Science Horizons

You would never think of giving poison to cats, but you may be doing it by accident. In fact, overloading your cats’ diet with some hairball remedies can prevent absorption of a vital vitamin.

Many of us rely on vitamin supplements to provide a nutritional boost to our human diets. Perhaps you even thought about supplementing your cat’s diet with vitamins. After all, didn’t you read somewhere that kittens with diets low in vitamin D develop rickets? Or what about older cats with low levels of vitamin D in their diet suffering from brittle bones?

Both of these conditions are possible, but such deficiencies are rare in today’s cat diet world. That said, it is possible that you may cause your cat to have a vitamin D deficiency simply by treating him for hairballs. You could be literally giving poison to cats when you treat them with hairball remedies that have a mineral oil or petroleum jelly base.

If your cat ‘just loves’ his petroleum based hairball remedy and you ‘just love’ giving it to him, you both may need to back off the program a bit. Excessive use of this type of hair ball remedy can interfere with the absorption of fat soluble vitamins, including vitamin D.

Now that you know better that indulging your cats with this type of hairball remedy don’t be tempted to add vitamin D back into their diet. Just continue to feed a high quality cat food which is full of vitamins cats need. Once your cats are off the petroleum based product, their digestive system will be able to absorb the vitamin D again. be

Now let’s consider completely removing this ‘petroleum based’ product from your cats diets. After all, would you ingest something made of petroleum? Here, have a pint of crude to slick up your innards. Its really not a far stretch to consider this as something close to giving poison to cats.

Switch your cats over to an herbal hairball treatment. There are herbal compounds that provide a gentle yet effective solution to cat hairballs. Psyllium nigrum is a very high source of dietary fiber while Aloe ferox (a well known medicinal herb) is known for its beneficial effect on digestive functioning. Nux vom is a proven homeopathic remedy often prescribed for indigestion, constipation, diarrhea, vomiting, violent retching and abdominal cramp.

Its easy to give this herbal remedy and if you have a cat who hates the other products, bets are that he’ll never even notice when you add a bit to his canned cat food. Just give 1/2 capsule 2 times daily for 10 days, followed by 1/2 capsule once daily as a maintenance dose for cats who are prone to nasty hairballs.

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The Poor Kitty….

A cat owner knows something is irritating their cat when runny eyes or nose and their fur coat lacks luster. But, the poor kitty can’t come right out and say, “Help…My allergies are making me feel poorly.” A sensitive cat owner is acutely vigilant of differences in kitty’s health in order to prolong a cat’s life. It’s one thing to say cats have nine lives. It’s another to wear eight of them down with allergies. There are several things a cat owner can do:

1. Note changes in appetite

2. Check for signs of irritation in eyes or nose

3. If irritation is evident, make an appointment to the “V-E-T” before your pet catches on. (Cat’s are notoriously anti-Vetrinarian.)

Feline Allergies

If allergies are the suspected culprit, it will be necessary for the vetrinarian to determine through allergic reaction testing what the cause of the allergy may be, depending upon how serious the allergic reactions are. Feline lungs are as sensitive as a human’s, just much smaller. Consequently, it doesn’t take much more than an offending scent or vapor to create havoc with a cat’s lungs. If the pet has not had this allergic reaction before, take inventory of anything new or changed in the environment that may cause the problem. Good feline health is dependent upon the vigilence of the pet owner. So, it’s important to insure that the household environment has fairly ambient air and that food and water dishes are properly maintained before each meal.

Pet Surveillance

Another aspect of dealing with cat allergies is to take inventory of possible household areas your pet prefers for naps and periods of relaxation. Many types of fabrics may cause cat allergies. Don’t forget the litterbox. This is especially important. It should be cleaned regularly. After all, an owner would do no less for their own bathroom. One other possible area of allergic reaction might be focused on the type of litter used. If a feline was not raised around a lot of natural allergens in the environment, it becomes more difficult to adapt. This is also true in reverse order where a cat has been raised in a rural area and its new owner is an urbanite who uses a synthetic type of litter. Kitties can also do their part in “Going Green” if their owners insure that the litter is manufactured from safe, healthy materials. Take a complete surveillance of the feline homestead when dealing with cat allergies.

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