Problems with Nutro dog food??

I haven't heard great things about Nutro dog food. In fact, I was looking into it awhile ago, and came across a site, which lists some personal experiences with it.

 Nutro has been around for years and has always been an excellent product. But I remember opening a new bag of food and the color was darker. The Nutro rep told me they had made changes to the ingredients. That was a few months ago and it seems to be about the time the complaints started. I pulled all of my animals off Nutro 7/28/08.

We have 30 rescued cats (20 ferals) and 4 dogs. We started using Nutro last fall for our dogs and cats.
 
We took several cats in for annual exams this year and they'd lost a couple pounds. Our vet was happy because they were on the porky side and needed to lose a little. But Nemo, one of the ferals has been steadily losing weight and we were going to have blood work done on him to see what was wrong.  We had been finding bloody stools in the litter pan and thought it might be him. It started to worry me when we took a couple cats in that didn't need to lose weight and they, too, had lost a couple pounds. We also had several cats that were losing the shine to their fur.  And our cats were no longer were running to the food bowls when it was feeding time. I found I was throwing food out at the end of the day because they just weren't eating it!
 
Well, amazingly, the cats acted like starving strays when I switched to Eukanuba! No more bloody stool in the litter pans, fur shiny again, and Nemo is eating like he hasn't eaten in months! He's already filling out!
 
The problem with our cats and dogs is we were seeing different symptoms in them that appeared to be other conditions so we didn't connect it to the food. Max, our Pit Bull, was very ill for 2 weeks after we tried Nutro's Lamb and Rice. Our vet said it was gastritis caused by something he got into and we put him on meds and boiled hamburg and rice. When we started the Nutro Lamb again, he immediately started with vomiting and diarrhea. We took Max off the food thinking he just couldn't handle the lamb. The other dogs were fine so we didn't realize it was the food until Tazz, our German Shepherd, became very sick after Max recovered. We switched to Nutro's Large Breed.
 
They seemed to be ok on that formula. But Max started having stool problems. Soft, then hard, then soft. Our vet thought because of his age that he might need meds if it continued. Kaiser, another German Shepherd, was having to urinate 10 times a night. If we didn't get to the door fast enough, he'd urinate in the kitchen. We were going to get him in for tests. Tazz started to act disorientated and very unsteady on her feet. Tazz has arthritis and we know we're on borrowed time with her but she acted drunk. Jada, another German Shepherd, and Tazz started eating grass. And they all were drinking lots of water especially the dogs after they ate.
 
We switched to Eukanuba dog food. The first night after changing food - Kaiser slept all night instead of whining and pacing! When the
other dogs went out, I had to wake him up to go! Tazz is brighter and though she's stiff when she gets up, she's not acting drunk! Max  is having normal stools! Jada has stopped eating grass! AND they're drinking normal amounts of water now - not guzzling water like they were dying of thirst. No more vomiting, no more diarrhea, fur is shiny again.
 
When there is weight loss in EVERY animal in a household, then something is wrong! We've been off Nutro for two weeks and every symptom we were seeing is GONE! I thank God we switched before we lost any of our precious babies!

It breaks my heart to read these stories of lost pets. Something is wrong and we all need answers! The stories I've read on http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/nutro.html have alarmed me terribly! I will never use Nutro again! 

I had fed Nutro natural choice for over 10 years with no issues. In April 2008, my malamute and mal/shep mix, who had never had any health issues, both became critically ill within the same weekend. They had fevers of 105, and their liver/pancreatic levels were off the charts. The vets at the emergency clinic were stumped, only said the symptoms were consistant with poisoning. (They had absolutely no access to any poisons). My vet bills were over $2000. My 12-yr old girl died 2 days later, My 9-yr old recovered when I began cooking his own food, but has a permanant head-tilt from the neurological damage he suffered.
If you go to consumer affairs.com, there are dozens of similar stories, most taking place between March and July of this year. Nutro is denying any involvement whatsoever. Every time new evidence is released, (including recent proof of zinc/copper toxicity) they refute the evidence and issue a statement stating how safe their food is. I've talked to their customer service reps on multiple occasions. They read canned statements and lie to me about looking into my case. They want all the information I have sent to their legal department, and offer no other recourse.
Earlier in the year you could not find Nutro lamb and rice on the shelves. Nutro stated it was a 'supplier issue'. That is a lie. This was the same time as the poisonings.
More and more information will hopefully continue to come out. I believe this case will be as big as the 2007 case. Please don't feed your dog Nutro! Even if it's not every bag, it's just not worth the risk!