larry

if places like Big W are selling the 'normal' Hills lines, and they are selling flea products and other chemicals, i dont see why eventually they wont end up selling the more specialised hills lines ? Flea chemicals can be dangerous if mis-used, so surely special food lines are far safer to sell ? Hills decided to only sell their foods to vets/pet shops in the past, so they can just as easily decide to do the same for the 'specialised' food lines surely ? I thought Hills was owned by a big multinational company, so they probably sell other lines to Big W anyway ? Once Hills sells to places like Big W with no specially trained pet staff, then probably Eukanuba will follow ? I was told by my vet in the past that hills food was only sold to vets, and then it was eventually also sold to pet shops, but that is obviously not the case anymore as it is now being sold to the supermarket type outlets.....

I wasn't able to ask any questions of the staff in the Big W, there were no staff at all to be seen near the pet area...at least they cant give me the wrong advise about flea products...that's scary-when dealing with strong chemicals like that...mistakes could be dangerous..... I didn't notice any Iams for sale there, but i didn't really look that carefully....... I remember when supercoat was only sold in pet stores in WA, and then the supermarkets started to sell it, i was told by friends that used to buy it that the product didn't seem the same after a while, and that they then switched brands...... it looks like Hills is the next brand to be sold in the chain stores.....

I was in Big W in Karrinyup (WA) yesterday and saw Hills science diet food for sale there I was told by my vet in the past that Hills is a special food , only for sale in vets and specialist shops, but now Big W sells it..... I didn't keep track of the prices, so i'm not sure how much cheaper it was though..... so really all pet foods should be available in the big chain stores in time ?

I was in the BIG W in karrinyup in WA today, and i noticed they had stock of Hills pet foods i'm not sure how their prices compared to the local vets

i was told by a vet that many of the processed dog foods sold in the 'sausage' form in the supermarkets contain sulphur dioxide, also read about this http://www.kangaroo-protection-coalition.c...roopetmeat.html

you will probably be ok if you have only fed a small amount to your dog..... it seems that most dogs affected ate quite a lot...... it looks like the usa has had lots of similar cases with treats.... it sounds like our govt doesn't keep in touch with the usa regarding food safety, or possibly this owuldn't have happened here ? http://www.avma.org/press/media_alerts/070...erky_treats.asp http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/...art-tests-.html http://petfoodtracker.blogspot.com/2007/08...called-dog.html the problem is , we never know the name of the factories in china that importers here buy from, so it's hard to know what chinese made treats are more risky to eat ? ......

i wonder what contamination factor they will find in this case.... ? it was a pity that kramar didn't want to recall their product, and tried to threaten the vets involved first...15 sick dogs, so far...... seems like a significant problem ? http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/12/09/2441919.htm i would have thought that their customer's dogs welfare would come first ? the problem is that if you get dog food made in china, even if a company has a haccp plan, this doesn't protect their customers. There have been many cases in the past 2-3 years where food companies in china have used lower quality and unsafe ingredients, and then hide the fact, and haccp auditors haven't found out...... China needs to really overhaul their food safety system, plus they need to also treat pet food as something deserving of similar safety standards as human food......

i wonder what contamination factor they will find in this case.... ? it was a pity that kramar didn't want to recall their product, and tried to threaten the vets involved first...15 sick dogs, so far...... seems like a significant problem ? http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/12/09/2441919.htm i would have thought that their customer's dogs welfare would come first ? the problem is that if you get dog food made in china, even if a company has a haccp plan, this doesn't protect their customers. There have been many cases in the past couple of years where food companies in china have used lower quality and unsafe ingredients, and then hide the fact, and haccp auditors haven't found out...... China needs to really overhaul their food safety system, plus they need to also treat pet food as something deserving of similar safety standards as human food......

http://www.avma.org/press/media_alerts/070...erky_treats.asp there are probably other brands affected, if this media alert from the usa last year is any indication..... there are probably lots of other companies importing chicken jerky treats into australia and the usa that are made in china under a range of brand names, however the common factor is that they are made in china.... it seems from dog food contamination problems in recent years that the smaller dogs are always worst affected, however just because big dogs don't always get chronic symptoms, it doesn't mean that they are getting internal damage....

i wonder what manufacturers in china were involved in this AVMA (USA) media alert from last year http://www.avma.org/press/media_alerts/070...erky_treats.asp there are probably lots of other companies importing chicken jerky treats into australia and the usa that are made in china under a range of brand names, however the common factor is that they are made in china.... it seems from dog food contamination problems in recent years that the smaller dogs are always worst affected, however just because big dogs don't always get chronic symptoms, it doesn't mean that they are getting internal damage....

We have been feeding our dogs natural balance (the one made in australia) for many years and they have done quite well on it. Dogs are like people-most people can eat common ingredients, but some people (and dogs) are allergic to certain foods eg beef, wheat, corn, chicken, etc lillysmum-Natural Balance contains corn gluten meal (not whole corn), which i understand is added due to it contain certain amino acids, our dogs don't seem to have any problem with the corn gluten meal that the NB contains, and many dog foods use corn gluten without any problems. eg many of the nutro lines, etc the usa natural balance has a lot of organic products, and i know you like organic products, but they are the one that had to recall some of it wet pet food products as they were involved in the large recall in the USA-hardly a ringing endorsement in my book......

i was told in the past that pets paradise is the sole importer of innova in australia so emails to the company in the usa won't do any good i know a lot of people that won't buy innova as they don't want to support pets paradise as they use backyard breeders and puppy farms

hi helen the VAN food seems to contain a lot of raw grains i was under the impression that dogs can't digest the starch from grains unless it has been partially cooked, like when dog biscuits are extruded using steam. I don't think that a lot of the grain content would be that digestible in that raw form.... confused.gif even the soaking isn't going to make much if any difference.....

hi helen i would agree with poodlefan i was under the impression that dogs can't digest the starch from grains unless it has been partially cooked, like when dog biscuits are extruded using steam. I don't think that a lot of the grain content would be that digestible in that raw form.... even the soaking isn't going to make much if any difference.....

hi daccie you have a good point, if it was me i would have taken my dog to the vet asap, but maybe he couldn't face putting his dog down... (i know plenty of people like that) and hoped his dog would recover.... we don't know the reasons why he didn't take his dog to be put down...but then either way, his dog was going to die.....