This veterinarian, Amir Anwary, who is successful on the social media website TikTok, provides us with his three top tips for cat owners which are:
- If you change your cat’s diet, do it slowly,
- Watch out for behavioural changes in your cat and thirdly:
- Watch out for signs that your cat has kidney disease.
Changes to diet
This is discussed quite a lot on the Internet. Amir emphasises the potential problem. For me, he might be overemphasising it. Also, changes in diet can be small or great. Another point worth making is that if you change your cat’s diet they might reject it. This will prevent any potential stomach upset but it is a widely known fact that you should change a cat’s diet gradually particularly one for weight loss if the cat is obese.
Normally, changes in diet relate to the same cat food being provided but less of it in order to tackle the health problems inherent with obesity. If you reduce the amount of food available to a cat too rapidly they can develop hepatic lipidosis which is fatty liver disease. A very serious condition.
Changes in the type of cat food being provided will not, in my opinion, result in problems because all commercial wet cat food is very similar provided it is described as ‘complete and balanced’. The same applies to dry cat food although the quality can vary substantially. Giving your cat a very poor quality dry cat food may result in health problems (cystitis) if they are coming off a high quality variety.
Behavioural changes
Being aware of behavioural changes in your cat companion is something which is also often discussed on the Internet. It goes with the territory of being a competent and responsible cat caregiver. And competent and responsible cat caregivers are normally very aware of their cat companion’s behaviour. They can spot changes very easily as a result. The point is to act upon those changes by taking your cat to a veterinarian if the reason isn’t obvious by which I mean changes in the environment which you are aware of and which might have impacted your cat’s behaviour.
An example would be introducing a new cat into the home or introducing a new person into the home both of which can cause stress and stress affects behaviour including appetite. It’s when behavioural changes occur without any other change in the environment and there is no obvious reason for your cat’s changing behaviour. That’s when you need to take action in a medical sense.
Hiding and being passive combined with loss of appetite and lethargy are going to be the classic behavioural symptoms indicating a potentially serious illness.
Kidney disease
As for kidney disease, shockingly, it is as Amir states, commonplace. My female cat died of kidney disease and she demonstrated the symptoms as specified by this veterinarian in his video. The obvious one is drinking a lot more and urinating a lot more. The liquid goes right through the cat and therefore doesn’t quench their thirst. This is because the kidneys are not functioning. That’s the sign of advanced kidney disease and it was very apparent in my female cat.
To the best of my knowledge nobody has actually pinpointed the exact reason or reasons for this epidemic of kidney disease, especially older cats in the West. It must be to do with diet and lifestyle factors.
It could be to do with an unhealthy diet such as permanently being fed poor quality dry cat food. A lack of physical activity as is often apparent in full-time indoor cats might contribute and an additional factor might be high stress levels which are more likely to be evident in multi-cat homes. These factors can contribute to the development of kidney disease.
Chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes are not infrequently encountered in domestic cats in the West and both these conditions can lead to kidney damage over time.
Cats are living longer as are people which increases the risk of kidney disease developing in cats in old age.
In some instances there might be an exposure to environmental toxins from various sources including air pollution and household environmental pollutants, often hidden, in for example carpets and furniture.
These hidden pollutants such as carpet preservatives are not discussed enough. More work needs to be conducted on how they impact feline health. Cats are normally or often nearer the source of the chemical such as embedded within the carpet or a sofa and therefore they are more exposed to the chemical.
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