Beware the internets...
I remember back in school my professors were laughing about how we would be entering the profession at a time where our clients could easily go online and find all sorts of crazy ideas to try. They seemed to think it would make our jobs a bit more difficult.
In so many ways, they were right. Just last week, to be nice, I read thru a website that an owner was raving about saying that she had found the cure for her cat's ailment. Wouldn't you know, it involved having the cat drink raspberry wine vinegar.
I have a potato salad recipe that uses raspberry wine vinegar. That tastes pretty good. But having my cat drink the stuff straight up?!? Maybe we should chase it with jagermeister?
There are some really good sites out there however. If you have a cat with asthma, I recommend www.fritzthebrave.com. It has some good video on how to use an inhaler, and even helps you get the right equipement. If they could only find a way to make flovent not cost so much...
While doing some online study today, I found that a respected colleague has a website with a lot of great cat nutrition information. Rather than re-invent the wheel, I suggest you visit www.catinfo.org. If you and I have talked nutrition before, a lot of it will sound familiar, but sometimes it helps to hear things in a different voice.
posted by CatVetDeux @ 1:48 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Thanks for the link—it's a great resource! It can be hard for owners to scrounge up credible pet-health information online. Just something about the pet industry, I guess. It's much easier for me to find credible human-health info online (what with PubMed, MayoClinic.com, the online Merck manuals, etc.) Here's a question:
I just switched my cats from conventional dry food (Purina ONE) to a grain-free dry food (Instinct). I was surprised and pleased when I found out such a thing even existed. For various reasons, the dry food is more convenient than canned for me. Its main ingredients are animal protein from quality sources, along with a few "botanicals" thrown in. (The "botanicals" don't make up a significant percentage of the ingredients.) The cats, by the way, LOOOOVE it.
It's much lower in carbohydrate than conventional dry food, and of course contains no grains at all, but the 3rd concern from the site you linked to remains: it's bone-dry. Should I moisten the food when I feed it? (I feed a measured amount twice a day, since I don't want my indoor kitties to get fat.)
@ Ginkgo. As much as the dry food is convenient for you it's not species appropriate for the cat. Since cats are obligate carnivores with the inability to utilize carbohydrates or grains, the inclusion of this in their food taxes kidneys, liver and pancreas. This http://www.maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm link has great info on feline nutrition. But to start you off, dry food affects urinary health in three major ways:
1. It's *dry*, with 10% moisture or less. Cats need 60-80% moisture with their food...and have a difficult time drinking enough water b/c they have an insensitive thirst drive. This is consistent with their evolution from desert cats, where water was scarce. Consuming inadequate moisture leads to persistent low-grade dehydration...and that leads to less urine volume and less urinary frequency and high urine specific gravity. This can lead to bacteria buildup in the urinary tract, accumulation of more "solids" than "liquids" that grow into crystals and stones, and inflammation. If you never consumed any moisture...you'd be dehydrated and have major urinary problems, too, tho it's worse for a cat b/c their bodies are very diff. from our human ones.
2. Dry food has ingredients needed to make the dough for manufacturing, incl grains and other starches, that are inappropriate for cats and that often cause inflammatory reactions. This leads to inflammation of the urinary tract. Dry food also often uses low-quality ingredients (from a nutritional standpoint), such as byproducts, that have the same effect.
3. Dry food has a high carbohydrate content. Carbohydrate breaks down readily to glucose...in a big surge. This dumps a load of sugar into the cat's system all at once...and the cat's body is not able to handle it, since the cat pancreas has not evolved with an ability to process carbohydrate. While the major effect of this is risk of obesity and diabetes, another effect is providing ready food for bacteria, which leads to bacterial infection in the urinary tract.
4. Dry food has a high plant content. Plant ingredients raise urinary pH (alkaline). High urinary pH is a risk factor for struvite crystals, as is lack of moisture. Cats have evolved to have an ideal urinary pH of 6.0-6.5 (slightly acidic). When the epidemic of struvite crystals broke out several decades ago, food mfrs started putting acidifiers in dry cat food...this led to the epidemic of calcium oxalate crystals, which form in alkaline urine. Cal ox crystals were unheard of until recently...until mfr started putting acidifiers in food.
5. Dry food has many health risks...urinary disorders are but one of them. The veterinary literature is replete with information on the risks and negative effects of dry food on urinary health.
Here http://www.mousabilities.com/nutrition/research.html you can also find links to published papers on feline nutrition.
Hope this helps
Regards,
chesmi
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