Study Start Date: 03/01/2009
Study End Date: 12/30/2019

It’s been over 2 years since the Menu Foods melamine crisis that resulted in acute renal failure in many thousands of pets across the country. Melamine and cyanuric acid resulted in precipitation of melamine crystals in the urinary tract. Many animals did not survive the initial renal failure, however, many more appeared to survive. Little is known about the long-term consequences of the melamine exposure – do these pets progress to chronic renal disease more rapidly, or at a higher rate than other pets? Are there other consequences that we don’t know about?

VIN Clinical Research is trying to determine the long-term outcomes of as many such cases as possible. With owner cooperation, we are trying to establish what happens to animals exposed to toxic concentrations of dietary melamine.

If you have had a case of acute melamine toxicity (or more than one), we would love for you to contact the VIN team for inclusion in the study.

Enrollment surveys, and veterinary update surveys can be found at: https://www.vin.com/SAVE_ME

Owners will be provided with unique links for updating their pets’ medical histories upon enrollment.

Study Design:
Prospective case series.

Sample Size:
n/a

Inclusion Criteria:

• See study page (https://www.vin.com/SAVE_ME)

Exclusion Criteria:

• See study page (https://www.vin.com/SAVE_ME)

Study Controls:
None

Study Endpoints:
Patient death or loss to follow-up

Samples:
No samples will be submitted. Owners will be asked to complete a twice-yearly survey. Clinicians will be asked to update patient records via a survey if the owner reports a veterinary visit during a 6 month period. Owners will be asked to complete a consent form at enrollment.

Files for Download:
See study page (www.vin.com/SAVE_ME)

Costs/Reimbursements:
None.

Full Disclosure information:

• The study is funded by a grant from the VIN Foundation.
• The investigator does not have a conflict of interest.
• The study will be published if results are negative
• The study will be reported on VIN