Parenting-Furkids
Cats => Caring For Your Cat => Topic started by: DeeDee on June 23, 2017, 11:08:34 AM
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Most discussions about genetic diseases in pets involve dogs, because more dogs than cats are purebred and acquire specific inherited traits passed from one generation to the next. But what about our feline family members? Do they acquire genetic diseases as well?
Unlike purebred dogs, the majority of domestic kitties reproduce without interference from humans. This helps to dilute disease-causing genes in their lineage, with the result that they acquire inherited disorders less often. However, pedigreed cats tend to follow a more predictable pattern of disease inheritance similar to their canine counterparts.
Pet insurance carriers and animal hospital databases keep records of the most frequently diagnosed diseases in kitties, which are "… complexly inherited and involve combinations of multiple genes and environmental factors," according to Dr. Jerold S. Bell of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University.1
"Genetic diseases should be recognized in practice because they must be treated as chronic illnesses — not episodic diseases," says Bell, who lists the top five genetic diseases of cats as feline lower urinary tract disease (FLUTD), diabetes mellitus, lymphocytic or plasmacytic inflammatory disease, polycystic kidney disease and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
It's important to keep in mind that just because some veterinarians believe certain disorders are inherited in certain breeds, it doesn't mean your cat of that breed is destined to acquire those conditions. There are steps you can take to help prevent your kitty from acquiring diseases to which she may be predisposed, and there are ways to successfully treat or effectively manage existing genetic conditions.
Read the conditions at: http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2017/06/20/cat-genetic-diseases.aspx
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I didn't have time to read the whole article, but I will say, some of those diseases (e.g. diabetes, FLUTD) are more diet-related than hereditary, IMO. I would love to ask the vet who listed those 5 diseases about what those kitties were eating. My guess is they're eating kibble.
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I would love to ask the vet who listed those 5 diseases about what those kitties were eating. My guess is they're eating kibble.
It was Dr Karen Becker from Mercola Animal. She's all about species appropriate diets. She's citing studies that have been done that show a possible correlation between breeds and diseases. Kind of like certain dog breeds are more apt to contract certain diseases than other breeds.
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I agree that certain dog/cat breeds and designer dogs/cats are more likely to have particular issues.
As far as the average run of the mill house cat or mutt...many of the more common diseases are food related.
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It was Dr Karen Becker from Mercola Animal. She's all about species appropriate diets. She's citing studies that have been done that show a possible correlation between breeds and diseases. Kind of like certain dog breeds are more apt to contract certain diseases than other breeds.
I know it was her article, but she wasn't the vet listing 5 diseases as the top 5 "genetic" diseases. That was Dr. Jerold S. Bell of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. I have no idea if he's into species-appropriate diet like Dr. Becker is. But I still say, and it's just my opinion, certain diseases are diet-related and not so much genetic. If you give a dog or cat a high-carb diet, the odds are pretty good they'll eventually be overweight and/or diabetic, no matter what breed they are. Again, just my opinion. Is it possible certain breeds will show those problems earlier than others? Sure. But give them a species-appropriate diet, and I strongly suspect they won't develop those conditions.
Just my 2cents.