Charlie & Cloe
By Catherine Haug, Feb 4, 2018 (photo of my cats, right, by me)
This was originally published on my recipe blog, Cat’s Kitchen.
It is generally known that heavy metals are toxic; metals such as mercury, aluminum, cadmium, lead, arsenic and free-iron. There is a common ingredient present in most pet foods that can be very damaging to the health of your dog or cat, even though it is present in very minute amounts: sodium selenite (NaSeO3). It may be toxic to blood, kidneys, liver, skin, central nervous system of your pet.
Selenium is an essential mineral for most animals, but only when it is present in “organic” forms (meaning it is chelated by proteins or amino acids), such as that in selenium yeast (a form of nutritional yeast that has been grown on selenium). In “inorganic” forms which are typically salts (e.g., sodium selenite), it can be quite toxic, even in very small quantities. Also, as counter-intuitive as this sounds, it is a truth: the smaller the concentration of toxic selenium, the greater the harm because small concentrations mimic hormones, especially estrogen.
NOTE: If you take (or give to your pet) a multi-vitamin, multi-mineral, or specific mineral supplement that contains sodium selenite, stop using it and find a safer brand. For example, a widely used supplement that contains this toxic ingredient is Centrum.
See also: Miscellaneous & Information Menu (scroll down to “Pets”) on my Cat’s Kitchen blog. (more…)