Update on Orijen Pet Food

Written By: Susan Thixton
11-24-2008
Categorized in: Pet Food News

Orijen Cat Food has been found to be the only link between a strange illness that paralyzed five cats in Australia, all five pets needed to be euthanized. I just spoke with Dianna at Orijen and she shared the following information with me…

The only reports of sick cats (or any pets) have been in Australia. All pet foods shipped into Australia must be irradiated – treated with radiation – before they are sold. Orijen has no control over this, this is a mandated issue from the government of Australia. Orijen has sent two samples of the irradiated food, along with non irradiated food from the same batch to two separate University testing laboratories. It is not sure if an answer for the illnesses will be found in these tests, however it should provide a wealth of information regarding effects of irradiation of foods. Orijen is expecting the test results on Wednesday, November 26, 2008. They will post the results on their website www.championpetfoods.com.

Orijen told me they feel the irradiation is the concern. Although this is frightening for already frightened pet owners, at this point I am in agreement that the irradiation is the concern.

Food is irradiated – treated with radiation – to kill bacteria and molds. In the process, much more is destroyed. Not only is the nutrition destroyed, but far more research than the FDA lets on to, tells us much more damage can occur. Irradiation breaks chemical bonds, and it is suspect that broken chemical bonds within foods containing numerous ingredients (a pet food) can alter the entire ‘food’ in many ways. A very interesting article, explaining the history of food irradiation and some serious side effects can be found here: http://www.iicph.org/docs/food_irradiation.htm

I will do some needed research on irradiation and follow up with an article for you soon.

Wishing you and your pet the best,

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

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Comments (6)

MARY

Said this on 11-24-2008 At 01:58 pm

THANKS TO YOU SUSAN I HAD AN UNOPENED BAG OF ORIGEN IN MY KITCHEN TO FEED MY 4 CATS. I WILL BE TAKING IT BACK JUST UNTIL ALL OF THIS IS CLEARED UP. ITS VERY SCARY. MY CATS ARE MY KIDS. I WOULD BE DESTROYED IF ANYTHING WAS TO HAPPEN TO THEM. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU !!! FOR YOUR WEBSITE AND ALL OF YOUR INFORMATION. WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!

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Petlover

Said this on 11-24-2008 At 02:31 pm

Thanks very much for staying on top of this, Susan. Here is another document about food irradiation from Public Citizen, a group Ralph Nader founded.

http://www.irradiation.info/documents/PC%20documen...

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Petlover

Said this on 11-24-2008 At 04:17 pm

http://www.vetpathology.org/cgi/content/full/44/6/...

Saw that posted at Itchmoforums.

http://itchmoforums.com/news-recall-related/proble...

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shibadiva

Said this on 11-26-2008 At 07:10 pm

Thank you for this information, Susan. According to Champion's press release update today, the food appeared to be significantly over-irradiated. They will no longer be shipping cat or dog kibble to Australia. The poor cats are canaries in the mine again, aren't they? I look forward to your research and opinions on irradiation and offering us the choice not to buy irradiated foods for ourselves or our packs.

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Dianne Dillon

Said this on 11-27-2008 At 03:01 am

Thanks for this update - I'm so worried about my babies - below is an email I've sent to Champion Pet foods and the Australian Distributor. My 4 cats have been eating Origens for 2 months now!
I checked the Champion Foods website and found a more comprehensive report on the recall. This is very disturbing news as I researched this particular dry cat food over a few weeks after my ragdoll nearly died after a blockage in his penis from struvite crystals. Thankfully I have been mixing the dry food with his prescription Hills Science dry food so he hopefully maintained a decent level of vitamin A and other vitamins and minerals that were depleted after the irradiation. My issue is that not only was I feeding my ragdoll Shadow, my other 3 cats have also been eating the Origen and one those cats had kittens 3 weeks ago. The statistics on the Champion Petfood website stated that 200 cats in Australia had access to the food and 27 (10%) cats in the Sydney area became ill, with 4 of them dying. My 4 cats are of those 200 and now there are 4 kittens whose mother ate the food before, during after the birth of them. I finished the Origen food 2 nights ago, so I don't believe I'm due a refund? I guess I can only now keep a vigilant eye on my beloved cats over the next week or so, looking for neurological symptoms. I hope there are no developmental problems with the kittens.

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EWEM

Said this on 6-20-2009 At 01:13 pm

I left a detailed post at the other orijen article on this site. My cats have used orijen chicken with good results (in the USA). However I recently changed to the new fish flavor and one got a urinary blockage and a serious bladder infection (rod bacteria), and the other developed a bad eye infection simultaneously with becoming very diabetic at exactly the same time. The blocked cat had gotten a blockage years ago after I changed his diet to Walmart premium kibbles, so I assumed it was simply changeing to a food he did not like that caused the problem this time. Now, I wonder if the new fish formula had a problem, at least the bag I used? Our food would not be irradiated, but I wonder which flavors the sick cats were getting in Australia. I can't be sure if the diabetes was a coincidence. I assumed the eye infection started because of the debilitation of the diabetes. These cats had both already been poisoned in the pet food recalls so they had more issues. I am certain the change to flish flavor orijen caused the urinary blockage. They are now on special diets plus the bag of chicken orijen which they had been eating a long while with no trouble

I am so sorry for those pets. I have been using chicken orijen, and home made food since the big pet recalls and the cats had done very well

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