Thiamine (Vitamin B1) Deficiency
Thiamine plays a role in:
- Helping the body metabolise carbohydrates into energy
- Maintaining a healthy heart
- Maintaining a healthy nervous system
- Maintaining healthy brain function
Thiamine is found in:
- Bread
- Brewers yeast
- Legumes
- Liver
- Meat
- Milk
- Some Fruits and Vegetables
- Whole-grains
A lack of Thiamine may cause:
- Abnormal or spastic gait
- Anorexia
- Aggression
- Ataxia
- Bradycardia
- Cervical Ventroflexion (necks flexed/rigid, which causes an inability to raise the head, the chin rests near the chest)
- Circling
- Dilated Pupils
- Falling
- Head tilt
- Incoordination
- Loss of Righting Reflexes
- Opisthotonos (backward arching of the head, neck, and spine)
- Salivation
- Stupor
- Seizures
- Twitching
- The absence of thiamine can also lead to a buildup of lactate in the body and result in acidosis.
If a cat is fed a diet containing large amounts of raw fish
- Raw fish contains the enzyme Thiaminase
- Thiaminase destroys Thiamine
- Cooking destroys Thiaminase ( which protects the Thiamine)
- Also known as Preservative 220
- Pet food manufactures were limited to using Sulphur Dioxide as a preservative for many years
- Natural preservatives have been gaining popularity with the use of Citrus products
- Sulphur Dioxide inactivated Thiamine
- Pet food manufactures that use this as a preservative must monitor their products to ensure they contain adequate levels of Thiamine ( or hey.. why not just skip adding it in the first place?)
- It can be lose if cooked in water
- If you cook your cats food in water- use as little as possible
- Manufactures must monitor their products to ensure they contain adequate levels of thiamine to compensate for the loss during the cooking process
- Cheap or generic brands of cat food may not monitor the levels of Thiamine as carefully as some other brands would.
- Cheaper brands tend to use cheaper products - a natural preservative would not be cheaper.
- Do the math - poorly monitored levels of Thiamine in a food that probably contains sulphur dioxide.
- My personal belief is that cheaper brands contain cheaper products - these products may come to the manufacturer as what I would call 'bottom of the barrel' In order to ensure the food does not contain a plethora of bad - they cook the hell out of it. High heat can destroy Thiamine.
- Chances are - people buying the cheap brands are not reading the labels as much as the consumer who buys a higher cost cat food ( not always true, but the cheap companies are counting on the fact that people don't read the ingredients.)
- Speaking of ingredients. The food items that contain Thiamine are in low..very low quantities.
- There is not enough Thiamine in Corn ( guess your screwed Purina)
- Prolonged lack of appetite
- Diseases that cause malassimilation or malabsorption of nutrients
- Extensive surgical resection of jejunum and ileum
- Diuresis (excessive urination)
Cats require three times the amount of thiamine that dogs do, making
them especially sensitive to thiamine loss.
If you suspect your cat is experiencing a Thiamin(Vitamin B1) Deficiency- Get them in to see a Vet
- Keep tabs on any recalls
- Be an informed consumer
- Don't cheap out! It may cost you much more in the end
- If you are cooking your own pet food - make sure it meets your cats needs
- If you are feeding Raw - make sure you speak with someone who understands pet nutrition
- Don't assume you know what your pet needs - just because an animal in the wild would not need supplements- consider the fact that we have created this need over many many years of domestication ( and feeding poorly made foods )
- It is never to late to change foods!
- Try not to buy into the hype of a product
- Do not base your pet food choices on Marketing/ Commercials/ Fancy packaging ( consider the fact that these companies are spending huge amounts of money on marketing - instead of trying to improve their product )
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