Andy, the Wonder Wiener

[forloveofandy]

Re: Andy, the Wonder Wiener

Yes Roxy definitely runs the show. The boys will get a little too rowdy from time to time and Roxy jumps in the middle and it is all over but the crying. LOL

I have always been told that in a pack you should only have one female or there will be fighting for dominance. Not sure if that is always true but I know it would be true here.

I have one more not shown in the picture that is a chiwennie, half doxie and half chihuahua. He thinks he is leader of the pack, growls and shows his teeth. Unfortunately no one pays any attention.

[rhodesian46]

Re: Andy, the Wonder Wiener

I have 3 female dogs and 2 males. Never a dominance problem. Is a dominance problem with my male dogs. They both want to be boss and get all of the attention.

[forloveofandy]

Re: Andy, the Wonder Wiener

Andy went in for allergy testing today. He is having the RAST test done. This is allergy testing done using a blood draw. They send it off for analysis and in four to six weeks you get the results.

I am having him tested for food, regional and home.

I am hoping this will help. Anyone else do allergy testing? Was it successful and what kind did you have done?

Did you opt for the allergy shots?

[k9diabetes]

Re: Andy, the Wonder Wiener

Hi Ann,

We never did the testing as Chris' allergies were episodic and not entirely unmanageable. Guess you've read Wiggins' story.

Are you a member of the Cushings forum?

I think there are folks over there who have done it. Perhaps they wouldn't mind your interjecting a question about that over there.

www.k9cushings.com

Natalie

[forloveofandy]

Re: Andy, the Wonder Wiener

Andy's allergy tests came back.

Of all things, Andy is allergic to both chicken and turkey. This is all I have ever fed him. He is also allergic to corn, alfalfa and duck.

He is allergic to many grasses, fungi and elm trees. Of course we have a big elm tree in the front yard.

The good news? He is not allergic to dust or dust mites. I do not have to worry so much about cleaning!

Tonight he had fish, green beans and brown rice. This weekend I need to shop for beef. I worry about beef because of the fat content. I need to find very lean cuts. http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/03...62f417ff7c.jpg

I corrected this to say fish, green beans and brown rice....I typed that wrong!

[BestBuddy]

Re: Andy, the Wonder Wiener

Are you against trying a canned food with either fish or venison? We also have kangaroo (very lean) as a choice but I am not sure you will get that over there. At least you know what not to feed.....good luck.

Jenny

[snow]

Re: Andy, the Wonder Wiener

Andy's allergy tests came back.

Of all things, Andy is allergic to both chicken and turkey. This is all I have ever fed him. He is also allergic to corn, alfalfa and duck.

He is allergic to many grasses, fungi and elm trees. Of course we have a big elm tree in the front yard.

The good news? He is not allergic to dust or dust mites. I do not have to worry so much about cleaning!

Tonight he had fish, green beans and chicken. This weekend I need to shop for beef. I worry about beef because of the fat content. I need to find very lean cuts. http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/03...62f417ff7c.jpg

Evanger has a couple of single source canned foods. One of them is Mackerel. They stick a bunch of very identifiable chucks of Mackerel in a can, and cook it. Devon's crazy about it. It's like big old sardines. If he didn't eat it so fast I could imagine the kitchen would be a bit stinky.

They also have Pheasant, and something called Hunk of Beef. They stick a hunk of beef in a can, and cook it. Well named food. Devon goes nuts for that too. There's also buffalo and venison out there too. Devon didn't like either one without cheese on it.

snow<--person
Devon <--- dog

[forloveofandy]

Re: Andy, the Wonder Wiener

Ok Jenny, I can never tell Andy about the kangaroo. He will want to go live with you!
Yes I will eventually try some canned. There are a lot of high quality cans that are 95% pure meat. Right now I just want to control very tightly what goes into his food to take the stress off of his immune system.

Snow I will check out the Evanger. I have seen it at the pet store but knew nothing about it. I like the idea of seeing big chunks. You have to wonder about the ground up stuff....like what is really in it?

Thanks for the tip!

[k9diabetes]

Re: Andy, the Wonder Wiener

I don't know what the status is now but Evanger's was barred from producing pet food a few months ago.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news0..._evangers.html

Natalie

[forloveofandy]

Re: Andy, the Wonder Wiener

Nat thank you for posting this. I purchased two cans yesterday that I will promptly return today.

Safe or not, I want nothing to do with a company involved in recall.
Also, their response to inquires was nothing short of criminal.

For me, I am simply homecooking. It is not more expensive and once you have a routine down, it is fast and easy.

I went to Costco, purchased in bulk, eye of round. I trim it of all visible fat and put it in the slow cooker overnight with lots of water and few granules of beef broth.

Next morning, drain all that delicious broth and put in fridge so that any remaining fat rises to the top and can be lifted off.

Shred the beef and place in containers that hold approximately a weeks worth and freeze. When I am ready to make a week of food, I take a container of beef, some green beans (microwave steamers) processed and chopped fine and some long-grain brown rice and mix.

I have some small glad containers that hold one meal. I divide it al up and place in the fridge. When it is time to eat, pop one out, 30 secs in the microwave and that's it. Pour a little extra broth on top too.

I also feed lowfat cottage cheese by spoon with any pills he needs to take such as Sam-e, vitamin or Benadryl.

My other dogs get a small amount of Honest Kitchen freeze dried raw with fresh meat.

I also buy orange roughy (fish) and substitute that for meat on occassion.

It does not cost anymore than super premium dog foods. And the preparation is simple.

Now that I know what Andy is allergic to his BG's have stabilized and I continue to reduce insulin to keep him from going too low. I had no idea that food allergies could cause all the problems Andy suffered. He is so happy, playful and acting like a puppy again.

So Andy did not have rapid insulin metabolism, it was not a mismatch of food and insulin. His body was rejecting his food.

I thought food allergies would always show up in skin issues. This is NOT true. Food allergies show up in many different ways. In a diabetic it means glucose out of control due to an inflamatory response every time they eat. The only time I responded to a food allergy is when Andys skin broke out, or turned red or his ears turned red. I always looked for an outward physical manifestation.

Turkey and Chicken did none of those things to him so I felt he was not allergic to them. But internally it was causing an allergic response that played havoc with his glucose control. Not to mention making him sick and lethargic.

If your dog is hard to regulate and you feel you have ruled out infection, I would recommend you get the RAST test done. You can have the food panel only run for approximately $200. It is just a blood draw that is sent off to a lab so you can certainly shop around for best price. The individual Vet does not do the test so it does not matter where you go.

And yes there are a lot of opinions about the RAST test versus skin prick testing pros and cons. The skin testing is probably better if you are looking to test for airborne allergies and opt for allergy shots. But if you are looking for food allergies the RAST test is a very good one. Cheap by comparrison and easy to do. All I can say is that it changed Andy's life and mine too!

[snow]

Re: Andy, the Wonder Wiener

I don't know what the status is now but Evanger's was barred from producing pet food a few months ago.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news0..._evangers.html

Natalie

Oh no... I had no idea. If this happened in June, how come my store is still getting shipments in 3 months later? If I had known this I obviously would not only not have recommended it, I certainly would not have fed it to my own dog.

Thanks for the tip, I've got 4 cans to take back to the store now.

Glad to hear Andy is doing so well.

snow

[We Hope]

Re: Andy, the Wonder Wiener

http://news.vin.com/VINNews.aspx?articleId=13179

Clostridium botulinum not detected, pet food maker says
June 17, 2009
By: Jennifer Fiala
For The VIN News Service


"Evanger's Dog & Cat Food Co. Inc. is appealing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) June 12 suspension of its permit to ship canned pet food after safety inspections revealed that the company was not operating in compliance with the regulatory agency's requirements.

"In a statement, Evanger's Vice President Joel Sher says there have been no recalls or allegations of unsafe food manufactured at the company. In short, Clostridium botulinum has not been detected in Evanger's products, he contends.

"FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, in cooperation with the agency's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, issued Evanger's suspension after inspections revealed that the Illinois-based company "deviated from the prescribed process, equipment, product shipment, and recordkeeping requirements in the production of the company's thermally processed low acid canned food products."

"Such "deviations" could result in under-processed foods, which can allow the survival and growth of Clostridium botulinum, an agency news release says.

"In light of that statement, company officials appear to be doing damage control, stating repeatedly that Evanger's products are free of Clostridium botulinum. Exactly what warranted FDA's action appears to be based on a misunderstanding regarding certain filings that deal with the company's processing protocols — paperwork that Evanger's is in the process of correcting, Sher's statement says.

"In its news release, FDA notes that the company must "document that corrective actions and processing procedures have been implemented to ensure that the finished product will not present a health hazard."

"According to the company, Evanger's conducts internal tests on all of its production batches, which can detect bacteria like Clostridium botulinum.

""There has never been any detection of any bacteria in any of our products," Sher reiterates in his statement. "As part of the FDA inspection, every can in our warehouse was inspected by the FDA for signs of bacterial contamination. The result: NO contamination was found.

""There are no recalls or safety issues associated with this situation," he adds. "All Evanger’s products that are currently on store shelves are safe as they always have been. ... As we have indicated, the FDA action does not call into question the safety of any of Evanger’s products.""

They were in trouble for the same thing a little before this:

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2008/NEW01825.html

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 24, 2008
Media Inquiries:
Kimberly Rawlings, 301-827-6242
Consumer Inquiries:
888-INFO-FDA

FDA Orders Pet Food Maker to Obtain Emergency Operating Permit

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an order requiring that Evanger's Dog & Cat Food Co., Inc., in Wheeling, Ill., obtain an emergency permit from the FDA before its canned pet food products enter interstate commerce.

A recent inspection revealed significant deviations from prescribed documentation of processes, equipment, and recordkeeping in the production of the company's thermally processed low acid canned food (LACF) products. These problems could result in under-processed pet foods, which can allow the survival and growth of Clostridium botulinum (C. botulinum), a bacterium that causes botulism in some animals as well as in humans.

"As outlined in the Food Protection Plan, the FDA uses a risk-based approach to locate the areas of greatest risk for foods, and targets preventive controls and inspections to those areas, " said Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. "The FDA's authority to issue an order requiring an emergency permit is an enforcement tool designed to prevent unsafe foods from reaching consumers.”

The FDA issues an "Order of Need for Emergency Permit” if the agency determines that a company fails to meet the regulatory requirements to process a product that does not present a health risk. For Evanger's to resume business, the company must document that corrective actions and processing procedures have been implemented to ensure that the finished product will not present a health hazard.

Botulism is a powerful toxin that affects the nervous system and can be fatal. The disease has been documented in dogs and cats. Signs of botulism in animals are progressive muscle paralysis, disturbed vision, difficulty in chewing and swallowing, and progressive weakness to the body. Death is usually due to paralysis of the heart or the muscles used in breathing.

In light of human botulism illnesses and recalls that occurred due to under-processed hot dog chili sauce, and potentially under-processed canned green beans, FDA has urged all LACF processors to review their operations and the apply scientific principals and regulations that have been established to provide a safe product.

While FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine has authority over animal feed and foods, CFSAN is responsible for regulating all human and animal LACF processing. The two centers are collaborating on this enforcement action.

Evanger's was allowed to keep operating then because FDA issued them an Emergency Permit (nothing shipped until FDA received reports on every batch re: negative for bacteria).

The understanding is that when it was necessary to issue that Emergency Permit, the violations found at their plant inspection were to be corrected. When the plant was re-inspected this year, there were still violations spotted by FDA inspection; this is when FDA pulled their Emergency Permit which allowed them to ship their products outside of IL.

http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/.../ucm166265.htm

FDA Suspends Temporary Emergency Permit of Pet Food Maker
June 12, 2009

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced today it was suspending the temporary Emergency Permit issued to Evanger's Dog & Cat Food Co., Inc.

Evanger's, operating in Wheeling, Illinois, deviated from the prescribed process, equipment, product shipment, and recordkeeping requirements in the production of the company's thermally processed low acid canned food (LACF) products. The deviations in their processes and documentation could result in under-processed pet foods, which can allow the survival and growth of Clostridium botulinum (C. botulinum), a bacterium that causes botulism in some animals as well as in humans.

In April 2008, Evanger’s was issued an “Order of Need for Emergency Permit” after the agency determined that the company had failed to meet the regulatory requirements to process a product that does not present a health risk. In June, 2008, FDA issued Evanger’s a temporary Emergency Permit. During inspections conducted between March 2009 and April 2009, FDA determined Evanger’s was not operating in compliance with the mandatory requirements and conditions of the Temporary Emergency Permit.

“The FDA is stopping Evanger's ability to ship pet food in interstate commerce,” said Dr. Bernadette Dunham. “Today’s enforcement action sends a strong message to manufacturers of pet food that we will take whatever action necessary to keep unsafe products from reaching consumers.”

In order for Evanger's to resume shipping in interstate commerce, the company must document that corrective actions and processing procedures have been implemented to ensure that the finished product will not present a health hazard.

http://www.thepetfoodlist.com/manufacturers.htm

Evanger's also produces these brands for these companies:

Artemis Holistic Dog Food

Blackwood Pet Food

Canidae

Life4k9

More Evanger's Produced Brands

http://www.mastiffonlinecommunity.ne...ote=viewresult

Beowulf Natural Feeds, Syracuse NY – Back to Basics Perfection. Made by Evanger’s Dog and Cat Food Company, Wheeling IL. www.beowulfs.com

Weruva International Inc, Natick MA – Weruva Kobe and Kurobuta formulas only. Made by Evanger’s Dog and Cat Food Company, Wheeling IL. www.weruva.com

Basically, they currently cannot ship anything they can out of IL.

http://k9diabetes.com/forum/showpost...45&postcount=9

http://k9diabetes.com/forum/showpost...9&postcount=11

Above are our board links from April 2008, when the problems began and Evanger's was allowed to operate under the emergency permit.

Kathy

All of this means the company is entitled to a hearing to present their side of the issue. We'd heard that Evanger's was to do that--sometime in July, I believe. But there's been no official word as to whether or not they got their Emergency Permit restored as a result of the hearing.

Kathy

[snow]

Re: Andy, the Wonder Wiener

I took my cans back to the store and swapped them out for other food. I gave them a copy of the actual fda.gov information that I printed out. The owner wasn't there but one of the managers was. She said she hadn't heard anything about this and seemed very concerned and was more then happy to promptly refund my money.

I wonder why, in light of the circumstances, that Evanger wasn't forced to recall all of their canned goods, like Menu Foods was? It seems as if there was ample reason to do so. Please note, that's a rhetorical comment.

Thanks for your time, and if I have offended or annoyed anybody, it was unintentional.


snow

[We Hope]

Re: Andy, the Wonder Wiener

The way the laws are and have been at this time, the only food item FDA can force a recall on is baby formula. There's hope that this will change if FDA is given more legal recall authority as has been discussed recently. All FDA has the power to do is to prevail on a company to recall other food products, no matter if they are for people or animals--except for the baby formula.

There were no confirmed reports of botulism being found in any of the Evanger's products; this is different from the 2007 Castleberry's recall, where botulism WAS detected in some of their canned foods.

It's sort of like the difference between a storm watch and a storm warning--storm watch means that conditions are right for storms to develop while storm warning means that there are storms and they are headed in a given direction.

The Evanger's situation is like a storm watch in that the FDA inspections turned up plant conditions where botulism could develop; Castleberry's had issues with their plant conditions and botulism did develop there, so that was the equivalent of a storm warning.

My personal disappointment with the company is that they've been "on the carpet" twice for the same flaws in just over a year. While ideally, we'd like to have seen that nothing was wrong back in April 2008--what I did expect, though, is that by June of 2009, those plant defects had long been corrected.

Kathy

[forloveofandy]

Re: Andy, the Wonder Wiener

I printed the notice as well. I am going by the pet store to see if I can get them to pull it off the shelf.

If they won't, I will find somewhere else to shop. I just could not believe how the company responded to a customer. I may not be able to change the world but I can sure take a stand as a consumer and do this for Chris and his Pomeranians. It does not say if they lived. I hope they made it.

"In December 2008, Chris of Monrovia, Md., described what happened when she fed her two Pomeranians some Evanger's Beef Chunks in Gracy.

"Within 45 minutes they were both in critical condition with signs of complete neurological shutdown, blindness, inability to stand or walk, difficulty breathing and swallowing," she said. "Both dogs were treated for symptoms of botulism and the food was to be sent out for testing through Greenbriar Emergency Hospital."

And how did Evanger's react to the near-disaster?

"When I called the office number listed on Evanger's Web site on November 19th, I was hung up on. When Dr. Rossi called Evanger's on November 20th, she was told by the person who answered that they would not speak another word to her because she could not prove she even was a vet," Chris said."