Home Articles Contact Us Donate

Houdini Makes a Comeback, Part 1

by Beverly Berwald
An acquaintance named Cat answered a cry for help and drove all the way to Whittier, California to a hoarder of over 60 felines; none of the cats had been spayed and neutered. This was late July 2007.

Cat left with a small pile of 11 emaciated kittens; except for three, they all perished in a matter of days. I took one of the lucky three, a little fella whose skeletal body was covered in a thin layer of fur; he had an upper respiratory problem I had to deal with immediately. My new kitten foster didn’t respond to the antibiotics. So I gave him lactoferrin (the product name on Allergy Research’s label is spelled Laktoferrin). Some years earlier, Dr. Pasternak had advised lactoferrin for my cat Sweet Pea whose upper respiratory infection dried up within a day. I’ve had good results with colostrum/lactoferrin not only with my indoor/housebound but also my feral cats; and my feline-loving friends have used lactoferrin for upper respiratory infections with their cats, having achieved the same success.
Houdini, now a healthy adult

Enhancing the Immune System

Regardless, I was sure this little guy would triumph over any adversity, so I named him Houdini and put him on lactoferrin twice a day—one capsule sprinkled and mixed into thumb size dab of wet food. After two days, the bacterial discharge in the corners of Houdini’s eyes cleared up and his nostrils opened; his breathing also greatly improved. I continued with the lactoferrin to fortify his immune system.
Laktoferrin by Allergy Research
Lactoferrin is found in colostrum, the first milk from a mother [in this case, cow] after giving birth; the immune factors transfer quite well to other species including cats and humans.

According to A.S. Naidu’s exhaustive volume Natural Food Antimicrobial Systems, the result of contributions from numerous scientists, lactoferrin “sequester[s] iron and limit[s] bacterial growth… [as to anti-viral activity, it] prevents the binding of rotavirus to susceptible…cells.”

Allergy Research’s Laktoferrin also contains lyzozyme which is found in the white of egg and has the ability to cut through the cell walls of certain bacteria (lyze means to cut through; zyme refers to an enzyme that also cleaves substances). According to A.S. Naidu, lyzozyme “may work together with specific antibodies to destroy bacteria at the mucosal surface.”

Nutritional Supplement to Boost Immune System

Though I sing the praises of a nutritional supplement, Laktoferrin by Allergy Research, when a cat is faced with a severe bacterial or viral challenge and their health needs to be quickly stabilized, always opt for emergency medicine: injectible and oral antibiotics. Timing is critical to saving the life of a compromised kitten. However, if one of your feral cats has an upper respiratory infection and you can’t trap him or her so easily for a visit to the vet – vets will not prescribe antibiotics for a cat they haven’t seen – then sprinkle the contents of Laktoferrin into a tablespoon of wet food. You don’t want to dilute the effectiveness of Laktoferrin by mixing it into a large scoop of wet food. So, please observe the maximum of 1 Tablespoon of wet food per capsule of Laktoferrin. Then repeat with all the feral cats. If one of the colony members has a bacterial or viral infection, they’re all exposed and hence, all members of that colony need to be pre-emptively treated. Again, I advise Allergy Research because I have repeatedly used their lactoferrin with consistently good results for the last 10 years; this company has a reputation for excellence; they make their formulas for doctors. I’m sure there are other manufacturers that are careful in the processing of lactoferrin, but I’ve not tried them. Hence, I can only recommend the above company with confidence. For a reasonably-priced reseller of Allergy Research Laktoferrin, you might like VitaCost. Part Two, Houdini takes a turn for the worse. I’ll share with you how this kitten hangs on for dear life, and the discovery that’s responsible for his pivotal turnaround.