Questions and answers about the pet food recall

I started giving my dog "Waggin' Train Chicken Tenders 2 strips a day, 3 weeks ago. She showed signs of not wanting much to eat within a week and began losing weight rapidly. She also began having diarhea. upcoming . I've stopped giving her the treats as soon as the news came out but her problems are persisting. I've made an appt with her Vet. I, too, went to the Waggin'Train web site and read their press release on 8/25/07. Even though they disclaim any problem I am very wary because it was the only change in diet my pet had.The vendor # is 933737 and the lot # is 94270.

My dog started getting "Waggin'Train Chicken Jerky Treats about 2 weeks ago. She started showing signs of lethargy and a lessened appetite in about a week. She lost weight and continued to eat less and less. She also began to have diarrhea. Her only dietary change was the treats. I've stopped using these treats as soon as I heard about other brands being pulled. I have an appt. with her Vet. My Vet had not heard that WalMart was pulling certain products(not Waggin'Train) and seemed skeptical that the treats are the problem. I am very wary even though the press release at the Waggin'Train web site disavowed any problems with their product. The vendor # is 933737 and the Lot # is 94270.

I called Sam's in KC KS yesterday and they too deny any problem with Waggin Train chicken jerky they say all their products are tested and I told them I did not agree because that is what has made my 3 year pug have diareah, she had a blood test and showed her kidney counts were elevated and put her on a medicine and since that and no more chicken strips there has been no diareah.
What will it take to get through to them?

jeanann milwaukee wrote:

My dog started getting "Waggin'Train Chicken Jerky Treats about 2 weeks ago. She started showing signs of lethargy and a lessened appetite in about a week. She lost weight and continued to eat less and less. She also began to have diarrhea. Her only dietary change was the treats. I've stopped using these treats as soon as I heard about other brands being pulled. I have an appt. with her Vet. My Vet had not heard that WalMart was pulling certain products(not Waggin'Train) and seemed skeptical that the treats are the problem. I am very wary even though the press release at the Waggin'Train web site disavowed any problems with their product. The vendor # is 933737 and the Lot # is 94270.

Many dogs were violently ill after having a total of three treats from vendor 933737(oddly enough my bag doesn't have a lot#). I'd take your dog to another vet.

I will start by saying that I never post, so for me to make this contribution I must really feel the need. The reason for the posting is that although my 2-year-old Rottweiler loves the waggin train chicken jerky and has been eating them regularly for a little more than a year with no problems he has now started to vomit hours after consuming these treats (new bag as of 08/05/07). Nothing else in his diet or exercise program has changed so all indicators point to these treats being the culprit. There is little doubt in my mind that my 115lbs incredibly healthy dog that has not once in his life ever vomited (that I know of) is now being adversely affected by is favorite treat. If you have this product in your home, I would seriously advice you to take them back to the store and voice aloud complaint so your dog or someone else’s dog does not die from it.

I was at the Walmart in Bonney Lake Washington this morning and the chicken strips were still on the shelf with a tag under it saying "recall". I contacted the front end manager and asked why they were still being sold. She said she would get them removed right away. I hope she did follow through. Our Ivory a 12 year old chihuahua loved these treats.She died in April. I will never buy these again and will read all treat bags very carefully and buy only ones made in the USA.

My wife took back a brand new bag of Waggin' Train chicken tenders to Costco yesterday. The guy behind the return desk as "why are you returning these?" My wife told him "our dogs were getting sick on them, and we had to put down my husband's favorite dog a few weeks ago due to sudden illness. My husband thinks that there's a link between the sick and dead dogs and these chicken strips". The guy told my wife: "yeah, we've been hearing that a lot lately. Sorry about your dogs". Ever since we discontinued giving the chicken strips to our dogs, they are feeling much better and the back yard no longer has yellow bloody diarrhea to pick up. We've never used any brand of chicken tenders other than the Waggin' Train ones. Something's amiss with those products, regardless of what ADI Pet says. By the way, I did some checking on ADI...I could find NO official records on ADI Pet, Inc., although I found registered addresses of a company called Alan Lee Distributors, Inc.(which claims to be the parent company of ADI Pet, Inc.)in California, Nevada and Texas. They list offices in Temecula, CA, Incline Village, NV, and a P.O. Box in Walnut Creek, CA. Somebody's making some serious money since all three of these towns are multi-million dollar neighborhoods. They may also have an office in So. Carolina but I was unable to confirm that. It's weird for a company to have so many different addresses. The guy they mentioned in their press release as the company's President, Jerry Peters, is not mentioned at all in the corporate filings. Interesting.

Wooleeboolee

The following is a post from
http://www0.epinions.com/msg/sec_~forums/show...

"foreverfriend Posted: Aug 26 '07, 6:28 pm Report Quote Reply
Reviews written: 0
Member since: Aug 26 '07

Post: 146904
Waggin Train treats
I just went to work for ADI about a month ago which prompted me to reply to the conversation here. I have been very impressed with the company thus far. It is a very small office, no more than 10 people, not some large multi-million dollar business just looking to make a load of cash. It was started by Pet Owners who were looking for a product to stand behind. On any given day they will bring their pets to work, and guess what they feed them while they are there? That's right, Waggin Train products. Why on earth would they feed a family member of theirs something they thought was unsafe? They wouldn't. And it's funny how people's pets have been eating them for years and now with all of this talk of product recalls everyone dog is sick from them. I'm sorry for whatever loss anyone out here has suffered by losing a pet, but I think the emotions are aimed in the wrong direction. The remarks made here and phone calls received have been hateful and uncalled for. Hopefully someone out here will wake up and realize that this is a honest company with a great product and I'm proud to be a part of it. God bless. "

I also looked into the corporate records for ADI Pet and found them somewhat odd ... How does a 10 person office supply Costco, Sam's and Walmart nationwide.

When I first tried to reach them, there was no phone number listed on their site. I suspect that the 10 people couldn't keep up with the complaints.

On another site tonight there is a post claiming that Walmart has removed the Waggin Train Product from their shelves. I visited my local Walmart tonight and the product was on their shelves. I picked up 5 bags of Jerky and brought them to the store manager. The five bags were from two different lot numbers. They all looked different. One was pink-orange, one was red, three were shades of grey to almost black. The manager thought that something was wrong with the grey - black ones. The pink one was from the same lot as one of the grey-black ones. He said he was going to remove them from the shelves and file a report. We can only hope.

I don't know how the owners of this company sleep at night.

I am with the last guy. I bought the Kingdom Pets jerky at Costco because it looked good. I just recently got a dog and missed the other jerky recall so I had no clue not to buy it. My 9 lb mini Dachshund had diahrrea a couple of hours after eating ONE of those strips. He loved them, but wow did it make him sick. There was nothing else in his diet that day that he did not have every other day except that jerky. Costco refunded my money and seemed really concerned. But that was just one person. Hopefully word will get out that it is bad. I am telling everyone I can!

My dog has not vomited again since I stopped giving him the Waggin' Train jerky, but I took him to the vet today anyway, just to make sure there isn't any permanent damage. I had them run a complete blood chemistry panel and a CBC. Should have the results tomorrow.

The vet sells chicken jerky. They're a popular item. She removed all the jerky off the shelves, even though that brand is not involved in the recall yet. She said there are too many dogs vomiting after eating the brands not being recalled. She is advising all of her clients not to feed any chicken jerky made in China, regardless of the brand. She said she thinks the recall will expand to include the other brands made in China. This is a vet who is not very quick to pull stuff off the shelves unless there is plenty of evidence, so I totally trust her judgement on this.

I have been feeding my chihuahua Waggin' Train Chicken tenders for months! He has been fine, until about 4 weeks ago - began vomiting, became dehydrated, stopped eating and drinking, etc...I took him to the vet on Day 3 and had blood work (high bacteria count), xrays to see if there was a blockage, and countless other tests. They could not figure out what happened to make him stop eating and be so sick. I managed to keep him alive by taking him to the vet virtually every other day to get him on fluids. He was getting better and i was desparate to have him eat, so i gave him a tender, which he ate and became sick AGAIN. The last time i took him to the vet, they gave me strict orders of an I/D prescription diet and NO CHICKEN TREATS (this was 10 days ago). HE is finally eating after a loss of over 1.5lbs (25% of body weight) and thousands of $$ in bills. Beware of these treats. It is the only explanation. My puppy is only 3 1/2 and luckily survived.

I have been feeding Waggin train jerky tenders and pig ears from Walmart and beefeaters pig ears from
BJ's when Walmart ran out. I just started feeding Nutro max again because the other food was making my dog scratch and I felt since it is on the shelf, it must be okay... seemed to be off his food lately but I never thought these would be recalled. My dog started throwing up blood last night. He's lost 5.5lbs. The vet has him on meds...I hope we caught it in time. I'm searching for dog & cat food recipes. I'm done with the pet food industry.

The FDA just called me today to follow up on my complaint. They assured me that Wagon Train was being investigated and gave me the state number of the FDA to call to complain about my local Sams. Keep calling he FDA, Sams and Walmart guys. That is how we will save lives.

DIANE NJ wrote:

WE HAVE 5 GREAT DOGS. ALL IN PERFECT HEALTH. WELL UNTIL WE FED THEM CHICKEN JERKY STRIPS. I DON'T KNOW WHO TO TRUST WHEN IT COMES TO OUR PETS FOOD. NO MORE CHICKEN STRIPS FOR US. PLEASE SUGGEST A DRY FOOD THAT I CAN TRUST.

I researched Dog foods for my new Lab after the last recall and found a few brands that were very Good...Canidae, Solid Gold, and Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul. They cost a few Bucks more, But Worth it. I also make and bake my own Whole Wheat Doggie Biscuits,( recipes online) and use a dehydrator to dry out Meats for Jerky Treats. Hope this Helps...

my tibetian terrier loves the beefeater chicken strips. im in uk. these are made in china to she has gone off her food except for chew bones and about 10% of her normal food she even turns down fresh cooked chicken took her to vet nothing abnormal but gave her course of tablets small improvement taking for bloodtest now ive seen comments

Doxies in Bothell wrote:

We have two standard and two mini doxies. They each have about 4 Kingdom Pets Chicken Strips from Costco every day. They are in perfect health and have suffered no side effects. I'm not thrilled that this product is mfg'd in China, but I've surfed the web and have found no posted concerns about Kingdom Pets and their Chicken Jerky, but I'm going to stay tuned in about this just in case.

Please I urge you to find another treat that your doggies might like, not manufactured in china...it tokk over a year for our doggies to finally become so ill, they had to be hospitalized, just as humans, different dogs have different tolerances, save your pets!!

I know the website for Waggin Train says they are NOT in any way harmful for their Chicken Jerky Tenders - however I have a show dog pup a toy who was being given this treat for showing in the ring - over a few shows. Coincidence or not he got the runs & had one seizure. If not this then ? But it is the only thing different. I have gone thru 2 bags I still had some left of the smaller bag the 1st was a larger bag. This bag is lot # 94480 good thru 09/23/08 I dont feel comfortable continuning to give it despite what the company says - maybe it has nothing to do with this product. Our entire food system really needs hard looking at.

I e-mailed Waggin Train last week in regards to the MOLD that was on the Chicken Jerky Treats I bought. I got two autorepsonders with verbiage no doubt provided by their liability insurance carrier or attorney. Nonetheless, I'm posting the response I got today. They still don't address the mold... and for those of you that don't already know--mold can be toxic and cause vomiting, diarrhea and seizures. I also find it interesting that since my parents--who have a dog that recently was having seizures--stopped giving said dog these treats, he had not had seizures and is doing much better. Here is the response:

Dear Elizabeth:

I apologize that the first email you received from us did not specifically address the question you had asked. Because of the increased volume of emails we’ve received this past week and our limited Customer Service staff, we found it necessary to send an auto response to our valued customers. We are now going back through all the emails, one by one, making sure that each customer email is given proper attention.

Please note: Recently, we ran a small test batch of Chicken Jerky Tenders that were made from thicker tenderloins. These were sliced lengthwise and pounded flat to make them uniform in thickness. This allowed all the tenderloins to dry at the same rate. It's the same technique cooks use to make veal cutlets.

Due to the fact that the chicken tenderloins absorbed more of the marinade, they were dried for a longer period of time to reach the optimum 14% moisture content. In doing so, these new Tenders took on a different look – darker in color, square-cornered and somewhat rubbery in texture.

From the influx of recent emails we’ve received, it appears that many dogs prefer the original Tenders. Therefore, it was determined that the small, natural tenderloin that we've always used looks (and tastes!) much better. When you go back to purchase the product again, you’ll find the regular, high-quality tenderloins that you’ve been purchasing all along.

If you did not yet return these treats to Wal-mart, please contact me again and I will send you our product refund information.

Kind Regards,

Carey Blinn
Customer Service
Waggin' Train Worldwide LLC

We have been giving our two dogs the Waggin Train Chicken Jerky Tenders for YEARS and they have never been sick. They love them. I emailed the company with my concerns about safety and received a quick reply, giving all the standards they have to pass to continue to do business with Sam's. They have nothing to hide. I do not like the fact that they are made in China, but sad to say, what isn't today? Makes me wonder why some pets have a reaction and others are fine. My dogs LOVE these treats and we will continue to buy them.

Has anyone determined if Kingdoms Premium Chicken Strips are recalled or bad. Their website says they are fine.