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Fold Hill Foods has announced a recall on several of its hypoallergenic cat foods after reports that the products may be causing a rare and deadly bone marrow condition in pets.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) issued a notice of the recall Tuesday. The agency and Fold Hill Foods say the recall is a “precautionary action” due to “safety concerns” and extends to dozens of cat food products under the Sainsbury, Applaws, and Pets at Home brands, including:
- Applaws Dry Food in Chicken, Chicken & Salmon, Chicken & Lamb, Chicken & Duck, Ocean Fish, and Kitten Dry Chicken
- Sainsbury’s Hypoallergenic Recipe in Salmon and Chicken
- Various AVA Dry Food, including Sensitive Skin & Stomach, Weight Management, Oral Care, British Shorthair, Persian, Maine Coon, Kitten Chicken, and Adult Chicken
A complete list of recalled cat food, along with the pack size, batch codes, and best before dates are available on the FSA recall notice. In addition, point of sale notices will be displayed at retail stores and shops that sold the recalled Fold Hill products.
“There has been an increase in cases of pancytopenia in cats and there is a possible link to the cat food products”, says the FSA’s notice. “Pancytopenia is a very rare condition wherein the number of blood cells (red, white and platelets) rapidly decreases, causing serious illness”.
FSA says that consumers should stop feeding the recalled cat food to their pets immediately.
“If cat owners are concerned about the health of their pet then they should seek immediate advice from their vet”, warns the recall.
Indeed, one UK pet owner told BBC News that her 8-month-old kitten died from the rare bone marrow condition after eating Fold Hills cat food.
She may not be alone. Experts told BBC News that there is a concerning “clustering” of pancytopenia in the UK, with nearly 50 reported cases.
“Typically, we may see one case of this per year, but we have seen now 10 cats with severe pancytopenia in the last four weeks,” said Dr. Barbara Glanemann, senior lecturer in small animal medicine at the Royal Veterinary College told reporters.
Consumers who purchased AVA products can fill out a form on the Pets at Home website. Those with Applaws products can contact the company through its website. Those with Sainsbury’s recalled cat food can contact the company through its website or by calling 0800 636262.
Top Class Actions will continue to monitor this and other recalls to help keep consumers and their furry friends safe.
Have you fed your pets the recalled cat food? We want to hear from you! Tell us about your experience in the comment section below.
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14 thoughts onRecall Check: Fold Hill Cat Food Recalled After More Than 40 Pets Sickened by Rare, Deadly Condition
My beautiful 9 month old kitten Mia passed away on 17 June after a weeklong long battle with confirmed pancytopenia at the RVC hospital. She was being fed Applaws kitten chicken flavour dry food. I am horrified that I likely slowly poisoned her over the course of 2 months with what I thought was high quality pet food. I am now in fear of the same happening to her 2.5yo cat sister who used to steal some of her food.
Our beautiful Persian cat died at the end of April of Pancytopenia. He was eating Sainsbury’s salmon hypoallergenic cat food. Our vet has sent his blood test results to RVC.
Our beautiful boy Mowgli suddenly died on 11th June from Pancytopenia, he was only 7 and so out the blue which made no sense and then we made the link with the article a week later as he’s been on AVA since 2018. I always buy the 4kg bag which lasts a couple of months (put in food dispenser so no packaging left). I bought the last bag 16th April and the symptoms were subtle just less than 2 weeks before he died, he started eating less and started sleeping on the floor but we put it down to the heat. On the 10th June he just took a turn for the worst but couldn’t get him in the vets till Thursday when he died less than an hour later. They said they’d never seen a cat with such severe anemia, no platelets and next to no white blood cells which completely baffled them. He also had pale gums so bleeding internally, drooling, bleeding gums, weightloss – the list goes on and now we know why
I am so sorry for your loss… and reading everyone else’s experiences. It is heartbreaking. You descriptions is exactly what happened to our cat also 7 years old. The vet was shocked and there was nothing he could do. Since it happened the vet has filled in the form on the RVC website confirming the case.