Woman uses Freshpet as a topper. Then her dog throws up 19 times in one night

sad puppy (l) woman shares dog food concern (c) Freshpet dog food (r) — A woman says she fed her dog Freshpet until an emergency vet visit took her down an information rabbit hole.

For two and a half years, a woman had been feeding her dog Freshpet as a topper on her regular food without any issues. Then one night, everything changed.

Mary (@maryymgreene) shares how her dog Sky ended up at the emergency vet after suddenly becoming violently ill. Her video has more than 327,000 views.

She explains that Sky had been sleeping when she abruptly woke up and vomited what looked to be her entire dinner.

At first, Mary wasn't particularly alarmed. But her dog “continued to throw up … four times in a row” before she realized she needed to call an emergency vet. Things only got worse from there.

“Throughout the entire night she probably threw up 19 times,” Mary says. “I'm not being dramatic. She just kept throwing up, and obviously, at some point there's no food, right?”

By this point, Mary says Sky began vomiting a thick, mucus-like substance. She was vomiting blood by the time they reached the emergency vet. She also had blood in her diarrhea.

Bloodwork and X-rays did not reveal any obvious abnormalities, and the vet administered anti-nausea meds and subcutaneous fluids. Sky was allowed to return home at 3 a.m.

Was Freshpet to blame?

With no clear explanation for what had happened, Mary “went down a rabbit hole” looking for answers online. That's when she came across accounts from other dog owners who claimed their pets had “the exact same experience after feeding their dog Freshpet.”

Indeed, a cursory search on Reddit unearths posts from dog owners claiming their pets have gotten sick from eating the brand's food, with one user claiming their lab “developed a pretty bad case of gastroenteritis.” Another wrote that the brand caused their pet to “throw up yellow bile.” A third said that their dachshund “had a pretty massive seizure” after eating the food for two years.

Mary also says that Sky had eaten the brand's chicken and carrots roll roughly an hour before vomiting began.

“Normally I do give her the beef one,” Mary says, wondering whether the chicken recipe could carry a greater risk of contamination.

She also says that someone had responded to her Instagram Story claiming their veterinarian had attributed another dog's death to Freshpet. Subplot News could not independently verify this secondhand account.

She says the experience left her questioning how refrigeration and transportation are handled before the food reaches dogs' mouths. “We don't know if it's actually being refrigerated the whole time that it's transporting from point A to point B,” Mary says.

“Just to be safe, I will never, ever, ever be buying Freshpet again,” she adds.

What does Freshpet say?

For context, Freshpet says its products are fully cooked and that it maintains refrigerated distribution from manufacturing facilities to stores. It also writes that its “Quality Assurance Team conducts hundreds of quality checks per hour.”

The company verifies that food “has been fully cooked to temperatures that eliminate any potentially harmful bacteria and pathogens.”

“This steam-cooking process effectively eliminates harmful bacteria,” it writes on its FAQ page.

Other dog owners share their Freshpet horror stories

Anecdotally, many viewers of Mary's TikTok also had harsh words to say about Freshpet.

“I think this is what killed my dog a few years ago,” wrote one commenter.

“[Freshpet] is TERRIBLE!!!! We gave it to my dog for a few months and he kept getting so sick,” a second viewer said. “[As] soon as we took him off we haven't had a problem since!”

A person who said they're a vet tech wrote that they “have seen sooooo many SEVERE cases of pancreatitis from [Freshpet] and [The Farmer's Dog]. It is so bad for dogs!!”

And another viewer simply wrote, “[Freshpet] caused pancreatitis in my dog.”

The top comment on Mary's video reads, “[Freshpet] is being sued bc they've killed hundreds of dogs.”

And while Freshpet is in fact facing a lawsuit, it is a shareholder class-action lawsuit concerning how it markets its products, not anything to do with dogs getting ill from its food.

Why is Freshpet facing a lawsuit?

In March 2026, the National Advertising Division of BBB National Programs recommended that Freshpet discontinue advertising claims implying its dog food was “human grade” following a challenge from competing fresh dog food company The Farmer's Dog.

Freshpet agreed to comply with the recommendations, which prompted investigations into potential securities claims against the company. These investigations are focused on the company's marketing and disclosures to investors.

Investors had already been looking into Freshpet after Bank of America downgraded the company's stock rating in October 2025, citing weakened fresh pet food demand and falling pet adoption rates.

The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) says “human grade” when it comes to pet food means “that every ingredient and the resulting product must be stored, handled, processed, and transported in a manner that is consistent and compliant with” federal human food laws.

Freshpet has faced recalls before

Freshpet has faced recalls over potential salmonella contamination in the past. In June 2022, the company recalled a single lot of its Freshpet Select Fresh From the Kitchen Home Cooked Chicken Recipe after identifying possible contamination. The FDA has listed the recall as terminated.

A similar recall involving its Small Dog Bite Size Beef & Egg Recipe occurred in June 2021. Both recalls involved specific batches.

Neither recall involved the chicken and carrots roll Mary says she fed Sky.