Folate Supplement For Cats

Folic acid deficiencies usually occur due to small intestinal disease or pancreatic insufficiency but can also occur due to chronic use of certain medications such as trimethoprim.

Folate supplement for cats. Folic acid supplementation is used in animals at risk for folate deficiency particularly animals with small intestinal disease or malabsorption. Folvite acide folique also known as folate or folacin is a b vitamin b9 used to treat folic acid deficiency in dogs cats horses and other animal species. Folic acid supplements are standard for pregnant women and women who plan to become pregnant. Therefore not all dogs and cats with intestinal diseases have abnormal test results.

What is folic acid. For example your cat may need a supplement if they have a medical condition that makes them unable to absorb a particular nutrient. Serum folate levels should be determined prior to therapy. Use of antibiotic medications for example may affect a cat s folic acid levels as these drugs are capable of killing the microbes responsible for proper synthesis.

However in instances cats just don t get enough of the vitamin. Folic acid reduces the risk for birth defects of a baby s brain and spine spina bifida and. In this case the cat would require injections of those two supplements as oral supplements won t be absorbed either. However not all intestinal diseases causing malabsorption of vitamins are sufficiently severe or long standing to deplete body stores of each vitamin.

Supporting normal serum cobalamin and folate levels in dogs and cats. Folic acid supplements sold for use in humans are readily available. Serum folate and cobalamin provide useful information that can contribute to the diagnosis of small intestinal si disease in dogs and cats decreased folate and or decreased cobalamin can be indicative of disease of the proximal and or distal small intestine si respectively reflecting the sites for the normal absorption of these vitamins. In some instances serum folate levels actually are increased due to bacterial synthesis of folate within the small intestine.

Folic acid brand names. We recommend a dose of 200 mcg for cats and smaller dogs 20 kg bw and 400 mcg for larger dogs 20 kg bw po once daily for 4 weeks. Folate supplementation recommendations can be found on the folate supplementation page. Small intestinal disease can cause an inability to absorb the b vitamins folate and cobalamine.