Thread by @darrenlogan

A thread about the mysterious and tragic spike in cases of #pancytopenia in cats across the UK, that has come to light over the last few weeks. It’s an evolving situation, but some thoughts about where we stand today.

Firstly: what follows is a personal perspective (full disclosure: I conduct research for a large producer of pet food and provider of veterinary care). I have no “inside information” on the issue other than my experience of the industry. That said…

Pancytopenia is the loss/reduction of all three types of blood cell. It’s as serious as it sounds in cats, often fatal in fact. It is often a result of a bone marrow issue, and can be caused by nutrient deficiency, infection, poisoning or immune disorders. i.e. lots of things.

But it’s a pretty rare condition in cats. When some bright veterinarians at the @RoyalVetCollege spotted an unusually high number of cats diagnosed with pancytopenia, it raised alarm bells. They put word out to survey the situation across the industry. rvc.ac.uk/news-and-event…

Meanwhile some distraught owners of the cats who died connected via social media and began sharing their stories. A small group realised that they all fed their cats one of three different brands of dry food, and started asking others who confirmed the same.

So far this played out similar to other pet food-associated health issues, but typically the owners or vets would inform the pet food manufacturer and they would join the dots to the source of the issue. Not this time though..

Instead the owners did their own detective work and identified the same code on the packaging of all three brands. They worked out this indicated all three (independent) brands were produced in the same factory. This information spread across social media quickly.

So how can that be? Well there are a plenty of ‘private label’ pet food manufacturers that will produce food for supermarket own labels, or niche brands that can’t afford their own factories. It’s only the big brands that have their own dedicated factory infrastructures.

I imagine this impressive amateur sleuthing caught those companies on the hop as they scrambled to understand what had happened. But over the last 24hrs the manufacturer announced a precautionary recall, details of the products here: foldhill.co.uk/fold-hill-food…

Then soon after the story hit the mainstream media, while social media speculation began to get confusing as misleading info or adjacent issues have muddied the water somewhat. bbc.co.uk/news/business-…

So is the pancytopenia being caused by the recalled dry foods made at that factory? The simple answer is we don’t know yet. It seems the mostly likely explanation, but the diets will have to be carefully investigated. Jumping to conclusions beforehand may be counterproductive.

It’s possible that the root cause will never be found. It could be a like looking for a toxic needle in dietary haystack. Personally, I think it will be found in this case, because the issue was recognised quickly so there are lots of food samples available for analysis.

In the meantime what should worried cat owners do?
1. Read the recall notice and stop feeding your cat any recalled product.
2. Don’t get mislead by social media rumours.
3. Ask your vet for advice if you are unsure, especially if your cat has shown any sign of being unwell.

That’s it for now. I’ll update this thread if/when more information becomes available.

Update: the RVC have provide a nice FAQ for concerned pet owners, while confirming that the cases they are aware of now exceed 130: rvc.ac.uk/news-and-event…

Update: Fold Hills have published an FAQ, reiterating the recall is “voluntary & precautionary” and there is currently no direct evidence of it being food related. They confirm they only recently became aware too. foldhill.co.uk/recall/

Perhaps the most interesting Q&A. Presumably they had no issues with the three recalled brands either… until they were informed otherwise. I get it: this is a *very* tough call. I very much hope it proves to be the correct one.

Update. Sadly the RVC are now reporting 209 affected cats with a horrific 72.5% mortality rate. Only a small proportion of vets have reported cases to date, so these are likely to continue to rise. Very, very concerning.

Update:@LoveWilko have now recalled their dry cats food products that appear to be manufactured in the same factory as the others. Details: wilko.com/medias/A4-CAT-… (my thanks to @Jacquel79014946 for awareness)

Update: Pet owners, presumably trying to be helpful, are now sharing historical pet-food recalls on social media. While is certainly contextualises the quality challenges in food manufacturing, it is confusing to owners worried about the immediate health of their pets. So…

For clarity, at this point in time and related to #pancytopenia: No dog foods have been recalled. No wet foods have been recalled. All dry cat products recalled have been produced in a single UK factory. I will update this thread ASAP if this changes.