Esther Plantinga

The present study was conducted with privately owned dogs and cats to investigate whether a relationship exists between the dietary AGEs and the urinary excretion of AGEs, as indication of possible effective absorption of those compounds in the intestinal tract of pet carnivores. For this purpose, data were collected from both raw fed and dry proce...

The effects of different temperature and time conditions during retorting of canned cat food on physicochemical characteristics and palatability were examined. For this purpose, lacquer cans containing an unprocessed loaf-type commercial cat food were heated in a pressurised retorting system at three specified temperature–time profiles (113°C/232 m...

Conflicting results have been reported in the literature in terms of the usefulness of serological testing for IgG against food allergens in dogs with cutaneous adverse food reaction (CAFR). The aim of the present study was to evaluate the suitability of a commercially available IgG ELISA for identifying food allergens in dogs, by challenging dogs...

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between dietary Advanced Glycation Endproducts (AGEs) intake and urinary excretion in domestic cats. Spot urine samples and questionnaires were obtained from 54 adult healthy domestic cats, receiving either a primarily raw diets (AGEs free) or commercial heat-treated diets (AGEs containing)....

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between dietary Advanced Glycation Endproducts (AGEs) intake and urinary excretion in domestic cats. Spot urine samples and questionnaires were obtained from 54 adult healthy domestic cats, receiving either a primarily raw diets (AGEs free) or commercial heat-treated diets (AGEs containing)....

The knowledge on the influence of gastro-intestinal (GI) microbiota on the health status of humans and animals is rapidly expanding. A balanced microbiome may provide multiple benefits to the host, like triggering and stimulation of the immune system, acting as a barrier against possible pathogenic micro-organism, and providing energy and nutrition...

Domestic dogs diverged from grey wolves between 13 000 and 17 000 years ago when food waste from human settlements provided a new niche. Compared to the carnivorous cat, modern-day dogs differ in several digestive and metabolic traits that appear to be more associated with omnivorous such as man, pigs and rats. This has led to the classification of...

A practical approach to determine apparent faecal digestibility using privately owned dogs may be a useful tool in evaluating differences in nutrient digestibility between dogs with various life stages. The aim was to develop a simple method that would suit such studies using the whitening agent titanium oxide (TiO2) as an indigestible marker. Fort...

This study aimed to identify factors (season, animal and diet) contributing to the variation in urinary oxalate (Uox) excretion rate, Uox concentration and urine volume in healthy adult cats. A data set (1940 observations) containing information on Uox excretion rate of 65 cats fed 252 diets (i.e. each diet was fed to a group of 6 to 8 cats) with k...

In humans and rodents, dietary hydroxyproline (hyp) and oxalate intake affect urinary oxalate (Uox) excretion. Whether Uox excretion occurs in cats was tested by feeding diets containing low oxalate (13 mg/100 g DM) with high (Hhyp-Lox), moderate (Mhyp-Lox), and low hyp (Lhyp-Lox) concentrations (3.8, 2.0, and 0.2 g/100 g DM, respectively) and low...

The aim of this study was to determine possible differences in felinine excretion between domesticated cat breeds. For this purpose, urine was collected from a total of 83 privately owned entire male cats from eight different breeds in the Netherlands during the period of November 2010 till November 2011. In the collected samples, free felinine and...

Urine concentrations of oxalate and calcium play an important role in calcium oxalate (CaOx) urolith formation in dogs and cats, with high excretions of both substances increasing the chance of CaOx urolithiasis. In 17 CaOx-forming dogs, urine calcium:creatinine ratio (Ca:Cr) was found to be increased compared with healthy control dogs, whereas uri...

This paper reports the results of a cohort study and randomised clinical trial (RCT) in cross-over design. In the cohort study, the range of urinary oxalate (Uox) and calcium (Uca) excretion was determined within a sample of the Dutch population of dogs and cats, and dietary and animal-related factors associated with these urine parameters were ide...

The progressive increase in calcium oxalate uroliths reported in cats diagnosed with urolithiasis may partly be due to changes in nutrition. Since cats have a predominant mitochondrial alanine:glyoxylate aminotransferase 1 (AGT1) location, high carbohydrate intake may induce endogenous oxalate synthesis. This hypothesis was tested by feeding 12 adu...

Cats are strict carnivores and in the wild rely on a diet solely based on animal tissues to meet their specific and unique nutritional requirements. Although the feeding ecology of cats in the wild has been well documented in the literature, there is no information on the precise nutrient profile to which the cat's metabolism has adapted. The prese...

The prevalence of calcium oxalate (CaOx) uroliths detected in cats with lower urinary tract disease has shown a sharp increase over the last decades with a concomitant reciprocal decrease in the occurrence of struvite (magnesium ammonium phosphate) uroliths. CaOx stone-preventative diets are available nowadays, but seem to be marginally effective,...

Nutrition of the Rabbit, 2nd edn Edited by Carlos de Blas, Julian Wiseman 336 pages, hardback, £85. CABI Publishing. 2010. ISBN 978 1 84593 669 3 ![Figure][1] PROPER nutrition is important to ensure the optimum health and longevity of all rabbits, regardless of their function as house pets,

With domestication and urbanisation, cats have transformed from being hunting animals that eat protein-rich prey into more sedentary animals that eat a carbohydrate-rich diet. It was hypothesised that a high intake of dry cat food and a lack of physical activity may play a role in the development of feline type 2 diabetes mellitus. Information on d...

A retrospective study was carried out on the efficacy of seven commercial diets designed to be fed to cats with chronic renal failure. The median survival time of 175 cats that received conventional diets was seven months, whereas the median survival time of 146 cats given one of the seven diets was 16 months. The cats on the most effective of the...

A study was carried out to assess the qualitative risk of development of chronic renal failure (CRF) in young healthy, female cats as based on the content of arachidonic acid (AA) in plasma cholesteryl esters (CE) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) in adipose tissue. It has been suggested that the content of AA in CE should be <10% of total fatty acid...

The objective of this study was to compare renal diets for cats that are commercially available in The Netherlands. The diets were analysed and their composition compared with a guideline proposed by the authors. Special attention was paid to the fatty acid composition of the diets and the role of fatty acids in the progression of chronic renal fai...

The objective of this study was to compare renal diets for cats that are commercially available in the Netherlands. The diets were analysed and their composition compared with a guideline proposed by the authors. Special attention was paid to the fatty acid composition of the diets and the role of fatty acids in the progression of chronic renal fai...

Diets containing either fish oil or sunflower oil were fed to six healthy cats according to a cross-over design with feeding periods of 4 weeks. The diet with fish oil significantly lowered plasma butyrylcholinesterase activity. It is suggested tentatively that dietary fish oil could be of use in treatment and/or prevention of diabetes in cats

The question addressed was whether the fatty acid composition of plasma cholesteryl esters (CEs) in cats reflects the intake of fatty acids. Diets containing either fish oil or sunflower oil were fed to six healthy, adult cats in a cross-over trial. The dry cat foods contained approximately 18.5% crude fat, of which two-third was in the form of the...

The present study was carried out to ascertain whether linoleic acid intake and the content of this fatty acid in adipose tissue are correlated in cats. The linoleic acid intake, as estimated from a food intake questionnaire, was indeed correlated with the linoleic acid content of the abdominal body fat in 165 adult, female cats. A statistically si...