Need to went over poisoned pet food

[missbunny]

Our cat passed away yesterday. Frisky was my son's cat. He was about 14 years old, we adopted him from an animal shelter in 1994. My ds picked him out because Frisky jumped right into his lap. This cat really was more like a dog. He would wait by the door after school waiting for John to come home. He would cry if he was alone in a room. He really loved being with people. At the same time he was a little paranoid. He was afraid of being outside and other animals, even birds scared him. When he would be coaxed to go outside, he would only sit on our steps for a few minutes, then cry to come back in.
This past February he started getting sick. He began to throw up and had trouble drinking. He wasn't keeping anything in him. We took him to the vet and after xrays and bloodwork they determined he had an infection. Frisky went on antibiotics and painkillers and it seemed like he was going to pull through. Before he got sick, he weighed about 15 pounds, he dropped to about 10 pounds.
A few days after the vet visit the news about the poisoned pet food came out. Our vet rechecked Frisky's blood and he did eat the poison.
We began to feed Frisky a diet rich in protein to get his weight up. We gave him watered down milk, deli turkey and his favorite tuna.
This only worked for a few months. In August he began to lose weight again. We took him back to the vet but there wasn't only else to do. Frisky wasn't in pain but he was fading slowly. he dropped to about 5 or 6 pounds. He had trouble climbing the stairs and lost interest in food. He had trouble reaching his litter box (in our basement) so we moved him into our garage. We knew it was only a matter of time. we talked about putting him so sleep but John couldn't do that. He didn't want to kill his cat. He loved him too much.
Thurday night Frisky was really bad, he wasn't eating, John tried to spoon feed him but Frisky wouldn't eat. John just held and comforted his cat. He made a bed for Frisky with one of his old blankets and spent the night with him.
Frisky passed away in his sleep sometime that night. I am glad he didn't suffer. We buried him in our yard by some flowers. John is really try to put on a brave face, he is 19 years old and a little embarrassed about crying.
I am so angry at our country for letting its people and their pets be in danger from poisons. We keep hearing about recalls and still our leaders stand by. What will it take to wake this country up? I know I only lost our family pet, but how many have to die before we end this?
Please excuse the lenght of this, but our family is hurting and I really need to let my feelings out.

[DisneyDudet]

I am so sorry for your loss. To many, pets are family. They are a family member. My dog, Chloe, will always be my sister. I am 23 years old, still living at home. One main reason... Chloe. I can understand your son and your decisions.

I am sorry that all this has happened by the hand of others. We need stricter policies on imports. Period. Whether its what we wear, eat, or feed our animals. Even the things we let our children play with are being poisoned.

I hope and pray that there will be some way to reduce and eliminated hazards. I know its like a "world peace" dream, but I still hope.

Here is some :pixie: for you and your family. Frisky was a great companion to you, and he will be missed.

[Checkers]

Kathy,
I am so sorry to hear about your cat. I am sitting here crying as the same thing happened to our cat in May. Checkers was 15 yrs. old and started getting ill in the spring. We had a call from the vet one Sat. morning telling us to stop giving her the prescription food because it had been recalled because of poison. Of course we immediately stopped it but it was too late. She hardly ate at all and she was a huge cat (19 lbs.) and we bought her everything that we thought would entice her to eat. She began really losing weight and we took her back into the vet. We had blood work done (everything was perfect) but then they did xrays and found that she was full of tumors and they gave her 2 wks. She didn't seem to be in any pain but rarely left my side. She died in my arms a week later (on the way to the vet). It is still hard for me to talk about it and I really miss her. This is the first time in my life I have not had a pet. I still think I see her from time to time.

Please accept my condolences. I know how you feel about our country being so lax in the regulations anymore, especially with food products. It is actually really scary and I don't think we have seen the end of it.

Also, give my sympathy to your son. Having and nurturing a pet and then losing it is very hard.

Just know that someone out here knows how you all feel and cares.

[kakn7294]

I'm so sorry for your loss - pets are more than just pets, they truly are family members.

[RenDuran]

I'm truly sorry to hear about Frisky and Checkers. I know your families miss them and will always remember them.

[Zippy 1]

I am so sorry for your lost. Sometimes our pets are truly family members. I understand your pain and grief after losing your beloved pet. We lost our kitty one week ago. It is a very rough experience. I am sending lots of :pixie::pixie::pixie::pixie::pixie::pixie::pixie:: pixie:

[mrsgaribaldi]

I'm so sorry for Frisky and all of you. I'm also sorry about Checkers. Pets are a big part of our families. My condolences to you both. :pixie::pixie::pixie::pixie:

[MsMin]

I'm so sorry to hear this. My heart goes out to you and your family. We brought our babies to the vet last week and our vet did warn us about tainted products. She believes that some may have been relabeled through other countries and may still have found it's way into our products(more than the recalled products). She is sticking to dry products for her own animals.
We have the new little puppies and I hate to think that I could be rewarding them with something deadly. The media tells us it was just a few and my vet said she just had 2 more perfectly healthy dogs die last week from kidney failure.
More :pixie: and for Checkers too :pixie:

[missbunny]

My family and I wish to thank everyone for their condolences. When I told my ds about it, he was a bit surprised. He said these people don't even know me and they care. He said "Wow mom, Disney fans really do care about each other."
John is still hurting but he knows it was for the best. We told him that taking home a cat from the shelter and providing him with lots of love over the years was the best gift he could have given any animal.
John's girlfriend volunteers at a local shelter and he's going to help out too. He has always been a kind and generous young man. He makes me so proud.
I am so glad I joined Intercot. I looked at other Disney boards and found them to be filled with a lot of mean-spirited people. But this site is a family. I may not post very often, but I do lurk here quite a bit. I have learned so much about Disney and shared in so many lives. Logging on is like coming home and I am glad to have meet all of you.
To all of you who mentioned your own losses, I send my deepest and most heart felt condolences. A family pet is just that, our family. We give them our love and they give us so much more in return.
Once again, thank you for all your kindness.

[DisneyDudet]

Every time I hug my Chloe, I am thinking of Frisky, and now Checkers. I came home from work this morning and she was limping. I immediately freaked out, because I don't want anything wrong with her. She is a shelter puppy, and I love her so much.

I hope that time will heal, and that your family will save the life of another animal from a shelter. I know that when Chloe passes, she would want us to. She wouldn't want us to be sad. I know its silly to think that, but she is always trying to make us happy. I know Frisky would probably want you to be happy as well, so, in time, hopefully you will open up your home to another animal in need.

I continue to send :pixie: your way. Tell your son that I know what its like to lose a pet that you have grown up with. It is almost 10 years ago that I lost my very first childhood pet, and it is hard, but time did heal my heart, and I was able to love another, while not replacing her. Frisky and Checkers cannot be replaced either.

Loads of :pixie: is on the way.

[disneydeb]

My Chloe left this earth too this summer. Not by tainted food but by dogs not fenced by their owners. She too was a precious friend.
I'm so sorry for all feeling the loss of a friend.:hug:to those in need of one.

[BRJARE3]

I am sorry for your loss. I do not have any pets, but I work at a veterinary hospital. We saw quite a few pets who came in because they ate the tainted food. It can cause kidney failure in the animals. We are a pretty big hospital and we had a few patients die. We had to submit reports directly to the companies that were involved in the recall. I would tell you that you should only give dry food to your pets. Most dry foods were not recalled. There was only one prescription food that was recalled. There are about 20 or so different prescriptions out there. Hopefully our government will never let this happen again. Again, my condolences on the loss of your cat.

[DisneyDog]

I also send my sympathies to all who lost their precious pets due to the poisoning. It's so scary, thinking you are doing something good for those you love, and who knows what you are really doing? We recently lost my heart dog to old age, and our 12 year old had a stroke shortly thereafter...it was around the the same time as the pet food recall. He is healthy, despite having a lot of trouble walking...I still wonder if pet food or perhaps a cookie somewhere caused his stroke.

[thrillme]

My sympathies.

I have 3 cats one that chose me 15 years ago and she's about 17/18 now. Fortunately she's still eats dry with a little tuna. But of course I do feed her the wet food from time to time...she meows me into it. I was on vacation when this whole recall came along. When I got home I immediately threw out all the wet food for my cats and my dog even though they weren't on the list and started over again after several weeks.

This is really so horrible because it came to those people who only bought the "best" for their babies or at least believed they did.