How Old is. Your Cat? This question, typically rephrased as, How long will my cat (or dog, horse, chinchilla, etc.) live, is something veterinarians hear on a daily basis. Of course, nobody can tell you how long a particular individualâs life span will be, but statistics can give us a general idea of what to expect.
Nutritional iron deficiency is the biggest cause of anemia worldwide, and itâs a problem is some segments of the United States. For folate or vitamin B12, itâs much less common to be deficient.
There are three main types of anemia: that due to blood loss, that due to decreased red blood cell production, and that due to increased red blood cell breakdown. Causes of blood loss include trauma and gastrointestinal bleeding, among others. Pernicious anemia is caused by a lack of intrinsic factor, which is required to absorb vitamin B 12 from food. 2  A lack of intrinsic factor may arise from an autoimmune condition targeting the parietal cells (atrophic gastritis) that produce intrinsic factor or against intrinsic factor itself.