Hyperthyroidism In Cats Diet Recommendations

Speak to your vet or an animal nutritionist about the best sources of these nutrients.

Hyperthyroidism in cats diet recommendations.

This means that in order for this diet to work your cat must eat the therapeutic diet exclusively and cannot eat any treats or supplements that might contain iodine and allow the thyroid gland to continue to make thyroxine. 13 for this reason cats with hyperthyroidism are at an increased risk for developing diabetes mellitus. Iodine levels in foods for cats with hyperthyroidism should be limited to 0 32 parts per million or less. Hills yd diet is iodine restricted.

But there are no other specific vitamins or minerals that a cat with hyperthyroidism needs. Hyperthyroidism can be managed through an iodine restricted prescription diet often without the use of other medical treatments. Increased metabolic activity often results in weight loss and loss of muscle mass so increasing your cat s protein intake will help him gain weight and rebuild muscle. Surprisingly despite the fact that nutritional factors and cat food likely has a role in the etiopathogenesis of this disease 1 there are only limited published recommendations about what to feed these cats.

By feeding yd and nothing else the body s production of thyroid hormone is reduced and for many cats this alleviates. Beef and poultry consumption leads to a lower risk of developing hyperthyroidism. Generally this means it s best to avoid animal poultry and fish by products along with any high protein plant ingredients like corn gluten meal and pea protein. By 4 weeks about 75 of hyperthyroid cat exclusively eating y d will have normal serum total t4 concentrations.

All cats require a protein rich diet but protein is particularly important for cats trying to recover from hyperthyroidism. Generally cats with overactive thyroid glands need a high calorie diet with enough fat and plenty of high quality animal based protein. However the effects of long term iodine restriction on a cat s health are still being studied. Ideally a hyperthyroid cat should eat a diet composed of 50 or more calories from protein.

Prescription diets for cats with hyperthyroidism. Next you need to increase the amount of healthy food or even base the entire diet exclusively on this. When making diet adjustments for a cat suffering from hyperthyroidism you first have to focus on the foods that need to be excluded from the diet. This is an interesting question because there is a food that is also a treatment for hyperthyroidism in cats.

Protein sources should be high quality and highly digestible. These cats should be fed a diet low 15 on a dry mater basis in carbohydrate content. Previous research has shown that hyperthyroidism in cats may lead to long lasting alterations of glucose tolerance and insulin secretion which may not be reversed following resolution of the thyrotoxicosis.