I am wondering if anybody gives their cats supplements or has read about any that are really good. I have a cat with leukaemia and I really want to keep her as healthy as possible for as long as possible. She has Royal canin food, wet food once or twice a week and the occasional meal of fresh chicken or fish. I have heard about garlic being a good preventer of cancer, would a garlic tablet be of any benefit? I'm not sure if it would have the same potency. Also I'm wondering if a conditioning tablet would help or whether they are just marketing ploys.

I also have an elderly cat (16) who has arthritis. He is on Royal Canin 12+ and gets a lot of fresh salmon, coley, chicken and prawns. I started giving him a glucosamine/chondroitin supplement a month or two ago but have seen no noticeable improvement. I saw a big difference when I changed his food from supermarket to super-premium, so I wonder if the tablets are not having any effect. Is there anything I can give him (over the counter or from the vet, I don't mind) that would be likely to make a difference for him, without adversely affecting his kidneys.

Thanks very much in advance

Hi Katherine,

Sorry to hear about the leukaemia. What treatment is she on? Definitely not a garlic supplement since both it and onions ( even in small quantities ) can cause a dangerous form of hemolytic anaemia, the last thing you need! Since immune system is lower in cases like this you need to concentrate on supplements which boost this. Salmon oil would be good as it's an antioxidant for one thing. Also minimising exposure to viruses etc. There's a recent link for it somewhere! However any supplements you buy in pet-shops are unlikely to be of any benefit.

Re the glucosamine, believe it can take longer to achieve any measureable results.

I don't want to steal any thunder here, just jump on the bandwagon, because I've been thinking the same things lately since Henry was diagnosed with hyper-T. Are there any supplements that would be good for him especially and for the rest of them generally? Gwennie gets terrible dandruff this time of year, so I've been considering the salmon oil especially for her, and I guess it wouldn't hurt any of them?

__________________
My babies
Aber, Ragnar, Kelso (the corgi trio), Daisy (our rescue mystery-mix puppy), Ellie, Henry, Gwennie, Jezebel (the kitty quartet), Blake, Chaucer, Molly and Milton (the kittens), and Bingo the African Grey parrot

Over the Bridge:
Pippin: 1/6/08-17/5/11
Freja: 11/8/10-30/10/10
Kirby: 11/8/10-1/11/10

"Praise liberty/The freedom to obey/It's a song that strangles me/Well, don't cross the line" Billie Joe Armstrong

Actually Dagny if he's hyperT especially then he would benefit from B12 shots or tablets. I read some time ago that a lot of older cats were found to be deficient, most especially HT ones. How is the stabilising going?

He's due back at the vet for a 2nd blood test in about 1 1/2 weeks. She wanted to wait an entire month, although most everything I've read since the diagnosis points to 3 weeks. She's not the main vet at the practice--she's new, and we're not terribly impressed so far, so when he goes back, we want to see the "real" vet and talk about other possibilities.

He seems to have gained a wee bit of weight. At least his spine isn't quite so knobby between his shoulders, and from the side his back legs don't look quite so thin, although from above, his waist is still very waspy. I'm just a little worried as yesterday I saw him jump off the counter and the way he landed made me think his legs were a little weak. I haven't seen anything like it since, so it might have just been a bad jump, and that I'm overly worried about him.

I'm wondering if I should get him some more goat milk to drink--he absolutely loves it. And I've been giving them a little raw chicken the last few days and he adores that too--also he ate 5 raw shrimp at a single sitting the other day. I'm definitely going to look into getting him some B12 too, then--thanks!

__________________
My babies
Aber, Ragnar, Kelso (the corgi trio), Daisy (our rescue mystery-mix puppy), Ellie, Henry, Gwennie, Jezebel (the kitty quartet), Blake, Chaucer, Molly and Milton (the kittens), and Bingo the African Grey parrot

Over the Bridge:
Pippin: 1/6/08-17/5/11
Freja: 11/8/10-30/10/10
Kirby: 11/8/10-1/11/10

"Praise liberty/The freedom to obey/It's a song that strangles me/Well, don't cross the line" Billie Joe Armstrong

Thank you very much, I'm so glad I asked about the garlic! I will give the salmon oil a go. She isn't on any treatment - the vet and the rescue centre we got her from just said to keep her indoors, keep her on a good quality, high protein diet and keep high standards of hygiene and to watch her health. I was worried about her breathing a few weeks ago (luckily the noise that was worrying me has cleared up now) the vet said if any tumours were to develop there wouldn't be any point in treating as it would likely only come back and be a great deal of stress for her. Is there any treatment that might be beneficial?

Sorry to hear about your boy with the hyperT.