Common Causes of Ill Health in Cats

By Madeleine Innocent

One of the most common causes of ill health in cats is their diet. Commercial cat food has a long list of problems as detailed below. It’s a million miles from a healthy wild cats diet.

Bear in mind cats are in every corner of the world and have adapted well to the conditions. They are successful. So why try to mess with their natural diet? It works. When something works, don’t mess with it.

The diet of the big cats in zoos are totally in line with their natural diet in the wild. Big cats don’t come cheap and zoos are not going to dabble with anything that may lead to a shorter life.

Sadly, the public can be more easily swayed with what basically amounts to emotional blackmail. They more easily follow media advertising and their vet recommendations.

Vets are largely trained by big p-harma and big pet food. So they are not eclectic or open to causes. And when you see their reception area stacked with commercial pet food, you know a large part of their income comes from this. 

The Dry Kibble

All dried pet food has a long shelf life because of the preservatives added, despite anything stated on the label. Most of these preservatives are too toxic to be allowed in human food. They can be hidden in safe sounding names.

Almost all commercial cat food starts off with poor quality food, considered unfit for human consumption. They are the dumping ground of human waste.

Cats, being true carnivores, need a high animal protein diet. Almost all commercial cat food has a high carbohydrate diet. This is cheaper to produce. Cats don’t have the ability to digest or utilise plant based food.

There are few, if any, government agencies in the world who really care about the health of pets. This means anything can be used without redress. In 2007-8 melamine from China was used in pet food and was the cause of the deaths of many cats. This is still happening even today. Melamine is not an animal protein.

Much of the commercial cat food is irradiated, in an effort to rid the food of salmonella, moulds and other pathogens.

common causes of ill health in cats

Irradiation creates toxic food which can make a cat very sick.

Why is there a need to kill off pathogens? Because the ‘raw’ source of the ‘food’ has not been subject to the usual hygiene rules associated with human food.

Even so, this irradiation doesn’t always help as there are many recalls due to contamination with salmonella, etc.

Cats don’t have a natural thirst. They rely on their liquid needs from their prey. It sounds pretty sensible, because we all have a lot of blood. Why waste it? Cats on dry kibble will drink more than other cats. However they never seem to make up the short-fall and dehydration is a common sequel as they age.

Cats are not scavengers as are dogs. They only eat what they have just killed, This means they need very fresh food. Commercial cat food is far from fresh when you consider much of it comes from human food waste. 

Holistic Vets and Practitioners

Most holistic vets have a very different approach to the care of their charges. Most understand the major causes from commercial cat food. They are more true to their vocation. If you think about it, encouraging you to feed your cat a substandard food which makes them sick, brings in two incomes - one from the food, one from the treatment.

So the holistic vets don’t receive as much trade, because your cat doesn’t get sick so often.

What more can you do, to help your cat be healthier? Even when they have a dire condition?

The diet is one of the most common causes of ill health in cats. And it’s the one area that only you have control over. Don’t go looking for other treatments until you get this right. It’s critically important.

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