Mineral deficiency?? Color change...

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JenM

JenM

Member Since 2013
Sorry I haven't posted much in Health lately - we've been over in Lantus Land. Still trying to regulate good ol' Tink.

I have a non-Lantus question though. I'm noticing increasing redness in Tink's normally black fur. I wouldn't think much of it, except I also raise goats - and in goats, reddening of a black-furred goat is a sure sign of mineral deficiency. So I'm just curious if this applies to cats as well.

When we did Tink's blood panel back in early August, it showed somewhat low potassium, but I don't know that it covered many other minerals. In goats, copper is a big cause of reddening hair, but it can also be zinc and selenium, and probably others. Anyway... just curious if this is just a "goat thing" or if it might be something to dig further into with Mr. Tink.

He's eating Wellness so I'd assume he's getting what he needs... but with him being unregulated for several months now (going on 4mo), I know he's not getting to USE everything he's consuming.

Thoughts?

I know the coat changes this time of year too... but Tink has always gotten some smoky colored winter growth (and it's not cold here yet, in fact it's unseasonably warm still) - not red. And this is pretty much all over his body - not in the areas I usually see the lighter color appear. In his pic (my avatar) you can see how smoky he USED to get - this has become less noticeable as he's aged. But the red is a new thing this year. And it seems to be getting a lot more noticeable lately.
 
Rusting fur in black cats can be a sign of a tyrosine deficiency. Saoirse's fur was badly rusted at diagnosis. A few weeks ago she started shedding like a mad thing (and she's never been a sheddy cat). All her new fur is growing back beautifully black.

Have you had Tink's B12 evaluated? Is there a possibility that he could have malabsorption issues? Saoirse's coat really started improving since she started on her course of B12 injections. Also, there's fish oil in the food she's eating and that seems to have helped her coat condition, too.
 
I dont think B-12 was evaluated. Nor tyrosine... assuming that's something else. I did a "full blood panel"... but I'm thinking it wasn't as "full" as I thought it was. :sad:

I DO have a "free semi-annual checkup" that I can use, so I might ask the vet about both of those - and the discoloration in general.

Thanks!
 
Awesome, thanks! My other black cat shows a hint of reddening sometimes, but mostly just noticeable in the sunlight. Tink, on the other hand, has turned almost chocolate on the lower half of his body... so something seems off. I'll definitely look into it.
 
"Lack of the enzyme tyrosine is also related to the gray hair both humans and cats get as we age"... huh. Maybe me and Tink BOTH need this enzyme! :lol:
 
um ... Tyrosine is the amino acid, tyrosinase is the enzyme which can break it down. Many enzymes end with "ase", like lipase which breaks down fat.
 
Hmm... interesting. That makes me question the article's validity a bit. I did notice all their "sources" were actually the same university... though I think it's a well respected one for animal medicine (at least I've heard of it before, lol).

I'll definitely be doing some more research though - and asking my vet about it. Just makes me think SOMETHING is missing or not being absorbed properly. Even in regular light (ie. not sunlight), it's gotten rather obvious.
 
What were the kidney (creatinine and BUN) blood values/
What was the urine specific gravity?
Low blood potassium is one symptom of kidney deficiency.
Also, black four turning brown happens with age and sunlight.
 
BUN/UREA was 20mg/dL (with the range being 16-36)... so lowER... but not low.
BUN/CREA (which I would assume is what you're looking for) was 14, but no range is given as to what it SHOULD be.
Potassium was 3.8mmol/L (with the range being 3.5-5.8) so again, not super low... but definitely on the lower end of the range.
This blood work was done just over a month ago.

His urine specific gravity was 1.030. At the time he had "TRACE" blood/hemoglobin, and negative for protein & glucose. I'll get the other data up on his labs chart (on his SS). His UA was back on May 29th, so it's not terribly current at this point.

Tink has age against him (11yrs old) to an extent... but sunlight shouldn't be much of a factor. He's strictly an inside kitty. He does sit in the window a lot, but the windows get minimal direct sun during the summer, due to a very large tree. Also, the browning is on the lower parts of his body, haunches, sides... not the top, which I would expect more from sun-fading.

Not ruling it out... just doesn't seem like a likely cause.
 
When Saoirse was an indoor/outdoor cat her fur used to lighten in the summer months, but her winter coat would grow back black again.

My previous vet insisted that Saoirse's rusted fur was down to her age. Maybe that's an absolute for cats older than Saoirse (she's 14). All I know is that all the new growth is as black as one could wish for (apart from her 3 white blazes on her chest and tum). Her coat is starting to look healthier and feel softer than it has in years. In terms of condition, there's a striking contrast inbetween the new growth and the last of the old coat that remains to be shed.
 
Knowing how important nutrition is in the human body - and how food alone can, in some cases, do the same thing as Western medicine (or better)... I really don't doubt that nutrition is at least a part of this. Although I'd think Tink's nutrition is adequate given that I feed a very high quality food (with a price tag to match), I still feel this is highly likely since I doubt if Tink is absorbing all the goodness that he could be, due to him being unregulated for so long. Until recently, his coat was looking markedly more healthy than it had been a year or two ago. He had been starting to show his age, prior to diagnosis - but now I wonder how much of that was actually the FD.

Last time (decades ago) when I switched my cats from "mass market" food to Wellness (and Felidae and Wysong back then - and these were all dry - but still so much better quality than the previous kibble), I noticed HUGE changes in both their appearance being more healthy, but also in my "old" cats acting like 2yr olds again. It was amazing. However, at some point - years later - I started trying to shrink my bills a bit and cat food was an easy area to reduce costs. I continued to read labels and buy quality food - but labels can be misleading since you dont know the quality of the ingredients - just the name of them.

Anyway... given that the reddening is rather new and significantly worsening as he continues to be unregulated (and was NOT as apparent when he was OTJ) I have no doubt that there is either a nutritional cause, a physical cause, or both. I do not believe it is simply his age or sunlight. His age is only marginally different than it was 6mo ago when I was not seeing this, nor have I seen it in any of the prior 11 summer/fall seasons. His exposure to the sun has not changed. I am not saying these two components couldnt' have any part... but I dont feel that they are the primary causes. I think this is something that has come on more suddenly and therefore must have a (hopefully reversible) cause.

I appreciate everyone's thoughts and suggestions. All of them give me great places from which to start doing more research.
 
Both Saoirse's and Lúnasa's coats have improved with the better nutrition, but I think in Saoirse's case the B12 injections have been critical to her improvement (since it helps the body to utilise nutrients properly).

I'm actually really miffed about our previous vet's habit of putting all of Saoirse's ills (including her poster-perfect presentation for a diabetes Dx) down to either age or stress. Neither have proved to be true. Even with the ongoing pancreatitis problems, Saoirse is starting to look healthier and younger by the day now that she is getting decent nutrition and the treatment necessary to help her body utilise it.

I forgot to mention in my first post on this thread that tyrosine is involved in healthy thyroid function. Iodine levels are significant, too.

I wish you all the best in getting Tink back to black. It would be great to hear how you get on.
 
The article is correct in the issues about microminerals. Copper deficiency can cause depigmentation in fur or hair in many mammals (including humans, although I have only seen it in rare cases). The problem that we come into with cats and dogs is that we don't have easy ways to test for this. Even in humans, laboratory tests for deficiencies in zinc aren't always reliable and they are expensive, for example. Then, we have the issue of how much do we supplement and how long because we don't want to overdose and we don't want to accidentally cause a deficiency of something else. Zinc, copper and iron are all toxic minerals at certain levels. With people, there are established upper limits for dosing and repletion. We have guidelines for how long to supplement zinc to prevent resulting copper deficiency. In animals, the feeding guidelines are percentages of diet. I've tried to find upper limits before with no success, because I was concerned about vitamin D and vitamin A in my dog's fish oil supplements. (Upper limits are maximum daily safe doses of vitamins and minerals.)

There could be multiple possibilities to explain the color change - age, underlying disease, nutrition. I'd agree with another poster that trying a higher quality diet is a good place to start. It doesn't have to be the most expensive food but you do want to choose a food with meat protein as the first ingredient. This will also give your cat more bioavailable minerals (like heme iron, etc), which are more easily absorbed by the body.
 
You might discuss a general multivitamin & mineral supplement with your vet.
I believe Pet-tinic (spelling?) is one.
 
Tink already has a very high quality diet so I'm not sure how I could improve on that, except via supplements. Previously, he spent his life on kibble... but it was good quality kibble (though I now know that still has it's issues). At least 3 of the 1st 5 ingredients have always been meat (and meat has always been the first ingredient). I've always fed corn-and-by-product-free diets. Since diagnosis almost a year ago, he was removed from kibble. I now feed Wellness grain free canned. Again, primarily meat based - and as high a quality food as I can afford to feed 4 cats. Two flavors I feed have 4/5 ingredients as animal proteins - the third flavor is 5/5. I could consider switching just him to one of the all-meat diets... but I'm not terribly convinced they're any healthier. I do wish there was more readily available (and indisputable) information on cat nutrition. It seems every article out there has another stating the opposite is true.

My other cats have shown marked improvement in their coats since switching to Wellness. Including my other pure black cat who is the same age (almost exactly) as Tink. This leads me to believe that it's an absorption issue with Tink - though ECID so that's not necessarily true.

I'll definitely bring it up with the vet. I've never felt able to do that before as my vets always pushed the rx diets, which are loaded with things I've never wanted to feed my animals. But my current vet seems to "get it" - and at least one of them (it's a clinic with multiple vets) also feeds Wellness. They have been very supportive in my feeding routine and never once tried to get me to buy rx food as a primary diet. They use it for short term feeding to address specific issues (such as when my dog had parvo and extreme GI issues because of it - though even then, we returned it because she wouldn't eat it).

I'm certainly open to ideas on how to improve his diet... but it's already very high quality.
 
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