If you feed your pet a jerky treat and it gets sick or dies, the Food and Drug Administration wants to hear from you. If your pet gets sick after eating such treats, the FDA wants owners to keep the leftover treats for 60 days in case it wants a sample, and veterinarians should report any jerky treat-related cases.
From the FDA’s website – “OnOctober 22, 2013, FDA issued a Dear Veterinarian letter to licensed practitioners, encouraging them to provide case information to FDA and
Vet-LIRN, and asking them to advise their clients about the illnesses. We are
also providing a Fact Sheet for pet owners explaining what symptoms to look for
and steps they can take to protect their pets’ health. We also remind pet owners
that treats are not needed for a balanced diet.”
In some cases, veterinarians will be asked to provide blood, urine and tissue samples from their patients for further analysis. FDA will request written permission from pet owners and will cover the costs, including shipping, of any tests it requests.
The FDA reports of more than 3,600 dogs and 10 cats that got sick after ingesting jerky pet treats, 580 of those pets have died over the course of six years.
Most of the jerky treats associated with this serious situation have come from China, the FDA reports.
No brands are listed but most of the animals affected ate chicken or duck jerky treat or a jerky-wrapped treat.
The FDA has been unable to find a link or cause for the illnesses affecting pets.
Symptoms seen within hours of eating the treats have been diarrhea, vomiting, a lack of appetite, sluggishness, decreased appetite, decreased activity, increased water consumption and increased urination. Severe cases have involved kidney failure and gastrointestinal bleeding, the FDA said.
According to the FDA, “If the dog shows any of these signs, consumers should immediately stop feeding the jerky pet treat. In addition, owners should consult their veterinarian if signs are severe or persist for more than 24 hours. Blood tests may indicate kidney failure (increased urea nitrogen and creatinine). Urine tests may
indicate Fanconi-like syndrome (increased glucose).”
“This is one of the most elusive and mysterious outbreaks we’ve encountered,” said Bernadette Dunham, director of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine.
The FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine has visited jerky pet treat manufacturers in China and worked with other groups to discover the cause and conducted more than 1200 tests with no clear-cut answers to these deadly problem.
If your pet becomes sick, get to your veterinarian ASAP and also contact the FDA. Their contact information, including phone numbers by states or over the internet can be found in the following link.
http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/ReportaProblem/ucm182403.htm
If you do purchase treats for your pets, always read the package and see where they were made. These treats can be found at a number of stores. There has been no official recall on these treats. It’s up to you, as guardian of your pet and consumer, to be always check what you’re buying. Keep your pet safe and do not purchase these treats and share this information with others.
China is known for killing dogs for their meat and fur. In my opinion, why would they care about the ingredients placed in the treats?
This has been going on for years. I will never give my dogs these kinds of treats and never from China!!
Why hasn’t the FDA put out warning years ago when pets starting dying. They’re still not recalling any of the treats. What does it take when a precious pet dies because of these poisonous treats?
Why wait this long to inform the public about the toxicity and possibility of your dog dying from these treats? Guess 600 pets were enough for the FDA to finally take action and tell us.
Don’t buy from China. They’re getting rich off of us and making our pets die!
I rarely give my dogs treats. I see too many overweight dogs now. That isn’t good for the dog. If I did, knowing these treats have killed so many over the last several years would prompt me to never buy these treats. They should be recalled instead of placing other pets in danger or worse, death. They don’t the reason why but they do know they are the cause of the deaths and they’re not recalled. WHY?? There are people who don’t watch the news or read the paper, so how are they going to find out unless you remove the treats.
I agree with Babs. Why are they waiting this long for pet parents to come forward? These products should have been off the shelves years ago. Now nealry 600 pets have died because they didn’t stop the making of these deadly treats. I’ve read some of the stories and it’s so disheartening to read them. Shame on the FDA for not recalling these treats that are killing our pets!
OMG! WHY ARE THEY STILL SELLING THEM?
I tend to agree with almost everything that is written inside “FDA wants to
hear from you if your pet has become sick or dies after
eating a jerky treat | A Closer Look At Animal Welfare Issues”.
Many thanks for pretty much all the details.I appreciate it-Lazaro
FDA wants to hear from you if your pet has become sick or dies after eating a jerky treat