if the dog does not have a documented taurine or carnitine deficiency although the cost of carnitine supplementation may be viewed as prohibitive by some cats dilated cardiomyopathy is also a disease affecting some cat breeds, including the oriental shorthair, burmese, persian, and abyssinian. in cats, taurine deficiency is the most common cause of dilated cardiomyopathy. as opposed to these hereditary forms, non-hereditary dcm used to be common in the overall cat population before the addition of taurine to commercial cat food. other animals there is also a high incidence of heritable dilated cardiomyopathy in captive golden hamsters (mesocricetus auratus), due in no small part to their being highly inbred. the incidence is high enough that several strains of golden hamster have been developed to serve as animal models in clinical testing for human forms of the disease.