When Dr. Marty Goldstein was on CAT CHAT with me recently, a lady called in to say that some of her cats had died from canned food. Weeks passed and I finally received an email – which follows, as does my reply to her. Any thoughts or comments would be welcome!
Tracie,
First I want to thank you for taking my phone call on your show. I also want to explain why it has taken me so long to write you. This is the first email I have ever done, and this the 3rd time (hopefully that last) I have done this email. I somehow deleted my first two. I need help to find out where I can get some canned cat food tested. I will try to explain what happened, but first I guess I should tell you a little bit about myself and my life. I live in the country on 10 acres and my whole life is my animals. I have no family here or friends. I spend all my time every day taking care of my cats and dogs. I have four dogs, 3 Siberian Husky’s and 1 Black Lab. I had 48 cats (10 of my cats died) and 4 kittens which I hand-raised because their mother died, she was a wild outside cat. All of my cats are inside cats they never go outside and they are all cats that I have rescued and their babies.
I will tell you briefly tell you what happened. The 1st of my cats died on Saturday, June 21, 2008, 2 more of my cats died on Sunday. June 22, 2008, the 4th cat died on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 and on that Tuesday another of my cats got sick, I was able to get her to the vet and I thought she was going to be okay but she died on Friday, June 27, 2008. Then on Monday, June 30, 2008 I had 5 more of my cats die. This is so hard for me to even talk about, it is taking everything I have in me to write this. I can give you all the details but I just cannot do that now. I just want to try to get this finished and sent to you. Even though I had 3 of the cats posted the vets were not able to find out why my babies died. On that Monday, June 30th, I decided that it had to be the food I was feeding my cats that was killing them. I did not feed them any of the food I had and first thing Tuesday morning I bought them different dry and can food. I do not think that the problem was with the dry food, because I was feeding them six different kinds and brands of dry food. I was feeding them only one kind of canned cat food, which was 9-Lives canned cat food. I have several cats that will not eat any canned cat food, and several that eat very little canned cat food.
Since Monday, June 30, 2008 no more of my cats have died, and I am so thankful for that, because I really do not think I could take it if I lost anymore of my babies. I contacted Del Monte Foods, they make 9-Lives canned cat food, they wanted me to send them one can of each of the kinds of 9-Lives that I had fed them, which was 11 different cans. I finally heard back from Del Monte, and I can give you all the details of what happened, but briefly what Del Monte said that they “examined the food and found it to be normal.” After a lot of questions on my part I found from Del Monte that all they did was “odor and appearance” test, so what they did was open each can, smell it and look at it, and they said the cans of food smelled and looked okay. I asked them what tests they had done for anything toxic in the food and they said that they could not test for anything unless I could tell them what to test for.
I know that the 9-Lives canned cat food killed my 10 cats and I help to prove it. I know I will never get over my babies that died. I still have nightmares every night and every time one of my cats makes a sound I go running to make sure they are okay. I have been making all the wet food for both my cats and dogs, and as soon as I can figure out how to make dry cat and dry dog food I will start making all their food. If there is anything you can do to help me get the 9-Lives canned cat food tested, I still have cans of each kind. I hope that this email gets to you. I will be waiting to hear from you, I know you are very busy so I hope to hear from you when ever you can.
Thank You,
Barbara in Oklahoma
Thanks for writing Barbara – and I’m so sorry for your loss.
Although i know you suspect the food, given how many cats you have, it would have killed or sickened all of them, not just a quarter of them.
Also, if it were the food there would have been other people with cats sick or dying, it could not be limited to just your home.
I have to tell you that 48 cats and 4 kittens is too many cats in one place. There are contagious diseases of so many kinds and there is no way for one person to monitor all the daily habits of the cats (eating, drinking and eliminating) which give signs of illness. I know you mean well and am sure your intention is to give them the love they deserve, but it’s truly an unmanageable number of cats – upper respiratory and other illnesses spread like wildfire and if you are feeding dry food, which I am sure you are, then their health is compromised solely from that. Kidney failure, urinary stones and blockages and diabetes have early warning signs that could easily be missed given the number of pets under your care. I wonder if you would consider reducing the number of cats you have by reaching out to other individuals or private rescues in your area?
I know this isn’t the answer you were hoping for but I have to be honest and hope to help you do the best by your pussycats, who right now are just too numerous for the kind of one-on-one care they deserve.
Let me know how I can help.
Tracie
