If your cat is in poor health from a long term chronic illness, or is in a weakened state due to injury or recent surgery, many veterinarians are recommending supplements containing transfer factors. These are immune boosting molecules that may help your cat fight off disease.

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

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

In a healthy immune system, foreign invaders, such as bacteria, are recognized and the body mounts a defense against them. Certain specialized cells are called on to attack the invaders. When the invader is defeated, the attack is called off. This is a proper immune response.

On occasion, the immune response doesn’t play out as expected. A cat with a compromised immune system has trouble defending against invaders and will more easily become ill. In conditions such as feline leukemia virus (FeLV) or feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), the immune system is weakened and doesn’t cope well.

If the immune system gets confused, it may not know when to shut down, or it may identify healthy tissue in the body as foreign and attack it. This is what happens in an autoimmune disease, such as forms of arthritis. Essentially, the body attacks itself.

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.

You should check with your veterinarian before adding any supplements to your cat’s diet. If you’re interested in boosting the immune system of your cat with transfer factors, check with your veterinarian first to make sure there are no problems with it.