Congratulations on the latest addition
to your family: a new kitten. Few things in life are as satisfying
as the loving companionship a new pet can provide. We also would
like to congratulate you for wanting to know more about protecting
the health of your kitten. Taking the time to learn all you can
about what's best for your pet is the first important step toward
a long, rewarding and healthy relationship. Most importantly,
it shows your commitment to be a responsible pet owner.
At no time is this relationship more
interesting, challenging and rewarding than during the first year
of your cat's life. It is a time when your cat will experience
rapid behavioral, physical and physiological change. From age
3 to 12 weeks, your new friend will begin to assume adult -characteristics
and learn to respond to its environment. It is the first time
your kitten is capable of learning specific lessons and a perfect
time to establish good litterbox habits, control furniture clawing
and urine spraying, and to introduce other household pets. Learning
is easy for kittens at this age and with positive reinforcement,
their lessons will quickly become committed to memory.
Many other changes occur as your kitten
grows. For instance, the antibodies received from its mother
to help protect against disease are soon replaced by the kitty's
own antibodies. For the immune system to develop correctly, and
for proper growth and development of muscles, bones and internal
organs, proper nutrition and veterinary care are required.
Veterinary care should begin as soon
as you get your new kitten. During your first appointment, the
veterinary health care team will plan a management program to
promote wellness throughout your kitten's life, and to identify
and modify any risks to its health. This is called Risk Factor
Management.
A risk factor is a condition or characteristic
that can cause illness or injury to your pet. Some risk factors,
like the inherited tendency of some breeds to acquire certain
diseases, cannot be eliminated but can be minimized by preventive
planning. Others, like overfeeding, which leads to too-rapid
growth, obesity and many other health problems, can be modified
or avoided all together. How well these controllable risk factors
are managed will help determine the length and quality of your
kitten's life.
Managing risk factors for pets is very
much the same in the field of human medicine. To reduce your
own risk of heart disease, for example, and to help you live longer,
your doctor might recommend that you lower your level of stress,
quit smoking, exercise more and pay closer attention to your diet.
Similar situations hold true for your pet.
Your veterinarian will be able to discuss
the risk factors for your kitten based on information that you
provide, the results of physical examinations and diagnostic studies,
and on basic knowledge of disorders that commonly affect kittens
of the same age, breed and sex.
Your role is just as important. In
fact, each member of the family needs to follow your veterinarian's
advice every day to keep your kitten in good health.
IDENTIFYING AND MANAGING THE RISKS
Although your veterinarian can identify
any risk factors that are unique to your kitten, the risks listed
here call affect most or all kittens. What you do at home, alone,
with the help of your veterinary heath care team will preserve
your kitten's wellness and create the potential for a long, healthy
life.
Throughout life, your pet should be
fed a nutritionally balanced, highly digestible food specifically
formulated for its age and life style. Feeding kittens
poor-quality foods of low digestibility may slow their growth
rate, cause poor muscle and bone development, and decrease
resistance to infectious disease. Table scraps and some pet foods
may also contain excesses of nutrients that could harm your pet
over time.
Proper nutrition, led in appropriate
quantities, is crucial to the healthy development of your kitten.
Excessive amounts of dietary minerals and foods that produce
an abnormal urine pH may increase the risk of urinary tract disease.
Never supplement a good kitten food with table scraps or other
food. Meat, fish, kidney and liver supplements can create dietary
imbalances and addiction to the wrong kinds of food. Long term
feeding of these supplements can cause severe skeletal disease.
The right diet is important at every
stage of a cat's life, but optimal nutrition for kittens helps
establish a pattern of wellness that will affect all the stages
that follow.
Optimal nutrition means providing the
right levels - no more and no less - of the nutrients that enable
your cat's vital organ systems to grow, especially the immune
and musculoskeletal systems. This requires the right balance
of high-quality proteins, calories, fatty acids, vitamins, minerals
and taurine. Just as important is the control of nutrient excesses.
Too much calcium and magnesium, for example, can cause signs
of urinary tract disease, and too many calories can cause your
cat to become overweight.
The idea of precisely balanced nutrient
levels from high-quality protein, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals
distinguishes Hill's HealthBlend "Kitten" brand kitten
food as one of the best foods available for healthy kittens. HealthBlend
"Kitten" was developed by veterinary nutritionists who
understand the needs of healthy kittens better than anyone. They
also understand the harm that nutrient excesses can cause. You
have their assurance that HealthBlend "Kitten" is not
only an optimal food for kittens in respect to growth,
but also one that helps manage the long-term risks to your kitten's
health.
Preserving wellness is a goal all of
us at All Creatures share with you. Your veterinarian understands
the risks to your kitten's health and how these risks can be reduced
or eliminated. Keeping your kitten healthy begins by identifying
those risks and then managing them. Regular checkups, professional
health care, routine exercise, and your own involvement through
home care are vitally important to your new pet's health. And
so is nutrition designed for your kitten's changing needs.
We hope that you will find this information useful. If you believe that our office can be of service to you in any way, please feel free to call.
David E. Hammett, DVM
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RISK FACTOR MANAGEMENT
THE ROLE OF PROPER NUTRITION
SUMMARY
G. Scott Russell, DVM
and the Staff of All Creatures Veterinary Clinic, PC