Dog owner whose French Bulldog 'went blind from luxury food brand' issues stark warning
Ralph was diagnosed with the condition dry eye which caused so much scar tissue that he lost his sight
A devastated pet owner whose dog went blind after eating premium food that has since been recalled has issued a warning to others.
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Years, a luxury subscription service offering fresh food, contacted customers this week to say it had identified a potential link between its buckwheat ingredient and a dry eye condition.
The company, which says its fresh meals are cooked by chefs, urged customers to stop feeding its products to their pets or any other animal after receiving 57 reports.
Dog owner Sam Mardling said his French Bulldog Ralph fell ill, which vets initially thought was a case of conjunctivitis, but his condition rapidly deteriorated earlier this year to the point of losing his sight in both eyes.
Following weeks of antibiotics and check-ups, the family were told the gutting news that his vision may never return.
Mr Mardling told Pip Tomson on LBC News: "It's been a horrible summer for us.
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"We took our French Bulldog Ralph to the vets about seven weeks ago because he had a little bit of discharge from the eye.
"He was trying to scratch it and we just assumed it was some allergies. We didn't think it was anything big, but being a Frenchie we got him to the vets immediately.
"They thought it was a form of conjunctivitis, so gave us some antibiotics at the time which was absolutely fine.
"But it got progressively worse very quickly. It's where it went over into the other eye, and so we took him straight back to the vets and were referred to the ophthalmologist and that's when it started getting a lot worse.
"He had deep ulcers in both eyes. We were looking about 70% depth, which means that you're under constant stress of rupture, and when an eyeball ruptures, that's the eye being removed basically."
Ralph was given more antibiotic drops, but during a follow-up appointment last week, Mr Mardling was told not to get his hopes up of the sight returning due to the amount of scar tissue.
It was then that the vet asked what type of food Ralph had been fed to which they responded he needed to come off it "immediately".
He said: "We asked why and she said they'd had an influx of cases of this rare and sort of almost unseen type of dry eye condition.
"I found a case of someone submitting a cause of concern of dry eye in February to Years, so this has been a problem for them for a long time.
"I think when we first started speaking to Years about it, we were getting automated, clearly copy and paste responses from it."
Years said on its website that it had received 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 August 16, it said it had affected 0.1% of its customers.
Vet surgeon Gareth Cross also told Pip that dry eye causes a "grey mucus-like discharge" which causes pain and dryness, which can lead to scarring.
Mr Cross said: "We see it in westies, cocker spaniels, bulldogs, Cavaliers, poodles, and cockapoos, and most of the time it's an immune-mediated disease that comes on quite slowly and is amenable to twice-a-day treatment, but if you've got an acute-onset one, then that can be more painful.
"You can get ulcers quite quickly, and that can be a bit more tricky. The important thing is for people who think their dog has dry eye is to go to the vet.
"We're trying to collate cases, and I know the British Association of Veterinary Ophthalmologists are also collating cases.
"If people are suspicious of this case, it's that their dog's got this condition; it's important they go to their vet."
A spokesperson for Years said: "The investigation has identified buckwheat as a potential contributing factor, and that includes investigating potential contamination within the buckwheat supply.
"Further independent laboratory testing is ongoing. Years has chosen to issue a voluntary recall as a precautionary measure, rather than any causation having been proven.
"There’s not conclusive evidence or [an] established link to Years, but we have looked into diverse factors and taken the voluntary recall based on multiple potential factors."