On May 5th, the horrible and upsetting news broke that Proctor & Gamble were purchasing the Natura Pet Food company. Word spread like wildfire online, and there weren’t too many dog parents that were happy about the announcement. Most were in agreement that Natura Pet food would not be the same once P&G took over.

From the Natura Pet web site:

Natura Announces Change In Ownership, But Not Philosophy or Commitment to Quality

You may have heard Natura expects to be acquired by The Procter and Gamble Company sometime in June 2010. By joining the P&G family of brands, our intent is that we will have more resources to raise awareness for the benefits of natural and holistic pet foods. Our hope is even more pets will then experience the benefits of Natura’s high-quality, super-premium brands.

P&G has assured us of their commitment to this business and to the people who have been our partners and our advocates over the years. We will continue to deliver the high quality products that have earned consumers’ trust.

For more than 20 years, Natura has dedicated itself to producing healthy, high-quality pet foods, and we will remain true to that philosophy. As we move forward with this change in ownership you can continue to find Natura pet foods at your local independent pet specialty retailers.

Thank you for your dedicated support and advocacy for Natura Pet foods. We have genuinely appreciated your support in the past and we hope we can count you among our valued customers in the future.

Sincerely,
Don Scott
President

My favorite is this line:

P&G has assured us of their commitment to this business and to the people who have been our partners and our advocates over the years. We will continue to deliver the high quality products that have earned consumers’ trust.

Okay, come on! Why on earth would a company that supposedly cared soooo much about pets in the past, believe the same company that destroyed other petfoods like Iams and Eukanuba? Do they think we are stupid? Or is it just that their definitions of “commitment” and “high quality” have changed?

The Natura president even released a video explaining their reasons for partnering with P&G
http://www.naturapet.com/video/don-video-c.swf

It’s laughable. They’re either delusional or plain just don’t care! I can’t imagine how they could think P&G has a commitment to excellence and animal well being. It’s truly a shame!

As soon as I heard the news, I thought, darn, okay, maybe I need to stock up on EVO kibble. I felt relieved that I just purchased a bag the previous day. But as I thought about it more, I became more and more worried.

What if even now, before the sale is even finalized, there was quality issues with Natura petfoods? How could I possibly trust a company that wants to be affiliated with such a poor pet food company. Yes, I totally understand a need to sell or find new partners, but come on, why would you pick the bottom of the bottom?

So, I returned the new bag I bought, and decided to make a clean break from them.

I have been trying to decide which route I am going to take with regards to my two ratties’ pet food. Thankfully, I only feed a small amount of kibble in the morning, their main meal is dinner when I feed commercial RAW (Bravo, Stella & Chewy)

I really would love to try Orijen, but my regular retailer doesn’t carry it, and it’s doubtful she will be able to in the near future. They manufacturer in such small amounts that they keep their retail options lower than most pet food companies. There are at least two other stores in my area that do carry Orijen, and I might look into them in the future.

In the meantime, I have a bag of Petcurean Go Natural on order from my local pet food store. No, I am not 100% convinced that this is the best brand, but I will give them a chance.

I have been using freeze dried Stella & Chewy for their AM meal, which they absolutely love, but it’s expensive. I also really would like to try Honest Kitchen dehydrated. Both are great options for when we travel!

I’ll post regular updates on how their food situation plays out.

Other Links:

• Our Dogs Online forum – P&G acquiring Natura
• Our Dogs Online – What do you feed?

Disclaimer: This post might be too graphic and gross for some. Please don’t read if you are easily grossed out.

Oh what a morning! We woke up at around 4am this morning to find Mindy compulsively licking her butt area. I checked and it was a terrible ‘hot spot’ sore (dermatitis). We’ve never had to deal with anything like this, but I remember our previous neighbor had an issue with her dog.

I dug out an old Elizabethan collar and we stuck that around her neck, but it didn’t seem wide/long enough to stop her from licking. Also, Mindy is a burrower under the covers, so needless to say, I wasn’t able to sleep, since I was worried about her trying to lick herself, even with the collar.

I was upset and ready to head to the emergency Vet, but DH calmed me down and said we should wait until daytime at least, so we all went downstairs to the family room.

I tried sleeping with Lexi on the sofa and Mindy was settled down with DH on his recliner. She didn’t seem to have any itching or licking issues, which was good! We woke up later, and Mindy seemed to be acting okay, she was a little put off by the collar. We took both girls outside to pee/poo. Mindy pooed a very small amount at first, and then pooed much more a few minutes later. It was not runny at all, very hard in fact, which is normal for her.

Both girls ate, and I ended up taking the collar off of Mindy to see if she would be more comfortable, and she did fine without it.

In the meantime, I did some online research, and found a great page: http://www.earthclinic.com/Pets/hot_spots.html. The conscientious was to use apple cider vinegar, so we made up a batch of 50% ACV and 50% water in a spray bottle.

I sprayed a tiny bit on a paper towel to make sure it wasn’t too painful. (Note: there are reports that it will sting like crazy if it’s an open sore). She didn’t seem to be in pain, so I sprayed some on the sore. I kept spraying every couple of hours.

The sore on her butt was definitely oozing. It ranged from brownish to clear to brownish again.

I also tried applying black tea bags (cooled off) – no herbs or other ingredients, just tea. It stated black tea was best, and initially I only had one green tea bag, but I purchased a box of black tea at the store. It seemed to help, and I think it eased some of the itch.

I didn’t want to use any anti-biotic ointment, because I was afraid the petroleum jelly wouldn’t allow it to dry out enough. Vinegar has anti-biotic properties, so it made sense to use that.

The “redness” was definitely spread from the sore (which was right next to her anus) up to next to her tail (she’s bobbed). Her fur is short, but thick, and it was tough to see under, but there was definitely a larger area of redness, but it didn’t look infected or sore like that one spot.

It was suggested to trim the fur in that area. I tried to, I really did. I put on a latex glove and thought maybe I could trim her fur with little scissors, but it really was impossible. Her fur is so short, and we don’t have any electric clippers. I just figured I would leave it as is for now, and try not to stress her.

So, I did calm down a lot. I’m still upset, but I have a better handle on the situation. I realize it’s not a life and death situation so the Emergency Vet isn’t really necessary. Plus, it’s so expensive ($125 just to walk in), so we’re hoping to get through today and tonight, then call her normal Vet in the morning.

Why do these things always happen on Sundays, after the Vet is closed?!

Note: When we came home last night, I recall seeing some strange stains on the blanket covering the living room chair upstairs – looking back now, I think it must have been some sort of oozing discharge. And Lexi kept sniffing the chair and DH saw her sniffing Mindy’s butt area last night when they were outside. I think she must have started oozing last night, but we never noticed because she never licked herself in front of us. I bet she was licking herself for awhile on the chair when we were out.

UPDATE: I was worried that I wasn’t going to be able to sleep. I didn’t know if she was going to keep trying to lick at the sore, and with the collar/cone on, I didn’t know how she was going to sleep under the covers. I was planning on sleeping with her on the sofa somehow but I didn’t know how that was going to work, since I know that she would want to sleep in the bed with DH. I started by putting towel and sheet on the sofa, and true to form, she ran upstairs to sleep in our bed instead. So, I figured I would see how she would do under the covers in bed. I was thrilled that she actually did okay. At first, I was skittish with her every move. But it looked like she didn’t even attempt to lick, so we both got a decent sleep. I gave her 1/2 a Benedryl at around 8pm, so I think that might have made her a bit sleepy too.

So, in the morning, I checked her sore, and it was a little oozing still, but not as bad. Plus I was really happy that the redness all above the sore (under her fur) seemed to be gone. I applied another couple of cooled black tea bags, but I didn’t spray on any apple cider vinegar & water mix. I didn’t know if it was stinging her, so I didn’t want to upset her.

I called the Vet and made an appointment, and we went in. The vet said it was an infected anal gland, which was what one of my Facebook friends thought! They trimmed a bit of the fur around the sore, and expressed both of her glands. He prescribed Clavamox (anti-biotic) for 2 weeks (twice daily) and Carprofen for 3 days (twice daily) for pain and inflammation. Both are to be taken with food. It was also suggested to spray warm water once a day to clean out the area. He said that it would take about a week for her to heal.

When we left it was horribly read and oozing blood and pus. It looked very swollen. The poor baby. We also left with a larger Elizabethan collar (cone) that should stop her from any licking. It’s pretty big on her head, so I am very nervous about her walking around alone tomorrow while I am at work, so I will hopefully be able to shut our bedroom door so she won’t be able to move downstairs. I just don’t want her to fall! I know she would hate to be crated, so the closed bedroom would be the best option I think.

It’s so surprising how much this little girl can eat! I think our little Lexi would eat 24/7 if we let her, but what’s really amazing is that I don’t think there’s anything she doesn’t like.

Most dogs don’t enjoy leafy green veggies, but she just loves baby spinach leaves! She was begging for them today when I was cooking. And the other day, I brought home some beets and they were in the shopping bag on the kitchen floor, and she started chewing on the beet greens hanging out of the bag! Such a riot!

Outside today, Lexi peed then was sitting at the pine tree by the door. I noticed her and it looked like she was pooing or peeing again. Her leg was kind of “up”.

Then I realized that she was sitting down and her right leg was hurt. I immediately picked her up and held her for a bit. When I put her down she seemed to be alright. She was running around chasing her ball just like usual.

I don’t know what was up but I hope it was just a one time thing and not a problem like with Mindy.

Updated from article dated Jun 13, 2009

This is so strange. I haven’t been happy with any of the other kibble choices, I was using the rest of a leftover bag of California Natural and some samples of Nature’s Variety Instinct, but I really wanted EVO….so yesterday I bought a bag. Guess what! The size of the kibble is small again. I compared it to the original smaller sized samples I saved, and they match!

And now I am wondering if I was right all along, and they messed up on a batch of food. I wish I noted the expiration date of the bag I returned, to compare. I guess I assumed that since Heather said they changed the processing, it was a permanent change. Unless of course, I have a bag that was processed before the change. I don’t know. But thankfully, this bag will last a long time, so we’ll see what happens when I have to purchase again months from now.

Oh I came so close to giving up on the RAW food diet for Lexi. She is my little Rat Terrier, about 10 lbs and 8 months old.

She was having trouble with her poop. Ha! What else is new!? It seems like that is the main struggle when feeding RAW. Trying to find a balance to make normal looking poop! Well her poop was on the soft side and many times had a gel jelly goopy coating.

I know there is a certain time period of “detox” when the body can weep and poop can be covered in that gel. But we’ve been on RAW for a couple of months now, so she should be over that. I was getting even more frustrated because she was regressing in housebreak training as well. Pooping in the house, sometimes right after she pooped outside. She even peed on our comforter one evening when she got excited and jumped up on the bed. eeek. That one was my fault though. I should have known better and taken her outside BEFORE bringing her upstairs to the bedroom.

My husband was ready to kill me (not literally!) and he was getting very frustrated as well. He kept telling me to stop, that it was the RAW food making her sick!

I really really didn’t want to stop feeding RAW to Lexi. In a million years, I never thought I would be feeding RAW in the first place, and now that I am, I am finding it very easy. And both my Ratties love eating it! Their fur is gorgeous too!

Mindy (my 4 year old Rat Terrier, 15 lbs) is doing just fine on it. Her poops are solid and small. Everything seemed to be agreeing with her.

After some deep thought, I decided to just feed RAW, with no supplements (fish oil, kelp) or eggs, sardines, etc.

I realized that it was me who wasn’t being consistent! When her poo was doing well, I would deviate from the normal, and start adding all the other ingredients and supplements, and she would get overloaded again. I wasn’t keeping good track of what was working and what wasn’t.

So, now I am just feeding her a portion of Bravo RAW twice daily and a small beef or marrow bone in the evening. That seems to be working. Today her poop was well formed and solid. No more jelly gel. Yay!

I will keep this up for another week or so, and then see what I can do to start adding a tiny small amount of the fish oil.

(note: the fish oil I am feeding is the Concentrated oil from Seapet – I have been giving Mindy 10 drops (which equals 1/4 tsp) and Lexi about half that amount)

I am happy, my husband is happy, and hopefully we can get her housetraining back on track. Things are going to get better! yay!

Found a whole mess o’ Pet themed podcasts over at www.petliferadio.com

I am starting out with the Wynn With Dogs podcast. The latest episode #15 includes an interview with a wonderful holistic health expert and author of The Healing Art of Pet Parenthood, Nadine M. Rosin. I follow her on Twitter and she’s awesome. Looking forward to hearing the show. I downloaded and it’s ready for my drive to work tomorrow!

Updated once again…2009-08-11
Updated 2009-06-15 read below!

Even though I feed RAW food to my two dogs, I still like having a bag of EVO Small Bites. I sometimes give it for a quick breakfast meal and I use it for training treats.

I like it because the pieces are very small, and since Lexi is under 10 lbs, small is good.

Well, I just opened a new package of EVO Small Bites this morning and was surprised that they looked larger. I still had a few pieces from the last bag, so I compared the two sizes. The pieces in the new bag were DOUBLED in size of the previous bag.
What is going on?

Here’s a photo for comparison (note: the depth of each bite is still the same, even though the larger piece looks thicker in the photo, it’s really not)

I am going to try to contact them today to see what their explanation is. If this is the new size, then I am very disappointed. It’s not small enough!

Update 2009-06-15: I phoned Natura Pet, I spoke to Heather; I explained my problem.

She went on to say that they have a new processing system now and that it allows the pieces to retain their full size. She said that before pieces were breaking down in transit (to the stores) and therefor causing a lot of crumbs in the bag. She said that EVO was their toughest product to make since there were no grains. The pieces were very hard and crumbled easy.

She asked me to compare the size of the new pieces to the example on the bag. At first they did look comparable, and it sounded reasonable. I asked if I could return the bag, and she answered of course.

I hung up, and then I compared the old pieces I had to the bag example photo, and they seemed just a tiny tad bit smaller. On a second look, the new pieces were indeed a little larger than the example on the bag. Some pieces were a lot larger than the example.

I redialed Natura, and Heather answered again.

Same story, she said there was nothing wrong, and the pieces now are the way they are supposed to be. She suggested that I return the bag and try to find one that was a different expiration that might have the older size.

Okay, update #2. I just looked at pieces from an older bag of California Natural Small Bites and they match the size of the larger EVO small bites….so maybe Heather was right all along! Oops, my bad. I guess I am being too picky!

Maybe I will keep the bag and just break them in half before giving them out. Oh well! I am now remembering why I always liked the EVO better for feeding and training. They were always smaller than the California Natural. Truthfully, I didn’t even realize the California Natural was Small Bites until I looked at the bag label.

I guess "small" is relative!

UPDATE 2009-08-11: This is so strange. I haven’t been happy with any of the other kibble choices, I was using the rest of a leftover bag of California Natural and some samples of Nature’s Variety Instinct, but I really wanted EVO….so yesterday I bought a bag. Guess what! The size of the kibble is small again. I compared it to the original smaller sized samples I saved, and they match!

And now I am wondering if I was right all along, and they messed up on the size of a batch of food. I have no idea!

Unfortunately, I didn’t blog too much about Lexi’s spay operation. Not sure why. I guess I was just too busy (?)

Anyway, the operation went well. I dropped her off in the morning and got a phone call mid morning that she was out of surgery and in recovery. Phew. Everything went well.

We picked her up at around 5:30 that evening, and I held her in my arms for the drive home. She was in good shape, not at all how I expected. If I remember correctly, Mindy had that “skinny” dog look and smelled sort of like a hospital. Lexi looked very well!

They said that she should be acting normal by tomorrow, along with eating, peeing and pooing normally. I was to give her a light meal tonight.

They gave us a “cone” to use just in case she wanted to lick the incision. It was a new type of cone that I had never seen before. Tabs hold it together on the side, while there’s loops on top that her normal collar goes through; the collar and cone go over her head, and then the collar is fastened. It worked very well, she got used to it fairly quickly. But unfortunately, by the following week, she figured out a way to chew on the tabs that run along the vertical side of the collar. I tried fixing it, and moving it toward the top of her head, but it was impossible to get her to not stop chewing on the plastic tabs. So, I took it off, and she was fine. No problems with the stitches.

Keeping her quiet for the past two weeks was a challenge, but truthfully not as difficult as I thought. I kept her in her crate most of the time, giving her a chew bone or allowing her to sleep. I did allow her to occasionally walk up and down the stairs, and she did try to run around herself a few times. But for the most part, I carried her on the stairs and around the house to make sure she wasn’t too active.

I didn’t bring her to training class last week, I decided to go by myself so we wouldn’t miss anything. I think she would have been fine if I brought her, since it’s such a low impact class, but it’s probably for the best that I didn’t. We took her to class last night, and she did okay, but she was a little off, and skiddish. She wasn’t herself, she was acting scared. I ended up holding her for the last few minutes. I think she was a bit tired from all the sudden activity.

But when we got home, I allowed her to roam free with us, while we watched TV downstairs. She played a little with Mindy, chewed on old bones, and tore apart a fluffy toy.

I can’t wait for her stitches to be out today. I am hoping everything will be okay and she’ll get the ‘go ahead’ to go back to normal again!

So, Nutro decided to “voluntarily” recall some of their cat food products but in the meantime, dogs are still sick and dying from their dog food.

They state the recall on the cat food was due to a mixup on the levels of two minerals:

Franklin, Tennessee (May 21, 2009) — Today, Nutro Products announced a voluntary recall of select varieties of NUTRO® NATURAL CHOICE® COMPLETE CARE® Dry Cat Foods and NUTRO® MAX® Cat Dry Foods with “Best If Used By Dates” between May 12, 2010 and August 22, 2010. The cat food is being voluntarily recalled in the United States and ten additional countries. This recall is due to incorrect levels of zinc and potassium in our finished product resulting from a production error by a US-based premix supplier.

Two mineral premixes were affected. One premix contained excessive levels of zinc and under-supplemented potassium. The second premix under-supplemented potassium. Both zinc and potassium are essential nutrients for cats and are added as nutritional supplements to NUTRO® dry cat food.

This issue was identified during an audit of our documentation from the supplier. An extensive review confirmed that only these two premixes were affected. This recall does not affect any NUTRO® dog food products, wet dog or cat food, or dog and cat treats.

Affected product was distributed to retail customers in all 50 states, as well as to customers in Canada, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Israel. We are working with all of our distributors and retail customers, in both the US and internationally, to ensure that the recalled products are not on store shelves. These products should not be sold or distributed further.

Consumers who have purchased affected product should immediately discontinue feeding the product to their cats, and switch to another product with a balanced nutritional profile. While we have received no consumer complaints related to this issue, cat owners should monitor their cat for symptoms, including a reduction in appetite or refusal of food, weight loss, vomiting or diarrhea. If your cat is experiencing health issues or is pregnant, please contact your veterinarian.

Consumers who have purchased product affected by this voluntary recall should return it to their retailer for a full refund or exchange for another NUTRO® dry cat food product. Cat owners who have more questions about the recall should call 1-800-833-5330 between the hours 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM CST

They stated that they received no consumer complaints related to this issue, ha! hmm, but did they receive complaints regarding other issues?

Why pet guardians are still trusting them is beyond me! It just makes me crazy and angry! I think the only way to really put them out of business is to just stop buying their products! Stop!!!!! Just stop!