The company advises customers: if you bought a contaminated bag of pet food, stop using it immediately and return it to where you purchased it for refund or exchange.

The affected packages of Pet Pride, Old Yeller, and Kroger Value brand pet foods were all produced at a Kroger-owned factory in Springfield, Tenn., according to Denise Osterhues, spokeswoman for the Cincinnati-based grocery store.

The recall affects customers at Kroger’s, Dillons, Gerbes, Baker’s, Food 4 Less, Jay C, Hilander, Owen’s, Pay Less and Scott’s stores in 19 states across the Midwest and South: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.

If you buy Pet Pride, Old Yeller, or Kroger Value brand products, first check the sell-by date and then the UPC code. All of the recalled products have a sell-by date of either Oct. 23 or 24, 2011. Your package would read OCT 23 11 DP or OCT 24 11 DP.

If that sell by date appears on your package, “check the numbers on the packaging,” advises Gilda Rogers of Krogers. If both the date and UPC code match the recall list, “Take them back to a store.”

Kroger is recalling these products:

Pet Pride Cat Food sold in 3.5 lb. packages with UPC code 1111088128.

Pet Pride Cat Food sold in 18 lb. packages with UPC code 1111071357.

Pet Pride Tasty Blend Poultry & Seafood Cat Food sold in 3.5 lb. packages with UPC code 1111088152.

Pet Pride Tasty Blend Poultry & Seafood Cat Food sold in 18 lb. packages with UPC code 1111074580.

Pet Pride Kitten Formula Food sold in 3.5 lb. packages with UPC code 1111071903.

Old Yeller Chunk Dog Food sold in 22 lb. packages with UPC code 1111074566.

Old Yeller Chunk Dog Food sold in 50 lb. packages with UPC code 1111074563.

Kroger Value Cat Food sold in 3 lb. packages with UPC code 1111000018.

Kroger Value Chunk Dog Food sold in 15 lb. packages with UPC code 111107155.

Kroger Value Chunk Dog Food sold in 50 lb. packages with UPC code 1111000108.

If you believe your pet has been exposed to aflatoxin, and is showing symptoms of sluggishness, yellow-tinted eyes, and diarrhea, you are encouraged to seek treatment for your pet immediately.

Customers who have questions about this recall may contact Kroger toll-free at (800) 632-6900 or visit www.kroger.com/recalls.

But the fact is that today, pet medical care rivals what’s available to humans in complexity and cost. For example, an MRI is a diagnostic tool once reserved for humans but is now available for pets as well–at an average cost of $1,200. Sophisticated procedures such as radiation therapy, can start at $900 and quickly reach $5,000.

And it’s not as if it can’t happen to you. Statistics show that one out of three pets will need emergency treatment every year, and two out of three experience at least one major health crisis in their lifetimes.

Given these catastrophic and skyrocketing costs, and with monthly premiums as low as $10 for some pets and plans–they average around $35–pet insurance may be a worthwhile option for you and your animals.

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The price of flea killing pet meds goes higher when other parasites are also killed by the product. You may choose to provide wide ranging protection or may only be focused on killing fleas. No matter which product you choose for your dog, you can find significant savings by purchasing online from a site dedicated to discount pet medicines.

If you live in a hot, humid climate, flea control is a year round pet health care necessity. Such locations have heavy flea populations as well as ticks, heartworm and other nasty parasites that pose dangers to your dog’s health. Advantage flea medicine was one of the first topical products with residual killing power and has been gratefully accepted by pet owners as a real solution to fleas. The newest addition to the Advantage line of pet products is Advantage Multi which kills fleas and also protects your dog from roundworm, whipworm, hookworm and heartworm.

Frontline Plus kills fleas and flea eggs and also kills brown dog ticks, American dog ticks and lone star ticks as well. The spot on treatment lasts a full 30 days and remains effective after bathing your dog. Frontline Plus controls chewing lice and helps control sarcoptic mange for dogs 8 weeks and older. K9 Advantix is a good choice for flea prevention where high mosquito populations are present. K9 Advantix kills both adult fleas and larvae to break the flea life cycle. Ticks are killed and the product also repels mosquitoes. K9 Advantix should not be used on dogs that come into physical contact with cats or on pregnant or nursing dogs. For older or sick dogs, consult your veterinarian before using K9 Advantix to control fleas.

Revolution is a prescription medicine that is well named. This topical treatment offers a wide range of protection for dogs, killing fleas and flea eggs and American dog ticks. Revolution also treats ear mites, controls sarcoptic mites and is a heart preventive dog med. It is considered safe for use on puppies over six weeks old and for pregnant or lactating dogs.

Capstar is a unique flea product that is meant for specific occasions. Capstar is a single dose of one pill given to the dog that kills all adult fleas present on the animal quickly. This pet med does not kill flea eggs or have a residual effect. It is a good solution for dogs that have adult fleas as it kills the fleas quickly and can followed 24 hours later with a topical, long term flea medicine. Capstar is useful for dogs that are shown or boarded, or for a newly adopted animal brought into your home. The newest flea medicine for dogs is Comfortis. Unlike spot on treatments, Comfortis is a beef flavored wafer your dog will eagerly accept as a treat. This new product begins killing flea within 30 minutes of ingestion and keeps your dog flea free for 30 days.

Before buying flea medicine for your dog, decide what level of protection you need. What parasites does your dog need protection from in your area and which method of administering the medication do you prefer. Most flea prevention products (except Revolution) are available without prescription and can be purchased online directly from a veterinarian at discount pet med sites.

Fleas are adaptive little critters and can quickly become immune to flea killing products. Pet owners who live in states where flea protection is a year round task should change the brand of topical product every 6-12 months. By rotating the flea medicine treatments pet owners will hinder the ability of fleas to develop immunity to flea killers.

Choose from the latest dog flea medicine online.

It is handy that dogs have a similar sleep pattern to humans, whereas cats tend to like hunting at night. Dogs also seem to dream and enter into the REM (rapid eye movement) sleep stage.

Every dog owner has observed his dog running and barking softly in his sleep. What else can they be doing other than dreaming? When a dog is sound asleep like this, it can be as difficult to wake him up as any child and when they do wake up they seem drowsy and they shake themselves awake.

Some dogs have been bred for definite purposes and this has lead to facial characteristics which have given rise to breathing abnormalities. Pugs and other dogs with squashed faces often breathe very noticeably in their sleep and at other times in the day.

Some dogs even snore and some snore very noisily. If your dog sleeps with you, this can be a concern. The causes why dogs snore are usually the same ones that lead to humans snoring, although, as stated above one of the main causes for breathing abnormalities is breeding.

One cause of snoring is a constraint of the nasal passages because of an allergy. If you suspect that this is the case, you can begin by thinking whether you have added anything new to your home or whether you use a new air freshener. If you cannot discover the cause yourself, you might have to call in a vetinary surgeon.

One of the principal causes of snoring in humans is being overweight and the same is true of dogs, particularly the smaller breeds. If your dog has just begun snoring, maybe he just put on that extra pound that broke the camel’s back, so to speak.

If you believe that this might be the cause of your dog’s snoring, the clear answer is to help him to lose weight through exercise and dieting. There is a good probability that that will stop the snoring.

If all else fails and you are being driven to distraction by your dog’s nonstop snoring, there is some minor remedial surgery available to open up the nasal passages. It is a quite routine operation that does not take long and should result in both you and your dog getting a better night’s sleep..

If you choose to go down this route, ring around a few vets to get prices as the fees that vets can charge differ considerably.

Easily administered and free of harmful fillers, chemicals and colorants, herbal tinctures for pets consist of purified water, herbal extracts and grain alcohol. While tablets and pills can be hard to get a pet to swallow, tinctures are liquids and can usually be mixed in with food. Plus, the remedy is absorbed into the pet’s system more quickly when administered this way. Some uses of herbal tinctures for pets include:

* Anti-parasitic

* Antibiotic

* Detoxification

* Allergy relief

* Stress/fear relief

Numerous other herbal and organic remedies for pets are available to treat everything from urinary tract infections and mucous congestion to inflammation of the intestinal tract and respiratory problems. Perhaps one of the more popular uses for herbal remedies is flea and tick control. There are many sprays available made up of essential oils that are known to repel insects.

A short list of herbs and their effectiveness on cats and dogs includes echinacea, an immune-system stimulant; milk thistle, which is useful for treating renal problems; the antiviral St. John’s Wort; and gingko, which can help stave off dementia in older pets. Both ginger root and slippery elm help relieve upset stomachs, while aloe vera is as effective on pets as on humans for soothing sunburns or moistening dry, itchy skin.

Besides herbs, purified water and grain alcohol, natural remedies contain ingredients such as sugars, proteins and minerals of various kinds. Herbal supplements have the advantage of using the whole plant which can improve absorption and ease any side effects.

Despite the anecdotal evidence that herbs for pets are effective, there is no conclusive scientific research indicating that this is so. Moreover, there are no industry-wide guidelines that determine proper dosage, and due to the complexity of the remedies, the exact cause of any side effects can be hard to gauge. Regardless, herbal remedies provide a greater margin for error and have, at worst, limited side effects. When administering a tincture or herbal supplement to a pet, the animal’s weight largely determines the right dosage. It’s important to be patient and consistent, for holistic health products can take longer to work than traditional medicines.

More information on organic and natural flea ontrol to treat your pet.

First of all you need to examine your dog’s fur to see if there is any sign of fleas. They will be visible if your animal is infested, alternatively, one random flea could have bitten him and caused an allergic reaction.

After a good search you find no fleas in his coat, you should try flea control for approximately four weeks to see if it had been an allergy to a fleabite.

If there is an odor coming from your pet, or his skin is damp and reddened, it could well be a skin problem. Try him first with a therapeutic dog shampoo to see if it remedies the problem, if it doesn’t you will need a medication from the vet.

Mange is a skin problem that is very uncomfortably and causes your pet to lose fur when they scratch.

As soon as you think there is a possibility of Mange, take your pet to the vet as he will need to take some skin scrapings. Tests at a lab will reveal whether there are mites present and appropriate medication prescribed.

If you have ruled out all of these possible causes yet your pet is still scratching, it may well be an allergy. Plants, mod, pollen and dust are all allergens that are found around the house.

If there is a pattern to his scratching and it worsens during the warm weather it many be an allergy to pollen or grass.

It can take a long time to pin down the cause of your pets itching, but is well worth it as you will have a healthy and much happier dog who is free of that irritating itch.

Most of the stresses that dogs suffer are not of their own causing, they are our fault as well. These stresses often out themselves in much the same way as they do with us in neuroses, anti-social behaviour and skin problems amongst other ways. In this piece, I want to talk about some of the most common sorts of canine skin irritation, not all of which can be attributed to human activity.

The foremost cause of bad skin in dogs is fleas in the town and fleas and ticks in the countryside. The cause of the inflammation is these parasites’ spittle. A dog’s immune system can handle a few fleas, but the problem comes when he is infested. Brief infestation can happen fairly quickly, but usually it is a symptom of neglect. If a dog was groomed every week, the problem would not get out of hand.

Often a neglected dog will look mangy because he has pulled his hair out and injured his skin with continuous scratching, try to rid himself of his tormentors. If the dog had remained in a pack like it was born to tens of thousands of years ago, it would be groomed every day by its companions. A domestic dog relies on its owner to do this for him. You could liken it to a child crawling with lice waiting for its parents to do something about it.

You can treat it and prevent it happening by bathing your dog in insecticidal shampoo as indicated on the label and dusting him and his box with flea powder on a regular basis, say, in conjunction with his weekly grooming.

A similar looking condition is mange. Mange is caused by minute parasitic mites burrowing under your dog’s skin. Again, your dog can handle a few mites, but an infestation is bad. It can also be caught by humans, but our bodies usually clear the problem up. However, your dog will be driven to distraction by an infestation of mites.

If you cannot find scores of fleas on your dog, it is probably mange, also known as scabies. You should be able to catch this early if you notice red, possibly bleeding patches of skin. Your vet or pet shop can sell you something to cure it fairly quickly.

Mosquitoes can be as much, if not more of a bother to dogs than they are to us. Mosquitoes harass dogs on the snout and genitals, but you cannot put DEET or other creams for humans for the reason that they will lick the chemical off causing stomach problems. You can apply lemon juice or oil scented with grated lemon rind and lemon juice, because mosquitoes hate lemon smells.

If your dog’s skin problem does not fit into any of these categories, then he is probably suffering from an allergy or pollution of some sort and you will have to take him to a vet.

Before treating a dog with any flea medication, always consult the pet’s veterinarian first. Capstar can be obtained without a prescription but your dog’s vet should still be notified. The treatment may interfere with your dog’s medication or diet and a vet or doctor will be able to tell you whether or not the animal can safely take it.

It can be fairly difficult to get a pet to eat something foreign, especially a dog. So you may have to try a few different ideas before finding one that works. Start by burying the Capstar pill in your dog’s food bowl. This is the easiest way since most animals don’t look at their bowl when they’re eating. After the animal has finished, check to determine whether or not the flea pill was consumed.

There are still other effective methods if the dog ate everything but the Capstar capsule. Another one would be to insert the pill into a treat before giving it to the dog. If that doesn’t work, the capsule can be wrapped around a piece of ham or cheese as well. If your animal notices the pill or spits it out after eating around it, there is one last, less desirable, option left.

With your bare hand or special pill dispenser, put the pill in the back of your pet’s mouth, preferably on the tongue. Hold your dog’s mouth shut until the Capstar has been eaten. You are most likely going to get accidentally bitten and slobbered on, but at least you will be certain that the dog consumes the capsule.

Regardless of the method you use when administering the flea treatment to the pet, afterwards just make sure that your dog swallowed its pill. These small capsules, as with most other medicines, can get stuck to the sides of the pet’s teeth or mouth and most will just spit it out eventually. Once you’re positive the helpful treatment has finally been eaten, make a note of the time.

For small or medium sized pets, the treatment should start working in as little as 4 hours. For bigger dogs it might take up to 6 or 7. If 24 hours go by and you are still finding fleas on your dog then simply treat him with the Capstar pill every twenty four hours until they’re eliminated.

Once your dog is declared flea free, keep him that way with some trusted flea prevention items. Medicated shampoos and flea collars will make sure that once the flea treatment has killed off the annoying critters, they stay gone. If you reside in area with a bad flea problem, think about getting your pet on a prescription flea treatment to keep him or her healthy and comfortable.

Discover fabulous prices on capstar flea control by going online.

In the wild, dogs hunt as well as kill their prey and feed on the meat raw. They will not go and cook it, add chemical preservatives, man-made colorings and after that put it in a can. That’s really certainly not natural!

Dog diet industry professionals acclaim the benefits of offering your pet dog frozen foods composed of a fresh meat diet. Ian Buffet, an alternative vet, promotes a frozen uncooked doggy food diet vs a commercial dog food option: “I believe you absolutely simply cannot obtain the identical quality out of a bag of commercial furry companion food as you can by doing it oneself; choosing your own ingredients, producing it by yourself and providing it fresh.” “The most significant benefit of industrial doggy food affords is simply ease.”

In order to paraphrase Dr. Buffet, many people are likely to select industrial pet food more than a uncooked meat and bones diet due to the fact it is commonly available and comparatively cheap. Many people forget about the increased vet costs they may be incurring when deciding to give their pet dog commercial pet foods. The additional vet costs can easily surpass the added selling price of a frozen uncooked dog food diet.

Ian Buffet is without question skeptical whenever the dog food industry claims, “They have to do the processing, and they have to add chemical ingredients while the food has already been sitting on the shop shelf for several months.” “There is definitely no way they can obtain the equivalent food quality to benefit your family dog.”

Is Dr. Buffet correct? Can industrial dog or cat food genuinely be hazardous to our pet dogs and cause them to end up with medical conditions that used to always be confined exclusively to people?

If predisposed, try experimenting by providing your family dog a frozen fresh pet food diet. Try it out for a several months and see how your dog’s demeanor, visual appeal and total health changes.

Only then, and only then, will you know if you’ve made the ideal choice.

Make sure to annually vaccinate your pets. Despite this, a lot of pet owners are declining vaccines due to the safety issues involved. That still shouldn’t stop you from having your pets vaccinated, as it may help them avoid contracting certain deadly diseases like the canine parvovirus. You can protect your pets from these diseases with a standard vaccination, and save money in the long run – they can be very expensive to treat otherwise. The standard costs for treatment can often go over $1,000, including the costs of hospitalization and medicine. Vaccines cost much less than that.

The next thing to consider is dental care. Make sure you have your pets’ dental check-ups scheduled on a regular basis. Dogs that regularly get fed human food are especially in need of regular dental care. Do not take this lightly as liver, heart and kidney diseases can easily set in if your pets’ teeth aren’t well maintained. In fact, there are studies that show that 80% of all pets over three years old have some form of dental disease. It may not really sound like fun, but brushing our pets’ teeth can greatly reduce the risk of dental disease and other health issues in our pets. For our pets’ teeth, preventive measures are just as important.

Finally, we need to carefully monitor our pets’ weight and diet. Usually, monitoring our pets’ diet and making sure it is balanced is the best preventive measure. Choosing a good brand of pet food can help set us in the right path as pet owners to prevent obesity in our pets. Overweight pets may seem cute on the surface, but be aware that an overweight or obese pet can develop serious health problems. Among the health problems an overweight pet can acquire are joint pain and arthritis, as well as cardiovascular issues. A dog treadmill can be an excellent way to exercise your pet if the weather is bad or you live in an unsafe area.