I need help! If there is anything anyone knows or has heard from someone else.
About 2 months ago my cat got sick and stopped eating. Took her to the vet three times, blood work and x-rays normal. They gave her valium to make her eat, but then she started vomiting. In the end I decided to PTS b/c I couldn't stand to watch her suffer anymore. The final day I took her in she could barley walk she was so weak. The vet said it was probably her kidneys due to her age (15yr) even though the blood work was all normal. Thinking it was kidneys, I went home and mixed the rest of her food in with some of the dogs food and the rest into the rats food (I have snakes). Two days later four rats died, and my female GSD is now doing the same thing the cat started doing. The only thing all three of the animals have in common is the food, and living under my roof.
So three weeks ago I take the dog to the vet (about two days after she stopped eating). Same thing, blood work fine, x-rays fine, but she had some gas. They give me some pills to settle her stomach. Four days later nothing. Back to the vet. Same thing, everything normal. Today, I take her back...yep you guessed it everything normal, a little gas. Four vets have gone over her file and nothing. Now, today I did give them one of my rats to do pathology testing on, we should know something Tuesday. But I just don't want to sit around and wait for my dog to starve herself to death like my cat did.
Has anyone out there heard of anything like this. The vets think if it was food, something should show up on the lab work either in the kidneys or liver, but nothing so far. So they don't know what to give her to help her. In the past week out of trying to feed her breakfast, lunch and dinner, she has only eaten three times, about 1 cup of food/rice each time. Im at my wits end. Please help.

I'm not a medical expert, but I lost one dog and almost lost another in the manner you described. Both times it was due to pesticides, and manifested itself in the pancreas. The dog I had to pts had visible spots on her pancreas in the xrays. I am amazed that the vets sent these animals back home without some intensive IV fluids and nourishment.
What puzzles me is, if pesticides are the source, why did this seem to occur with the food, unless it is pure coincidence? Has an exterminator been anywhere near your home? Termites treated, flea preventatives, etc.? Has anything of this nature come into your environment recently? Did something possibly contaminate the cat's food (and why would you give cat food to a dog or rat?)?
One other STRONG possibility is that the cat food container came into contact with rat poison during transporting/warehousing/retailing.
Any way you slice it, these animals need to be in intensive care receiving tons of fluid unless you've already written them off!

OMG I don't know of anything but if I find anything I'll post it. What kind of cat food was it? I wonder if there is a recall? Or should be!!!! I really feel for you, can they do tests for poisons? Also save some of that bad food! I would contact the company and the store it came from. Maybe its arsenic, lead..something like that?

What is the food?

Did you save the first container of food (sealed and out of reach)?

Is the present one a different lot number?

Don't throw anything away, I'm sure you know. Seal it with a heavy trash baggy and tape and store it in an inaccessible area until it can be lab-tested.

You're not saying that a dog, cats, and rats are all eating the same food, right? I'm not clear on that part.

After the cat died (which the vet said was from Kidney disease) I had the cat food left over. I did not want to just throw it out so I gave some to the dogs (kind of like a treat) mixed in with their dinner that night. The rest of it I mixed in with the rat food, since female rats need lots of protein after they give birth, and cat food is often recommended. It wasn't until after the rats died all of a sudden (I went to bed and woke up to them being dead) and the dog not wanting to eat, that I started to think maybe the vet was wrong. When I called him that day, he said he didn't think they were related. So the next day, I took the dog to see a different vet. The cat food was Whiskas indoor cat food. I have looked and no recalls as of yet. The vets have not seen anything recalled either. No bug sprays or cleaners, or anything new that I can think of. The cat never came out of our bedroom, and the dogs were not allowed in the back of the house, so they never had any contact. I don't know for sure that it is the food, but other than that and the water they drink there is really nothing else in common.

As for the fluids, Shena is drinking water fine, peeing, pooping (alot less now), but otherwise is in really good shape. The vet says if it was a toxin, it would show up in her blood work. This vet is trying new stuff because I have been so demanding.
To Duane: how did you treat your animals??? What testing did they do???

Oh, one other thing, I have two other dogs, and other rats that also ate the food, and their all fine. Could it be whatever this is is only making the weak sick???

 Quote: Laura Dobson

After the cat died (which the vet said was from Kidney disease) I had the cat food left over. I did not want to just throw it out so I gave some to the dogs (kind of like a treat) mixed in with their dinner that night. The rest of it I mixed in with the rat food, since female rats need lots of protein after they give birth, and cat food is often recommended. It wasn't until after the rats died all of a sudden (I went to bed and woke up to them being dead) and the dog not wanting to eat, that I started to think maybe the vet was wrong. When I called him that day, he said he didn't think they were related. So the next day, I took the dog to see a different vet. The cat food was Whiskas indoor cat food. I have looked and no recalls as of yet. The vets have not seen anything recalled either. No bug sprays or cleaners, or anything new that I can think of. The cat never came out of our bedroom, and the dogs were not allowed in the back of the house, so they never had any contact. I don't know for sure that it is the food, but other than that and the water they drink there is really nothing else in common.

Whiskas is on pentobarbital-warning lists, and pentobarbital can lead to renal failure.

I'm really reaching here, because I think anything this severe would have been caught and widely publicized, and because you had bloodwork done, but still, part of my plan if I were you would be to have that food tested and to switch foods immediately and permanently.

No necropsy done, right? (I imagine not, or you'd have said so.)

I hope you will post back about this: "Now, today I did give them one of my rats to do pathology testing on, we should know something Tuesday. "

Meanwhile, is there any food the dog loves and that is bland and easily digestible? Maybe cooked chicken breast, cooled and blended like a smoothie into room-temp water?

No necropsy on the cat, by the time I asked they had already gotten rid of her.
I am offering Shena 50/50 rice to kibble. The vet does not want me to give her anything new that could upset her stomach more. She is on Carafate tabs and acid reducer pills. She acts a little tired (lack of food in system I'm sure) but fine otherwise. She just won't eat.

How old is Shena ?
What sort of rat, pregnant, just weaned, nursing, ages?
Stop feeding kibble. Feed her whatever she will eat. Spoil her, cooked meat, cookies, whatever she will eat, little bits at a time. Ice chips to chew.