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cat with high cholesterol



 
 
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  #1  
Old January 4th 09, 04:25 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.health+behav
Chris[_4_]
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Posts: 13
Default 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  
Old January 4th 09, 07:50 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.health+behav
Petzl
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Posts: 165
Default 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  
Old January 4th 09, 03:36 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.health+behav
jmc
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Posts: 610
Default 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  
Old January 4th 09, 09:33 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.health+behav
Chris[_4_]
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Posts: 13
Default 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  
Old January 4th 09, 10:33 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.health+behav
cybercat
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Posts: 4,212
Default 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  
Old January 5th 09, 02:00 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.health+behav
cshenk
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Posts: 2,427
Default 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  
Old January 5th 09, 04:52 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.health+behav
[email protected]
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Posts: 126
Default 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  
Old January 8th 09, 01:19 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.health+behav
Magdalena Cano Plewinska
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Posts: 4
Default 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  
Old January 12th 09, 08:55 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.health+behav
yngver
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Posts: 109
Default 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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