If your pet is sick, whether you suspect it was caused by a pet food or not, you should first seek veterinary care and advice before doing anything else.

AAFCO and its members as feed control officials are not practicing veterinarians. AAFCO does not provide veterinary medical advice or recommendations of any type.

Whenever the subjects of pet food and pet illnesses cross paths, there is ample opportunity for assumptions and suspicion about what happened. Certainly there have been cases where a pet food caused a pet’s illness. When a pet is sick, a person wants to be as sure as they can about what is causing the pet’s illness and that is where a person’s veterinarian can be helpful in determining what caused the pet’s illness as well as in treating that illness. Most pets have usually eaten something within a day of showing signs of illness, but that doesn’t automatically mean what the pet ate caused the illness.

After you have contacted your veterinarian and obtained treatment for your pet, if you believe your pet’s illness was caused by a pet food product you should file a report with state and federal authorities as well as the manufacturer of the product.