Local lab finds pet food contaminated with painkiller

(6/05/07 - KTRK/DEER PARK, TX) (KTRK) -- You just thought your pet food was safe. Poison has been found in pet food just months after another scare. A Houston doctor says he's uncovered pet food contaminated with pain medication.

The pet food you are feeding your dog and cat could kill them. Experts are now warning that the contaminated pet food scare could be far worse than first thought. We've just learned a local lab has found food contaminated with a common pain medication -- acetaminophen. That's a deadly combination for pets.

The doctor who runs the lab believes the problems with pet food are far from over. His finding has sparked a new federal investigation.

Just one little acetaminophen pill is enough to kill a cat. But according to the lab, this drug was found in at least a half dozen pet food samples.

Technicians at EperTox in Deer Park test all kinds of samples. For the past few months more than a thousand of those samples have been different types of pet food. The results are troubling.

"We don't really how big and how involved this problem is right now. We are only uncovering the beginning of it," said Dr. Ernest Lykissa.

What Dr. Lykissa says he uncovered in his lab is more contaminated pet food. In more than two dozen samples Dr. Lykissa says either cyanuric acid or acetaminophen were found.

"Poisonous yes, if we're testing for it here, it's potentially poisonous to you," he said.

The highest level of acetaminophen contamination came from a sample sent in by a manufacturer. It tested at 2 milligrams of the painkiller per gram of dog food.

"So if you put two milligrams of Tylenol in little bit of food, that's an extremely high concentration," explained Dr. Michael Huddleston with the Bellaire Animal Clinic.

That's a concentration that could make a dog sick and could even kill a cat.

Dr. Huddleston warned, "Cats are extremely sensitive to this drug."

ExperTox lab manager Donna Coneley was so troubled by the results that she verified the tests.

"We were questioning that," she admitted. "We took that same sample and did an extraction."

Due to a confidentiality agreement, the lab can not reveal which pet food samples tested positive for the drugs. At least one sample was Pet Pride cat food. All test results were reported to the pet food makers, which should have been reported to the FDA.

It may be up to owners to police pet food because, according to the lab manager, no one from the FDA has investigated their positive findings. In fact, to date not a single government inspector has asked to look at one of the tainted pet food samples tested in this laboratory.

Late this afternoon, an FDA spokesperson says the agency is trying to get those samples. For now Dr. Lykissa considers the quality of pet food questionable.

He said, "The FDA has to become a lot more vigilant, because if we're finding those things who knows what we're not finding."

The tests were conducted over the past month. An FDA spokesperson says the agency wants to test the samples independently to determine the levels of contaminants.

The makers of Pet Pride food said court order prevents them from commenting on our story. Back in March, the FDA learned that certain pet foods were making cats and dogs sick. The FDA later found contaminants in vegetable proteins imported from China and used as ingredients in pet food. At least 16 pet deaths have been linked to the contamination, but the FDA is still sifting through thousands of reports of dead pets to determine if any of those cases are related.

The products were sold by many different distributors under a number of different brand names. For the most up-to-date list of product names, check the Menu Foods website or call 1-866-895-2708.
(Copyright © 2007, KTRK-TV)

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