Hazel’s House is a rescue shelter in the greater Portland, Oregon area that cares for cats, dogs, and other small animals on their way to finding forever homes. In January, Hazel’s House took in a brand new litter of nine puppies who’d been found motherless and abandoned in a box by a dumpster. The fine humans of Hazel’s House (it’s a small operation, so mainly founder Brittany Hazel) nursed the pups, and that included feeding them an exclusive diet of Breeder’s Edge Foster Care puppy formula, made by Revival Animal Health. Oh, and did I mention the pups’ names? Carol, Mike, Marcia, Jan, Cindy, Greg, Peter, Bobby, and Alice — they’re the Brady Bunch Litter!
That is undoubtedly adorable; sadly, the rest of this story is not. As the Puppy Bunch turned one-month old, many of them started limping, and poor Greg stopped being able to walk altogether. What on earth?? After exhaustive research, consultations, and testing, it was determined that the Revival food was the culprit, causing the dogs to be diagnosed with rickets. Now Carol, Alice, Mike, Peter, and Greg need major surgeries, lest they suffer permanent skeletal deformities. So on Monday, Hazel’s House sued Revival for $150,000 to cover the medical costs:
“We’ve put a lot of trust into a lot of different companies,” said Brittany Hazel, the rescue’s founder and president. “And it’s sad when things like this happen, and it’s something that we entrusted would never happen.”
…Five of the puppies began struggling to walk when they were around 4 weeks old. According to the complaint, tests showed poor nutrition caused rickets, a disease in which dogs’ bones collapse under their weight.
Hazel’s House stopped feeding the puppies the formula and filed complaints with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Revivial. Meanwhile, vets ruled out other causes for the sickness, such as genetic diseases, according to the complaint.
FDA testing of the formula showed it contained variable levels of Vitamin D, which affects bone strength. Too much Vitamin D can also cause serious health issues, according to the FDA notice.
Revival voluntarily recalled the product in April, citing the vitamin irregularity and two complaints of rickets.
Now, the 6-month-old puppies walk irregularly and have deformities on their legs that require surgery, Hazel said. But the animal rescue can’t afford extensive medical treatment on its own, she said.
A Revival spokesperson said the company takes the health and safety of animals seriously and that it started an investigation as soon as the rescue group informed it of the concerns. The company then initiated a voluntary recall, the spokesperson said, offering refunds or replacement products for any affected.
“While testing has not linked our product to the puppies’ reported health issues, we were working with Hazel’s House and believed we were close to reaching an agreement that would provide immediate care for the puppies, and it is unfortunate that Hazel’s House ended our discussions despite our continued attempts to engage,” spokesperson Nick Leasure said.
The animal rescue and Revival began negotiating in April, Hazel’s attorney said. After several weeks without a satisfactory resolution, Hazel said, her shelter decided to file a formal lawsuit. The longer they wait, the more difficult and painful the surgeries will become, she added.
The rescue group also started a GoFundMe page, hoping to receive $100,000 in donations toward medical treatment. It’s collected about $4,400 as of Friday.
Oh man, only $4,400 out of $100,000 on the GoFundMe was like a gut punch! So I looked to see how it’s doing after the weekend… only bumped up to $6,026. That’s 7% of the goal, gah! If you are able, donating to the Brady Bunch Litter would be a mitzvah. But it really shouldn’t be on us, it’s on Revival Animal Health. This is every dog parent/godparent’s worst nightmare: that a food source we trusted turns out not merely to be unhealthy, but actively making our pups ill. And yeah, I’m sure Revival would have preferred to keep hashing out a settlement with Hazel’s House in private. But the medical condition Revival’s food caused needs attention now. The situation has far exceeded being fixable with “refunds or replacement products,” for dog’s sake. It makes me so barking mad. These floofs deserve to walk, run, and frolic!
Photos via GoFundMe and Facebook
Well done for circulating their story and hopefully raising more funds. 👍🏻👍🏻
I have just shared! I am ready to bite someone over this crap! They best step up and do the right thing!
Those dogs are adorable (German Shepherd?) and I am stunned that someone threw away NINE of them. Yikes. It seems callous of the dog food company to drag out proceedings so much that they had to be sued. Were they hoping the dogs would not survive or what? Illnesses such as these do not get better on their own. SMH. Hoping the pups get the urgent care they need and go on to make a full recovery.
Surprised to see this ungallant behavior by Revival, which positions itself as a premier product in the marketplace. Sadly, the variable Vitamin D levels have been linked to other Revival products, which they have also recalled. So sad for puppies. I would strongly urge all dog owners out there to stop using all their products until they step up. If it will cause financial hardship, consider returning product to retailers for a refund. https://www.pennlive.com/news/2026/04/dog-owners-warned-about-these-two-milk-replacer-brands-after-puppies-got-sick.html
Don’t feed your animals boutique brands. Their makers don’t do feeding trials, and the vast majority don’t use qualified veterinary nutritionists or Ph.D. animal nutritionists when they develop their products and put them on the market. Like a number of retriever parents, I learned this lesson the hard way and miss my Labrador, Daisy, every day because of it.
I was going to comment similarly. After contamination recalls on a few different small brands I was using, I did some reading and switched to one of the big brands.
It’s very difficult to find factual, unbiased information though.
I’m so sorry about your pup, Daisy. This is exactly why I currently only feed my dogs Royal Canin.
I’m fostering kittens for the last 9 years with our local animal shelter. I started out with KMR and had nothing but problems with kittens having digestive issues. The last 6 years I use Breeders Edge and never had any problems with it. I fostered close to 400 kittens and none of my kittens ever had any issues with BE. The same for Shelters Choice formula. This year I raised 20 kittens so far, the youngest were 8 hrs. old with BE and SC with no problems. A assume it is only the puppy formula that had faulty manufacturing so far.
The puppy formula was recalled. According to the lawsuit: “The FDA identified deficiencies in six nutrients: Calcium, Phosphorus, Copper, Iron, Magnesium, and Potassium. Of particular significance, Calcium and Phosphorus levels were measured at approximately 35% and 39% (respectively) of AAFCO minimum requirements for growth. Calcium and Phosphorus are the very nutrients most directly implicated in the development of metabolic bone disease and fractures.” I will be watching my fosters closely from now on to see if the issue is carrying over to the kitten formula.
The company is aware of the problem and should be covering the medical costs since the health issue is directly related to their formula.
Revival has the kind of profits where they could make a sizable donation to the rescue to offset any bad publicity coming their way from the accusations, if they truly stand by their product.