A brand built on the promise of personalized, fresh nutrition for dogs is now scrambling to contain a crisis that's left pet owners anxious and vets watching closely. The company Years has pulled every one of its fresh meal products from circulation after reports surfaced that a recipe change may be triggering a painful eye condition in dogs — one capable of causing permanent sight loss if it goes untreated.

An Urgent Message to Pet Owners

Years didn't mince words in its warning: owners should stop feeding the company's fresh meals to their dogs "immediately." The company went further still, instructing customers not to feed the recalled meals to any other animal and not to donate or resell them — treating the product less like a subscription meal and more like a contained hazard.

A Mixed Picture on Treatment

The situation on the ground remains murky. Responding to reports that some affected pets weren't responding to treatment — and in certain cases were losing their sight entirely — Years told the Guardian: "The picture is mixed. Some [ophthalmologists] report dogs responding well to treatment … others have seen limited or slower responses." It's the kind of uncertainty that offers little comfort to worried owners waiting to see how their own pets will fare.

A Subscription Service With Wide Reach

Years operates a subscription model delivering what it markets as "personalised" meals directly to customers, while also stocking its products at select retailers, including Pets at Home — meaning the recall's reach extends well beyond the company's direct subscriber base.

The Numbers Behind the Outbreak

The scale of the problem has grown rapidly. As of the early hours of Wednesday, Years said it had logged 192 reports of "potential, yet unverified, eye issues" out of roughly 40,000 total customers — a sharp jump from the 57 suspected cases the company had acknowledged just days earlier, on Sunday.

Understanding the Condition

The eye problem at the center of this recall is known medically as sudden bilateral dry eye, or keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS) — a condition that strikes when a dog's eyes stop producing adequate tears, leaving them dry, sore and inflamed. "Bilateral" means both eyes are affected simultaneously, compounding the discomfort.

What Symptoms Look Like

The Royal Kennel Club describes the warning signs on its website: affected dogs may rub at their eyes, squint, or become unusually sensitive to light. Their eyes can appear inflamed and reddened, or the cornea may look dry and dull, often accompanied by a thick, mucus-like discharge. Left unmanaged, the club warns, the condition "can lead to visual problems and blindness" — a stark escalation from simple discomfort to permanent damage.

Owners Organize Online

The crisis has spilled rapidly into online communities. A Facebook group called "Years Dry Eye Cases and info," created just Friday, had already surpassed 2,100 members by Wednesday morning — a growth curve that mirrors the anxiety spreading among dog owners. A second group has since formed specifically to discuss potential "legal avenues for those that have been affected by dry eye with a potential link to the years.com recall."

Numerous dog owners have shared posts describing pets that developed sudden-onset dry eye symptoms while eating Years meals, often accompanied by photos documenting their animals' condition. Some veterinary sources note the condition can require management for the rest of an affected dog's life.

Buckwheat Under the Microscope

Years has pointed to a specific culprit behind the recall: buckwheat, an ingredient the company added to its meals several months ago. A now-deleted blog post on the company's website, dated February of this year, had specifically addressed whether buckwheat was safe for dogs to eat.

A Blog Post That Aged Poorly

"In most cases, yes, buckwheat is safe for dogs to munch – provided it's cooked properly and fed in sensible portions," the archived post read, going on to reassure readers: "Here at Years, we carefully calculate the right amount of buckwheat to include … ensuring your dog receives all the benefits without any risks." That confident assurance now sits in stark contrast to the recall it preceded.

One Owner's Anxious Wait

For some pet owners, the recall has become a waiting game filled with dread. One customer told the Guardian that their three-year-old shiba inu had shown no symptoms so far, "but after eight months on this new food, I'm genuinely worried about whether eye problems are coming." The owner, 23 and based in London, said they'd been a Years customer for two years and described watching new cases pile up in real time on the Facebook group, where "new cases are being posted hourly."

The Company's Response, Step by Step

On its website, Years framed the recall as a precautionary measure, stating it was voluntarily pulling all fresh meals "as a precaution," following "a small number of reports of dogs having a potential adverse eye reaction to buckwheat, a common and approved ingredient." All customers had previously been transitioned to the new buckwheat-containing recipe.

Timeline of an Escalating Investigation

According to the company, reports of sudden, bilateral dry eye began arriving in late July. By Aug. 1, an independent veterinarian and specialist with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons advised that a link to Years' food appeared "unlikely" based on available data at the time — but still recommended further investigation.

Years launched that deeper probe, which included laboratory testing, consultations with ophthalmologists, a customer questionnaire, and the appointment of two independent experts to lead formal root cause and toxicology investigations. That process culminated Monday in the company's decision to issue a full, voluntary recall.

The Company's Current Position

"The investigation has identified buckwheat as a potential contributing factor, and that includes investigating potential contamination within the buckwheat supply," a company spokesperson said, adding that further independent lab testing remains underway.

The spokesperson was careful to note that causation hasn't been established. "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."

Addressing the growing online conversation, the spokesperson cautioned that the Facebook group "is not verified customers and will contain those with issues, those without, and those looking at it," and confirmed the buckwheat blog post had been taken down "to avoid customer confusion about the ingredient."