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#1
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cat with high cholesterol
Just got my cat's annual lab results back. Her Creatinine level was what
was high last year, and is what the vet was concerned about. This year it went down and vet feels is fine. She voiced no other concerns about the other labs values, and only said that she should lose 1 pound (which she has gained in the past year). I requested a copy of the lab results to view myself and received them today. My cat Angie is 10 years old, her cholesterol should be no higher than 150, yet it is 206 (ironically the same as mine). One year ago it was 154. One pound gain in weight have an effect on this? Her diet is not the best, as she is a very finicky eater and sometimes she can be very hungry and asking for something, yet she will turn her nose up to many food choices. Her typical daily diet is 1/2 a jar of Gerber baby food (ham, turkey or chicken), the gravy and very very little actual food from a canned cat food, dry cat food munched on mostly at night when I'm sleeping, and occasionally some turkey or chicken deli meat to supplement her if she turns her nose up to any of the above. Suggestions to lower her cholesterol? Or will getting her to drop that one pound she gained, maybe take care of the elevated number? |
#2
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cat with high cholesterol
On Sat, 3 Jan 2009 21:25:17 -0600, "Chris"
wrote: Just got my cat's annual lab results back. Her Creatinine level was what was high last year, and is what the vet was concerned about. This year it went down and vet feels is fine. She voiced no other concerns about the other labs values, and only said that she should lose 1 pound (which she has gained in the past year). I requested a copy of the lab results to view myself and received them today. My cat Angie is 10 years old, her cholesterol should be no higher than 150, yet it is 206 (ironically the same as mine). One year ago it was 154. One pound gain in weight have an effect on this? Her diet is not the best, as she is a very finicky eater and sometimes she can be very hungry and asking for something, yet she will turn her nose up to many food choices. Her typical daily diet is 1/2 a jar of Gerber baby food (ham, turkey or chicken), the gravy and very very little actual food from a canned cat food, dry cat food munched on mostly at night when I'm sleeping, and occasionally some turkey or chicken deli meat to supplement her if she turns her nose up to any of the above. Suggestions to lower her cholesterol? Or will getting her to drop that one pound she gained, maybe take care of the elevated number? Only thing that will reduce cholesterol is medication Diet has no effect as it is a hereditary thing High cholesterol on its own is not that much of a concern it is other added factors which count |
#3
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cat with high cholesterol
Suddenly, without warning, Petzl exclaimed (1/4/2009 1:50 AM):
On Sat, 3 Jan 2009 21:25:17 -0600, "Chris" wrote: Just got my cat's annual lab results back. Her Creatinine level was what was high last year, and is what the vet was concerned about. This year it went down and vet feels is fine. She voiced no other concerns about the other labs values, and only said that she should lose 1 pound (which she has gained in the past year). I requested a copy of the lab results to view myself and received them today. My cat Angie is 10 years old, her cholesterol should be no higher than 150, yet it is 206 (ironically the same as mine). One year ago it was 154. One pound gain in weight have an effect on this? Her diet is not the best, as she is a very finicky eater and sometimes she can be very hungry and asking for something, yet she will turn her nose up to many food choices. Her typical daily diet is 1/2 a jar of Gerber baby food (ham, turkey or chicken), the gravy and very very little actual food from a canned cat food, dry cat food munched on mostly at night when I'm sleeping, and occasionally some turkey or chicken deli meat to supplement her if she turns her nose up to any of the above. Suggestions to lower her cholesterol? Or will getting her to drop that one pound she gained, maybe take care of the elevated number? Only thing that will reduce cholesterol is medication Diet has no effect as it is a hereditary thing High cholesterol on its own is not that much of a concern it is other added factors which count Not true - just more difficult to do since a cat's diet is less diverse than a human diet, but I've lowered my cholesterol considerably by dietary changes. We're told it's saturated fat we need to avoid. So just how do we know how much saturated fat is in a cat's diet, and how to improve that? My guess would be less beef/lamb based foods, more chicken/fish, since we can't/should not feed them more veggies, which works for people (omnivores) but which is harmful to cats, (obligate carnivores). jmc |
#4
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cat with high cholesterol
Yes, I told the doctor what I feed her. She did not disapprove of the baby
food, just said to make sure she gets some canned and dry cat food as well. As I said, she gets a 1/2 jar of baby food (which is a pretty small amount if you know how tiny the jars are) and the rest is canned and dry food for her day. The doctor agreed it is much more important for her to eat (no matter what that is) than for her not to eat at all (which Angie will do if she doesn't get something she likes). She does eat a lot of dry cat food, just at night she will eat 1/2 a cup, maybe I can go to a senior one (I think they are lower in calorie) and see if that helps reduce her weight some. And to the other poster, you are so incorrect. Cholesterol doesn't have to be control by medication alone, it is not hereditary. It can be reduced by diet, lowering fats and losing weight. |
#5
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cat with high cholesterol
"Chris" wrote And to the other poster, you are so incorrect. Cholesterol doesn't have to be control by medication alone, it is not hereditary. It can be reduced by diet, lowering fats and losing weight. Only 40% of human serum cholesterol is provided by diet. |
#6
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cat with high cholesterol
"Petzl" wrote
Only thing that will reduce cholesterol is medication Diet has no effect as it is a hereditary thing Petzl, you are so wrong. Heredity has an impact for sure, which is why some who eat anything and everything always test normal, but for those who do not, diet can often control it. Medication may not be needed. I popped at over 400's regular (not just one test) and adapted diet. I now hit 120's on the regular with a very high 'HDL' and more than acceptable LDL. This has been an ongoing diet change from age 25 to age 45. People lie to themselves on this one because they do not want to change. Now to the OP with the cat with higher than normal CHOL, I think the vet has the right of it that getting the cat to eat at all is needed, but to try to gently trim the weight back. Baby food jars are 3-4oz and a dibble of them mixed with a fork into a lower calorie dry she/he likes, might work. She will resist change just like any human so start this small with a few crunchy bits added to her/his normal breakfast of baby food, then expand out. |
#7
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cat with high cholesterol
On Jan 4, 3:33*pm, "Chris" wrote:
a) Cholesterol levels in the body are about 40% by-diet, 60% by heredity - and that is for a *normal* person. For those who have a high count, those proportions will shift to as much as 80% by heredity, diet alone will *not* control such problems. b) Baby food is by its very nature high in proteins and fat - babies need to grow. Consider that they shift from whole milk to understand that concept. Cats LOVE baby food as it tends to be highly flavored, high in sugars and starches (fillers), and relatively high in fat. It is *NOT* good for cats, however, as it lacks taurine along with other trace elements critical to a cat's health. As a people-food treat, not a bad idea. But as a major part of the diet - bad idea. c) You can shift to a 'senior' diet food, of which there are several good sources that are complete nutritionally. When shifting to another food, make the introduction slowly, of course, but also try warming the new food to ~90F +/-. This will make it much more appealing to the cat. A few truisms: A cat will not starve before changing to a new food. They are much smarter than that. However, they will test your endurance. Tell yourself that this is for the health of the cat and do not give in. *MIX* their preferred food with the new food, high old-to-new initially, finally tapering off to no old at all. When going through this process, vary the new foods as well. Different flavors, different sources (Purina & 9-Lives as examples, not suggestions) so the cat will become used to variety. Good luck with it. But keep in mind that a cat's metabolism is not the same as yours. They run hotter and burn far more calories-by-weight than you do, so if they are getting sufficient exercise that 205 level is not alarming at all. The literature on the subject is only *conditional* at levels greater than 200 and set the danger level much higher. The factors have to do with environment, age, weight, overall health, and activity. Our vet does not even bother with such tests unless there are other symptoms (starting with obesity and lethargy, or an unusual diet). But then, we have never had overweight animals - knock wood - to date. That could change overnight. Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA |
#8
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cat with high cholesterol
On Sat, 3 Jan 2009 21:25:17 -0600, "Chris" wrote: My cat Angie is 10 years old, her cholesterol should be no higher than 150, yet it is 206 (ironically the same as mine). One year ago it was 154. One pound gain in weight have an effect on this? All those values are established for a fasting animal. It's normal for blood cholesterol to go up after a meal. So unless your cat was fasting for 8 hours (or whatever the standard is for cats) when the blood was drawn, you can't draw too many conclusions from the cholesterol level. If you are sure your cat hadn't been fed for 8-12 hrs prior to the blood draw, I would recommend bringing that to the vet's attention to see what her next step would be. Any dietary manipulation should also be discussed with the vet since cats aren't just furry little humans and have different dietary requirements. I'm not sure how close cat lipid metabolism is to human so I don't know whether the same dietary manipulations would work to lower a cat's cholesterol, if it was, if fact, elevated. Good luck with your Angie, Magda |
#9
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cat with high cholesterol
On Jan 7, 6:19 pm, Magdalena Cano Plewinska
wrote: On Sat, 3 Jan 2009 21:25:17 -0600, "Chris" wrote: My cat Angie is 10 years old, her cholesterol should be no higher than 150, yet it is 206 (ironically the same as mine). One year ago it was 154. One pound gain in weight have an effect on this? All those values are established for a fasting animal. It's normal for blood cholesterol to go up after a meal. So unless your cat was fasting for 8 hours (or whatever the standard is for cats) when the blood was drawn, you can't draw too many conclusions from the cholesterol level. If you are sure your cat hadn't been fed for 8-12 hrs prior to the blood draw, I would recommend bringing that to the vet's attention to see what her next step would be. Any dietary manipulation should also be discussed with the vet since cats aren't just furry little humans and have different dietary requirements. I'm not sure how close cat lipid metabolism is to human so I don't know whether the same dietary manipulations would work to lower a cat's cholesterol, if it was, if fact, elevated. Good luck with your Angie, Magda One time one of our cats had a high cholesterol reading and our vet said the same thing, that since it wasn't a fasting test it didn't mean anything. This cat is not overweight and never has been. At the next checkup it was normal again. I believe if it were a fasting test and the cholesterol level is consistently high there is an association with hyperthyroidism, but with a 10 year old cat your vet is probably testing periodically for hyperthyroidism anyway. -yngver |
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