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Screensize: 640 x 480 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1280 x 1024 UserName: Password: Antispam question: how many legs does a cat have Answer: Format Mode: Basic  Help  Prompt  Format: Font Andale Mono Arial Arial Black Book Antiqua Century Gothic Comic Sans MS Courier New Georgia Impact Lucida Console Script MT Bold Stencil Tahoma Times New Roman Trebuchet MS Verdana   Size 1 2 3 4 5 6   Color Black Red Yellow Pink Green Orange Purple Blue Beige Brown Teal Navy Maroon LimeGreen Message: * HTML is OFF * Forum Code is ON Smilies [quote][i]Originally posted by CatGirl[/i] [br]I'm posting these references that came from Fiona MacMillan, the courageous woman in the UK who is taking on the vet establishment and the pet food industry. She is busy doing lots of research and writing letters about this critical issue. Here is her latest batch of references of articles from Veterinary Journals where it is clear that SOME vets are talking about the problems with commercial cat food. I'm posting these here so if others need veterinary references for their vet or to write your own letters about this critical issue. Pub Med - J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2004 Mar 15;224(6): 879-86 "Epidemiologic study of relationships between consumption of commercial canned food and risk of hyperthryoidism in cats" and links tinned pet food to hyperthryoidism.   PubMed - Am J Vet Res. 2004 Feb; 65(2): 138-42 "Evaluation of effects of dietary carbohydrate on formation of struvite crystals in urine and macromineral balance in clinically normal cats" which says carbohydrate stimulates struvite and that restricting it is desirable to prevent struvite.   PubMed - J Am Vet Med Assoc 1993 Mar 1 (202(5): 744-51 "Development of chronic renal disease in cats fed a commercial diet" which says that cats over a 2 year study 3 of the 9 cats in the study had developed renal dysfunction and renal lesions.   The food was high in protein and acid content and possibly the acid content caused the kidney problems because in a paper by Purina they seem to admit that acidifying pet food is causing metabolic acidosis which predisposes to kidney failure.    As you will know it has now been disproved that a high protein diet causes kidney failure and cats are designed to eat a high protein diet.    Nutrition.org - 2004 The American Society for Nutritional Sciences J. Nutr. 134-2068S "Carbohydrate Malabsorption Is a Feature of Feline Inflammatory Bowel Disease But Does not Increase Clinical Gastrointestinal Signs".     This is the only paper I quote which was produced by Walthams pet food but I think it is quite an admission by them that ibs is caused by carbohydrate malabsorption.    Being produced by Walthams they say a change of carbohydrate is what is needed but the cat has no nutritional need for carbohydrate as you know and so taking the cat off carbohydrate would cure the ibs since someone I know has cured their cat by taking it off dry food and changing it to raw food.    Lots of Vets saw this cat but left it on dry food and could not cure it but on raw feeding it is cured.    PubMed - J. Am Vet Med Assoc. 2003 Oct. 15; 223 "Taurine deficiency in dogs with dilated cardiomyopathy" which says that dogs fed a commercial dog food were found to have low blood taurine which gave them DCM even although dogs produce taurine and the paper says pet food companies should perhaps add taurine even to dog food.   Feeding the dogs raw food would give them taurine.   I know of a 9 year old pet food fed Lurcher that recently died because of DCM.     Blackwell Synergy - Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition; Vol 87, June 2003 "Plasma and whole blood taurine in normal dogs of varying size fed commercially prepared food" this is really the same paper as the one above but mentions that the dogs were fed lamb and rice and says that perhaps the lamb in the food caused the low blood taurine but in a different veterinary research paper about low blood taurine in cats which I have it links the feeding of rice as being the cause of the low blood taurine in the cats and cats were never meant  to eat rice.    Dr. Lisa Newman says that Iams have a research paper which shows that feeding rice causes diabetes and I have asked Iams to disclose this paper to me but have not received it.    Blackwell Synergy - Veterinary Dermatology, Vol 15 Page 137 - June 2004 "A randomized controlled study to evaluate the steroid sparing effect of essential fatty acid supplementation in the treatment of canine atopic dermatitis" and this concudes that when the dogs were given fatty acid supplements this reduced the need for steroids and I think Vets should not be treating this with steroids and should instead be advising clients to feed foods with Omega 3 which is naturally found in raw food and that if pets were fed raw food they would not get all these dermatological problems.   Pet food also has far too little animal fat in it since the National Research Council has laid down eg. that cats only need 9% fat when Graham Roberts MRCVS in the Veterinary Times dated 19.1.2004 says that cats need at least 40% animal fat in their diet and the lack of fat causes dermatological problems.     PubMed - Am J Vet Res 1996 Dec; 57(12): 1726-32 "Effects of a high protein diet on mineral matabolism and struvite activity product in clinically normal cats" and this says "high protein diets have the potential ability to increase solubility of struvite crystals".    Pet food contains nothing like the level of protein a cat needs and Graham Roberts MRCVS in the Veterinary Times dated 19.1.2004 said cats need at least 50% of the diet to be protein and less than 5% could be carbohydrate but pet food contains nothing like these levels and my contain up to 50% carbohydrate eg. (Hills feline maintenance contains 39% and Iams 30% carbohydrate) and far too little protein and cooked protein has nothing like the same bio-availabilty that raw food has.   Therefore the lack of protein in pet food is an important factor in causing life-threatening struvite in cats.   PubMed - J Vet Med Sci 2001 Mar; 63(3): 337-9 "Effect of supplementation of dry cat food with DL Methionine and ammonium chloride on struvite activity produce and sediment in urine" and this says that supplementing dry food with DL Methionine to acidify it decreases struvite activity.     However, if the cats were fed raw food which naturally contains methionine this would naturally acidify their urine and they would not get struvite but the carbohydrate in dry food causes the urine to become alkaline and struvite forms in an alkaline urine.    Acidifying pet food causes metabolic acidosis which predisposes to kidney failure, calcium oxalate stones and loss of bone density in cats and so is not as good thing to do but most dry food is acidified and must be causing a lot of kidney failure since Purina say that 85% of cats with kidney damage have metabolic acidosis and they link this to the routine acidifying of dry pet food.      PubMed  - J. Nutr. 1998; 128(12) "The effect of diet on lower urinary tract diseases in cats" and this says "Recent observations suggest that recurrence rates of signs in cats classified as having idiopathic lower urinary tract disease may be mroethan halved if affectred animals are maintained on high, rather than low moisture content diets".  This shows that cats fed dry food are chronically dehydated and that the lack of water causes cystitis/FLUTD.   I would like to see dry pet food banned since as Dr. Kathy Sinning DV says in a letter published in the JAVMA May 15 2001 "Put simply, the assumption that pets must live on man-made processed pellets is just as preposterous as claiming that humans or any other living species could not live without the same. There is no argument in the human medical community against eating a variety of fresh raw foods. Yet this article (the one she is criticising) advocates feeding processed diets that are completely devoid of any fresh foods. This is the opposite of what undomesticated animals eat in their natural environment".  Cats and dogs are the only creatures on the planet being fed dry pet food and like Dr. Sinning I too think it is completely preposterous that they are being fed this.     PubMed - Am J. Vet Res. 2003 Aug; 64(8): 1059-64 "Effects of a high protein diet versus dietary supplementation with ammonium chloride on struvite crystal formation in urine of clinically normal cats" and this again comes to the conclusion that "the high protein diet is preferable as a urine acidifier" and yet again highlights that cats should be fed their species appropriate high protein, raw diet rather than the carbohydrate laden dry pet food so many of them eat day in day out.   PubMed - J. Endourol 1999 Nov. "Calcium Oxalate urolithiasis in cats" and this says that 40% of uroliths in cats are now calcium oxalate stones and it links this to the routine acidification of pet food since all the carbohydrate in dry food alkalises the urine and so pet food companies began acidifying pet food and have caused calcium oxalate stones to form by acidifying it which can only be removed by operation.     PubMed - J Nutr 2004 Aug; 134(8) "Canine and feline diabetes mellitus: nature or nurture?" and this says "High-carbohydrate diets increase blood glucose and insulin levels and my predispose cats to obesity and diabetes.    Low carbohydrate, high protein diets may help prevent diabetes in cats at risk such as obese cats or lean cats with underlying low insulin sensitivity".     Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins DVM is an expert in feline diabetes and she says that the carbohydrate in dry food is causing the diabetes and I am certain this is correct.   PubMed - J Feline Med Surg. 2006 April; 8(2); 73-84 "Comparison of a low carbohydrate, low fiber diet and a moderate carbohydrate, high fiber diet in the management of feline diabetes mellitus" and this shows that it is the carbohydrate in dry food that is causing the Type II diabetes cats get and says "Diabetic cats in this study were significantly more likley to revert to a non insulin dependent state when fed the canned low carbohydrate, low fiber diet versus the medium carbohydrate, high fiber diet".     Cats left on medium carbohydrate in this study could not be taken off insulin but the cats in this study should have been completely taken off all carbohydrate since cats were never meant to eat carbohydrate and do not even have the salivary amylase necessary to digest carbohydrate and have very little pancreatic amylase because Mother Nature never meant the cat to eat the huge amounts of carbohydrate it is fed when fed dry pet food.    Dogs do make amylase.      PubMed - J Am Anim Hosp Assoc. 2006 Jan-Feb; 42(1): 28-36 "The effect of ingredients in dry dog foods on the risk of gastric dilatationvolvulus in dogs" and says "An unexpected finding was that dry foods containing an oil or fat ingredient (eg. sunflower oil, animal fat) among the first four ingredients were associated with a significatn, 2-4 fold increased risk of GDV".    GDV can kill a dog.    PubMed - J Am Vet Med Assoc 1997 Jan 1; 210(1) "Clinical evaluation of cats with nonobstructive urinary tract diseases" and this says "Results suggest that idiopathic cystitis occurs commonly in cats ....and is associated with consumption of dry foods".  This shows that dry food is causing cystitis in cats but Vets treat this with antibiotics when they should advise the owner that the cat should be taken off dry food.   Martin Goldstein DVM in his book "The Nature of Animal Healing" says that pet food is putting a huge toxic load on the kidneys and bladders of pets which Mother Nature never designed them to deal with.   PubMed - Am J Vet Res 2002 Feb; 63(2): 181-5 "Identification and concentration of soy isoflavones in commercial cat foods" and says "Soy isoflavones in some commercial cat foods were detected in amounts predicted to have a biological effect".    Soy is a cheap protein source put into pet food but cats and dogs were never meant to eat Soy and it is a completely species inappropriate ingredient but pet food companies are not regulated and are getting away with putting all kinds of totally species inappropriate ingredients into pet food.   Blackwell Synergy - Journal off Veternary Emergency and Critical Care, Vol 16, June 2006 "Diet-associated hepatic failure and immune-mediated hemolytic anemia in a Weimaraner" and says "A 4 year old male castrated Weimaraner developd signs of IMHA, hepatic failure, disseminated intravascular coagulopathy and malnutritiin after consuming a commercial dog food".       Can Vet J. 2003; 44(1): 783 "In support of bones and raw food diets" and in this they say that feeding raw food has not caused any medical problems to the pets of clients they have advised to feed raw food to their cats and dogs and detail all the health problems which have disappeared when the pets were fed raw food which include bladder problems.     PubMed - Tijdschr Diergeneeskd 2003 Dec 15; 128(24); 785-7 "Health claims in dog and cat feed" and this says "The number and diversity of health claims for dog and cat foods have increased markedly over the past few years.  There is no explicit legislation as to these claims.   Many claims are insufficiently supported by research and are vague and suggestive". This paper says that rules should be set up to stop pet food companies making false and unsubstantiated health claims for their food.   Nutrition.org - Journal of Nutrition "Lysine Content in Canine Diets can be severely Heat Damaged".     American Journal of CardiologyVol. 62 "Pet Food-Derived Penicillin Residue as a Potential Cause of Hypersensitivity Myocarditis and Sudden Death" which is a paper about how a toddler died after eating a dry cat food which when later tested was found to have 600 tmes the level of penicillin in it which would be safe for a human being.     PubMed - N Z Vet J. 1997 Oct; 45(5): 193-5 "Nitrite poisoning in cats and dogs fed a commercial pet food" and says "The death of 3 cats from two separate households was linked to toxic concentrations of sodium nitrite used as a preservative in a commercial pet fod.  In a further incident, ataxia and weakness was noticed in 2 of 4 dogs after they were fed the same brand of pet food.   One dog was successfully treated".   PubMed - Vet Record (Britain) 2004 Aug 7; 155(6): 174-6 "Accidental poisoning of 17 dogs with lasalocid" and this says "Over a period of 10 days 17 dogs became weak and developed neurological deficits of different degrees of severity.  About 12 hours before these clinical signs appeared they had all eaten a particular brand of commercial dog food from a recently opened bag.......Five of the dogs died but the others improved gradually".   Blackwell Synergy - Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutritioin, Vol 87, Feb 2003.  "Teratogenic effects of chronic ingestion of high levels of Vitaman A in cats" and says "High concentrations of retinoids occur in some commercial cat food fomulations as a result of the use of animal liver as an ingredient"   The result was that this was found to cause "Malformations included cleft palate, cranioschisis, foreshortened mandible, stenotic colon, enlarged heart and agenesis of the spinal cord and small intestine and feotal defects consistent with ingestion of excess retinoids in other species".    [/quote]   Check here to include your profile signature. 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