Complete Care for Your Aging Cat - Amy Shojai [71]
Feeding For Health
Reduced-calorie diets are helpful to slim down an overweight cat and help take the strain off arthritic joints. Regular “senior” formulas may do the trick, but in some cases a veterinary-supervised diet is required. Some foods also contain ingredients designed to help ease the discomfort of achy joints. Some options include:
Eukanuba Adult Weight Control Formula
Hill’s Prescription Diet Feline j/d (joint diet)
Hill’s Prescription Diet Feline r/d (reduction diet)
Hill’s Prescription Diet Feline w/d (weight diet)
Iams Veterinary Formulas Weight Loss - Restricted-Calorie/Feline
IVD (ROYAL CANIN) Select Care Feline Weight Formula
Nutro Max Weight Control Formula
Nutro Max Cat Lite
Precise Feline Light Formula
Purina Veterinary Diets, OM Overweight Management Formula
Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Feline Calorie Control Diet
Nutraceuticals
Today a variety of nutritional supplements—nutraceuticals—are used like drugs to treat a wide range of health conditions. Also called “functional foods,” these substances maintain or improve health beyond what ordinary nutrients in the food provide. Nutraceuticals include herbs, enzymes, animal extracts (i.e., liver), and other chemical compounds such as vitamins or microbial products including “good” bacteria found in yogurt, for example.
Some of the newest “senior” diets contain nutraceuticals said to benefit joint health. You can also add appropriate supplements to your cat’s diet. For example, Dr. Linn says essential fatty acids, specifically the omega 3 fatty acids, can alleviate arthritis pain. “A lot of folks prescribe a combination supplement called DermCaps,” she says. Products that contain green-lipped mussels (perna mussel), such as Glyco-Flex, are helpful because they contain glucosamine-like compounds. They also smell fishy, which is very helpful when trying to medicate cats.
Special “joint diets” are also available, such as Hill’s Prescription Diet Feline j/d. These diets typically contain high levels of omega-3 fatty acids, alpha linoleic acid, carnitine, various antioxidants and glucosamine/chondroitin sulfate.
Glucosamine/chondroitin sulfate is a group of compounds are thought to help diseased cartilage work a little better, and may slow or stop the progression of arthritis. “We’ve actually done some of the research here and other labs have verified that ...glucosamines work as an antidegradative,” he says. He particularly likes using these products because they have no side effects and can be used alongside other medications.
Dr. Little agrees. “Glucosamine and those related products have been used in cats for a long time.” Compounds such as chondroitin and glucosamine also have anti-inflammatory properties, says Dr. Conzemius. “They can reduce swelling, and that can help with the pain.” Some products work better than others. “The glucosamine HCL is probably the best,” says Dr. Cook, because it’s better absorbed into the joint compared to the others.
You can buy Glucosamine HCL or other products over the counter, but you should be aware that the nutraceutical industry is not well regulated. The effectiveness and quality of products varies greatly from brand to brand, says Dr. Linn, and not all the label claims on products have been found to be truthful. A glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate combination product, called Cosequin, is one of the few that’s actually been tested in scientific trials, and it is most often recommended by veterinarians. It is, however, more expensive than many health food products.
Dr. Cook suggests looking on the label specifically for 500-milligram dosage of glucosamine HCL. The general dose is about 10 milligrams per pound of body weight, twice a day—so a 15-pound cat would get a total of a third of a 500-milligram capsule once each day. “With the glucosamine in cats, you sometimes you have to break up the capsules, or you can get somebody to compound it. I’ve not seen [over the counter products dosed] below 500,” says