In a recent article, local veterinarian Pete Keesling was asked
about cats eating tuna fish. His response was that eating water
packed tuna in small quantities, as an occasional treat should be
safe; but oil packed tuna could be a problem due to steatorrhea
– fatty, foul smelling diarrhea.
In a recent article, local veterinarian Pete Keesling was asked about cats eating tuna fish. His response was that eating water packed tuna in small quantities, as an occasional treat should be safe; but oil packed tuna could be a problem due to steatorrhea – fatty, foul smelling diarrhea.
There is a bigger issue about cats, and other mammals eating raw fish. It is called thiaminase. Thiaminase is an enzyme that destroys thiamin (Vitamin B1). The result of this can be a condition called beri beri in people and similar symptoms occur in other mammals.
The symptoms can be loss of appetite, heart enlargement and dysfunction and muscular weakness leading to paralysis. The good news: It is a very rare disorder requiring the consumption of large quantities of thiaminase-containing fish or shellfish. Other good news is that cooking destroys the enzyme, making the fish safe to eat.
Fish that are known to cause these problems are primarily fresh water fish like the white bass, lake whitefish, bullhead catfish, buffalofish and goldfish, among others. Clams are also a powerful source of thiaminase.
Fish believed not to contain this enzyme include largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, bluegill and lake trout. There is a good Web site at www.austinsturtlepage.com/articles/thiaminase.htm describing the problem and listing many sources – fish and plant –of thiaminase. Horse owners need to be aware that horsetails (the plant) can induce this problem in their horses. See the article on thiaminases at the www.Cornell.edu Web site for more on thiaminases.
Another recent discussion related to the occurrence and diagnosis of hip dysplasia in dogs. Hip dysplasia is a very common developmental and degenerative disease of large breed dogs. It results in severe arthritis of the hips; always affecting both sides at once. The tendency to develop hip dysplasia is genetically transmitted. The expression of hip dysplasia as a disease is powerfully affected by diet and environment .
Dogs that are overweight will have much worse expression of the arthritis than dogs of normal weight. Dogs that spend a lot of time on hard surfaces, especially cement, will have much worse disease. Both of these impacts are caused by the added stress on the hip joints of the weight and hard surfaces.
The long-lived standard for diagnosing hip dysplasia is just as Dr. Keesling described. The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) has a network of Board Certified Veterinary Radiologists who look at X-rays taken of dogs hips at two years of age to diagnose hip dysplasia. This method has been used by breeders for many years in an attempt to reduce the genetic transmission of this painful and heartbreaking condition.
To be accurate, the X-rays must be taken with the dog completely anesthetized. The assessment of borderline cases is based on the depth of seating of the femoral head in the hip socket. When X-rays are taken with the dog awake, a deceptively good appearance can mislead people into thinking hips are OK when they are not. This is because the dog will naturally contract its muscles when we try to stretch it out, causing the femoral head to sit more deeply in the socket.
Anesthesia increases the cost of the diagnosis, but without anesthesia there is little value to a normal certification.
Sadly many breeders and some veterinarians are willing to take the X-rays without anesthesia, producing false good results. This is the main failing of the OFA method. Although OFA officially requires anesthesia for the X-rays, not everyone is honest.
There is another method of identifying hip dysplasia, which can be done on dogs as early as 16 weeks of age. It is considered more accurate than the OFA method, but has not caught on as broadly due to the training and equipment costs and the fact that it cannot be done without anesthesia.
The University of Pennsylvania developed the technique. It involves complete anesthesia and using a special tool to test the loosens of the hip joint. X-rays are taken and the looseness is measured, resulting in a scientifically sound way of determining the likelihood of hip dysplasia developing.
If you want to know earlier than two years of age if your dog is likely to develop hip dysplasia, this is the way to find out. To find a veterinarian trained in this technique, and to learn more about how it is done, go to the following Web site: www.pennhip.org.
