[btunick]

A great friend who is an amazing dog person.. she raises her dogs in the healthiest way possible — has had a terribly frightening experience with Blue Buffalo dog food.. Another friend had a similar problem with Blue Buffalo cat food.. I have never posted here before, but what happened to my friend’s dogs is very, very worrying. Here’s what happened:
For months one of her dogs has been having on and off bouts of diarrhea. Her other dogs seemed “off”, lethargic and just not themselves. She had them tested repeatedly for tick diseases and all has been negative. Everything came to a head in the last two weeks. One of her dogs had serious GI problems during her pregnancy and did not eat well even while lactating. Two Saturdays ago she started throwing up repeatedly at 5 in the morning and was shivering, by the time they got her to the vet that morning, she was throwing up blood. At the vet she was hydrated and all the tests showed nothing.. She spent the night at emergency hospital where they did more tests including x-rays and ultrasound showed nothing, healthiest dog on the planet. She came home on a low fat ID diet and seemed to recover well.

This past Sunday afternoon, her dog’s mother had a seizure. Two more of her dogs also started throwing up for several days. The first dog to get sick, the one who had been hospitalized, began throwing up again with tremors. They had started re-introducing her regular Blue Buffalo kibble earlier that week.

My friend started googling Blue Buffalo food and the attached link is what she found. She took all of her dogs off the food..Finally this morning she feels like everyone is getting better. No one threw up last night, no tremors, no diarrhea, no seizures.

Here is the link she found..

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/blue_buffalo.html?page=2

[Hound Dog Mom]

My friend had a similar experience with Blue when feeding it to her golden puppy – diarrhea, vomiting, lethargy, etc. Cleared up as soon as she switched foods.

[InkedMarie]

I’m sorry about your friends dogs. I hope they recover.

[btunick]

thank you.. they are doing better now.. but it’s taken a very long time..
best.

[FreeholdHound]

BB was the 1st kibble I gave my greyhound after adopting him. The kennel used a mix of kibbles so it was a cold turkey start for Harry. He had horrendous stools & lost hair by the handful. He was only off track for a month so I chalked it up to the huge lifestyle transition, which most likely played a giant part, but I’ve wondered after hearing similar stories if the food made it worse. Guess I’ll never know. Glad to hear the pups are all doing better

[pugmomsandy]

I used BB Wilderness about 3 years ago (about 10 or 12 bags) and didn’t have any issues. It was during the 2010 recall too for excess vitamin D. I wonder what is going on with BB now?

[lojo]

I’m still in the process of sorting this out so I don’t have answers, only anecdotal info:
I have been feeding my gsd blue buffalo large breed chicken since I got her 2 years ago. First the puppy formula then adult. No problems at all til the last bag I bought in early August 2013. Explosive and persistent diarrhea the day after I started feeding her the ‘new’ food followed by vomiting.
I started feeding her real rice, chicken and carrots to ease her pain. Then while transitioning her back to the blue buffalo by sprinkling it on the ‘real’ food, the diarrhea started again. To be clear, I don’t know for sure blue buffalo is causing the problem. I am just a person with a dog, not a food testing laboratory. But she is highly monitored – we are always together and hasn’t eaten foreign or domestic poop, objects or greenery.

After reading about others with similar experiences on this forum , I thought I should add mine to the list. Blue Buffalo is denying any change in their formula. My dog gets sick when she eats it. I hope yours doesn’t.

[Willy]

My miniature Schnauzer, Duke, would turn up his nose at BB for the first two bags, and I figured he was being a picky eater. Since to me, it looks like quality food on the packaging, I was insistent. For five days in a row last week he could not hold it down. I switched to home cooked meals, and it all stopped. Now I will pay more attention to Duke’s judgement, when a hungry dog won’t eat dog food – it probably means something is going on. Yes, there’s a problem with Blue Buffalo , IMHO.

[“Blue”]

Blue Buffalo makes many types, which ones gave problem to your dog HDM? We’re half way thru our first bag of BB Wilderness Lg. Breed Chicken without any probs.

[David F]

I just went through this with Blue Buffalo Freedom Beef for Adults… My beagle who had been on the Freedom Puppy for months and did well with it, was switched about 2 months ago. I slowly introduced the new food by mixing it with her puppy food, then she fully transitioned in about a week. For a month everything was fine, then she began to not really want to eat it. I had to really coax her to eat. This coincided with the purchase of a new bag of food. Soon she began vomiting (or more accurately regurgitating her barely digested food). She lost weight, finally when she was a the point where she would throw up almost immediately after eating, I switch food. Zero Problems, but I had only bought a trial size (about 2 days worth) so before I could get back to the store to get more I put one more bowl of the BB out for her, she took 3 bites, went in the dining room and threw up. I should mention that when I picked her up after her vomiting, her stomach was turning and gurgling like you do when you have bad gi issues. She is back on the other brand now and again, zero issues. I can say since the only thing that changed was her food, it is the BB.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 11 months ago by David F.

[Suburban Gal]

Blue Buffalo is actually a really good food.

If you’re going to go with Blue Buffalo, then I highly recommend their Wilderness line. I’ve fed that for many years to my last dog, a white German Shepherd named Lexi, and never had any problems with their Wilderness line. We’ve tried several foods with her (Wellness, Natural Balance, Holistic Select to name a few) and found Blue Buffalo’s Wilderness to be a very top notch food. I wouldn’t suggest anything else in their line (Life Protection, Freedom, Basics, etc…) other than their Wilderness line. It’s the absolute best of what they carry.

[aquariangt]

Blue Buffalo looks good on paper, but unfortunately many people have issues with them, and they’re cryptic with their processing

[Naturella]

I agree that a lot of people seem to have issues with Blue Buffalo, and this is not good. However, there are the few (apparently) whose dogs have done well on it. If I were to be asked to make a recommendation to someone about dog food, I would base it off of personal experience and research, and regarding Blue Buffalo, I can say that Bruno did wonderfully on the Wilderness Puppy for about 4 months, until I decided to rotate him out of it, just because rotating foods is good, not because of issues. I would say that I will keep Wilderness in our rotation because he’s done well on it, and because I know of 3 other dogs (in 2 separate households) who also have been feeding Blue (one constantly, which is not that great, the other in rotation) and their dogs have been ok too. Nonetheless, I can say that I have read about many who experience issues with it, but I really believe that it comes down to individual dogs and their guts for the most part. It is important that everyone closely monitors their dog and watch for reactions, then act accordingly. I have never had to contact the company, so I don’t know how their customer service is.

And I think the above goes for just about any food I have fed, or read a lot about. Still, no matter how much I read about foods, I will have to feed it to my dog personally in order to form my own opinion based on experience. There are many many foods I want to feed based on profile alone (and some forumers’ or friends’ opinions of them) – Wellness Core, Nature’s Variety Instinct, Wysong Epigen or Wysong 90, Victor (feeding a bit of it now, but want a full bag to really test it out), AvoDerm Trout (just that one, lol), Taste of the Wild and Canidae Pure (yes, yes, I know about Diamond and the recalls), Merrick Grain Free, Orijen (drool) and maybe Acana, Back to Basics (got a bag in the cabinet waiting its turn to be opened), Fromm, Darwin’s, The Honest Kitchen (when I’m rich, lol), etc. I don’t even know if Bruno’s lifetime will allow me to rotate through them once, let alone twice, lol.

So yeah, that’s my 2 cents.

[Suburban Gal]

“…I really believe that it comes down to individual dogs and their guts for the most part. It is important that everyone closely monitors their dog and watch for reactions, then act accordingly.” -Naturella

That’s a good point.

One particular food may work for one person and their dog(s), but not so well for someone else and their dog(s).

Many people like Wellness dog food and say their dogs do well on it. Yet when I tried it with Lexi, it was just the opposite for us.

I can say the same with Royal Canin and California Natural. Some pets are just fine on those foods. Some pets aren’t. For those pets, it’s too rich a food and their system can’t handle it.

[John T]

Something is going on with Blue Buffalo. They have over 852 complaints of sick dogs, just take a look > http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/blue_buffalo.html?page=3
It seem a supplier company was sold, and subpar ingredients such as carrageenan being purchased from China and added to Blue Buffalo food. Please pay attention because this is starting to get big. I was feed my 7 year old Shi Tzu BB treats and had been for years. Over the last 3 months he had continued loose stools, upset stomach and not being himself. The funny thing is after reading all this I removed all BB food and he is back to normal. NO more of this crap, I am making his food!! You just can’t trust any of these dog food companies because they are more concerned about chasing the Benjamin’s!! PLEASE pay attention and get off this poison!!

[Peggy]

Today was my dog’s last day on BB Basics. He’s been gaining weight like crazy, although I will accept part of the blame with lack of exercise and feeding practices.

We switched to Wellness Core.

[Dog_Obsessed]

Blue has good ingredients but bad quality control and possible mislabeling of ingredients. Wellness, for the most part, has good ingredients and is reliable. At one point they had a few products being manufactured by Diamond, but they moved away as fast as possible after the last recall. I feed there canned food as toppers and would feel totally comfortable feeding their dry. I have Wellness CORE on my list of foods to try.

[Hater and Molly’s Mom]

Wellness is an excellent food. I have fed it in the past and use their canned stews as toppers. I feel confident feeding it. I have never fed any Blue Buffalo. They just have way too many quality control issues i think.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Hater and Molly's Mom.

[Brad B]

Same problem here. We have 3 dogs which have been on Kirkland Healthy weight for YEARS. No problems. We thought we would try a more “healthy” food and bought the Blue Buffalo brand, and one of our 3 dogs has the pukes. We came home to 2 throw ups and she puked twice this morning. We transitioned foods for 1 full week. My wife was adamant about it and did a good job. They have been on this for a week now and the problems are starting with our German Short Haired pointer. Very disappointed. Our other 2 lab mixes appear to be fine. Perhaps this food isn’t for everyone.

[Alfred W]

How about an e coli bladder and UTI infection? We have three Maltese. Two were on Wilderness Adult Healthy Weight Turkey & Chicken Grill, and they both have e coli bladder and UTI infections. Our third dog was not on this food, and is healthy. If you suspect this in your dog, you will need to submit a urine specimen for a lab to grow a culture. We knew that one dog had something amiss for six months, but nothing showed up in any of the three different routine urinalysis we had submitted. A veterinary physical therapist suggested that we request that the vet submit a specimen for a culture, and her e coli count came back off the chart.

After 10 days of Clavamox for one of the dogs, we submitted another specimen for culturing. Apparently, this particular strain of e coli is Clavamox resistant, so we are starting another antibiotic today. The other dog will be retested in three more days, and should be fine as her strain is different than the first dog.

So if your pup develops an “accident” problem and you are using this product, you may want to go the full diagnostic route and have a culture done along with the routine urinalysis.

[Edward B]

I have used Blue Buffalo Wilderness for probably6 – 7 years and am switching now. My dogs (ESS) have always done well on them with some small issues as of late though. The issues have been sporadic issues of loose stools. My 2 current dogs have cast iron stomachs but lately they will get loose stools with no explanation, sometimes the new bags are a hit other times not as much. I have had issues with pet stores supplying expired or near expired bags both box and online, which is why I always check dates now before opening / buying. Once opened I will inspect the food to make sure it is consistent with what I’ve seen in the past, but my senses are not as good as the dogs so I might miss something occasionally.
I understand that in mass produced items such as kibble, quality control becomes more difficult the more they produce and the more facilities that are involved in the production. There could be other issues involved here but given some of the consistent stories online and after doing much research, I will be switching to another brand. I feel that if I’m paying the extra money, the quality contour should be better. Sometimes when companies grow they forget to keep doing the things that have gotten them there.

[laura t]

Hi everyone. I am late to the game learning about Blue Buffalo and was told it was reputable. However our beautiful Charcoal Lab who has been eating the large breed puppy formula has never had a solid poop. And the last 2 weeks has been throwing up the food. I passed it off for a while because he likes to explore and I am constantly picking things out of his mouth. But the last 3 days have been horrible with throwing up his food. I went online to investigate… and found the consumer affairs reports. SIGH!!! I have been causing this all along. So I wanted to use a new food. My question is… normally you slowly introduce new food. Seems silly to mix something that is already upsetting his tummy with the new food… but don’t want to make things worse. How did people switch over to their new food?

[anonymously]

First go to the vet. Seriously, he has been vomiting for 2 weeks and consistently for the last 3 days. At the least, he may be dehydrated. You have to rule out medical issues before assuming the food is causing problems.

[laura t]

He has been to the vet. And we have gone through the whole verification process. His vomiting only happens when this food is reintroduced. He is drinking a lot of water is not dehydrated. Just throws up the food about 5 minutes after eating it.

[laura t]

I just figured people that went through similar issues could tell me how to switch over, i didn’t want to bother the vet again and I work in an area that phone calls are not allowed. So I tried this forum because I am concerned and need a consensus of what people that have been through the process have done.

[pitlove]

Hi Laura-

Have a look at NuriSource. It is a very easy to digest food that many people use in cases like this and they make a large breed puppy formula. Then you can always change to something else when he’s stable or continue using NutriSource.

[John T]

Laura, first of all the Blue Buffalo has been causing a lot of part problems with dogs and their digestive systems but your problem sounds a little more suspicious than just the dog food. I would try giving him some simple boiled chicken and rice and if he throws that up then there’s something else wrong. I hate to say it but it almost sounds like he may have some type of blockage. Have they done an ultrasound? But again, the first thing I would do is try some boiled chicken and rice and see if he holds that down if he doesn’t get to the vet and have them do an ultrasound or X-ray. If he is the kind of dog to choose and puts everything in his mouth he very well could’ve swallowed something and has a partial blockage. Nothing to play around with. Good luck

[laura t]

Thank you, He has been to the vet. No blockage. He kept down the chicken and rice last night. But we can’t afford that every night. And wanted to switch over.

[laura t]

Thank you everyone. I will do the chicken and rice for a while and if all calms down just add the new food to the chicken slowly. Wow, what we won’t do for our pups!

[John T]

I don’t mean to keep asking questions but the day actually do an x-ray or an ultrasound? A friend of mine had a dog that had swallowed a piece of rubber ball that was causing problems and they didn’t find it With the x-ray but they found it with the ultrasound.

Yes we do do anything we can for our dogs after all their family. After my year-long battle With the x-ray but they found it with the ultrasound.

Yes we do do anything we can for our dogs after all their family. After my year-long battle with Blue causing all his problem I just make his food every week including his treats that I dehydrate. Sorry but no more commercial crap for him. Good luck and have a good day

[laura t]

they did ultrasound, but thank you for your concern! I truly appreciate your help. Had I not read these posts I would of thought I was the only one pestering the vet with annoying requests for the ultrasound not the x ray. haha

[Author]

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