Too little vitamin E is a common health risk to your cat.
Your cat needs vitamin E more than many other types of pets because the oily tuna so many cats love to eat contains little of the nutrient responsible for normal body functioning, according to the 2006 Textbook of Veterinary Nursing by Victoria Aspinall. Questions arise over just how much E to give your cat because, unlike other vitamins, E is stored inside the body as fat, so there could be too much of a good thing, according to Pet Education.
Vitamin E
This vitamin is one of six key substances essential for important bodily functions, like fat metabolism and the formation of cell membranes, according to Doctors Foster and Smith of Pet Education. It is fat-soluble, so the vitamin can build up in your body, unlike water-soluble vitamins that are only stored in tiny amounts. Nevertheless, Foster and Smith report there is no evidence to show that this vitamin builds up so much in cats that it is harmful or deadly, though too much vitamin A and D can be toxic to cats.
Deficiency
Though Foster and Smith report that vitamin E, even at huge levels, isn't toxic to your pet cat, your cat can have far too little of the vitamin---a common and dangerous problem, according to Aspinall. Cats have a propensity to this problem because they eat a lot of canned, fishy food that is packed with a lot of oil---high in polyunsaturated fats but low in Vitamin E found in seeds, cereal grains and plant oils.
Symptoms
When your cat doesn't get enough vitamin E he may act lethargic and depressed and lose his appetite, according to "Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats," developed by the National Research Council in 2006. In addition, the report found that cats that were fed high amounts of oily fish with little Vitamin E suffered an enlarged spleen and had problems with blood clotting. Another common problem, according to the Merck Veterinary Manual, is steatis---inflamed fatty tissue in cats accompanied by fever and pain in the chest and abdomen.
Recommendation
Your pet should get at least 30 international units (a measurement equivalent to roughly 6.7 milligrams) of vitamin E daily, according to a 2002 American Society for Nutritional Sciences report. The report also stresses that the amount of vitamin E your pet should consume depends a lot on his diet; those cats that eat substantial oily fish should have three to four times more vitamin E than their counterparts who consume less E-sapping fish oils.
Sources
The good news is that, according to the non-profit Consumer Wellness Center, which analyzed nearly 500 popular pet food products in the U.S., about 95 percent contained vitamin E, used in the form of an antioxidant to preserve the food. Vitamin E also naturally occurs in foods like soybean oil, broccoli and sunflower oil, according to the National Institutes of Health. These foods are also among the most common in pet foods, according to CWC.
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