This is a forward from the GermanPinschers maillist. I am trying to
track the email of the original author. "esterwin" can you get it for me?
If/when I get it, I will delete this message and repost this entire message
with the email, in one place, in case anyone is feeding this food and
encounters any problems and would like to contact her.

Warmly, Joy LaCaille - listowner
========================

From: "esterwin" <meemma@...>
Date: Sun Oct 5, 2003 11:15pm
Subject: Dog Food Alert

It has now been determined that the breed involved are Goldens, but
please be careful if you are feeding this food to your GP babes:

PERMISSION TO CROSSPOST TO ANY AND ALL PET FOLKS !!

----- Original Message -----
From: Debbie & Chuck <teetyme@I...>
To: <WORK_GOLD@L...>
Sent: Sunday, October 05, 2003 2:51 PM
Subject: DOG FOOD ALERT

This post isn't intended as a pointing of fingers at this dog food,
however, a situation has arisen in So. California and I have been
asked to post some general things to look for based upon what has
happened to our dogs. You are encouraged to cross post this to ANY
AND ALL lists you belong to and forward it to any owner of any dog
you know.

In February 2003 we started feeding the food Go Natural (which was
made in Canada at that time and as of July is mfg. at a plant in
Texas). We were extremely pleased with the food. All seven of our
dogs were put on the food and we encouraged others to try it.

In July we had a litter of 8 puppies. We lost one shortly after
birth. Seven of the puppies did very well and when it came time
to wean them we did so to Go Natural.

At eight weeks we had two puppies become sick - first signs were
refusal to eat and acting lethargic. Further symptoms on these
puppies included what appeared to be blood in the urine (it was
bilirubin). When blood tests were run on the puppies they had an
extremely high white blood cell count, had an extremely low red
blood cell count and were severely anemic. We have subsequently
lost both of these puppies with no "cause" of death yet being
determined. Numerous drugs were used on the puppies and after
14 days we lost the battle with one of them and after 26 days
we lost the battle with the second one. The puppies were
hospitalized during the bulk of this time. Under what we
considered extremely competent veterinary care. Not only were
regular vets consulted but specialists were brought in and no
answers could be found as to what was causing this problem.

A 10 month old pup that had been on the food since February
exhibited only a couple of days of not eating her regular food
(although she would eat anything else put in front of her) and
a couple of days of being "lazy". I would not use the word
lethargic with her. The two days she wouldn't eat and were lazy
were a Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday, Friday and Saturday
during the day - she appeared fine - eating, playing, running
around, etc. On Saturday night she just basically dropped and died.
Necropsy reports on her are not yet complete.

Our 2 1/2 year old bitch was on the food since February.
She is extremely ill and no vet or specialists has been able
to diagnose her (after thousands of dollars in testing).
Her red blood cell count is down severely, she is lethargic,
we are able to now get her to eat. She has Pseudomonas
Aeruginosa in her liver (diagnosis after liver biopsy).
No drugs we have put her on seem to be working.
Her red blood cell count just keeps dropping.

All vets and specialists have come up "stumped" as to what is
going on with the dogs. At the suggestion of a pathologist we
had all of our "well" dogs tested. They all came back with
"liver" problems (high Alkaline Phosphatese). Nothing as severe
as we saw in the ones that have already died - but none the less -
something was damaging their liver. We also saw low Thyroid tests
on all of those dogs (ranging in age from 10 months to 10 years).

Another breeder in California has lost one 4 month old dog to almost
identical symptoms and necropsy was inconclusive as to cause of death.
This breeder has another puppy that has come down with the same thing
and is exhibiting the same symptoms. This breeder has had 11 of her
"well" dogs tested and the reports came back the same as our "well"
dogs did with high Alkaline Phosphatese and low liver counts).

Another breeder in Big Bear, California had their dog tested -
liver counts were off and low Thyroid.

THE ONLY CONNECTION that can be found at this point in time is that
we were all feeding GO NATURAL dog food. More specifically, we were
all feeding the same batch number. That batch number is 1631 (our
bags are either preceded by an F or a G). Batch number is on back
of bag in the top right corner.

If you have been feeding Go Natural I would strongly recommend that
you have a full CBC run on your dog - take this printout with you -
so your vet can contact me if you are getting the same type of
results on your blood tests. If you have any of this batch of food
left and your dog is exhibiting these signs - put the food, and the
bag it came in if you have it, in a black plastic bag, seal it, and
put it in the freezer.

We are currently sending samples of this batch of food out for
independent testing but it will take a while for the results.

I AM NOT SAYING IT WAS THE FOOD -
I AM ONLY SAYING THE FOOD IS A SUSPECT
SINCE WE HAVE OVER 20 DOGS EXHIBITING
THE SAME SYMPTOMS OR DYING THE SAME WAY
AND THE ONLY CONNECTION WE CAN FIND IS
THE FOOD. TAKE THE PRECAUTIONS FOR YOUR DOG.
THE DOG FOOD COMPANY IS NOT YET WILLING TO
DO A RECALL ON THE FOOD ALTHOUGH I HAVE
ASKED THEM TO DO SO. THEY HAVE AGREED TO
STOP SELLING BATCHES G1631 AND F1631 AND
THEY ARE PERFORMING TESTS ON THEIR FOOD.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions -
I will answer as quickly as possible.

Debbie @ teetyme@I...

Emily