# More Bad News about Diamond dog food



## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

I got this via e-mail and it was also posted on caninedrugdangers. I did google Christine Buff and she is who she says she is--with the search and rescue in New York.

PERMISSION TO CROSSPOST FAR AND WIDE
Subject: DIAMOND
Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2006 10:23:45 EST

You may think the Diamond food scare is over, or that only a limited amount 
of product is involved. Not so.

On Monday, March 6 - after 3 feedings of Diamond's Premium Edge Chicken, 
Rice and Vegetables - we almost lost 3 of our 4 GSDs. The only reason it did! 
n't effect the 16 week old is because we kept her on other feed. Within 20 
minutes of ingesting their dinner, 2 of the dogs proceeded to vomit dark green 
undigested food and within another 2 minutes they were foaming at the mouth and 
stiff-leg gaiting. Another 5 minutes and they were having what I - as a 
nurse - would refer to as petit mal seizures. After a traumatic night at the 
local emergency clinic, the diagnosis was "food intoxication from Premium Edge 
kibble".

The following day, upon contacting Diamond in Meta, Missouri, I was assured 
they would work with me in this and stand behind their product....the 
reimbursement for any and all vet care, etc was also discussed. Upon asking for 
financial assistance for a test Diamond requested at Cornell ($300.00/dog 
minimum) - a test that per my vet and those at Cornell said was a CYA call on 
Diamond's part - they changed their mind on "helping out". I refused that 
particular test, awaiting results from another analysis on samples.

Notification came yesterday from University of Missouri Vet Met Diagnostic 
Lab: "Each of the four submitted samples of dog food contained approximately 
0.5 ppm of vomitoxin, as detected by thin layer chromotography...".

Judging from no reference to this on Premium Edge's website (incredible how 
many products Diamond makes but very difficult to trace back to them - each 
feed/product seems to have it's own website/contact), no contact as of yet 
from Diamond and certainly no "standing behind" their product it appears they 
are not overly concerned about their consumers.

Research your food thoroughly. If it is even remotely related to Diamond - 
DO NOT FEED!! If you are so inclined, please write concerns to Diamond - you 
can reference me if so desired. My particular contact was Dr. Brookshire, 
Director of Veterinary Services.

Christine Buff
Sr. K9 Handler/Trainer, Highland SAR
Member, Rescue International
K9 Director, New York State Federation of SAR


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## greg bell (May 24, 2005)

I saw it on another forum, but it was exactly the same letter.. guess we gotta wait it out to see.. If I was feeding Diamond, I would probably hold off for a while. Sure is a mean rumor to start if it isn't true.


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## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

Okay, here is a follow up to my original post. It seems it has been decided that there was not enough of that toxin to make the dogs that sick. However, it is believed there was another toxin in the food involved, either from the plant or from tampering. However, read the last paragraph carefully because does suggest it very well could be the original toxin. I just know I would not feed any of them to my dogs until the entire mess is worked out and the cause found.


Dr. Brookshire, 
I owe you and Diamond an apology and will - as I get information together today - also post on lists previously contacted. Upon discussing the situation with toxicologists at Cornell it has been determined that while something still *could* be contaminated in the feed - and not necessarily putting Diamond at fault - there need to be more tests done on both feed and dogs. In my defense I am tired of "the big guy" always getting out of responsibility, it happens more times than not, and we are not talking about the best track record here. 
I appreciate the time and effort you put into helping me with this. NYS Ag and Markets is testing the kibble for other issues - I will let you know of any pertinent results. 
Christine Buff 


To update on the Premium Edge/Diamond kibble: 
After speaking with Cornell in regards to first tests (0.5ppm vomitoxin) conducted at University of Missouri, the toxicologists are in agreement that there would be a need of approximately 8ppm vomotoxin in order to make the dogs this ill. Obviously that was not the case. NYS Ag and Markets continues to be suspicious as to other possible toxins in the feed itself or some kind of tampering after production/shipping and are in the process of conducting more analyses. From our end we will continue to test and monitor the dogs for same. 
It is interesting, per FDA and USDA, that these toxins are allowed at all in feeds - human food included - and despite the allowances and recommended values, even small amounts *can* make individual animals extremely ill.
__________________


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## RickGibbs (Dec 16, 2005)

greg bell said:


> I saw it on another forum, but it was exactly the same letter.. guess we gotta wait it out to see.. If I was feeding Diamond, I would probably hold off for a while. Sure is a mean rumor to start if it isn't true.


I don't know....after last time, I wouldn't be using Diamond at all....


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## LauraEyes2 (Sep 16, 2005)

RickGibbs said:


> I don't know....after last time, I wouldn't be using Diamond at all....


My thoughts exactly. Not that it condones this happening again, but I think people also need to protect themselves from stuff like this and use common sense. It was quite publicized about the last incident with Diamond foods.


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## greg bell (May 24, 2005)

I am sure this whole deal hurt Diamond a lot and if this turns out to be a problem, I imagine they are done for....


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## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

This was posted on the caninedrugdangers group. I will pass along information as I get it. Someone on one of the boards said Diamond does make a couple of brands that are not listed. The only one I remember was something like Timberwolf Organics.
***************************************************************
I work for Diamond Pet Foods. The list of products that we manufacture is
partially incorrect. I wanted to put a corrected listing on your site for
those of you that are interested. I also wanted to explain in more detail
about the vomitoxin that was found in the Premium Edge Adult Dog Chicken &
Rice sample from a scientific perspective.
We manufacture: Diamond, Professional, Premium Edge, Chicken Soup for the
Pet Lover's Soul, Nutra Nuggets, Country Value, and the international label
NutraGold. We do manufacture the Kirkland Signature brand for Costco.
We did have a positive result of 0.5 ppm in the samples of the Premium Edge
Chicken & Rice Adult Dog that were submitted to the University of Missouri's
Toxicology Lab. The FDA limit is 2 ppm in finished product. The symptoms are
feed refusal, vomiting, and diarrhea above this level.
Wheat and barley are the two types of grain that are susceptible to
vomitoxin, barley is an ingredient in the Premium Edge. We test all of our
incoming barley and wheat mids and our rejection limit is 2.1 ppm, which is
well below the 5 ppm allowed by the FDA in raw ingredients.
We offered the testing on the urine upon the recommendation of a veterinary
toxicologist. He felt that there was something else that caused the problem
for these dogs and that finding it in the urine was a lot easier than
finding it in the food. It was not something that we did as a cover-up move
and we never withdrew this offer of assistance. Maybe I did not communicate
this clearly and if this is the case then I apologize.
I will not be regularly visiting this group, I just wanted to post some
information from our perspective. If you have additional questions or
comments, please visit one of our websites and submit a form from the


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## RickGibbs (Dec 16, 2005)

LauraEyes2 said:


> My thoughts exactly. Not that it condones this happening again, but I think people also need to protect themselves from stuff like this and use common sense. It was quite publicized about the last incident with Diamond foods.


Remember the hit Jack in the Box took after the whole e-coli tragedy? It took quite a while for them to recover, too....


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## greg bell (May 24, 2005)

yeah.. but I just could not feel comfortable feeding or recommending their food right now... and if it isn't their fault, that is unfortunate.. 
im a little confused by the numbers.. said it tested .5 ppm, said that FDA limit is 2 ppm, then said they reject above 2.1 ppm which is below fed requirements.. 
did say the 2.1 rejection level was in raw materials.. maybe that is the difference.. raw materials have a higher level than finished product.. 
you read all this stuff and you wonder if you ought to be feedint your dog anything at all.. makes my head spin.. 
I had always heard good things about Diamond's food.. I don't know what is best or who you are supposed to believe on this dog food issue.. 
I tried Innova.. that didn't work... what I currently feed is what most of you think is not good food.. I feed purina high pro.. why?.. because I see it fed by pros to dogs that perform at an awfully high level.. this is a big money game and they could feed anything they choose.. 
There is a clinic that combines training with nutrition put on not too far from me this summer.. while the pro doing the clinic is well respected, one of the sponsors of the clinic is a dog food company.. well, I know what I am going to hear.. 
I don't know that there is a definitive answer.. I wish there was..


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## Dilligas (Jun 17, 2005)

Personally I would take all this with a grain of salt. Emails are easily forged, and people are easily fooled. Wendy's chili finger anyone?

Even if a mistake was made, does that mean that you'll never even mention the brand again? Jack in the box E coli, Tylenol tampering, Pepsi syringes?


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## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

I feed the Purina also and it works great for my dogs. However, the girls are on the Fit and Trim to keep weight off. But as I have often said, i do give them a lot of fish, green beans and carrots and some chicken and beef. Meat and veggies every night.

It is coming to the point where I am scared to feed my dogs, scared to give them vax, scared to put flea stuff on them.


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## greg bell (May 24, 2005)

Dilligas said:


> Personally I would take all this with a grain of salt. Emails are easily forged, and people are easily fooled. Wendy's chili finger anyone?
> 
> Even if a mistake was made, does that mean that you'll never even mention the brand again? Jack in the box E coli, Tylenol tampering, Pepsi syringes?


I agree with this, but I still would not now go out tonight and get a bag of Diamond food and feed it to my dogs.. not until I know for sure.. and the company has one definite strike against them already.. which, of course, leads to their vulnurability to rumors and hoaxes...


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## RickGibbs (Dec 16, 2005)

Dilligas said:


> Personally I would take all this with a grain of salt. Emails are easily forged, and people are easily fooled. Wendy's chili finger anyone?
> 
> Even if a mistake was made, does that mean that you'll never even mention the brand again? Jack in the box E coli, Tylenol tampering, Pepsi syringes?


I agree with the grain of salt stuff. There's so many e-mail hoaxes out there, I don't trust any e-mails.

But still, we didn't take our kids to Jack in the Box for years. And Tylenol ended up making gel-caps to make up for what they lost in those cases. Remember stores clearing ALL Tylenol off the shelves?


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## LauraEyes2 (Sep 16, 2005)

RickGibbs said:


> Remember stores clearing ALL Tylenol off the shelves?


Nope, I was only 2 :headbang2


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## RickGibbs (Dec 16, 2005)

LauraEyes2 said:


> Nope, I was only 2 :headbang2


Punk...


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## Dilligas (Jun 17, 2005)

3 goldens said:


> It is coming to the point where I am scared to feed my dogs, scared to give them vax, scared to put flea stuff on them.


This is exactly what I'm getting towards here. There has to be a line somewhere; "I don't walk my dogs because there's dangerous things outside" isn't a rational way to think. Of course, neither is the other extreme.

As always, just trying to bring a little moderation to things, is all


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## Rocky (Dec 28, 2006)

I just did a search on Premium Edge Dog food on this forum and this thread came up. The reason I searched this dog food is because when I was to the pet store yesterday, they recommended Premium Edge Puppy large Breed. I never heard of this brand. They said they have a lot of customers that love it and say it helped their dogs coat and skin (and Rocky has tons of flaky skin). Anyways, now I am worried about this. Anyone know any new news on this? I don't think I will be switching to this brand after reading this. Although, after researching more online, I did find on snopes that the Premium Edge brand was not one of the recalls.
Any thoughts?


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## njb (Oct 5, 2006)

That whole problems with Beneful food tread? See my last post there--It originated from the Diamond dog food recall.

I have not seen any follow up. There are a ton of decent dog foods out there which won't break the bank. I personally would look for one that does not have corn in it (good luck) and see if that helps the skin. If not work from there--assuming the dry skin is caused by food and not something else.


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## marshab1 (Aug 28, 2006)

I mentioned to my vet that I was interestd in Premium Edge dog food and a couple of others that Diamond makes that I didn't realize they did. Her response was "I'd stay away from anything by Diamond because they have had problems that any company could have but they had them more than once. So why take a chance." So I didn't.


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## njb (Oct 5, 2006)

Agreed Marsha--the risk is just too high--no way am I taking that chance--


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## Rocky (Dec 28, 2006)

marshab1 said:


> I mentioned to my vet that I was interestd in Premium Edge dog food and a couple of others that Diamond makes that I didn't realize they did. Her response was "I'd stay away from anything by Diamond because they have had problems that any company could have but they had them more than once. So why take a chance." So I didn't.


Thanks Marshab1! I had bought a small bag yesterday when they suggested it, but I think it will be ending up in the garbage. I don't want to risk it. I think I will be switching to Nutro. It seems like that is one of the better ones that a lot of people here use.


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## njb (Oct 5, 2006)

Rocky said:


> Thanks Marshab1! I had bought a small bag yesterday when they suggested it, but I think it will be ending up in the garbage. I don't want to risk it. I think I will be switching to Nutro. It seems like that is one of the better ones that a lot of people here use.


Before you buy anything must make sure you read up on the formulas for each age food--some have really good adult food--but crap puppy food. 

They all have websites so you can research and compare what works for you.


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## marshab1 (Aug 28, 2006)

Rocky said:


> Thanks Marshab1! I had bought a small bag yesterday when they suggested it, but I think it will be ending up in the garbage. I don't want to risk it. I think I will be switching to Nutro. It seems like that is one of the better ones that a lot of people here use.


I use the Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Puppy and have been very happy. There are others that I may eventually try especially if we have a problem. But the one thing the 3 vet clinics I have been to have agreed on is golden puppies need to be on a large breed puppy food.


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