Diet for a Cat With Heart Disease

The most common form of feline heart disease is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). According to the website Pet Education, muscles in the ventricles bulk up to the point that they reduce the ventricular chambers' capacity to pump blood, reducing the heart's output overall. This serious affliction can be helped with early detection and a smart diet.

Commercial Cat Foods

Although symptoms of HCM include decreased appetite, a healthy diet is one of the most important things for a cat afflicted with HCM. Often times, name-brand cat food is less nutritious than people think and it has been compared to humans eating a drive-through diet. Instead, pet nutritionists recommend buying brands such as Bench and Field, Natures Recipe and Wysong. These offer healthier alternatives to regular commercial food.

When buying commercial food for a cat with HCM, look for brands that have high taurine (an organic acid) and low to no sodium. Most dry commercial foods are high in salt, so check labels carefully. Purina has a special formula for cats called Purinas CV Cardiovascular for Cats; there's also Hills prescription Diet Feline h/d. Both can help contribute to a low-salt diet.

Raw Food Diet

Websites like Holisticat promote cat health by making sure felines are being fed properly. They suggest feeding felines a diet consisting mostly of meat, preferably raw. By feeding cats raw meat, they are not ingesting preservatives and ingredients that often come with a poor diet. Poor diet can lead to health problems, including HCM.

Because of cats' highly specialized diet, mostly protein and animal matter, Holisticat believes the ideal diet is made up of 95 percent animal sources. Rawfedcats.org proclaims that it part of a felines natural state to eat raw foods; after all, they are carnivores. Look for small prey such as chicken and rabbit, and Holisticat suggests varying from whole prey and chunks of raw meat. This high-protein diet can help cats with health problems and even deter them.

Supplements

Supplements can help cats with HCM. Holisticat recommends 500mg to 1,000mg of taurine supplements each day, depending on the size of the cat. Check with your veterinarian before administering any supplements to make sure the cat is not allergic to the supplement and that it will not react badly with prescribed medications.