Atopy/Sensitive

Food allergy
The treatment of food allergy consists of avoidance of the causative food allergen. Clearly, this principle holds for the cat as well (Cave, 2006, Verlinden et al., 2006). The dry form of SANIMED Atopy/Sensitive contains hydrolysed fish protein as sole source of animal protein. Through hydrolysis, the protein has been chopped into smaller fragments so that is not recognized anymore as antigen or allergen. The molecular size of the protein fragments is less than 10.000 Dalton. The two other proteins in SANIMED Atopy/Sensitive, rice protein and potato protein, do not cause food allergy in the cat (Roudebush et al., 2000).

The moist variant of SANIMED Atopy/Sensitive only contains salmon protein and potato protein as protein sources. There are no known cases that would indicate that the protein sources in the moist food of SANIMED Atopy/Sensitive have allergenic properties (Roudebush et al., 2000). SANIMED Atopy/Sensitive in either dry or moist form can be used in the management of food allergy.

Atopy
Atopic dermatitis can be treated by suppression of the chronic inflammatory reactions in the skin. Salmon oil is rich in eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and borage oil is rich in gamma-linolenic acid (GLA). The intake of EPA and GLA stimulate the synthesis of anti-inflammatory eicosanoids and thereby reduce the symptoms of skin inflammation This has been demonstrated in clinical research in the cat (Harvey, 1993a,b; Miller et al., 1993).

Colitis and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
For the dietary treatment of colitis and IBS in cats, it is recommended to use hypoallergenic, highly digestible proteins in combination with EPA (Davenport et al., 2000). In the pathogenesis of the two conditions, both food allergens and inflammatory reactions play a role. Research has shown that the clinical symptoms of cats with colitis diminish after the feeding of a diet with a single, hypoallergenic protein of animal origin (Nelson et al., 1984; Guilford et al., 2001).

Urinary pH
The negative base excess is identical for Sanimed Atopy/Sensitive in dry and moist form. Therefore, the urinary pH also is identical for the three Atopy/Sensitive foods; it is on average 6.4. At this pH, struvite will dissolve or not be formed. In addition, Sanimed Atopy/Sensitive is low in magnesium and has relatively low contents of phosphorus and protein. This means that Sanimed Atopy/Sensitive has anti-struvite activity. The risk of calcium oxalate urolithiasis is negligible because Sanimed Atopy/Sensitive is relatively low in both calcium and glycine (substrate for the synthesis of oxalate).