Premium Edge Cat Food Voluntary Withdrawal

Written By: Susan Thixton
10-2-2009
Categorized in: Pet Food Recall

Original article updated after receiving additional information from Premium Edge Cat Food representative...

A spokesman at Diamond Pet Food, manufacturer of Premium Edge Cat Food, relates information regarding problems with Premium Edge Cat Food; the food has been withdrawn from retail outlets.

I received a tip that there was a potential problem with Premium Edge cat food; follow up information provided to TruthaboutPetFood.com stated that Dr. Susan Hubbard of Stone Ridge Veterinary Hospital in Rochester, NY has treated “13+ cats eating Finicky Adult Cat or Hairball Formula” Premium Edge cat food. Symptoms have included; decreased appetite prior to neuro signs, vomiting, vestibular-like ataxia, dull mentation, a subtle positional ventral nystagmus, dilated pupils, decreased to absent PLR and menance, blindness, seizures, head & neck weakness with ventral flexion, postural rigidity, circling, increased respiratory rate, hypothermia.

A Diamond Pet Food company spokesman confirmed the above to me late this morning (10/2/09 11:50 AM ET). The Diamond Pet Food representative related that testing proved no contaminants were discovered in the cat food; the only issue discovered was the cat foods were deficient in Thiamine (the level in the tested food was only >1.5 ppm - should be >5 ppm). Diamond tracked the vitamin premix lot number that was utilized in these particular cat foods and have performed testing on another lot of Premium Edge cat food that used the same vitamin premix. That food was not deficient in thiamine.

The Diamond Pet Food company spokesman relayed the following theory to TruthaboutPetFood.com regarding this issue with Premium Edge Cat Food:

Diamond pet food time stamps each product manufactured (date and time food was manufactured). The time stamps for the first calls logged of affected cat foods were manufactured within a twelve minute time frame. The speculation is some type of manufacturing error during those twelve minutes resulted in these cat foods becoming deficient in Thiamine.

The company stated there have been no other complaints from pet owners or veterinarians regarding Premium Edge Cat Food except from the Rochester, NY area (location of Dr. Susan Hubbard, Stone Ridge Veterinary Hospital). Premium Edge contacted all retail outlets asking them to pull the product from the store shelves. The retailers were also asked to contact their customers via email or telephone requesting them to check the date code of the food.

Although it was recommended to the company spokesman (from me), no press release information has been posted on Premium Edge website as of the writing of this article. The affected date codes are RAF0501A22X 18lb., RAF0501A2X 6 lb., RAH0501A22X 18 lb., RAH0501A2X 6lb. If you or anyone you know has these date codes of Premium Edge cat food, please return them to your retailer for a full refund. http://www.premiumedgepetfood.com/

Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,

Susan Thixton
Truth about Pet Food
Petsumer Report
www.TruthaboutPetFood.com

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Comments (8)

Jon Landre

Said this on 10-2-2009 At 02:27 pm

Could a low Tiamine level cause all these symptoms? If this was Thiamine related, wouldn't it have to be over a substantial period of time? This really doesn't seem like the cause of the problem, does it?

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Jon Landre

Said this on 10-2-2009 At 03:03 pm

Upon further research, symptoms could be experienced in as little as two to four weeks. These symptoms (after two to four weeks of a Thiamine deficient diet) include: excessive salivation and standing over the food as if to eat, but eating little. After another two to four weeks (four to eight weeks of eating a Thiamine deficient diet), the cat could experience brief tonic seizures, cervical ventroflexion with rigid muscles and the loss of righting reflexes. Bradycardia (sinus arrhythmia) and retinal hemorrhages may also be experienced further on. This vitamin B1 deficiency (beriberi in humans) can lead to death at this stage if not treated. An injection of 25mg B1 given IM usually clears up this problem within 24 hours. NOTE: feeding a diet of large quantities of uncooked fish (Tuna and/or Salmon) or overcooked meats can lead to a Thiamine deficiency.

I hope this saves some of you some time researching this condition.

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Jon Landre

Said this on 10-3-2009 At 01:28 am

Now, having read about Premium Edge Cat Foods, I must add this note. I simply can't understand why anyone would want to feed this to their cat. It has some less than desirable ingredients (to say the least). I'm surprised more cats aren't sick eating this food.

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mary ellen

Said this on 10-4-2009 At 04:02 pm

As someone who works in the pet food industry, I am continually surprised as to how many petowners continue to feed CHEAP FOOD regardless of all the info available to them about the dangers of feeding that crap but people continue to do it despite all the information available.
So I'm not surprised at all about this story...it certainly won't be the last you hear about pets continuing to be poisoned by inferior food.

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Karin

Said this on 10-4-2009 At 10:52 pm

Petfood manufacturers are not being held accountable for their carelessness. Removing food from retailer's shelves is not good enough. They need to have some consequences - paying for vet bills caused by the consumption of their food would be a good start.

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Sandra

Said this on 10-6-2009 At 01:01 pm

MaryEllen, unfortunately the problems are happening with food that isnt so "cheap" either, ....would be curious to know what your job is in the pet food industry... if a food is being marketed and sold, it shouldnt harm pets and if it does the company should be required to do a full recall including announcement via media, which they arent. Most shelters can only afford to feed the "cheap" food, so are you saying those animals dont deserve safe food? Tired of reading this kind of stuff implying pet owners are to blame....the responsibility of putting out safe food lies with the pet food industry. There are lots of people that can provide good homes to pets but cant afford to feed the so-called more expensive foods, are you saying that no one should have a pet unless they can feed a more expensive food? Nutro is one of the more expensive foods out there, is that what you call a better food? They dont have such a good track record...

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Jon

Said this on 10-14-2009 At 02:49 pm

This food seems almost as bad as nutro cat foods which is one of the worst on the market

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Carol

Said this on 12-1-2009 At 12:24 pm

FDA has a press release update today...18 states...but also says recall was posted at website Sept 23rd ...I think that is not true....right?

http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm192404.htm

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