TWO dogs have been treated by a local vet for symptoms associated with eating contaminated pet food. However, Dr. Maureen Ware of Hannover Veterinary Hospital was unable to confirm whether or not the animals became ill because of the food — which is one of brands of recalled pet food — or because of other possible health issues.Since March 16, more than 90 brands of pet food have been recalled following the deaths of up to 3,000 dogs and cats in the United States because of severe kidney failure.

Dr. Ware told the Mid-Ocean News yesterday the dogs' symptoms were "very out of the norm" and she suspected it might be because of the food they were eating.

"I have no way of proving it though," she said, adding that despite all the media hype in the US about the recall, there was no hard and fast information as to how much it takes to make the animal sick.

As for the symptoms, she said they include hives and high thirst, followed by "non-specific" allergic symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhoea and general malaise — none of which tied in to the dog's case histories.

"I can't put it down to anything else," she said, admitting that she might be wrong, but that it just seemed very unusual.

She added that both were pure-bred dogs and that one of the animals did have previous health issues.

At least one of the dogs comes from a home where there are other animals and none of them reported any symptoms.

Both dogs made a full recovery following treatment.

Dr. Ware said as a young vet she learned about how pet food is produced and was amazed to learn exactly what type of animal by-products were included as well as very high quantities of sugar beet.

Animal by-products, she said, included things like chicken legs and pig's snouts — things you wouldn't feed to humans, let alone animals, not to mention colouring agents and other chemical additives.

Dr. Andrew Madeiros, a vet is who chairman of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals shelter, said yesterday he had not heard of any reported cases of animals becoming ill due to eating contaminated food.

But he advised the public to take their animals to a vet at the first sign of any of the symptoms which include excessive thirst, loss of appetite, vomiting, diarrhoea and general malaise.

He said his own Ettrick Animal Hospital had a few pets on the special Science Diet dry food which had been recalled, but they all checked out with no problems reported.

Hills Pet Nutrition, which produces Science Diet, is just one of almost 100 brands of pet food that has been recalled in the US and Canada since March 16.

Other brands include Eukanuba and Iams, Nestle Purina PetCare and certain brands of Del Monte pet treats.

Bermuda has been very fortunate, according to Carol Terceira, owner of Noah's Ark Feed and Supply in Devonshire, as a limited number of suspect brands made it to shelves.

Ms Terceira said products were pulled from the shelves straight away following the first recall on March 16.

Since then, she said, her supplier in the US had not sent any food added to the ever-growing recall list, and products which were in her warehouse at the time had since been returned to the US.

Unfortunately, she said, it came at a great cost to the company which would not be reimbursed for the cost of freight or import duty.

Ms Terceira said concerned pet owners did call to inquire about the contaminated food and some products were returned to the store.

"Even if it wasn't on the list, I still reimbursed them."

She added that Bermudians were wonderful with their pets and were genuinely concerned.

"The difficult part of recalls was that very high quality food was included on the list, so people were putting their pets first and then had this whammy."

Ms Terceira assured pet owners that there was a large variety of cat and dog food available on the market — completely unrelated to the recall — and she was more than happy to help them with any queries.

However, just to be safe, she said she was working with the Government vet to stay on top of any new developments, or any further products being added to the list.

Ms Terceira said they were also distributing a list of symptoms of possible kidney failure.

The US Food and Drug Administration found melamine, a crystalline compound in wheat gluten used as a thickener, in the pet food. Melamine also has been found in the urine and kidneys of dead cats that were part of a taste-testing study at Menu Foods.