There are a number of supplementation products designed to enhance your cat’s health. One such product contains an immune boosting component known as transfer factors. If your cat is in ill health from an immune system disorder, a long term chronic illness, or is in a weakened state due to a recent surgery or injury, many veterinarians are saying these products may help.

What are transfer factors? In order to understand the concept, it’s necessary to understand a bit about the immune system of your cat. Transfer factors are small protein molecules that are part of this immune system.

All mammals, including cats and humans, have an immune system that protects their bodies from illness.

In a healthy immune system, the body recognizes and attacks foreign invaders, such as bacteria or fungi. This is known as an immune response. Specialized cells attack the invaders and destroy them, and then the attack is called off.

Sometimes, however, things don’t go quite right with the immune response. For example, in cats with certain conditions, such as feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), the immune system is compromised and has trouble defending the cat’s body against invaders. This is the feline version of HIV-AIDS, and causes the immune system to under perform.

In other cases, the immune system is misdirected and doesn’t shut itself off when it should. In autoimmune diseases, such as many forms of arthritis, an immune response is mounted against the body’s own tissues.

How do transfer factors work? Transfer factors act as messengers, alerting your cat’s body to the presence of foreign invaders. These proteins also modulate an overactive immune system. Essentially, they call the immune system to action, and then call off the attack at the appropriate time.

The balancing or modulating effect that transfer factors have make them essential to proper immune system function. This means that they can be used on cats with compromised immune systems, as well as those with autoimmune diseases like arthritis.

Combining the immune modulating power of transfer factor with nutrition beneficial to overall cat health, dietary supplements are available for your cat.

There are a number of veterinarians using homeopathic techniques, and some have added products containing transfer factor to their recommendations. If you’re interested in boosting the immune system of your cat with transfer factors, check first to ensure your vet is open to the idea, and that there are no negative interactions.