Premium dog food recalled as dozens of pets develop serious eye issues

A high-end pet food brand has initiated a recall following dozens of reports regarding suspected eye problems in dogs.

Years, a subscription service offering fresh dog food "tailored" to an animal’s needs, emailed customers on Monday night to say that it had identified a "potential link" between its buckwheat ingredient and a dry eye condition.

The business, which boasts that its fresh meals are prepared by chefs, urged owners to stop feeding Years’ products to their pets or any other animal.

Years said that by Sunday, it had received reports of 57 suspected cases of dry eye.

The company said on its website: “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.

Yearsadvertises gourmet dog meals including pork shoulder and apple stew, turkey thigh and cranberry fricassee and a steak and kidney hotpot.

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”.

After two weeks of treatment, the six-year-old dog was showing no signs of recovery so was referred to a specialist who diagnosed bilateral dry eye disease, he said.

Mr Felton stopped using the Years food immediately after receiving the company’s email on Monday.

“You love them to bits just like you would your own child so anything that causes them pain and discomfort is quite upsetting for everyone involved.”

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.”