Fellow Pet Lovers: Dr. Carol is sharing pet food news and details about the two current Blue Buffalo/Blue Wilderness Class Action Lawsuits. Neither Dr. Carol nor Chagrin Falls Pet Clinic is affiliated or involved with the lawsuit or has any relationship with the company making Blue Buffalo/Blue Wilderness Pet Foods.
As of January 12th, 2018, Blue Buffalo/Blue Wilderness settled one class action lawsuit for the, “Blue Buffalo Company Ltd., a natural pet food company, allegedly misled consumers by including a “True Blue Promise” label indicating the products contain no poultry by-products; no corn, wheat or soy; and no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives.
Blue Buffalo’s “representation of the ingredients and nutritional value in its dog food were deemed to be false, deceptive, misleading and materially incorrect.”
According to several Blue Buffalo/Blue Wilderness class action lawsuits, investigations indicated that these ingredients were present in products with the “True Blue Promise” label. The plaintiffs claim they paid a premium for products with the companies “True Blue Promise” label because they believed they had higher-quality ingredients than other competing pet food products.
The pet food company noted that it would pursue claims against the supplier but agreed to pay $32 million to settle this Blue Buffalo class action lawsuit and provide compensation to disgruntled customers.
Interesting enough, prior to these 2 Class Action Law Suits, Blue Buffalo had just settled the largest pet food recall in the history of pet food. This involved an 8 Year Pet Food Recall involving many similar FALSE AND MISLEADING CLAIMS THAT SICKENED OVER 100,000 HELPLESS DOGS AND CATS.
Apparently, these recalls and lawsuits do not alter or affect the way the company handles its pet food quality.
Blue Buffalo/Blue Wilderness Dog Food Contaminated with TOXIC LEAD Levels:
Blue Buffalo LTD, is now facing another Class Action Lawsuit that was opened June 26th, 2017, for “failing to disclose the presence of dangerous substances in its pet food products which were filed in California Federal Court”.
The 24-page lawsuit was filed after the plaintiff’s dog, a 4-year old Cocker Spaniel/Poodle mix, suffered from kidney disease and finally kidney failure as a result of ingesting the tainted Blue Buffalo dog food.
See the full story here.
For a complete list of all the Class Actions Law Suits against this company, click this link
Here are some other related articles on Blue Buffalo from Chagrin Falls Pet and Veterinary Clinic
Dr. Osborne, we are giving to our 8 months Shih Tsu the Blue Natural Veterinary Diet KS Kidney Support because his blood tests (to check him for neutering) showed high enzyme levels. Previously, we were giving him Wellness Core for puppies small breed. Could you advise on this? I am a little worried about what I am reading although I hear that there are only two kinds of BLue Buffalo that are contaminated (is that true?) Thanks for your attention.
Estrella
Shia tsu….. got sick too& passed, omg bless so sad!
Dr. Carol – These articles (Blue Buffalo dog food) scare me – I only feed Fromm – need I worry?
I used to use Blue Buffalo for my Great Dane, and for 3 years, she seemed ok with it. However she soon stopped eating the food, which is highly unusual for her since she is such a chow hound. I would leave it in her dish for the remainder of the day, she would come in the room, sniff the bowl, and then walk off. I threw that away, fixed her such rice and chicken (thinking she was having tummy problems)… she ate that quickly. Next morning, tried the BB again… no dice. She would not eat it period. I tried putting some other stuff on it and mix it up… nope, wouldn’t touch it. I threw that away and the rest of the 30 lbs bag. I switched over to Taste of the Wild and she’s been a happy girl since then. I should have realized that something was wrong as her BMs were getting more runny and smelled worse than poop usually does. I’m not interested in gaining any money, just glad my dog was smarter than me and then I smartened up and quick using BB. She’s gained her weight back, the vet says she is in very good health for her age, her spirits are much better, and that pleases me. Mine is a rescued dog by the way.
Is there still time for the law suit? I had to put 2 dogs down with cancer timers. That all I fed them was blue buffalo. I thought it was healthy for them . I did not know about the law suits.
Thank you Dr. Carol on keeping the public up to date on all the Blue Buffalo and affiliated products that our so very misleading and extremely dangerous to our pets. I know of dogs who have died eating this tainted food. I wish it could be taken off the market. How do they get away with still selling these products to uninformed buyers?? Please keep us posted.
Thanks for letting us know. My shih tzu died from it three months ago and we are still mourning over her . She was on blue buffalo diet and she had all these symptoms. Please help us
Monnie mcintosh
I just purchased a poodle puppy, I got a call from my Mother and sister about the Blue Buffalo dog and puppy food being tainted with lead. I just purchased a bag a several cans of food. I have raised my puppy on this food and now I am sickened by what I have just read. I have been purchasing this all along at pet smart and they have never made me aware of this problem, to me that is just as bad as putting the product on the shelves. they are pushing the poison to the buyer to feed to their innocent puppies and dogs. This totally angers me shame on them!
I just now saw this info. We have been feeding our pet Maltese the very brand they say is highest – 200 ppb? I am dismayed if this info is true. He has not had any energy or appetite, pretty much for as long as I can remember ! If this is true, I have a real problem with this AND with them! What can we do, anybody have any advice? Thx! Ace
My bull dog has been eating blue for about 2 years is it safe I’m reading all these negative tho b.s. it scares me can you please give me some advice..
My dogs are eating blue. What should I do?
Switch immediately. My Doodle was on it and refused to eat it so I knew there had to be something wrong with it.
I have fed my dog’s Blue Buffalo Wilderness for MANY years . I have had two dog’s DIE of Cancer with the last 10 years .
One with bone cancer , and the last one cancer of the spine, ( I have a pic. of spine ) I feed both Dry and caned .
Last June 2017, I gave my new cocker spaniel puppy the blue puppy food she was only 7 weeks old and this food had worm all through the food so I returned the food to North 40, I regret not calling the company but did report this to North 40 and the vet, to this day my dog refuses to eat dog food, I guess I’m better off fixing my own food for my dog at least I know what’s in it, Diane
I’ve noticed my dog has had some new health issues since I switched her food to Blue Buffalo. She’s a 2 year old, Poodle-Bischon mix. She’s had bloody mucous like stools several times and lots of gas since the switch. Also, her eyes tear constantly and this is new too. She’s currently taking antibiotics and is under medical care. This is really scary, I truly trusted Blue Buffalo!
I had no idea about this food, their commercials claim it to be natural, no by products. I thought I was being a good pet parent for purchasing this food, my poor little chorkie ended up in the hospital for 5 days. I am so upset, she may even have to have a special diet for the rest of her life. Don’t these people know that our pets mean the world to us? how could they!!
I have been feeding my YorkiePoo Blue Buffalo and have never had an issue with anything. Should I worry and what should I do now??
3/15/2018 – Have you seen their latest commercial? It alleges that they started Blue Buffalo because their dog “Blue” died from health problems related to tainted dog food.
Thank you for posting this. My golden retriever puppy’s diarrhea would not go away for days so she was eating only rice and boiled chicken for a while. As soon as I started sprinkling Blue Buffalo kibbles on rice to transition her, it started all over again. That’s when we knew we had to switch to a different brand. She is doing very well now. I think it is important for every dog owner to read this.
I have a 11 year old English Bulldog that this happened to, I actually thought I was going to lose him. Same treatment same results.
Thank you Dr. Carol. I only recently tried Blue Buffalo dog food for my small dogs. I have only used about 1/2 of a small bag. I will not feed them the rest. I have for years made my own dog food, because of issues like this. I mixed the blue buffalo kibble with my homemade food. I just wanted to make sure my pups got the proper nutrition. Do you have a homemade recipe that you recommend? I’ve been using chicken (drum sticks), beef, gizzards, carrots, rutabagas and coconut oil. I may add a little white rice on occasion. I think I’ll give up on store bought food at this point. It’s not worth it.
Has anyone looked into the effects on cat with this food?
We always tell our clients to steer clear of pet food companies that have any history of recalls. You can always check this on the FDA website.
https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/RecallsWithdrawals/default.htm
Thank you Dr. I too recently switched to Blue just a few months back, thinking I was doing the right thing. After the slow transition to the BLUE dry food from another brand, all was fine. Until I put in a tiny amount of canned blue into the dry food to see if she might like it. My 6 pound yorkie mix immediately had loose stools for 3 days. I could barely get her to eat the boiled chicken and rice mixture a few days but luckily she stayed drinking so she wouldn’t dehydrate. Then the stool turned bloody on day 4 and I immediately took her in her. Dr and got her on an antidiarrheal. Needless to say I stopped feeding anyone the canned food that day and got rid of it. My adult dog didnt have digestinal issues after her transition but shehas since had a few skin issues develop suddenly.
Thank you for posting this as both of my dogs will now be switching from Blue.
I also fed my 2 loved weimarner’s blue buffalo for years. They had a lot of stomach issues and cancer. Tried all different brands but no change. They passed to the bridge. Its been 3 + years. And I still feel very guilty I couldn’t figure out how to help them. I hope someday they figure this out.
I know this is an unrelated question to the lawsuit, but I would like to know what brand of dry pet food do you recommend for dogs and cats? I find as my pets are getting older, I would like to give them the best food out there.
we’ve had luck with Fromm’s Four Star line, Stellas & Chewy’s and Sojo’s
Thanks for the information. We haven’t had an problems with BB but don’t want to take the risk. Switching to Fromm’s.
I just read about this. My dog has been eating the Grain Free limited ingredient Turkey and Potato (the worst one)…he has been on it for a couple years and it has actually done wonders for his skin allergies. I switched him last week after hearing this but just realized the my baby is always going over to the dog food and sneaking pieces before we can grab her. she started doing it months ago as soon as she could crawl. we’ve since put up gates but she still gets pieces every now and then. im really worried it could not only cause harm to my dog but my baby!
I have a 8 month old Great Dane and he has been on the blue large breed puppy food and I thought I was doing a good thing for my baby boy and I just read this and my heart breaks for all these poor animals that couldn’t speak for themselves. Can I please get some help with a good brand food for my baby boy . He is still a puppy and I have a hard time finding large bread grain free puppy foods . I did a lot of research and it says adult dog food or regular puppy food has wrong amount of vitamins and will cause my boy to grow to fast and will cause growing pains . He has had loose stool off and on for month and he at times would not eat his food for a while and that is not like him . I just got a new bag of food and for whatever reason he don’t like this bag and I noticed he acted weird about eating it . I had a cat a few yrs back die of kidney failure and she was only a few yrs old and had no idea what happened happy one day and gone the next .
Perhaps talking with your veterinarian would be helpful.
Consider changing the diet-even a food like Royal Canin large breed puppy food would be a better choice in our experience.
We’ve been giving our 18 month old puppy/dog Blue Superior Nutrition Life Protection Formula with LifeSource bits Lamb & Brown Rice. I’m not sure if this is a bad one, but I gotta say my dog, who is a Cavachon, stopped eating her food. She would only eat treats I gave her. This has been going on for a couple weeks but I felt I was giving her too many treats. So, we stopped giving them to her so frequently and she still wouldn’t eat her food. We switched. I’m not sure if this is good or bad food but I do know there are issues with some of the other foods by them and I love my dog. Thank you Dr for letting us know.
You made a good choice!
My blue buffalo dog food had worms in it. We took it back to the store and bought another bag of blue buffalo dog food. It has a small bug in it. We will not buy any more of this dog food. Our dogs have not got sick yet.
My 12 year old schnauzer mix ate blue buffalo for years and became very sick very suddenly one day. She was vomiting and having loose bowl movements in the house (which is very unlike her, she doesn’t have indoor accidents unless she is sick). I couldn’t figure out what the issue was for days but we ended up switching her food and she hasn’t had any problems since. I would strongly suggest steering away from this brand, I would hate for other dog owners to go through what we went through. It is very scary when your furry friend is sick and you can’t figure out what is wrong with them.
We just bought a English bulldog, he’s 11 weeks old, bought the blue wilderness puppy food wet and dry, fed it to him for almost a week when he started having seizures…that damn food almost killed our puppy. We rushed him to the vets and now after switching his food back to the Hills science diet he’s doing better. We thought we were giving him the best food possible only to find out that it almost killed him…the vet doesn’t think that there is any long term damage but who the he’ll knows. Really angry about it!!! We paid $3,000 for our puppy
Someone needs to be held accountable for this!
How about cats? I noticed back in May my cat’s blue buffalo wilderness food suddenly looked a tad different. After that, my cat would eat very little of it and became sick and atopped using the bathroom. We took him off of it immediately and swapped him to Applaws broth packets and he improved rapidly.
Thank you for posting all this information. We have been feeding our French bull dog this for years. About a year ago she started having little bumps on her body that would then pop and her skin would dry and flack off. We have spend a couple thousand dollars trying to figure out what is going on. Now I read this and I think we know why. Does anyone know what steps we can take to get our vet bills paid for. I just want our baby to feel better.
thank you
I would love to help in any way I can to prevent these people from selling their dog food. We had to put our six year old dog Kirby down 3 years ago as a result of liver failure. It all happened so quickly and after spending thousands of dollars keeping her in the ICU there was nothing more we could do but let her be at peace. The problem after we put her down is I was convinced it was the food we had been giving her. Years ago I did some research and apparently I wasn’t the only one who thought this. When I look back it all makes sense, Kirby had this weird lip shaking thing she would do, upset stomachs, etc. what can we animal lovers do to help prevent others having to go through what we did! Thanks for the article:)
Dr. Carol
I’ve been feeding my dog blue since he was born he is 4 now. I always heard it was the best being holistic and all so I thought til ready your news. He would throw up sometimes thought it was treats. Now I’m worried. If I knew of the law suit I would of been involved also. What is the best holistic dog food out there. It’s ashame how these pet food companies only care about the money, greed. They don’t care they are killing our pets as long as the money rolls in. They should be out of business.
Many of our clients have great success with Fromm Four Star Dog Food, Stella and Chewy’s and Primal.
Hi my name is Christine my baby Bella 7 lb toy poodle now has bladder stones which two Vets confirmed was due to the pet food which was blue buffalo. My Bella has been eating this food for 5 years. Bella is now on a very expensive prescription diet for her kidneys. She will never be the same. How do I fight this awful company that altered the life of my baby?
Hello my name is Dez. I recently switched to Blue Buffalo about 2 months ago from Purina incredibites for my three miniature dogs. They have very little teeth so I give them the delights for small dogs which is Pate chicken or sirloin flavored. At first the dogs seemed to like the food but slowly my Chihuahua started to not eat as much. Last week on Wednesday she started having diarrhea and vomiting. The diarrhea eventually contained blood so I rushed her to the vet. After 24 hours in urgent care the verdict was that she was showing signs of kidney failure. Due to the increasing costs I had to put her down. I was still giving the other dogs the food and yesterday the Yorkie began having vomiting and diarrhea. I am convinced it has to do with this food and I will not continue to feed it to them. Is there a way that I can join this lawsuit because I am convinced the food killed my dog!!!