Where’s Troublemaker Calvin?

There’d been stories of Calvin’s behavior since he was a kitten. Extensive play didn’t reduce the hyperactivity, nor did separating diminish the edginess and aggression. After the elder cat in the home died, his owner became the target. Then it escalated to stalking.

 Aggression and the devastating results are all too common in our felines. Unearthing a cause or finding resolutions are challenging, but new information especially in regard to feline diets is presenting encouraging results. In discussing Calvin’s history, his owner explained he’d always been indifferent to food and often when he did eat, it didn’t stay down. Two years ago, when the senior cat was placed on a low-protein diet, the veterinarian suggested it for Calvin as a preventative even though Calvin was only nine at the time and showed no signs of kidney disease.

 While there is growing controversy with the use of low protein diets for cats with kidney disease, there is no evidence supporting their use to prevent the development. In fact, growing evidence supports the overuse of grain proteins in feline diets is contributing to the rise of the many diseases that plague our cats: diabetes, obesity, pancreatitis, and yes, kidney disease to name a few.

 To understand what this has to do with Calvin, we need to remember cats are obligate carnivores-an animal whose body relies on readily available nutrients found only in animal tissue. Cats evolved to use proteins and fats for energy and in fact have very little if no use for carbohydrates. Humans and dogs can use carbohydrates from plants for energy, yet in excess are often inflammatory.  Imagine the inflammation these ingredients can trigger in your carnivore cat, whose bodies are not designed to handle loads of carbohydrates?  Inflammation can affect the body physically, such as urinary tract disease, as well as emotionally, often showing up in cats as aggressive behavior.

 With the low protein diet-which is at least 60% grains, Calvin was being fed high levels of carbohydrates, and not receiving the more bioavailable proteins and fats his body demanded. Calvin’s chronic vomiting was a signal of indigestibility of the food. His reaction to inadequate nutrition was hyperactivity, hyper-vigilance escalating into aggressive behavior. To counter the overload of grains and carbohydrates, quality moderate to high protein, low carbohydrate canned foods were introduced and the dry was rationed. With the introduction of the canned food, his owner noticed a better appetite plus his food stayed down more.

 After two weeks of primarily canned food, the dry was removed and vomiting stopped almost entirely. Calvin still preferred to sit just out of reach from his owner, but was no longer as hyper vigilant and allowed her to pet him a few times. While the option was to continue with diet only, a Traditional Chinese Herbal formula was added for several weeks to soothe tension and harmonize digestion. Two months following treatment, his owner is asking where is Calvin. Edginess and aggressive behavior are minimal, he’s not stalking-except in play, and has even been known to stretch out in bed with his humans . . .on his terms of course!

 @Copyright 2009: Terri Grow, PetSage, Inc