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Warning about heygates pellets!

C

cathy_321_xx

Young Bun
just to warn people who use or are going to start using heygates pellets, a few of my friends are using this and there has been a disease or bacteria found in the pellets which has killed many of their rabbits, one of my friends, rescue rabbits and then rehomes them and used heygates. she had about 45 rabbits at the moment and all of them died and when she asked our friends about it, their rabbits have died to. the rabbitis who managed to survive were examined by the vet and had extreme food poisoning and a very bad infection because of this food.

so just to warn people who use this food, I recommend that you change it soon x
 
Surely the Vet involved will now be in talks with the manufacturer :?

How was this 'food poisoning' diagnosed ?

What symptoms did the Rabbits have prior to death ?

Were some sent for full post mortem examination ?

I really dont think that a huge accusation like this can be made on a Public Forum without some evidence that the cause of the tragic deaths was definitely linked to the Food and not to another disease process such as coccidiosis or VHD
 
How devastating to lose so many bunnies like that :(

If there's a strong suspicion or definite link to the pellets then I too hope that the vet is in contact with the manufacturer to ensure there is a product recall of the affected batch. Does the vet know if there have been reports from elsewhere or just from within the group of friends? If it's fairly localised, it suggests it may be a problem with storage, meaning that some sacks of food/bales of hay have become contaminated after leaving the factory rather than an inherent problem with the product itself. I would expect a reputable manufacturer to be really concerned on hearing about such a problem though and would probably be keen to receive a sample of the food to test for themselves - after all it's in their interests to ensure that their product is totally safe, too!

Was coccidiosis definitely ruled out, do you know? That's another really common cause of multiple sudden deaths in rabbits and which is really heavily infectious, so if the friends see each other, they could easily transfer it from place to place. I'd be really interested to know what the firm diagnosis was - a disease or bacteria sounds a bit vague and could mean anything!

What a horrible, tragic situation for your friends, I do hope you manage to get right to the bottom of what happened so that you can all be certain that it doesn't happen again :(
 
So sorry for your friends and their rabbits. That must have been devastating.

Do you know if it was due to mycotoxins from mold in the feed? This sometimes happens here in the US with the companies that manufacture large bags of commercial rabbit feeds.
http://www.morfz.com/myco.html
 
i don't know what the vet did or anything but they did say it was food poisoning, and my friends think because they all use the same food as eachother and all lost their rabbits, that the heygates food is it, the vet thinks so too.I think they have got on to the manufacturer about it but I haven't been told hat they said.
 
Santa said:
How devastating to lose so many bunnies like that :(

If there's a strong suspicion or definite link to the pellets then I too hope that the vet is in contact with the manufacturer to ensure there is a product recall of the affected batch. Does the vet know if there have been reports from elsewhere or just from within the group of friends? If it's fairly localised, it suggests it may be a problem with storage, meaning that some sacks of food/bales of hay have become contaminated after leaving the factory rather than an inherent problem with the product itself. I would expect a reputable manufacturer to be really concerned on hearing about such a problem though and would probably be keen to receive a sample of the food to test for themselves - after all it's in their interests to ensure that their product is totally safe, too!

Was coccidiosis definitely ruled out, do you know? That's another really common cause of multiple sudden deaths in rabbits and which is really heavily infectious, so if the friends see each other, they could easily transfer it from place to place. I'd be really interested to know what the firm diagnosis was - a disease or bacteria sounds a bit vague and could mean anything!

What a horrible, tragic situation for your friends, I do hope you manage to get right to the bottom of what happened so that you can all be certain that it doesn't happen again :(
Click to expand...

yes the vet knows our other friends have used this food and their rabbits have died, I don't know if it has been ruled out but will try to get more info about what happened soon x
 
Good Morning,

I work as a Nutritionist for Heygates Country Feeds Ltd, I can confirm that we have had no complaints from any of our customers using rabbit feed and we have not been contacted by any vets regarding this matter. We have rigorous quality control procedures in place and none of these procedures has picked up any problems with any of the feed. Furthermore, the feed is pelleted and therefore the heat generated should destroy most bacteria that may be present. We take complaints very seriously at Heygates and if anyone has any issues I would recommend they contact the Feed Sales office either by telephone on 01604 833250 or email feedsales@heygates.co.uk.
 
C.E.W said:
Good Morning,

I work as a Nutritionist for Heygates Country Feeds Ltd, I can confirm that we have had no complaints from any of our customers using rabbit feed and we have not been contacted by any vets regarding this matter. We have rigorous quality control procedures in place and none of these procedures has picked up any problems with any of the feed. Furthermore, the feed is pelleted and therefore the heat generated should destroy most bacteria that may be present. We take complaints very seriously at Heygates and if anyone has any issues I would recommend they contact the Feed Sales office either by telephone on 01604 833250 or email feedsales@heygates.co.uk.
Click to expand...

Thank you for posting. Hopefully the Vets concerned in dealing with this alleged incident will be in touch
 
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