When Dog Food Kills

A recent post in a Facebook group that I belong to caught my attention.  A owner lost her two beautiful German Shepherd Dogs to moldy dog food.  She and her partner came home and found the first dog had already passed in his crate, covered in bloody diarrhea, while the second dog needed to be rushed to emergency, where less than one day later, due to liver failure and quality of life, he was humanely euthanized.

While still in shock, the owners went through everything that could have possibly killed their dogs.  They took the bag of kibble that they fed to their dogs and dumped the bag on the floor.  It was then that they found the mold, not just a little mold, but chunks, and that mold spread throughout the bag.

A necropsy was done of the first dog who died, and the findings were that the dog passed from a seizure that was believed to have been caused by liver failure due to the toxins in the moldy dog food. This, everyone, is an awful and painful way to die. It was not revealed in the post the dog food in question, possibly for the legal action that may be taken against the manufacturer.

Lesson to be learned here.  Approximately 94% of dog owners feed their dogs kibble on a consistent basis.  If you are one of those 94%, as am I, then when you get the dog food bag home, have a container for the food so when you empty the bag, you can visually inspect what the kibble looks like, and in what condition it’s in. If something doesn’t look right, take the bag back to the retailer, or contact your online supplier. People who purchase from large auto-ship companies, like Chewy, where the company buys huge bulk quantities, should pay special attention to the dog food, and the sell by/good by date on the bag, because for some of the higher-price specialty brands/flavors, the turnover is not as great.

Moldy, rotten dog food along with bloat are two life-threatening conditions that can kill your dog in a matter of a couple of hours. And these two conditions are 99% preventable. My social media feed is full of grief-stricken people who have lost their dogs to bloat, which is avoidable, yet so many were and are unaware of the causes of bloat and how to prevent it.

I’ve said at least a couple of hundred times that puppies and dogs are four-legged babies and children, respectively. And as we would look after our children, so should we look after our dogs, their welfare, health, and comfort.

Please don’t let yourself or your dog become a statistic.