Low Sodium Cat Food for Your Pet’s Wellness
You might have come across some blogs or forums discussing how the low sodium cat food can help cats to manage the Cardiomyopathy. Is it true? How can sodium levels in cat food really affect your cat’s health? You will find out the satisfying answer here.
What is sodium in the cat food? Why is it significant?
There have been different arguments about the effects of the sodium levels in the cat food. Some researchers cardiac problem in feline can be because of the high sodium levels in cat food. Regardless of the fact, we can’t neglect that most of the canned cat food and dry cat foods consist of sodium. However, the sodium level can be different from one to another.
Sodium is the core mineral for many lives. Sodium is crucial to hydrate the body, maintain the nerve as well as muscle function. It is also the key to your cat’s flexibility and activity.
Sodium mostly consists of the canned and dry foods you can buy from the supermarket. But when you plan to make the cat food by yourself, you can easily find it from food sources like meat, poultry, fish, and eggs. Just like humans, cats also consider salt as an important plant for them. That’s why there’s always salt or sodium in any cat food products.
But just like any other food properties, taking too much sodium won’t come out good for your furry buddy. In the next point, we’ll explain the exact amount of sodium level, which is safe for your cat and how low sodium cat food can help with your cat cardiac problem.
What you need to know about low sodium cat food
The Sodium Level in the Cat Food
First things first, it is important to know the exact amount of the sodium level contained in the cat food. Based on the Association of American Feed Control Officials, the dry cat foods must contain at least 0.2% sodium for providing ample nutrition for the cats. This number is the minimum recommended level.
The thing about high sodium level is that it may procure side effects such as over-thirst, as well as increasing water intake. If your cat is healthy, you can rest assured that the high sodium level of the cat food is not the cause of any diseases. But there’s a restriction to consider. We’d like to explain it to the next point.
When your Cat Needs Low Sodium Cat Food
There is a restriction to consider when giving the cat foods with sodium. If your cats have some problems in their kidneys, liver, or heart, it is important to focus on low sodium cat food diet.
Your vet will precisely suggest the kinds of foods that are suitable for your cat. The importance of low sodium cat food is to decrease high blood pressure or to reduce body fluid. If your cats are suffering from those diseases, your vet will likely require the low sodium cat food or reduced-sodium diets.
The sodium is suitable for your cat’s health. Your vet can help you with the appropriate proportions with the minerals, fats, proteins, as well as carbohydrates.
What if Your Cats have Cardiomyopathy?
Perhaps it is a bit tricky to find out if your cats have Cardiomyopathy or not. To be sure, you will want to take your cat to your vet and find out the real diagnosis. To help your cats reducing the symptoms of Cardiomyopathy, you could do it by limiting the sodium intake.
For those who haven’t known, Cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart muscle. It causes heart weakening, reducing the blood flow through the heart. Your cat might not show some significant signs. But the most obvious symptoms that you can see, such as reduced appetite, difficulty in breathing, swelling, fatigue, and so on.
But you won’t be so sure until you take your cat to your vet to run a thorough diagnosis. In the common case, your vet will suggest you lower the sodium intake to manage the cardiomyopathy condition.
How Low Sodium Cat Food Can help Your Cats with Cardiomyopathy
The high levels of sodium can cause fluid retention. With the fluid retention, it causes a significant increase in the amount of blood of the heart you must pump. When your cat’s heart is hardly pumping such blood volume, the chambers of the heart will stretch in order to contain more blood.
But with the stretch does not mean the problem is solved. What happens is the muscle walls in the heart will get weaken over time. If it happens without any counter, it can lead to heart failure. That’s why your vet will generally suggest that you limit the sodium intake for your cats.
Giving low sodium cat food to your cat
If you are not planning to make the cat food by yourself, then you can look at the cat’s food label to see the sodium level in it. Look for good quality foods with a “no salt added” label. No matter what the brand, or how reputable it is, it won’t be an excellent option for your kitten if it does not have the label.
But if you are making the food by yourself, avoid foods with sodium as much as possible. Make the diet change over a daily basis, weekly, and so on. This periodical change will give enough time for your kids to try new foods and let you monitor his or her condition on a daily basis.
Verdict
Your cats might be fond of salty food, but it is not good for them. The common thing to consider is that you or other family members might feed your cats with human foods, which may consist of high levels of sodium. If your vet recommends you to restrict sodium, you will want to make sure that your cats will only get low sodium cat food on a daily basis to maintain its health.
