Purrs In Our Hearts - Cat Forum UK
Cat Health & Behaviour => Health & Behaviour General => Topic started by: x9lives on February 05, 2007, 09:37:36 AM
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Until recently Matilda was pretty much dandruff free but this last week its got quite bad, nothing worrying but still not the norm for her. At first I thought it might be flee eggs but after giving her some drops on the back of here neck and a good combe I realised it was just dry skin. :)
I generally give her a combe ever day or other day, aside from that can anyone recomend something and maybe diagnose the cause. Thought maybe it might be the cold weather? :P
PS Her diet is preety good, Tuna in spring water, some Rabbit and a few IAMS for her vitamins. :)
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A few issues here
Tuna in spring water (or any other canned tuna meant for humans) isn't good for cats as it doesn't have the right vitamins in - In fact it can strip vitamins from them - a tiny amount for a treat is fine but not as a meal. Hi-life make one called "tuna imperial" and it has the correct vitamins etc to make it a complete food for cats (it's only about 30p a can). Iams is OK but most on here won't buy it due to their cruel animal-testing on cats & dogs. Some advice I got on here last year was evening primrose oil capsules - I got some for 99p in our local chemist - just trim the top of and squeeze onto their food.
PS - Please don't take any offence, all these things I learned from people on here & catchat.
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ooooh good tip about athe evening primrose Mark .... Foxy is a bit dandruffy at the moment so I think I'll give her some and see if it helps.
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I saw this
www.holisticat.com/dandruff.html
I see that they say you mustn't give them cod liver oil!
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No offense taken. :) I'm greatful for the information, I have heard bad stuff about IAMS but then again I have about a number of other leading brands, Whiskas, Felix etc etc so I'm not sure what to go with. :-:
I'll try and change her tuna and buy some evening primrose. :)
thanks 8)
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You can use fish body oils. Mine seemed to be able to taste evening primrose :innocent:
9lives,could you explain her diet abit more?
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9lives,could you explain her diet abit more?
She will generally have about a tin of normal tuna (in spring water) a day or half a tin and a pouch of rabbit in gravy (cat food not normal) or something similar and then she will have a very small amount of IAMS Lights with each meal (Morning & Evening)............oh and she only has water to drink.
She isn't a very active cat, more of a house cat so we do have to keep an eye on what she eats because last time we took her to the vet she was a little fat. :doh:
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If Matilda likes tuna (Blip does too!) Almo Nature make a tuna variety and a tuna with cheese variety, both of which have very high tuna content and are complete food for cats.
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I see that they say you mustn't give them cod liver oil!
Really? Thanks for posting that, Mark. I was told cod liver oil was good for their coats. Glad I read this now, I have some evening primrose oil in and one of my old girls has terrible dandruff at the moment!
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If Matilda likes tuna (Blip does too!) Almo Nature make a tuna variety and a tuna with cheese variety, both of which have very high tuna content and are complete food for cats.
Well Ive just been and bought her a couple of new things to try, both are HighLife, one is a pouch in gravey the other is a pate so we will see if she turns her nose up at them! (probably :evillaugh:) If she doesn't like them, then I'll give her a go on the Almo stuff. :)
PS I love that name Blip :Luv:
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PS I love that name Blip :Luv:
:thanks: Blip already had her name when she came to us - she has a little white patch of fur between her nose and her upper lip. Our vet said she was lucky not to have been called 'Snot'. :rofl:
Let us know how Matilda gets on with the Hi Life...
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I agree with Milly's Mum about the fish body oils - I use salmon oil on my lots food every now and then. Fish liver oils arent recommended because of the risk of vitamin A excess. I wouldnt personally use plant oils for cats.
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PS I love that name Blip :Luv:
:thanks: Blip already had her name when she came to us - she has a little white patch of fur between her nose and her upper lip. Our vet said she was lucky not to have been called 'Snot'. :rofl:
Let us know how Matilda gets on with the Hi Life...
Good news she likes the Hi-Life Tuna, well she ate a good portion of it this morning anyway. :evillaugh:
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Smelly stuff isn't it? :sick:
But they seem to love it. I've even seen big cans for 55p - the same size as a large can of catfood. The only reason I don't buy it is because it goes hard in the fridge and they only seem to like it when the can has just been opened.
Hopefully the dandruff will clear up - I think it's that time of year as well, ie cats glued to radiators :evillaugh:
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Almo Nature and Allpaws both do a variety of fishy foods which go down well with my 2. They aren't complete foods on their own (they say they are complete but I'm not convinced so treat them as complementary) but if you add some complete dry food to her diet it should be ok.
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Thanks. :)
One last thing, could someone point me in the direction of a list of foods that arne't tested on animals, I wanna change what I buy but don't really know which do and which don't.
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have a look here: http://www.buav.org/resources/index.html (http://www.buav.org/resources/index.html)
I buy Trophy (http://www.trophypetfoods.co.uk (http://www.trophypetfoods.co.uk)); I believe NatureDiet and Natures Menu are also BUAV approved, as is Burns. James Wellbeloved isn't in itself but it's now owned by a big corporate that do test on animals.
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thanks :)
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One that isn't on their list and the easiest to buy is Ollie dry food. Bakers have a no testing policy. Also the ingredients look pretty wholesome - It's just a shame it only comes in small packs.
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Mark - The problem isn't necessarily the company that actually makes the food, sometimes they're owned by a parent company known for their animal testing.
Have just heard from Natures Menu, their testing consists of feeding it to their pets! They will be applying for BUAV approval in the near future. BUAV will give you an up-to-date list if you ask them.
My 3 monsters have been on Trophy Premium almost exclusively for about a year, I think, my two 14 year old boys look half their age and they're all very shiny....
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Have just heard from Natures Menu, their testing consists of feeding it to their pets! They will be applying for BUAV approval in the near future. BUAV will give you an up-to-date list if you ask them.
I emailed them 3 times about their animal testing policy and have so far been ignored. I was beginning to get rather suspicious!
I also thought that buav had stopped adding to their list, its good if they have restarted.
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This is the reply I got - I e-mailed them this morning so they got back to me quite quickly:
Thank you for your enquiry.
We do not involve ourselves in animal testing , any new products are tried out usually on our breeders pet's, i will pass on the information regarding the BUAV to the
appropriate personnel
Kind Regards
Tanya Woods
Anglian Meat Products Ltd
Customer Service's/QC
Mail: tanya@anglianmeatproducts.co.uk
Tel: 01953 858629 Fax: 01953885367
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Just a quickie on the tuna front. I used to feed Gandolf RIP and Thomas tuna lots of the time as Gandi in particular just loved it. Tuna can cause fatty lumps to form in a cats skin I believe and they can be quite uncomfortable. Just to confrim both Gandolf RIP had and Thomas has such lumps and I have to be careful how I pick Thomas up to avoid the lumps as they are certainly uncomfortable for him. You live and learn.
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Yes its the oil they use in canned tuna (not the tuna itself) that causes the fatty lumps because it can't be digested properly by cats, although I agree tuna shouldnt be fed too often anyway, even if it is canned in spring water and not oil.
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Mine get tuna in spring water every few weeks, a can between the 3 cats and the dog - is that Ok, just as a treat?
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I'm sure a small amount is fine - btw - it's BOGOF in Tesco at the moment so 2 for 80p
I saw this article - the end is missing as you have to subscribe.
At the end of the day, a "balanced diet" is the best thing
These are probably the lumps Rosella was talking about.
Why is tuna fish bad for cats?
2006-12-07 21:32:17
Cats can develop yellow fat disease from having too much tuna.Tuna fish, and many other fish species, contain relatively large amounts of unsaturated fats. Although health-minded people eat fish to decrease their consumption of saturated fats, the excessive unsaturated fat in a cat's diet may be harmful.Tuna and certain other fish possess very little vitamin E. Vitamin E is an important antioxidant. When a cat's diet consists mostly of tuna fish that is not commercially formulated as cat food, the cat becomes deficient in vitamin E. Dietary unsaturated fats from the fish are oxidized by a biochemical called peroxidase into a substance called ceroid. Since the affected cat has low vitamin E levels, this oxidation process is not restrained. Ceroid, an abnormal, pigmented, yellow-brown breakdown product of unsaturated fat oxidation, is formed and deposited in fat cells. The result is yellow fat disease (steatitis).Ceroid triggers an inflammatory response by the immune system as if it..
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I don't recall there being a difference between spring water and oil as far as the fatty lumps are concerned (ours always had the spring water one) so none of our boys get tuna now :(
I'm obviously a great deal more wary tho coz of our Tom's fatty lumps. They could of course have been caused by something else entirely, I just err on the side of caution. I'm sure the red salmon they had last night with the wafer thin chicken wasn't the best diet either :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
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ah, I had always thought it WAS the oil not the tuna - but I see what Mark posted about the vitamin E deficiency - learn something new every day ;D
Red salmon and wafer thin chicken eh? - and for pudding? ;D
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I'm afraid pudding was Tesco supreme cuts in jelly with James Wellbelloved dried food and some large kibble dental treats "on the side" all the time. The salmon and wafer thin chicken was a treat as dad is away at the mo but wafer thin chicken went down so well I think it's going to be a regular treat.
It's a good job they don't try and eat it all at once. They are all "grazers" and none overweight altho can't get a hold of Billy to weigh him and have to say he's filled out a bit since he arrived last May! ;)