Area pets are exposed to poisoned food

The Hekman family always considered their 18-year-old Himalayan-Persian cat Murphy to be family.

When Stephen and Heidi Hekman first got Murphy when he was a kitten, Heidi Hekman, a self-proclaimed dog lover, was unsure that she wanted a cat. But as soon as they got him, she fell in love with the feline.

Murphy was still relatively healthy for his age, but the couple had to put him to sleep Monday night when he suddenly fell victim to kidney failure. The Hekmans suspect their pet may have eaten poisoned food that was subject to the massive national recall that has affected more than 50 pet-food manufacturers.

The New York State Department of Agriculture determined on Friday that some samples it tested from food produced by Canadian-based Menu Foods Inc. at a Kansas facility was contaminated with aminopterin, a rat poison banned in the United States in 1985, according to U.S. EPA spokesman Francisco Arcaute. The recalled food was “cuts and gravy” style wet food from cans or foil “pouch” packages.

The rodenticide has been named as a possible toxin responsible for the deaths of at least 16 cats and dogs, according to the American Veterinary Medical Assn.

In Newport-Mesa, at least 13 dogs and cats have been affected. In some cases veterinarians aren’t sure the food is what caused the illness.

“We take these complaints very seriously and, while we are still looking for a specific cause, we are acting to err on the side of caution,” Menu Foods President and Chief Executive Paul K. Henderson said in a March 16 news release. “We will do whatever is necessary to ensure that our products maintain the very highest quality standards.”

“So many cases came in before we knew about the recall, and we ended up treating them, and I just thought we had a huge amount of cats going into renal failure,” said Kelly Wright, a veterinarian at the Cat Clinic of Orange County in Costa Mesa.

At one time, Wright had seven cats on intravenous fluids at once. On Friday, she had one cat at the clinic who was exposed to contaminated food and was being treated.

At the All Creatures Care Cottage in Costa Mesa, 11-month-old Trixie, a Yorkshire terrier belonging to Huntington Beach resident Vena Sloan, will undergo more blood tests today to determine if her kidneys are back to normal. Sloan took the puppy to the Costa Mesa clinic last week after a week of vomiting. Trixie ate Nutro Natural Choice food.

“Pet owners should watch for any symptoms that have been publicized — lethargy; vomiting; diarrhea; dark, tarry stools; excessive thirst — and immediately bring them to the vet or an emergency clinic so that they can treat and flush the toxin out with fluids,” said Debbie McGuire of the All Creatures Care Cottage.

The Hekmans noticed Murphy hadn’t eaten all his food the evening of March 15. On Friday night, before they left for a short weekend visit to Heidi Hekman’s parents’ house, they left food out for him, as they were accustomed to do doing when they left town.

“We came back Sunday and he was completely lifeless — he didn’t want to move — so we brought him in the house from the garage and he had an accident in the house,” Heidi Hekman said. “My husband said, ‘I think he’s really sick,’ and we took him to the vet Monday.”

The Hekmans took Murphy to the Newport Harbor Animal Hospital on Mesa Drive, where the veterinarian ran tests, gave him intravenous fluids and determined he was in renal failure.

When the Hekmans were deciding whether to put Murphy to sleep, media exposure of the pet-food recall had only just begun.

“The next day after, we started researching the whole recall thing and we had leftover cans — they were on the recall” list, Heidi Hekman said. “The symptoms that were described sounded like him — he stopped eating, was extremely dehydrated, had kidney failure — that’s our story.”

Because of his advanced age, it is not completely clear whether Murphy’s diet of Eukanuba Mature with Savory Chicken wet food caused his death, but the Hekmans are sure it provoked it, because until last week, the cat seemed healthy.

“It’s really sad — it’s one thing to die of old age, but to think you contributed to the poisoning of your own animal, it’s unfathomable,” Heidi Hekman said. “And we were giving him Eukanuba food. We were thinking we were giving him the best food, spending extra money to buy food that’s good for him to prolong his life.”

PET FOOD RECALL INFORMATION

For more information on the Menu Foods Inc. recall of “cuts and gravy” style food, packaged for more than 50 independent labels, call (866) 895-2708 or go to these websites:

www.menufoods.com/recall : The Menu Foods Inc. site has links to a list of all products recalled for cats and dogs.

www.fda.gov : The Food and Drug Administration site has information about the recall.

www.avma.org : The American Veterinary Medical Assn. has updated information about the recall and the toxin.