Botulism Contaminates Pet Food

RECALLED PET FOOD

• Natural Balance Eatables for Dogs Irish Stew With Beef, Potatoes & Carrots


• Natural Balance Eatables for Dogs Chinese Take Out


• Natural Balance Eatables for Dogs HOBO Chili with Chicken & Pasta


• Natural Balance Eatables for Dogs Southern Style Dumplings With Chicken & Vegetables

Castleberry (Bumble Bee Foods) has recalled more than 80 types of stew, chili, and hash because botulism toxin is found in the food. The recall includes canned pet food sold under the Natural Balance label. Dogs that eat food contaminated with botulism toxin can become paralyzed and die.

Botulism has three ways of infecting
This outbreak of botulism is caused by the toxin in food, but botulism can infect pets and people using three routes:
• Foodborne (toxin),
• wound contamination (bacteria), and
• infant botulism (spores growing in the intestines).

Foodborne botulism is probably the most common problem for dogs; and wound contamination, the most common problem for horses and livestock. Infant botulism is the most common cause of human infection. Cats, the lucky devils, aren’t susceptible to botulism infections under natural conditions. Fiendish experimenters have been able to infect them, but cats don’t get botulism outside the laboratory.

Signs and Symptoms of Botulism
In dogs, foodborne botulism toxin affects the nerves to all parts of the body, but it is most obvious when the nerves that stimulate the muscles are damaged and the dog becomes limp and paralyzed. Symptoms can begin as quickly as 6 hours after eating, but in some dogs no symptoms will be obvious for a week or 10 days after ingesting the toxin. Once symptoms begin, they reach maximum severity quickly—within 12-24 hours.

At the same time as the dog is becoming paralyzed and unable to move, botulism toxin is causing less obvious, but equally serious damage elsewhere:
• eyes lose the ability to focus so that vision is impaired,
• throat muscles cannot contract the dog cannot swallow,
• the stomach doesn’t work so that food cannot be digested
• the intestines don’t work and the dog cannot defecate, and
• the muscles that expand the chest don’t work so the animal cannot breathe.

Death is usually due to respiratory paralysis.

Damage to the nerves and muscles occurs because the toxin blocks acetylcholine, the signaling molecule that travels from nerves and tells muscles to contract. Dogs with this form of nerve paralysis become weak and lose all their muscle tone. Within a week, their muscles will atrophy. The skin begins to break down and bed sores develop because the dog cannot move and will lie in the same position until helped.

Diagnosis of Botulism
Several diseases cause nerve paralysis symptoms similar to those caused by botulism, such as myasthenia gravis, coonhound paralysis, tick bite paralysis. To determine what’s making a dog ill, veterinarians look for signs of botulism in the blood and the feces.

Treatment of Botulism
If the dog is diagnosed before the toxin has damaged the nerves, an antitoxin is helpful. It is Type C or polyvalent containing type C antitoxin. Antitoxin doesn’t help after paralysis occurs. Paralyzed dogs require intensive care and can be put on respirators and ventilated until the nerves and muscles recover. Intensive care and artificial ventilation may be necessary for 1-3 weeks. During recovery, the following complications can occur:
• dry eye (keratoconjunctivitis sicca),
• pneumonia,
• bed sores (decubital sores), and
• urine scalding of skin.

Fortunately, dogs can completely recover, but it may take many weeks for their muscles to develop the tone they lost while paralyzed.

Powerful Poison
The extreme danger of foodborne botulism is that it takes the tiniest amount of toxin (one microgram) to poison a pet and block acetylcholine release throughout the body. This is unlike most cases of toxic poisoning where the severity of the illness is related to how much of the toxin the pet is exposed to. For example, dogs that eat a tiny amount of chocolate never become ill, but a large amount can cause heart rhythm disturbance and heart failure.

The fact that botulism toxin is so powerful is also why we fear it may be used by terrorists to poison humans.

Heat Destroys Botulism Toxin
Botulism is a little unusual in that it is not the bacteria themselves that make pets sick when they eat poisoned pet food, but the toxin the bacteria make. Because this toxin is destroyed by heat, boiling food for 10 minutes destroys the toxin, as well as the bacteria. Boiled food cannot make pets ill.

Some bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus) produce toxins that are not destroyed by boiling, so it is unwise to ever become complacent about what we’re feeding our dogs.

Bulging Cans
One sign that botulism bacteria might be in canned food is that the can will bulge if the bacteria have had time to grow. Botulism bacteria thrive in sealed cans because they grow best where there is no oxygen (anaerobic bacteria). As they grow, they produce a gas that causes the can to swell. If you have any cans of food with bulging lids, return them to the store.

Don’t assume that a can of Natural Balance pet food that isn’t bulging is safe. To protect your pet, return your cans of Natural Balance food to the store.

To find out more about Natural Balance dog food recall, visit Castleberry's Web site: http://www.castleberrys.com. or
http://www.castleberrys.com/news_productrecall.asp.