Worried Sick That I May Be Killing My Cats

[tabbysia]

It has been all over the news this morning about an FDA warning that links certain "high-end" grain-free dry foods to heart disease in dogs--specifically ones that contain ingredients like potatoes, peas, and lentils. Granted, this warning only applies to dogs as of now, but it does worry me because I feed my cats two different grain-free dry foods that contain potatoes, peas, and lentils.

I had a three-year old cat that died of cardiomyopathy three years ago, and all he had ever eaten was grain-free Blue Buffalo Duck and Potato. It tears me up that I could have been responsible for his death. I had started both cats on this food at the time because I was trying to find a food that would agree with one of my cats that had vomiting issues due to IBD.

Both my IBD kitty and my other current cat (that I adopted shortly after my other cat with heart disease died) still eat the same food (Blue Buffalo) that I was feeding three years ago. I never made the connection.

Now, my almost three-year old cat has an occasional cough, which I know can be linked to heart disease. I had taken him to vet a while back because his coughing had become a little more frequent and I was concerned. Since he was not on heartworm preventative at the time (dumb I know), she did a heartworm test, which was negative. She also did a chest x-Ray, which looked normal. She said his heart looked fine, but that she could do more extensive testing (EKG) if I wanted. It would have to be done at a facility in Dallas since she didn't have the resources and would cost hundreds of dollars. I feel very bad that I declined the testing at the time, but had already spent hundreds of dollars and didn't have any more. She seemed to think it was not necessary anyway.

She said that he could have allergies and had me start giving him an allergy pill, which did seem to eliminate the coughing. Now, he coughs very rarely, maybe once every few months, but I still worry. He also has the occasional "sniffles," so I really hope that it is allergies.

Should I take him in for more extensive heart testing? Should I change his food? If so, what (dry) food do you recommend? I do feed them some canned, but they prefer dry. Is grain-free bad? Should I look for a food that has grains in it, but no peas or potatoes? I am so confused. I would ask my vet about this, but she seems to have ZERO knowledge about nutrition. I have a lot of anxiety issues, so this has been worrying me non-stop.

 

[maggiedemi]

Have they said why grain-free food is causing heart failure? I wonder what ingredient is doing it? I know a lot of humans eat grain-free too. I wonder if they will have problems too?

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi!
Keep feeding wet food. Do you have an air cleaner?

Try Merrick Backcountry, or Natural Balance, and look into Kasik or Essence on Only Natural Pet-and they have their own line of cat food as well that's worth trying (they allow small quantity orders).

I'm thinking you might want to consider doing an eliminate diet if you're interested in seeing if there is a specific sensitivity trigger. For example chicken can often be a trigger, or starches, as you mentioned.

These two databases below may help in the effort to avoid certain ingredients. Whether grain free is bad, I don't know but for cat food in general, the AAFCO guidelines for nutritionally complete foods take care of additives such as taurine for cats.

Pet Food Guide

Check This Out.... Chart For Cat Food Ingredients

 

[maggiedemi]

Maybe the grain-free foods lack a certain vitamin? I hope they let us know soon...

 

[Kieka]

It's only large breed dogs that are already inclined towards heart problems that are showing an increase on grain free diets. Even with that, causation and correlation are not the same thing. Plus cats and dogs are different on how they process food with one being an omnivore and the other an obligate carnivore so a problem for one may not translate to the other.

Grain free labeling should be seen as a starting point in your food search. Grain free foods will already not have several fillers cats need and looking for one with less of the others is ideal. If you can afford a low carb diet, like Dr Elseys, for your dry that would be ideal. Otherwise, making the best dry choice you can afford. I do a mix of dry foods so they get some with sweet potato, some with peas and some with white potato's as the binder (my crew is sensitive to poultry so Dr Elseys isn't currently an option). A wet only diet does allow you more control for fillers because it doesn't need to be dry and shelf stable so they don't require a dry binder.

Don't feel guilty for the things you didn't know. Even now, you shouldn't feel guilty for the things outside your control. Namely, that commercial diets are truly a place where you do the best you can in a sea of bad choices.

 

[Furballsmom]

This is something for you to consider as well for your cats;
From @PushPurrCatPaws;

Anyone Have Experience With Dcm?

 

[LTS3]

Here's is some info on grain-free diets causing heart disease in dogs:

It’s Not Just Grain-Free: An Update on Diet-Associated Dilated Cardiomyopathy
A broken heart: Risk of heart disease in boutique or grain-free diets and exotic ingredients
UC Davis Investigates Link Between Dog Diets and Deadly Heart Disease
http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/fd...ie-between-grain-free-diets-and-heart-disease

One article says this about cats: Has diet-associated DCM been seen in cats? The association between BEG diets and heart disease has only been reported in dogs so far. However, that doesn’t mean cats are immune. If your cat is diagnosed with DCM and is eating a BEG, vegetarian, vegan, or home-prepared diet, I recommend following the same protocol as described for dogs with DCM.

 

[Kflowers]

Our cat began sneezing regularly. The first thing we considered was trying to find the most dust free litter. After a few different tries we did find one that had much less dust (Dr Esley's Ultra, they also make an allergy litter -- Chewy carries these.) But there are others. Our cat did stop sneezing with the new litter. I'm thinking the dust might be causing your cat to cough.

please note there are lots of different sorts of litter with different amounts of dust. Many have been discussed on this site.

Never blame yourself for not knowing everything. Knowledge changes daily. You simply can't know everything, just as you can't be perfect.

 

[fionasmom]

My vet discussed this with me the other day; she does believe that grain free is bad for dogs, and unlike the first article, does feel that the taurine pathway is interrupted by those diets. Who knows who is right at this point? I have supplemented taurine in diets of TNRed ferals who were elderly and unable to eat well. One old lady went for a long time on Gerber's meats, the only thing she would eat as she aged, with taurine added from a capsule from the health food store. Vet told me the amount to use and it was not much.

Having said that, my dogs all have eaten home made diets for years, not grain free but higher in protein and no one developed heart disease.

I know that pea milk came under the gun recently as being full of pollutants and pesticides....a whole other issue.

My cats don't eat grain free exclusively. Sadly and ironically, I did lose a cat to DCM about 8 years ago and he was not eating grain free.

 

[1 bruce 1]

From what I've read, it's not so much that dogs and cats "need" grain, it's just that they don't need the protein percentage of their food jacked up with inexpensive fillers like legumes. I wish it was re phrased from "grain free and heart disease" to "high legume and heart disease."
I don't think taurine is an essential addition to dog foods, but it is for cat foods, and I think a lot of this has to do with taurine, so I would watch for info, but not panic just yet.

 

[vyger]

My vet discussed this with me the other day; she does believe that grain free is bad for dogs, and unlike the first article, does feel that the taurine pathway is interrupted by those diets. Who knows who is right at this point? I have supplemented taurine in diets of TNRed ferals who were elderly and unable to eat well. One old lady went for a long time on Gerber's meats, the only thing she would eat as she aged, with taurine added from a capsule from the health food store. Vet told me the amount to use and it was not much.

Having said that, my dogs all have eaten home made diets for years, not grain free but higher in protein and no one developed heart disease.

I know that pea milk came under the gun recently as being full of pollutants and pesticides....a whole other issue.

My cats don't eat grain free exclusively. Sadly and ironically, I did lose a cat to DCM about 8 years ago and he was not eating grain free.

I live in a rural farming area and recently learned about what is becoming a common farming practice that I think might end up being a problem. What they do is spray the fields with weed killer, usually Roundup, several weeks before harvesting to kill the plants and get the crop to dry out more uniformly. This especially includes pea crops and bean crops. Peas and beans don't die like some of the other crops after they produce seeds but often will try to continue making more peas. For someone who wants to harvest all the plants at one time killing them all at the same time means they will all dry out and be ready for the harvester. When I heard about it my first thought was about the fact that your spraying poison on something just few weeks before harvesting it. That can't be good. Sure enough it is now turning out that Roundup is showing up in the finished grains and other crops. They have found increasing amounts trace Roundup in flour now. SO the practice helps out farmers to get the crops in but is also contaminating the food. Is it an issue for cats? Who knows.
Why Is Glyphosate Sprayed on Crops Right Before Harvest?

 

[1 bruce 1]

I live in a rural farming area and recently learned about what is becoming a common farming practice that I think might end up being a problem. What they do is spray the fields with weed killer, usually Roundup, several weeks before harvesting to kill the plants and get the crop to dry out more uniformly. This especially includes pea crops and bean crops. Peas and beans don't die like some of the other crops after they produce seeds but often will try to continue making more peas. For someone who wants to harvest all the plants at one time killing them all at the same time means they will all dry out and be ready for the harvester. When I heard about it my first thought was about the fact that your spraying poison on something just few weeks before harvesting it. That can't be good. Sure enough it is now turning out that Roundup is showing up in the finished grains and other crops. They have found increasing amounts trace Roundup in flour now. SO the practice helps out farmers to get the crops in but is also contaminating the food. Is it an issue for cats? Who knows.
Why Is Glyphosate Sprayed on Crops Right Before Harvest?

Don't forget that anything an animal meant for (you or your pets) consumption eats, gets some of those amounts, too through diet and outdoor exposure.

 

[tabbysia]

Thanks for all of the responses everyone. There was just another story about it on the local news. I don't think I am going to be able to sleep until I do something about their food, but I don't know what that is. The cat litter could be causing my cat to cough, like Kflowers suggested, but it worries me that one cat already died of heart disease and now another one is showing possible symptoms. Even though the vet does not seem to be worried about it, I wonder if I should go ahead and try to get an EKG done for my own peace of mind. If I do decide to put taurine powder on their food, where can I purchase something like this? I have a small feed store nearby, as well as a Tractor Supply.

 

[1 bruce 1]

I think amazon has a lot of taurine supplements you can buy, in powdered form. The good thing about taurine is that excess you add to a cats food turns to urine so it's very hard to "over dose" them. You'll just be paying for expensive box deposits, which in this case, who cares
What type of litter are you using, if you don't mind my asking? And do you have covered boxes, uncovered?
Check This Out.... Chart For Cat Food Ingredients This link Furballsmom send you is a really good lay out of what foods have what in them so you can compare at a glance.

Catinfo.org has a lot about diet for cats, and a tutorial on making your own cat food (if that's something you'd want to do until you find a solution you're happy with.) This site is ran by a vet who knows her stuff.

FDA Investigates Potential Link Between Diet & Heart Disease in Dogs
The cat percentage is pretty low. I'd be wanting to know what those cats parents/aunts/uncles/siblings died of, because unfortunately for us cardiovascular problems can be hereditary in cats and not show up until past a (natural) breeding age, when those genetics have already been passed onto the kittens. I'm not dismissing the idea that this is a concern, just that genetics and knowing the lineage (if possible) can sometimes be another piece in the puzzle.

 

[tabbysia]

What type of litter are you using, if you don't mind my asking? And do you have covered boxes, uncovered?

I use Fresh Step (Multiple Cat) clumping litter. I have two covered boxes and one uncovered box. The kitty that I am most worried about prefers to use the uncovered box most often. It is inside of a large dog kennel though (still set up from when he broke his hip over a year ago, but he likes it so I kept it), so maybe it would count as partially covered. The litter does have Febreeze fragrance added to it, like most Fresh Step litters do. It does not seem to generate very much dust at all though.

 

[Jem]

The litter does have Febreeze fragrance added to it, like most Fresh Step litters do. It does not seem to generate very much dust at all though

I highly recommend you get an unscented litter. The chemicals used to make litter smell pretty for humans is awful for cats with allergies, asthma and sensitivities, and might even cause a sensitivity to develop. If you keep the boxes cleaned regularly, there should be no reason a scented litter is necessary.

 

[Willowy]

Taurine is used by bodybuilders so if you have a GNC (or other supplement store) in the area they should have plenty of taurine to choose from.

 

[Willowy]

Taurine is used by bodybuilders so if you have a GNC (or other supplement store) in the area they should have plenty of taurine to choose from.

 

[Jem]

I used to feed "grain free" as well, until my cat also passed from cardiomyopathy/CHF. He was our only cat ever to get this and he was also the only one raised on a grain free diet. Is there a connection? IDK, but the more I research about cat foods the more appalled I am with their marketing tactics.
People know that cats eat meat, and with the gluten free movement that has also taken hold for humans, they started with "grain free" pet food as well. What people don't consider is that "grain free" does NOT mean more animal, just a different type of plant protein. So we think we are feeding our cats better but in actuality it's just a different carb/starch ingredient.
(In a nutshell) My understanding (I might be wrong) is it's the legumes that interrupt the absorption/proper metabolism of taurine in dogs hence the development of heart disease. But we all know that there is less emphasis on cat research, so who's to say it does not do the same for cats as well? Yes taurine is added to cat food, but if the metabolizing of it is interrupted, in theory, cats could also be susceptible to heart disease as well.
Yeah, I know I sound like I should be wearing a tin foil hat, but I still will never buy foods labelled "grain free", and simply watch the carb content and make sure the animal protein is the primary source. I also increased wet food in their diets as they tend to have less fillers and carbs than dry. I understand I'm lucky that I'm not dealing with any allergies or sensitivities so my options are not limited to foods without wheat, but unless and until I have to, "grain free" is not part of my criteria.

 

[maggiedemi]

I still will never buy foods labelled "grain free", and simply watch the carb content and make sure the animal protein is the primary source.

Thank you, that was very helpful. What dry and wet foods do you buy now?