Causes and Types of Cat Anemia

1 Causes and Types of Cat Anemia

Causes of Cat Anemia

1. A monotonous daily diet, long-term hunger, or irregular feeding leads to poor nutrition and anemia.

2. Parasite infection: long-term biting by external parasites such as fleas and lice causes blood loss; blood parasites such as Babesia (piroplasm) also cause anemia by destroying many red cells, and as anemia worsens it can affect whole-body cells and organs and trigger other inflammation.

3. Diseases such as feline leukemia, feline immunodeficiency virus, and kidney failure also cause anemia.

4. Heavy bleeding from injury, surgery, or birth easily causes anemia; wound infection leading to sepsis causes systemic bacterial infection and also anemia.

5. Congenital bone marrow disease prevents the cat from making enough red blood cells, causing anemia.

6. Poisoning from eating onions, poisoned dead mice, or rodent bait can cause hemolytic anemia.

Types of Cat Anemia

Different causes work differently, and anemia is generally split into regenerative and non-regenerative.

Regenerative anemia is mainly caused by three things:

1. Blood loss: bleeding from injury, surgery, tumors, clotting disorders like thrombocytopenia, chronic bleeding from gut inflammation or abdominal/urinary tracts, and blood loss from fleas and other external parasites.

2. Hemolysis: red-cell parasites (Bartonella), immune-mediated destruction, neonatal isoerythrolysis, onion poisoning, rodenticide poisoning, and chemicals (acetaminophen, phenol, etc.) that lower liver function.

3. Increased blood volume in local vessels: splenomegaly (enlarged spleen).

Non-regenerative anemia is mainly caused by two things:

1. Intramedullary: tumors of the blood-forming organs, myelodysplasia, myeloid or extramedullary proliferative tumors, and poor red cell formation (lack of vitamin B12, folic acid, iron, copper, amino acids, and vitamin B6).

2. Extramedullary: chronic inflammatory disease (such as feline infectious peritonitis), chronic kidney disease, tumors, malnutrition or starvation, panleukopenia, leukemia, and feline immunodeficiency virus.

If anemia appears, take the cat to a veterinary hospital promptly to determine the type and cause, then plan treatment. Most diseases that cause anemia have other serious complications, and delay can make it worsen fast, even killing the cat.