DAVIS–

If you have a four-legged love, you know they love to eat.

But the jerky treats some owners have been feeding their dogs and cats during the last six years have been making them violently ill – or worse, as 580 pets have died.

Karl Jandrey is an associate professor and emergency room doctor at UC Davis’ Veterinary Teaching Hospital. He applauds the Food and Drug Administration for taking bold, new steps to figure out why.

“To support submission of laboratory samples to try and uncover what might be the cause is really a nice move, pretty unprecedented actually,” he said.

That’s right, the FDA is now encouraging  vets to send in samples from sick animals around the country to better track what’s been a widespread and sporadic problem.

Doctor James Reynolds of Roseville saw a rash of gastro-intestinal problems at his practice last fall.

“Everyone when asked what they had … They had chicken treats from China,” he said.

Aside from that link, there’s been no uniformity to brand or meat protein involved.

“The frustration for us as veterinarians is that we haven’t figured out what the injury is caused by. Is there a toxic principal? Is it? Is it something in the processing?  Is it something from the product itself,” he questioned.

The FDA – stumped by the same issues –  has sent scientists to China investigating manufacturers, looking for an answer. And with the FDA putting extra eyes on this, pet owners need to pay attention too.

“Does he (the pet) vomit and then he’s bouncing around or vomit and then feels like junk? It’s when we have these lingering things off his normal routine  we recommend to have them seen,” said Jandrey.

Jandrey and Reynolds are both advising patient families to not feed any type of jerky treat from any origin to pets.