As you know, the last two pet food recalls for two much Vitamin D which
were Blue Buffalo dog foods and then more recently Mazuri foods for
rodents and other animals wound up widening to more of their foods, so
if you are using a Purina food it will important to know if this recall
is due to a product used in more foods in the production facility or
only in certain types of foods or certain production facilities.

Currently the Well Solve and food fish lines are the ones involved, so
if any home food people here give fish to their ferrets or dogs then
the same consideration exists as for the Mazuri rodent foods since
Vitamin D is fat soluble so will stick around in increased levels in
the animals fed it for a while.

http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm311983.htm?source=govdelivery

Should time allow, I will have to check the past melamine recall, but
IF memory serves Mazuri and Purina, like Blue Buffalo, MIGHT a history
of using ingredients imported from China (a way to reduce costs
especially if there are other huge expenses like a lot of advertising),
but you can check the 2007 list on that score. I know that Blue Buffalo
has that history, but not if the other two do so you should check this
since I lack time:
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/petfoodrecall/

In dogs and in ferrets too much Vitamin D3 can result in hypercalcaemia
which winds up causing calcium deposits in organs such as the heart and
kidneys. If stopped soon enough those resolve, but if not stopped soon
enough kidney failure results if the levels are too bad.

The Mazuri recall was recent so this leads to the question of whether
the origin was the same, perhaps an ingredient or an additive that
winds up changing to D3 in the body. That is what happened with the
Blue Buffalo foods when they were studied at Michigan State's DCPAH by
Dr. Kent Refsal. When ingredients that can release or change to D3 in
the body are used then the added D vitamin level has to be adjusted
accordingly but they were not.

Here is the FDA Veterinary section:

http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/default.htm

and pet food recalls:

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/newpetfoodrecalls/

Gads, this -- just popped up on the website while I was creating this
post -- shows more Mazuri foods recalled -- fish, bird, frog, more
rodent foods and loads more foods now -- due to high D levels, so
whatever they put in their wolf diet, their rodent food, primate foods,
etc. that created the high D levels is also in their fish foods. It
makes a person wonder which other foods may be affected, and if the
widening will work in the opposite direction for the Purina foods with
the fish ones found first but maybe rodent foods and other foods also
having the same problem ingredient:

http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm311992.htm

So use caution w foods from these places and if you feed your own or
pet store rodents, chicks, fish, frogs, etc. to ferrets know that they
might deliver too high levels of D to the ferrets.

Those who feed grocery store meats to ferrets need to follow the recall
lists for those foods which you should do at
http://www.fda.gov/Food/default.htm
AND at the USDA recall website since meats, poultry, fish, etc. have
almost constant recalls going on.

Ferrets have the same problems with shiga toxin producing E. coli as
humans and like us can die or have permanent kidney damage. They are
more resistant to salmonella than we are but when they get it they can
be just as ill and just as hard to treat. (BTW, new regulations are
gradually going into place to improve egg safety on that score with
most of the changes happening in next 4 years or so to give farms and
boxing facilities time to improve and to spread associated costs over
the years but some start now. I do not know if new regulations to make
poultry itself safer are coming, too, but remember that a study a few
years ago in grocery stores in PA found something like 30% of the
chicken to have high salmonella levels.) There are also other forms
of food poisoning ferrets can get just as we can.

Sukie (not a vet)  Ferrets make the world a game.

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html

"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)

[Posted in FML 7489]