest daughter) had chosen to keep so we'd all gotten very attached to him and bonded. He and I were very bonded and losing him killed me.

Dr. Rob said he'd been trying to figure out what was happening. He'd even sat down with the other vets and our records to see if they had ideas or if he was missing something. He remembered that I'd changed foods so he told us that he really didn't think it was the food, but he wanted us to stop feeding it anyway. We were to take it away from all the dogs (I had switched everyone) and go back to our previous food. He said he'd call after they had done an autopsy on Wulfy and when he did, he asked me to bring the other puppies to him and leave them over night for blood work and observation.

Late Friday he called me and said that there was absolutely no reason the puppies should be dying. None. The organs in the puppies we'd lost were all normal. No parasites, all normal bloodwork, no symptoms of anyone even being sick. He kept them for the weekend and I got to bring them home this past Tuesday. Frankie (my baby Frenchie), Fabio, Esme, and Romeo are all healthy and happy and doing well. Not one puppy has died since I took away the Blue Buffalo food. Not one.

I called the dog food company and they acted like I was nuts when I told them. They were nice but also disbelieveing and condescending. They have since then refused to answer my calls or return my calls. So now, I start raising hell. The current vet bill just since last Thursday is at $1500 and that doesn't include anything done before then trying to figure out what was happening. Three completely healthy puppies died after eating that food. In fact Emily died shortly after a dinner, Cerast got sick not long after she died, and Wulfy died right after eating.

I have contacted PetsMart and they are testing a sample of the food from the bag I was feeding. I've also contacted the FDA and they are starting an investigation as well.

Jordyn was hysterical when we had to tell her about Wulfy and she still can't say his name without crying. I only just brought myself to remove the listings from PuppyFind.com and I can barely say the pups' names without getting teary myself. There was no reason for them to die and what was supposed to be the best thing for them is what caused it. And now, a company with a very good reputation are acting shady and avoiding me and what happened to my puppies.

[Fonda Proctor]

How Awful! I am so sorry this happened to your puppies. Sounds like there was definitely something wrong with the food. God bless.

[Trish]

I'm so sorry to hear this.. :( I can't even imagine having to go through something so traumatic. I have never liked Blue Buffalo, it is supposed to be one the "better" commercial kibbles, but does not rank as high as what I would like a food to rank. It ranks a 4 out of 6 stars on dogfoodanalysis.com .. I feel a lot more confident feeding something that ranks at least a 5 star and I *never* buy food from Petsmart.. I don't even ever shop there for anything.. I'm not happy with their products, I shop at Petco and Pet Supplies Plus. Orijen (usually only available by mail order, unless you can find a boutique that carries it) and Wellness Core are much more quality foods to use. Orijen makes a puppy food, Wellness Core, their completely grain-free line of foods (I feed the Wellness Core Ocean formula) does not have a grain-less food, but as long as grains (like rice, oatmeal, etc.) don't bother your pups, Wellness does make make a regular puppy food.. I believe it's called Wellness Puppy Super-5 mix, and I have nothing but positive things to say about all Wellness products.

I hope the rest of the puppies continue to still do so well.. I can't express the sorrow I feel for your loss. :(

[Hooligan]

I have emailed this to all my friends and family...sorry for your loss and thanks for the warning!

[Beth Sarachman]

I truly hope you get answers. I don't know what to say. I'm shocked and scared. Please keep us posted!

Beth

[ittybittybullies]

Oh my God. This really hurts. I am so sorry to hear this Shannon. You guys must have been going insane.
My heart breaks for you guys. I hope they find what the problem was with that food and hold the company accountable. Oh man, that is scary.
I feel for you all.
Erick

[Forrest Metzger]

I am extremely sorry for your losses. I cannot even imagine our puppy dying for no reason and so suddenly...but I have to stick up for Blue Buffalo. It is highly unlikely that ANY puppy food could cause this. There are far too many other possibilities. Blue Buffalo has not gotten their reputation for no reason...it is a company that makes puppy food and dog food. It's what they do. They would not be able to exist if even the most miniscule part of their product could harm animals in any way, let alone kill them. I think it's a losing battle to try and get them to pay for your vet bills and stuff...and I do not work for Blue Buffalo, nor do I work for any sort of animal shelter or pet store. I feel as though one of the possibilites would be that somehow your dog food got contaminated, and that could be the fault of Blue Buffalo, or PetSmart, or someone in your household...but the original product of Blue Buffalo dog food or puppy food should not be to blame. There could have been some sort of chemical that exists in your home that they were exposed to...depending on what part of the country you live in, it could have been some sort of poisonous insect or something like that....And maybe they just got ahold of too large of a dose of chocolate (which I'm sure you know is fatal to dogs). It could have been something that was passed on from the mother...could have been due to pre-mature birth, if that was the case.... There are just sooooo many things that it could have been that you wouldn't have known about, and that could go undetected....and I would be in the same state of mind as you are, because there HAS to be a logical explenation as to why they died, so I would be looking for something to blame, too...but you can't just blame the dog food company.

[Jimmy Ferreira]

Wow im shocked. And the fact that i was just thnking of switching over to it and have already given some to my PUPPY scares me to death. I will look into something else and will also never listen to those DUMB FUCKS that work at Pestmart. Also i have a pet strore close by called Global Ryans Pets foods they seem pretty good and deal with alot of canadian products FUCK THE USA. Recalls on to many things i have a rare BREED its a ESTRELLA MOUNTAIN DOG. Im also looking into the raw dog food diet sounds great. PLUS who wants to fooed there pouch a CRACKER his or HER whole life come on ppl get with the program.

[FrogDogz]

Jimmy, let's tone down the rhetoric, thanks.

A LOT of the members on this group are from the USA, and from other countries as well. One bad dog food batch does not exactly require us to insult an entire country.

As for getting with the program, many of us have been feeding raw for 20+ years. We were doing it before there was a program to 'get with'.

[Trish]

I was wondering when someone else was going to see Jimmy's post, Carol.. lol!

A lot of hostility, especially when, as far as I know, Blue Buffalo never even had a food re-call, and there's nothing proving that those puppies died from the Blue Buffalo. I myself don't feed my dogs Blue Buffalo, but I've fed many high quality dry foods, canned foods, and have also tried commercial raw, and home cooked. I've never had any issues with foods I've used being re-called or anything like that, and I live in the United States, and don't think it's terrible at all. ;) Yes, a few of the dog food companies may be, but I don't buy stuff from them - simple as that!

[FrogDogz]

Well, if I really wanted to be a trouble maker, I'd point out to Jimmy that the top company involved in the pet food recalls of 2007 was a little outfit called Menu Foods.

Unfortunately for me, Menu Foods is a Canadian company (Streetsville, Ontario, to be exact).

Not a proud day for me as a Canadian, when that news was released.

All that it really proves, of course, is that recalls are not about countries - they're about COMPANIES, and good ones and bad ones exist in almost any country you can name. Due diligence is our responsibility, as pet owners. It's no longer enough for any of us to say "Oh, this food is made in Canada/USA/Whatever, so it MUST be good".