Pet food recall, but not such a big one.

This little recall (big if you're the company, I guess) only affects one size bag (20-pounds) of one product: PEDIGREE(R) Complete Nutrition Small Crunchy Bites.  It's also in a limited market area, i.e. a long way away from me: Albertsons stores in Southern California and Las Vegas, Nevada.

The pet food is being voluntarily recalled because of potential contamination with Salmonella. There have been no complaints or reports of injury resulting from consumption or handling of the recalled product.  I guess they just found somebody eating the stuff in the back room.  Or maybe they found somebody using the dog-food bags for a toilet.  Or maybe somebody's pet turtle was found in the feed room.  All turtles are potential carriers of Salmonella.  Don't put turtles in your mouth.

So here's a link to more information on the recalled food.

And here's a link to more information on handling contaminated food.  If it says "Contaminated", you know it's bad.  Also, never buy pet food with a skull and crossbones on the label.

Comments

[cathy]

i have more of a question rather than a comment. is it common for vets to give vaccinations and cortisone shots at the same time? my bull dog just had his vaccinations and a cortisone shot for allergies. i was just concerned.

[Doc]

Hello, Cathy,

Sorry to be so late responding to your question, but I was out of town for a few days.

This is an area of some controversy.

Since allergies are due to a malfunctioning over-reaction of the body's defense system, we often use cortisone to calm down the defense system.

A vaccine is a killed or weakened form of the germ that causes a disease. This is injected to stimulate the body's natural defense system into action to produce protection against that germ.

Thus, it seems contradictory to give cortisone to slow down the defense system at the same time that you are asking it to get to work with the vaccine.

It is a dose-related phenomenon. The dose of cortisone typically given to relieve allergic itching is not enough to interfere with the vaccination process.

There should be no problems associated with this.

Thanks for reading and writing.