Although the FDA did not yet receive reports on salmonella-contaminated peanut butter affected pets, here is the list of recalled peanut butter containing pet food products as of end of January 2009 (www.FDA.gov)

Grreat Choice pet treats

Happy Tails multi-flavored dog biscuits

Healthy-hide Deli-wrap peanut butter-filled rawhide dog treats

Salix healthy-hide deli-wrap 5″ peanut butter-filled rawhide

Shoppers Valu multi-flavored dog biscuits

Carolina Prime: 2 Pack Hooves Peanut Butter Hooves, 4″ Rawhide Bone Peanut Rawhide, 6″ Beef Shank Peanut Butter Dog Bone, 6″ Rawhide Bone Peanut Butter Rawhide

Carolina Prime Pet: 2pk Hooves Peanut Butter, 4″ Rawhide Bone Peanut Butter, 6″ Beef Shank Peanut Butter, 6″ Rawhide Bone Peanut Butter, 6′ Healthy Hide Beef Shank Peanut Butter

Possible signs of salmonella infection are one or more of the following symptoms: abdominal pain, decreased appetite, fever, lethargy, diarrhea, bloody diarrhea, fever, vomiting.

Salmonella in pet food products can be transferred to humans (e.g., by handling the pet food or by eating contaminated pet food products)

Additional information for pet guardians - Also organic food products for human consumption are affected by this recall:

The manufacturer of the contaminated peanut butter, Peanut Corporation of America, apparently knew about the salmonella contamination and continued to sell their affected products.

Among the organic manufacturers using the contaminated peanut butter are (so far) Archer Farms, Clif Bar, Glorybee, Greenwise, Karma, Genisoy, and Landies.

Did you ever check if your pet food contains any sweeteners? Aside form the fact that added sweeteners (including honey!) have no place in your pet’s regular food, these additives can be contaminated as the following summary by Lyn Henshew, MD demonstrates:

Jan. 29, 2009 — Some foods and drinks rich in high-fructose corn syrup contain detectable levels of mercury, a new report shows. The report, published on the web site of the Minneapolis-based
nonprofit Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), shows detectable levels of mercury in 17 out of 55 tested products rich in high-fructose corn syrup. The new report comes from researchers including David Wallinga, MD, director of the IATP’s food and health program. They bought 55
products that list high-fructose corn syrup first or second on their list of ingredients, which means high-fructose corn syrup was a leading ingredient in those products. Wallinga’s team sent samples of those products to a commercial lab, which checked the levels of total mercury in each sample.

“Overall, we found detectable mercury in 17 of 55 samples, or around 31%,” write Wallinga and colleagues.

Here is the list of those products:

Quaker Oatmeal to Go bars
Jack Daniel’s Barbecue Sauce
Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup
Kraft Original Barbecue Sauce
Nutri-Grain Strawberry Cereal Bars
Manwich Gold Sloppy Joe
Market Pantry Grape Jelly
Smucker’s Strawberry Jelly
Pop-Tarts Frosted Blueberry
Hunt’s Tomato Ketchup
Wish-Bone Western Sweet & Smooth Dressing
Coca-Cola Classic: no mercury found on a second test
Yoplait Strawberry Yogurt
Minute Maid Berry Punch
Yoo-hoo Chocolate Drink
Nesquik Chocolate Milk
Kemps Fat Free Chocolate Milk

Ozone is a natural gas with short reactive half life time but great therapeutic and sanitary properties.

Ozonated olive oil was recommended to us by Dr. Robert Smatt to treat a facial abscess in one of our rescued rats. After only a few applications of this salve, the abscess was gone for good after less than 12 hours without oozing or uncomfortable heat compressions.

We observed the same effect a few months later, again on a facial abscess and an abscess that developed at a surgical incision site. The abscess on the surgical site diminished after only one application and disappeared after 4 days of once a day application of the salve.

Ozone is a great natural antibiotic and we have used it successfully to treat a variety of fungal, viral, and bacterial infections. Although we never had to try it, we believe that ozonated olive oil would also be a very effective treatment for bublefoot.

One of our friends has great success treating itchy hot spots on her dog’s skin with ozonated olive oil. Her dog apparently really appreciates the relief this simple remedy causes and lies down contently and with great expectations to allow the application.

The beauty of this non-toxic, low-tech treatment is that animals even can lick and ingest it without getting harmed. In fact, some practitioners recommend oral administration of ozonated olive oil for certain ailments.

Dr. Smatt also used ozone gas to treat inoperable cancers as well as arthritic problems in dogs, cats and even one of our rats. We are very grateful for Dr. Smatt’s care for our pets.