Death toll mounts to 284 for cats suffering from pancytopenia linked to cat food

UNITED KINGDOM-NEWS AND COMMENT: is reported today that some 443 domestic cats have been recently diagnosed with pancytopenia of which 284 have sadly died. You may have heard and indeed you should have heard about the UK pet food recall of a long list of dry cat foods sold at Sainsbury's and Pets at Home. The Pets at Home own brand food AVA is affected. If you've not read about this then please click on this link where you can find further links to the foods that have been recalled.

Sushi died of pancytopenia after eating Pets at Home AVA dry cat food. She was actually euthanized at a vets. Photo: Mrs Kenny.

This is an update and it is a depressing one. Pancytopenia is a killer. It is a disease that causes low blood counts of red cells, white cells and platelets. It appears that the disease affects the bone marrow where the cells are created. Pancytopenia affects people as well and there are many possible causes such as cancer, bone marrow disorders, infections, medicine side effects, environmental toxins and autoimmune disorders. But in this instance, it appears that there is a common thread running through all these cats affected which is the food that they have eaten.

Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, in a tweet, state that the common symptoms include lethargy and unexplained bleeding. In one of the first reports of a cat contracting the disease, the symptom was bleeding from the nose and ears. And in another early report the owner said that her cat went down very quickly from being apparently healthy to dying within one day.

The link between the foods listed and the disease is still being investigated. This is a multi-agency investigation with the following organisations working together: Royal Veterinary College, Animal Plant and Health Agency, other government departments across all nations of the UK, local authorities, the pet food supply chain including the ultimate manufacturers of the food, Fold Hill Foods Limited.

At this stage they say that there is no firm evidence to confirm the link. What's unusual about pancytopenia is that although it appears to be fairly common in humans it is rare enough in cats for the disease not to be listed in the index of my extensive reference book on feline health: Cat Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook third edition which has over 600 pages.

If you own a cat and you live in the UK you really have to check your cat's food and cross-reference it with the list of recalled foods (click on link above and please do your own research in case the list has been extended).

Update: July 24, 2021: this is a rather feeble update. There is still no firm connection between these foods and Pancytopenia. But they've found mycotoxins in the food. The investigation continues.

Cat almost died from pancytopenia after eating cat food linked to urgent recall

This is an example of a cat who fell ill after eating one of a raft of pet food products manufactured by Fold Hill Food and sold at the UK's Pets at Home and Sainsbury's. There has been well publicized recall. If you click on the links below you will be taken to a list of the foods concerned. This may not be a comprehensive list because there may be subsequent products affected. I would ask you, therefore, to please do some follow-up research if you happen to bump into this webpage.

• Pets at Home Recall Fact Sheet June 16, 2021
• Product Recall Sainsbury's Hypoallergenic food
• FOLD HILL FOODS LTD IS RECALLING A NUMBER OF PRODUCTS IT MANUFACTURES ON BEHALF OF SELECTED PARTNER BRANDS.

In this instance, a tabby cat with his own Instagram page called CharlieBoy Stubbs was apparently perfectly healthy one day but he suddenly fell very ill. His owners, Gary and Yasmin, use one of the foods concerned as his regular diet and I think the photograph below from his Instagram page shows the food. I think it is the Pets at Home AVA brand of dry cat food. 

Day 4 in the ICU at the @theralphvetreferralcentre. These guys are doing everything for me right now. I’m fighting my hardest to get better to hopefully get to use my new garden back at home. Photo: Gary and Jasmin. Their cat was provided with the same that was possibly killing him while in the ICU as they were unaware of the issue.

Little did they know that they were potentially poisoning him. I say 'potentially' because at the moment this is an alleged link between these foods and pancytopenia and the matter is still being investigated.

Pancytopenia is a very rare feline disease it appears to me because my reference book does not contain any information about it. It affects the bone marrow where red blood cells are created. It causes a decrease in the cells in the blood including red and white cells and platelets. Platelets are cells which help to clot the blood. Red blood cells transport oxygen through haemoglobin and white blood cells are part of the immune system.

In a previous post I wrote about a cat who started to bleed from the ears and nose who contracted the disease and died sadly. The owner blames the cat food manufacturer because it is too coincidental to believe anything else but, as mentioned, the link is yet to be established.

CharlieBoy Stubbs was rushed to a veterinarian where he was first given antibiotics. This was a waste of time because he did not have a bacterial infection but clearly the veterinarian was scratching his/her head. They went home and then returned to the vets when he showed signs of serious illness again and the veterinarian recommended a blood transfusion. Perhaps at this time they had discovered through blood tests a very low level of cells in his blood. They had to go to an animal hospital for the transfusion which was half an hour away by car.

Gary and Jasmine were concerned that they had caused illness and in a way they had because they had inadvertently fed their cat what appears to be a food causing severe illness. And an illness which can be fatal as you can see by this story.

At the moment, the latest update is that Charlie Boy Stubbs is 'hanging in there' but is not yet out of the woods. Ironically, and sadly, while he was being diagnosed they were still feeding him with the same food. It was only I suspect during the investigation process that the veterinarians learnt via the Internet, as other people have, that the food could be the culprit.

Gary said that "The hospital had no idea, we had no idea, we were worried it was something we had done as we had just moved and thought it might have been something in our new home that had affected him. We were so stressed, we really thought we were going to lose him and we were worried that it was our fault."

The Royal Veterinary College and the Animal Plant and Health Agency together with authorities across Britain and the manufacturer have launched an urgent investigation to find out whether there is indeed a link between these food products and feline pancytopenia.