Among all the indispensable substances to our pets’ life, one has got a particular importance in the cat: the taurine.
Its name derives from Latin taurus: bull, the first animal in which it was individuated.
This Amino acid is known in biology as Acid2_aminethansulfunic. It is synthetized by the liver and it partecipate as a free component to a lot of vital processes.
First of all it is a regulator of the cell volume and, combined to biliar acids, intervenes into the digestion of fats, in the cellular neurologica and electrolytic process like regularto of the haemostasis of calcium, in the capacity of contraction of the muscular fibers.
All the animals can produce the necessary taurine for their own activities except the cat who must assume it with food or with an adeguate synthetic integration.
The cat, being a carnivore animal, will not have problems of food if he lives free but, living in a strict contact with men, he can’t always nourish itself in a correct way and could be submit damages due to a lack of taurine.
When I say” not correct food” I refer to poor aliments, with low quality or even to vegetarian or vegan diets.
The patholgies that could appear for these serious deficieoncies are substantially two:
dilative cardiomyopathy
retinal atrophy
The first one, already described in a previous article of mine that I invite you to read, can be provoked, among the other causes, also by the deficiency of this Amino acid and it is a cause of weakening of the muscular cardiac fibers until their wearing out.
The sercond pathology consist of the tinning of the retina that causes blindness to our cat.
The commercial diets for cats are all balanced with the necessary addition of synthetic taurine.
I remind that the taurine is a water-soluble substance, therefore easily perishable so that both the preservation of meats in the refrigerating cells and the freezing of the cooking, greatly reduce their concentration.
All the industrial food got through the cooking, sterilization and dehydration will have to be integrated with the synthetic taurine and will keep thus nutritional values similar to the ones of natural origin.
A valid alternative, when the cat can not eat live preys, is the sporadic consum eating, once a week, of fresh controlled and safe meat.
The correct daily contribution has not been established yet, some nutrionists evaluate it between 35 and 240 mg a day, some other between 250 and 500.
Even if the cat should assume an excessive quantity there are not problems of any kind, since the surplus will be eliminated by the faeces.
To conclued, there are no problems if the cat mainly eats industrial food, if you always control that among the ingredients on the label the taurine appears, listed generally after vitamins.
If for some reasons you fear that our cat doesn’t assume the coorect quantity, we can resort to integrators with vitamin pastes, always under your veterinary’s suggestion.