If you haven’t heard about it all over the news recently, Menu Foods, a major manufacturer of pet food, has recalled some 60 million containers of wet pet food after reports of kidney failure and deaths.

You may or may not remember back just over 2 months ago, Monty had a little health scare which required $400 worth of vet visits, blood & urin tests, and stress on our part. It was never definitively determined what had caused the sickness, but what was very definitive was that the little guy had experienced some type of heavy liver damage in the process.

So you can imagine our surprise to have heard over the weekend that the Eukanuba cuts and gravy pouches which he loves, and which we give him every few days as a treat, probably nearly killed him.

From CNN.com:

Undisclosed number of cats and dogs suffered vomiting, kidney failure; 10 dead

Sound familiar?

I think its rather unfortunate that 2 months ago we weren’t able to 100% nail down the cause of Monty’s illness. But the question remains for me: why did it take another 2 months after our scare for Menu Foods to start their recall? Did it take a few dozen dead animals for them to figure out what was up? I hope that what comes out of this is a more closely regulated pet food industry, because I don’t ever want to feel like I was the one who ultimately killed my pet because of the food I bought for him.

The weekend is over and we’re both back in the US. The cottage was a fantabulous success for me, as was Brantford for Christa. Monty was happy to be back home after spending the weekend with Christa’s parents, and Bailey was just happy to see people back in the house again after hanging out on his own all weekend.

So it sounds like we may have our first real “snow event” this winter here in Detroit as they are calling for 5″-8″ between this afternoon and tomorrow morning. Sadly, I’m actually excited for a real snowstorm. It’s been pretty sparse in the snow department and I haven’t even had the need to break out the shovel once this year.

I had my laptop out in my lap this morning sitting in my chair with my feet up. Bailey decided that he should be in my lap instead, so I shutdown and closed the laptop to give him the personal time he requested, and he bolted not 2 seconds later.

Christa summed it up best: “He’s laughing at you on the inside.”

Monty had his vet appointment last night. I think ideally we were both hoping that we would go in, they’d be able to diagnose his severe stomach flu-like symptoms, and we’d come home and he’d be better. Unfortunately, thats not quite how last night played out. Two hours, a battery of several blood tests, x-rays, and a urine analysis, and I’m not sure we’ll ever know what has caused his sudden sickness. But that’s only 1/2 of the story…

They first took him back for a set of x-rays to see if he had an obstruction in his digestive tract. It was good to see everything looking ok from the outside, and other than a large gas pocket in his stomach (which is par-for-the-course for this stink bomb anyway) that came back normal.

Next up they drew blood to run some tests. 10 minutes later the doctor came in and scared the living shit out of us; according to the results, Monty should be comatose with acute diabetes & liver failure. I give her credit for realizing something wasn’t right, so they ran a second blood test as well as a urine analysis to rule out diabetes. The 2nd blood test came back in within the norm except for one value: Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT). ALT is an enzyme considered liver-specific in dogs and cats. It is used as a screening test for liver disease but will not diagnose the disease itself. You may also see an increase in ALT when there is damage to liver cells, skeletal muscles, the pancreas and the muscles of the heart.
Insert shock here. Could Monty really have liver disease, or did he just get into something that his liver is working overtime to get out of his system? Luckily the liver is one of the most resilient organs in the body…
At this point we were given a choice: take him to an emergency vet for overnight observation, or have him prepped to be observed at home. We chose to give up our Friday night, so they gave him a shot of B vitamins, a camel hump of fluids on his shoulder to be absorbed to combat dehydration, and a shot of some anti-nausea medication. We also received some antibiotics & more anti-nausea as a prescription to take home.

As soon as we got home he wanted to eat. We gave him several small meals of some wet food all of which he wolfed down. We stayed up with him until almost 1am and he appeared MUCH better than he had the previous evening, so we were very positive going to bed. I woke up around 5am to Monty puking on the carpet, which in all reality is better than the 4 or 5 times i woke up Wednesday and Thursday night to puking.

So I guess right now we’re taking baby steps. He started on his antibiotics last night, and has continued to eat and drink this morning. He seems much perkier and more himself today running around like a crazy dog, so we’ll update his condition later tonight.

Between Bailey the “awkwardly acrobatic” Cat & Monty the “if I eat this will I get sick?” Dog I’ve cleaned up more spilled coffee & puke piles in the past 24 hours than I have in the past year.

There’s nothing better than snuggling up with a puke breath dog in bed…

Update:

Monty is going to the vet at 5pm today (01/12) as he hasn’t been able to keep anything down for 24 hours.

Took a few pics this morning of Monty playing with one of Bailey’s cat toys & put them in the gallery.
Yes we’re both still here; things are going well we’re just busy busy busy all the time.