Years, a luxury dog food brand, has issued a recall after receiving dozens of reports of suspected eye issues in pets. The company, which offers a premium subscription service for fresh dog food “tailored” to an animal’s needs, emailed customers on Monday night to say it had identified a “potential link” between its buckwheat ingredient and a dry eye condition.
Recall details and impact
Years urged customers to stop feeding its products to their pets or any other animal. As of Sunday, the company had received reports of 57 suspected cases of dry eye. On its website, Years said: “This follows a small number of reports of dogs having a potential adverse eye reaction to buckwheat, a common and approved ingredient, which we include in our meals. As of 16th August, this has affected 0.1% of our customers.”
The company advertises gourmet dog meals including pork shoulder and apple stew, turkey thigh and cranberry fricassee, and a steak and kidney hotpot.
Customer experience
David Felton, from Edgware, north London, said his dog Cookie developed eye issues in April after eating the food for two-and-a-half years. He estimated he had spent around £1,500 so far on treatment and vet bills. Speaking to the Press Association, the PR consultant said his spaniel cross had been in “a lot of pain” and had received several different treatments after he and his wife had noticed her eyes were “getting really gunky”.
Cookie was initially diagnosed with a corneal abrasion – a scratch on the eye which could be caused by an irritant getting stuck. After two weeks of treatment, the six-year-old dog was showing no signs of recovery, so she was referred to a specialist who diagnosed bilateral dry eye disease. Her eyes are being treated twice a day with a steroid paste, over-the-counter drops, and a gel to ease discomfort.
Mr Felton stopped using the Years food immediately after receiving the company’s email on Monday. He said: “Extremely worried because this sort of came out of nowhere and it’s been so unexplained as to the causes of it, and obviously with your pet you don’t want to see them suffering and in a way they’re like a member of family.”
He added: “Never did it occur to us that it could be a link to the food because the crazy thing is people buy Years because they want to feed their dog like high quality foods. If I just wanted to buy a cheap, readily available dog food, I would have just like gone to the supermarket and just got a kind of a cheap kibble. It’s just incredibly disheartening because obviously people that buy fresh food like Years buy it because they’ve kind of bought into the idea that feeding their dog a fresh, healthy food made out of fresh, healthy ingredients is going to do them well.”
The 39-year-old said the situation was “mind-blowing”, adding: “I think everyone, all of the customers right now, are just reeling from this news.”
Company response and next steps
On its website, Years said it began receiving “multiple reports” of dogs experiencing sudden dry eye in both eyes in late July and launched an investigation on August 1. Symptoms could include redness, cloudiness or dullness in the eyes, excessive blinking or squinting, pawing at the eyes, and thick discharge, as well as general discomfort around dogs’ eyes.
The company urged its 40,000 customers to contact their vet “promptly” and to mention the Years product recall if they spotted any of the symptoms. Years told customers that their subscription will be paused for an initial period of six weeks while the company makes fresh meals using quinoa in place of buckwheat and apologised for the “worry and disruption” caused. The firm said it will publish the investigation’s results.
