Purrs In Our Hearts - Cat Forum UK
Cat General => General Cat Chat => Topic started by: wharfevalley catsprotection on February 14, 2008, 13:13:20 PM
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My cat Katie is a brindle tortie and white and she often has quite bad dandruff :scared: She had it when we got her (rescued at 5yo) and goes through stages of it flaking. I've asked the vet and he can't find anything untoward going on, but I wondered if anyone had tried any of the foods that are meant to help skin and coat?
She mainly has James Wellbeloved, but is on Iams at the moment (with a bit of Ollie). Are there any supplements that work? Or any other suggestions of specialist foods?
I've tried to get her to eat more fresh oily fish, but she's not a huge fish fan. It's strange beacuse her coat positively gleams with condition, it's just the dandruff!
Any suggestions gratefully recieved!!!
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I remember one of my Vets in the US recommended foods with a high volume of omega um, 5?
As two of mine had very bad dandruff. Penguin's cleared up after being on Hill's Adult Chicken for a few months.
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Thanks! I have to say that when she was on Hills it did clear up a bit. I don't really like to buy them Hills though as they are owned by Proctor and Gamble wo test their cleaning products on animals :(
It's so hard to find a food that she enjoys, is good for her, and doesn't make me feel guilty by buying it!!! If Hills makes her better though i'd buy it of course!
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In light of that I suppose I should mention that many of us here are not fans of IAMS ...
http://www.iamskills.com/.
I know Kim from How Clean Is Your House ( a cat lover ) advocates wiping pet food bowls with some oil to help stop dandruff, tho the internet says that some oils are not safe, tho this page says that fish oil capsules are safe:
http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?action=library&act=show&item=nutritionalsupplementsforcatsanddogs
Our old boy gets dandruff when on dried ( even JWB ), but it clears up when he gets a wet diet. Might be a humidity factor too as it's worse when he fireplace sunbathes.
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Hill's is what our burmese was on when we saved her from the breeder (who let her have cat flu for a couple of weeks!!) so we never changed it.
When Penguin came over from the US we just mixed purina with Hill's until he got used to it and Smoke who we adopted from the local rescue down the road we had no idea what she was eating and they didn't tell us.
Didn't know about P&G then again, I'm not sure I've heard of them before....
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one of mine will only eat hills chicken - I'd prefer arden grange or something but if they don't eat it what can you do
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Max always gets dandruff at this time of year as the heating dries the air out so much. Its always at the base of his tail, never anywhere else.........he's fine in himself though, so I just put it down to him sitting waaaaayyy too close to the warm air vents :evillaugh: It doens't make a difference what he eats either from memory.
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Thanks for all the advice! I know Iams isn't great either, and won't be feeding her on it long term! To be honest Katie is more of an indoor cat and spends A LOT of time by the fire :evillaugh: so I think it's more about the heating etc, but I will definately try to go bakc to JWB or Arden Grange.
Does anyone know what Nutro is like? Katie liked it when I got a sample bag, but I don't know what it's like in terms of ingredients etc?
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Nutro is very good and doesnt contain any animal derivatives (nasty bits) and they do a fishy flavour that most cats like.
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Thanks! She definately liked the Nutro Chicken then best, but as she's starting to get on a bit, i'll have to try her on the senior stuff and see if she takes to it!
Isn't it funny how these little furbabies have us running around pandering to their every need!!!
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You may want to try Viacutin - I used this supplement with Fabes and his dandruff cleared up. You can get it from your vet and usually add 2 pumps to food. :)
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Thanks hun, that sounds really interesting! Do you add just two pumps a day or one pump to each meal? What about the fact that Katie tends to eat dried food - can it be added to that? (Soz for all the questions!)
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From memory it was 2 pumps a day which I added to the biscuits.
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My cat has dandruff and the vet said it's because he's not grooming properly, but he does have mouth problems. He also likes to barbque himself.
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I think I will try some as VetUK sell it. They also have a different brand that is cheaper. I guess 100ml is a lot if they are only getting a few drops at a time?