To have an Official Body to investigate issues related to pet food products.
The issue
Hi,
I am submitting this petition on behalf of all the pet owners to request for an official body to be put in place to investigate issues with pet food products or test possibly contaminated pet foods, have an official regulation or mandatory recall procedure for pet food products.
For any case of sickness linked to a pet food product it is almost always impossible to prove causation.
ALERT: Ivory Coat Pet Food
It is with sadness we report the sudden passing of Diesel (pictured), an otherwise healthy 13 year old Siberian X.
Diesel became very sick and passed away within 5 days of being fed a bag of Ivory Coat (Best Before 17 August 2022). The owner, not suspecting the food as possible causation, later fed it to her two 3 year old Kelpies. Both dogs showed signs of sickness and lethargy.
This coincides with a number of ongoing reports of sickness in which Ivory Coat pet food products are a possible cause (see below).
Ivory Coat is manufactured by the Real Pet Food Co. Woolworths Baxters, from the same manufacturer, has also been subject to numerous reports of sickness (link below).
Australia has no official body in place to investigate issues with pet food products or test possibly contaminated pet foods. There is no official regulation or mandatory recall procedure for pet food products. Pet food recalls in Australia are voluntary.
For any case of sickness linked to a pet food product it is almost always impossible to prove causation
Further reports:
31 MAY 2021 – BATCH BEST BEFORE 23 AUGUST 2022
“I gave 2 Maltese who have both had severe reactions to Ivory Coat grain free chicken I took my dogs to vets who immediately did poo tests and blood tests. They were give an injection to settle their stomachs and immediately give hills prescription digestive wet food. They are both on road to recovery. I have since found out that both my dogs parents and a further 2 litters , all of which were using ivory coat, have all also had same symptoms.
The manufacturer has been advised of this by me and they say they are currently investigating the product.”
Further information:
Symptoms – Going off their food, not eating, diarrhoea, vomiting. Diarrhoea was very bad.
Age – 15 months & 3 months. No other health issues.
25 JANUARY 2021
“We fed a chicken version to our pup before she was hospitalised with the symptoms”
“She was about 3.5-4 months. Has been fine, then just completely lethargic and barely moving the next day (hadn’t considered the food and was unaware my partner has bought that brand at the time). She had horrendous diarrhoea and then vomiting and wouldn’t eat. Prior to that she was perfectly healthy (having just been examined by vet) and very active. Took her to the vet then was taken to Bundoora animal hospital and placed in a drip for 3 days. The only explanation they could give was a severe case of dehydration as there was no sign of a virus etc. I had thought this was strange at the time as she has multiple drink bowls which are constantly cleaned and refilled.”
“Thankfully has now made a full recovery but was warned by the vet at one stage that she might not pull through, which as you can imagine is devastating given we’d only had her for a couple of months. But $1500 in vet bills was also addition”
24 JANUARY 2021 – BAG PURCHASED 24 OCTOBER 2020 (BEST BEFORE UNKNOWN)
“I just wanted to provide the following information regarding Natural Health Ivory Coat – Lamb and Sardine 1+ Years Adult. Our Border Collie was turning 2 in November 20 and we changed her from the Lamb (up to 24 months old) Ivory Coat – to the Lamb and Sardine Adult formula. Annie became very sick and spent 5 days in ICU in Emergency Vet Hospital undergoing many tests including an invasive Lumbar Puncture Test for possible Meningitis. During the whole time Annie wouldn’t eat. Then after 7 days she started getting better and slowly began to eat only shredded cooked chicken. Annie is not a fussy dog to feed normally. But we have never known what caused her to be so very sick for those days. We did consider the food however the brand hadn’t changed and our Vet checked the ingredients list and as this was the brand we had been using for a number of years we all thought it was a safe product. I just wanted to let you know as we have now taken all of our dogs off of this food. I don’t have the batch number but i have these photos which were sent to the Vet to check as a possibility of causing her symptoms in November. The bag was 13kg purchased at Pets of Sandgate on 10 October 2020.”
24 JANUARY 2021
“Our puppy has been on [Ivory Coat] and experiences many of those symptoms, including diarrhoea, dehydration, lethargy, and more. We have paid hundreds in vet bills to get to the bottom of the issue and have now thankfully stopped it.”
23 JANUARY 2021
“We had been using Ivory Coat for 5 years previously no problems till last 2 months end of 2020. My Dogs have been suffering from Diarrhoea, lethargy one recently ended up at the vet with dehydration. Early 2020 I noticed a change in size and colour of this product since have been issues.”
23 DECEMBER 2020
“A week ago I caught my cat eating bits of the artificial christmas tree. The day after that he had diarrhea and so we took him to the vets. The vets recommended 2 satches of Hill’s Science food (forget the exact kind) for 3 days along with a quarter of Flagyl tablet every 12 hours.
3 days later, he seemed okay, so I started feeding him ivory coat again.
This was a few days ago. So, I started feeding him Ivory Coat Chicken and Kangaroo (Adult) again and tonight he started showing the same symptoms as before.”
22 JANUARY 2020
“I am just getting in touch regards Ivory Coat dog food.
I usually feed raw but have been supplementing with kibble as a ‘ just in case’ as I’ve had illness for about a year.
My eldest dog 12yrs, became unwell with the symptoms mentioned.
Had stool and blood work done which only showed high liver enzymes.
She is only eating chicken and rice and on meds at the moment and recovering well.”
30 NOVEMBER 2020
“All of a sudden one of our dog started not acting herself. Lots of vomiting and lethargy. We have fed them Ivory Coat for a while but my husband changed flavours and accidentally bought the senior food. I will get him to help me check flavours and dates/batch numbers on the bags. She has perked up recently but our dogs are still on ivory coat but on a different flavour. We will be transitioning away from this brand now.”
16 OCTOBER 2020
“Have been using for over 4 years and never had a problem however noticed one of my dogs constantly dehydrated and vomiting when feeding them the previous bag a few months ago. Switched to another brand to change their diet as usual and she went back to normal however just opened our new 18kg bag of ivory coat and within 2 days both of my dogs had symptoms listed. Contacted the food store and they refunded the cost and have purchased another brand.”
29 SEPTEMBER 2020
“My dog became very ill recently. I contacted [Real Pet Food Co]. I’m still waiting for a formal response from them. Not sure if my dog’s illness was caused by Ivory Coat – it could be coincidence but we’ve spent over $8k trying to get her well again.”
“Her symptoms were unable to hold food or water down, lethargic, and blood test showed something not right with liver. Ultrasound didn’t identify anything, neither did further biopsies. She has improved but still not 100%.”
28 SEPTEMBER 2020
“[Our dog] has just spent all weekend in the emergency with severe vomiting and dehydration. No cause could be found and only difference in diet is switching onto ivory coat and still recovering”
17 SEPTEMBER 2020
“I feed my puppy [Ivory Coat] food and we have now had 2 occasions in a month where he has ended up at the vet from vomiting and diarrhoea and been diagnosed with Gastrointestinal upset. The vet suggested it was something he had been eating however we expected the grass or plants. I am thinking otherwise. Will stop feeding him the food and see if we have any further issues”
15 SEPTEMBER 2020
“My King Charles cavalier has been on ivory coat chicken for 3+ years with no issues. A month ago she got very sick with bloody vomiting and diarrhea causing severe dehydration needing hospital stay for 3 days. This was after a new bag of ivory coat. I had chucked the bag as I have in a dog food container. We bought it from PetBarn North Lakes, Brisbane on 13th August.”
“It took a week to recover but I actually found a vomit in the house this morning. So worried it will happen again and changing food now. The cost of the treatment was $2100 as they had to rule out everything else and just said it was severe gastroenteritis. I got $1500 back from my pet insurance. Vet says it’s always hard to work out what caused it but we have nothing around the house which would have aggregated her stomach.”
15 SEPTEMBER 2020
“It’s happened 4 times and I didn’t think it could be the ivory coat. We had been away and friends only wanted to feed him chicken rice and sweet potato, that I had been giving to him. Once I was home he’d run out and I gave the ivory coat by 3am in the morning he was sick again! It’s definitely the food. I’m back at the vets aging this afternoon to get different dry food. He vomited this morning too.”
15 SEPTEMBER 2020
“he had chronic regurgitating issues whilst eating [Ivory Coat] food, as well as vomiting. At the time he was investigated for megaoesophagus and did bloods etc that were all non conclusive or fine. I moved onto a different brand of food and all issues stopped completely.”
15 SEPTEMBER 2020
“Our dog has just had bad diarrhoea and vomiting for about 24 hours. We have been feeding him ivory coat for a couple of weeks, but didn’t have this problem initially. Then suddenly he became ill.”
14 SEPTEMBER 2020 – BATCH BEST BEFORE 22 APRIL 2021
“my dog is/was fed ivory coat (salmon for mature dogs) and developed severe diarrhoea and vomiting last week. she is recovering well now but also hasn’t had any of the ivory coat since she became unwell.”
Further information:
Response from The Real Pet Food Co – “[they] are not aware of any other health complaints about their food”
The report extracts above have been edited for readability only. We note similar reports have been made to other entities.
Updated list: https://www.apog.com.au/recall-issue-log/ivory-coat/
Reports of sickness with Woolworths Baxters: https://www.petfoodreviews.com.au/news/woolworths-baxters-sick-deceased-dog-reports/
555
The issue
Hi,
I am submitting this petition on behalf of all the pet owners to request for an official body to be put in place to investigate issues with pet food products or test possibly contaminated pet foods, have an official regulation or mandatory recall procedure for pet food products.
For any case of sickness linked to a pet food product it is almost always impossible to prove causation.
ALERT: Ivory Coat Pet Food
It is with sadness we report the sudden passing of Diesel (pictured), an otherwise healthy 13 year old Siberian X.
Diesel became very sick and passed away within 5 days of being fed a bag of Ivory Coat (Best Before 17 August 2022). The owner, not suspecting the food as possible causation, later fed it to her two 3 year old Kelpies. Both dogs showed signs of sickness and lethargy.
This coincides with a number of ongoing reports of sickness in which Ivory Coat pet food products are a possible cause (see below).
Ivory Coat is manufactured by the Real Pet Food Co. Woolworths Baxters, from the same manufacturer, has also been subject to numerous reports of sickness (link below).
Australia has no official body in place to investigate issues with pet food products or test possibly contaminated pet foods. There is no official regulation or mandatory recall procedure for pet food products. Pet food recalls in Australia are voluntary.
For any case of sickness linked to a pet food product it is almost always impossible to prove causation
Further reports:
31 MAY 2021 – BATCH BEST BEFORE 23 AUGUST 2022
“I gave 2 Maltese who have both had severe reactions to Ivory Coat grain free chicken I took my dogs to vets who immediately did poo tests and blood tests. They were give an injection to settle their stomachs and immediately give hills prescription digestive wet food. They are both on road to recovery. I have since found out that both my dogs parents and a further 2 litters , all of which were using ivory coat, have all also had same symptoms.
The manufacturer has been advised of this by me and they say they are currently investigating the product.”
Further information:
Symptoms – Going off their food, not eating, diarrhoea, vomiting. Diarrhoea was very bad.
Age – 15 months & 3 months. No other health issues.
25 JANUARY 2021
“We fed a chicken version to our pup before she was hospitalised with the symptoms”
“She was about 3.5-4 months. Has been fine, then just completely lethargic and barely moving the next day (hadn’t considered the food and was unaware my partner has bought that brand at the time). She had horrendous diarrhoea and then vomiting and wouldn’t eat. Prior to that she was perfectly healthy (having just been examined by vet) and very active. Took her to the vet then was taken to Bundoora animal hospital and placed in a drip for 3 days. The only explanation they could give was a severe case of dehydration as there was no sign of a virus etc. I had thought this was strange at the time as she has multiple drink bowls which are constantly cleaned and refilled.”
“Thankfully has now made a full recovery but was warned by the vet at one stage that she might not pull through, which as you can imagine is devastating given we’d only had her for a couple of months. But $1500 in vet bills was also addition”
24 JANUARY 2021 – BAG PURCHASED 24 OCTOBER 2020 (BEST BEFORE UNKNOWN)
“I just wanted to provide the following information regarding Natural Health Ivory Coat – Lamb and Sardine 1+ Years Adult. Our Border Collie was turning 2 in November 20 and we changed her from the Lamb (up to 24 months old) Ivory Coat – to the Lamb and Sardine Adult formula. Annie became very sick and spent 5 days in ICU in Emergency Vet Hospital undergoing many tests including an invasive Lumbar Puncture Test for possible Meningitis. During the whole time Annie wouldn’t eat. Then after 7 days she started getting better and slowly began to eat only shredded cooked chicken. Annie is not a fussy dog to feed normally. But we have never known what caused her to be so very sick for those days. We did consider the food however the brand hadn’t changed and our Vet checked the ingredients list and as this was the brand we had been using for a number of years we all thought it was a safe product. I just wanted to let you know as we have now taken all of our dogs off of this food. I don’t have the batch number but i have these photos which were sent to the Vet to check as a possibility of causing her symptoms in November. The bag was 13kg purchased at Pets of Sandgate on 10 October 2020.”
24 JANUARY 2021
“Our puppy has been on [Ivory Coat] and experiences many of those symptoms, including diarrhoea, dehydration, lethargy, and more. We have paid hundreds in vet bills to get to the bottom of the issue and have now thankfully stopped it.”
23 JANUARY 2021
“We had been using Ivory Coat for 5 years previously no problems till last 2 months end of 2020. My Dogs have been suffering from Diarrhoea, lethargy one recently ended up at the vet with dehydration. Early 2020 I noticed a change in size and colour of this product since have been issues.”
23 DECEMBER 2020
“A week ago I caught my cat eating bits of the artificial christmas tree. The day after that he had diarrhea and so we took him to the vets. The vets recommended 2 satches of Hill’s Science food (forget the exact kind) for 3 days along with a quarter of Flagyl tablet every 12 hours.
3 days later, he seemed okay, so I started feeding him ivory coat again.
This was a few days ago. So, I started feeding him Ivory Coat Chicken and Kangaroo (Adult) again and tonight he started showing the same symptoms as before.”
22 JANUARY 2020
“I am just getting in touch regards Ivory Coat dog food.
I usually feed raw but have been supplementing with kibble as a ‘ just in case’ as I’ve had illness for about a year.
My eldest dog 12yrs, became unwell with the symptoms mentioned.
Had stool and blood work done which only showed high liver enzymes.
She is only eating chicken and rice and on meds at the moment and recovering well.”
30 NOVEMBER 2020
“All of a sudden one of our dog started not acting herself. Lots of vomiting and lethargy. We have fed them Ivory Coat for a while but my husband changed flavours and accidentally bought the senior food. I will get him to help me check flavours and dates/batch numbers on the bags. She has perked up recently but our dogs are still on ivory coat but on a different flavour. We will be transitioning away from this brand now.”
16 OCTOBER 2020
“Have been using for over 4 years and never had a problem however noticed one of my dogs constantly dehydrated and vomiting when feeding them the previous bag a few months ago. Switched to another brand to change their diet as usual and she went back to normal however just opened our new 18kg bag of ivory coat and within 2 days both of my dogs had symptoms listed. Contacted the food store and they refunded the cost and have purchased another brand.”
29 SEPTEMBER 2020
“My dog became very ill recently. I contacted [Real Pet Food Co]. I’m still waiting for a formal response from them. Not sure if my dog’s illness was caused by Ivory Coat – it could be coincidence but we’ve spent over $8k trying to get her well again.”
“Her symptoms were unable to hold food or water down, lethargic, and blood test showed something not right with liver. Ultrasound didn’t identify anything, neither did further biopsies. She has improved but still not 100%.”
28 SEPTEMBER 2020
“[Our dog] has just spent all weekend in the emergency with severe vomiting and dehydration. No cause could be found and only difference in diet is switching onto ivory coat and still recovering”
17 SEPTEMBER 2020
“I feed my puppy [Ivory Coat] food and we have now had 2 occasions in a month where he has ended up at the vet from vomiting and diarrhoea and been diagnosed with Gastrointestinal upset. The vet suggested it was something he had been eating however we expected the grass or plants. I am thinking otherwise. Will stop feeding him the food and see if we have any further issues”
15 SEPTEMBER 2020
“My King Charles cavalier has been on ivory coat chicken for 3+ years with no issues. A month ago she got very sick with bloody vomiting and diarrhea causing severe dehydration needing hospital stay for 3 days. This was after a new bag of ivory coat. I had chucked the bag as I have in a dog food container. We bought it from PetBarn North Lakes, Brisbane on 13th August.”
“It took a week to recover but I actually found a vomit in the house this morning. So worried it will happen again and changing food now. The cost of the treatment was $2100 as they had to rule out everything else and just said it was severe gastroenteritis. I got $1500 back from my pet insurance. Vet says it’s always hard to work out what caused it but we have nothing around the house which would have aggregated her stomach.”
15 SEPTEMBER 2020
“It’s happened 4 times and I didn’t think it could be the ivory coat. We had been away and friends only wanted to feed him chicken rice and sweet potato, that I had been giving to him. Once I was home he’d run out and I gave the ivory coat by 3am in the morning he was sick again! It’s definitely the food. I’m back at the vets aging this afternoon to get different dry food. He vomited this morning too.”
15 SEPTEMBER 2020
“he had chronic regurgitating issues whilst eating [Ivory Coat] food, as well as vomiting. At the time he was investigated for megaoesophagus and did bloods etc that were all non conclusive or fine. I moved onto a different brand of food and all issues stopped completely.”
15 SEPTEMBER 2020
“Our dog has just had bad diarrhoea and vomiting for about 24 hours. We have been feeding him ivory coat for a couple of weeks, but didn’t have this problem initially. Then suddenly he became ill.”
14 SEPTEMBER 2020 – BATCH BEST BEFORE 22 APRIL 2021
“my dog is/was fed ivory coat (salmon for mature dogs) and developed severe diarrhoea and vomiting last week. she is recovering well now but also hasn’t had any of the ivory coat since she became unwell.”
Further information:
Response from The Real Pet Food Co – “[they] are not aware of any other health complaints about their food”
The report extracts above have been edited for readability only. We note similar reports have been made to other entities.
Updated list: https://www.apog.com.au/recall-issue-log/ivory-coat/
Reports of sickness with Woolworths Baxters: https://www.petfoodreviews.com.au/news/woolworths-baxters-sick-deceased-dog-reports/
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Petition created on 19 August 2021