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Two heartbroken cat owners whose pets died after eating recalled food have spoken out to raise awareness.
One woman from Walderslade and another from Bexleyheath had to euthanize their animals after feeding them products made by Fold Hill Foods.
Leia was completely healthy just days before she was euthanized Video; Michelle Alvarez
Michelle Alvarez from Walderslade lost her cat, Leia, short for Eileithya, on May 23.
She had been feeding her pet a Sainsbury's Hypoallergenic food, but had no idea it was one of the batches being recalled over a possible link to a disease that can prove deadly for felines.
She said: "Leia had been taken ill in April when she had stopped eating her food. After seeing a vet who gave her a jab she was back to eating.
"We were advised to give her wet food for a couple of weeks before re-introducing the dry food."
Days later Michelle noticed Leia wasn’t eating and monitored her for the next 24 hours.
Michelle added: "She was constipated, lethargic and had blood leaking from her nose and mouth so we rushed her to the vets.
"She had extremely low red and white blood cells [a condition known as pancytopenia], Leia was very poorly, I had to take her to the pet hospital for close monitoring and further treatment.
"After loads of antibiotics and an IV she seemed to improve over night but a couple of hours after being told this, she plummeted.
"She was far too unwell to do anything more for her, we had to make the difficult decision to put her to sleep."
The vets kept Leia on her oxygen until Michelle and her family got there to say their goodbyes.
Michelle said: "We gave her so so so many hugs and kisses because we could not believe that she would no longer be with us."
At the time, the vets didn’t know what had caused Leia's illness. She was a healthy eight-year-old indoor cat and had no access to toxins.
However, it is now believed her food was one of a number of dry cat food products that The Food Standards Agency and Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs issued a warning about following an increase in cases of pancytopenia among cats.
Michelle said she was "sick to her stomach" when she saw a post about several cat food products being recalled and realised Leia's dry food was on the list.
"It all made sense," she said.
"The vet who treated Leia thought of her straight away as soon as he heard the news and reported her death to the Royal Veterinary College.
"I wanted to put my story out there to warn others about this, if your cat has had these batches of food, go and get their bloods done immediately."
Natalie Mitchell lost her eight-month-old kitten, Dave, five weeks ago.
The pet owner from Bexleyheath said: "It happened incredibly quickly.
"On the Thursday we realised he was under the weather because he would always run and jump on our bed as soon as we opened our bedroom door in the morning, but this day, he didn't.
"He also refused his food – which was unusual for him.
"We managed to get him a vet's appointment and they checked him over and found he had an extremely high temperature, they expected him to be fine by the morning.
"He wasn't, so we took him back and this time they undertook some tests, discovering that he had zero platelets, red or white blood cells.
"The vet was confused and concerned, as she'd not experienced this before.
"They put him on fluids and antibiotics, hoping to bring his temperature down, but it had no effect.
"With no improvement, our vet called the Royal Veterinary College for advice, and they explained they'd seen several cats with the same symptoms, and he needed to be admitted to hospital for urgent treatment."
Sadly it was too late for Dave, on the Sunday he was struggling to breathe and had internal bleeding.
Natalie added: "We agreed the kindest thing was for him to be put to sleep.
"We were absolutely heartbroken, he had gone from totally well to dead within three days, and no one had any idea what caused it.
"The hospital asked us a long list of questions, including foods we were feeding him, litter we used, cleaning products, perfume – any possible toxins that could be present in our house.
"We sent samples to them, and allowed Dave to undergo a post-mortem in the hope it could shed light on what was happening.
"They also suggested we get his brother, Brian's, bloods tested immediately. We did, and they unfortunately showed that he also had pancytopenia, despite being asymptomatic.
"He was put on antibiotics and steroids, five tablets a day, and we've been having weekly bloods since. His bloods have been showing improvement in the past week, but it's still touch and go.
"Following Dave's death, I searched on social media to see if anyone else was having a similar experience and was contacted by several people.
"A small group of us began comparing notes and noticed a correlation between the foods we were all giving our cats.
"We discovered that they were all being manufactured in the same factory.
"At this point we started to lobby the RVC and FSA to do a recall of the brands.
"Despite being insured, Dave's vet bills was more than £4,000, and Brian's medication and bloods are costing us £140 per week. We don't know how long he may need to continue treatment."
At the time of writing the Royal Veterinary College is aware of 394 cats that are known to them based on cases treated at their own hospitals and information provided by vets in the UK. Of these there was 67% mortality.
Wisteria Cat Rescue boss, Billy Devitt, said: "We have had to go through our supplies to ensure what we are feeding our cats hasn't been recalled.
"We have also had people contact us with concerns over the recall of foods from Fold Hill Foods sites with a registration number GB218E5009.
"We strongly urge them to stop feeding it to their cats immediately, but, do not throw the items away, as this could end up in landfill which could potentially damage wildlife."
If you believe your cat is ill after eating these foods then Wisteria Cat Rescue recommends you contact your vet and get them to fill in this form here.
A spokesman for Fold Hill Foods said: “We recognise and appreciate the distress this is causing to many people and are working with organisations including Food Standards Agency (FSA), Pet Food Manufacturers Association and veterinary authorities to assist them in identifying the source of the pancytopenia cases.
"To find the cause, investigators are focusing on the reported cases, looking for commonalities between them. This has led them to scrutinise a potential link to the three brands recalled - selected products from AVA, Sainsbury’s and Applaws. As soon as Fold Hill Foods became aware of the matter, we issued a voluntary and precautionary recall of these selected cat food products. This was fully supported by the FSA. There have been no other safety concerns raised with other pet foods.
"This is an absolute priority for the business and there are a number of tests on food samples and ingredients being conducted by independent laboratories. As stated by the FSA, there is no definitive evidence to confirm a link at this stage between the cat food products and feline pancytopenia.
"We continue to fully co-operate with both the FSA and the Royal Veterinary College as the investigations progress. As cat owners ourselves, we fully understand how upsetting and stressful this situation is and the urgent need to establish why there has been an increase in cases of pancytopenia in the UK”.
For a full list of products affected click here.
If you have been affected by this you can get support from others who have been affected by clicking here.
To read more about Kent’s furry, flying and finned friends, click here.
