Cat losing weight - down one pound.

[Senoska]

Hey everyone.

Cat in question:


So. My cat use to weigh 8 pounds and was really fat. She started to lose a lot of weight really fast. She is down to 7 pounds in the matter of 3 months, and is basically skin and bones right now. All her bones I can feel and they're right up on the skin.

I got her into a vet and the vet said she looks fine except for the weight loss which is really abnormal. There are no signs of emaciation (sp?). He said she might have something called hyperthyroidism, however, its not entirely consistent with her symptoms.

She eats, but refuses to touch her dry food. She'll only eat wet food now. The vet said she was digesting fine, but I havent seen any poop in her box for two days. On top of that, she is only 5 and usually older cats have this problem.

So I'm out of ideas. I need to fatten her back up but she's only eating wet food and it looks like she is still losing weight. What could be causing this and what can I do to get her fatter?

Thanks.

[Vandole]

so if i'm reading this right the vet says she's fine and she's just being picky about her food.


feed the bitch wet food, and watch her gain the weight back.

/thread

edit: have you tried hitting it with a water bottle

[Senoska]

Nah. Something is abnormal. When the vet says she is fine, that is without blood tests, just looks healthy, but noted that the weight loss was very abnormal. He wanted $270 to do blood tests, and I just dont have that right now. On top of that, the treatment for this issue is chemotherapy, which I cant afford. So the vet really offered me nothing other than she looks and feels fine, but something is wrong.

[Byrthnoth]

cat diabeetus.

[Vandole]

hit it with a water bottle.

[Senoska]

This is a serious thread, Vandole. I'm worried about my cat. To me, if I dont reverse this trend, I dont see her being around much longer. She is losing a ton of weight.

[EternityEnd]

hit it with a water bottle.

No, he should hit it with this:

Spoiler: show

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ls...mav8o3_250.gif

it's about the size of a water bottle and its contents are probably just as voluminous.

alternatively, he could hit himself with that in ear.

[Ksandra]

Believe it or not, vandole is on the right track if you can't afford blood tests. Try to start feeding her wet food as much as possible. It could be something as simple as weak teeth which, while uncommon, can happen at a younger age. My parent's cat has always had weak/thin teeth and is about 7 and started losing weight fast. They switched to fancy feast and fed her constantly and shes a happy fatty kitty now. It seems like it just hurt to eat the dried food.


Only other thing is, do you noticed her urine being normal? no blood right?

[Cleverness]

Spray it with a water bottle, then hit it.

[Niiro]

Unless you believe your cat to be the reincarnated feline Ghandi, it's not gonna starve itself to death.

Either it's sick and it's gonna die or it's being pissy and has to get used to the food it's given.

Spoiler: show

have you tried feeding it a water bottle

[Koul]

mebbe she's got tape worms. or feline AIDS. no idea. I'd just pump her full of wet food. Can always go to a different vet and get a 2nd opinion. That vet might be a moran

[Anton]

It it's an older cat, it's possibly hyperthyroidism. Does your cat:
-Eat irregularly, sometimes very little, sometimes eat like crazy
-Get hyperactive or meow alot
-Losing weight

My cat has it. You have to coat the cat's inner ear with a type of gel that absorbs into skin and chills the thyroid down. Sounds like shit but it comes in a syringe-vial and you can just Q-tip it. Pretty easy cure if your cat gets it.

[aduidarnenye]

If you can't do the blood tests then the vet probably has the best opinion on what is going on. You're certainly not going to get top notch veterinary advice on BG, especially since no one here can really see the cat.

You're just going to have to wait to see if she dies or if she recovers if you're not going to get her medical care.

[Thoronas]

Our older cat had kidney issues and lost weight like that, like others have said the Blood Test is kinda necessary if you want any kind of real answers. Keep feeding her wet food for now until you can afford the test. Also is the cat drinking? It could possibly be UTI but it doesn't sound like it from the symptoms.

Something our vet also recommended was Pepcid, it seemed to help our cats digestive track and he started eating a lot more after we started giving him half a pill a day. Ask your vet before you try that though, since it's something that was recommended to our older, sick cat.

[Celestialstrife]

Going to need to do those blood tests, could be diabetes. I had a cat that was looseing weight and thought it might be her teeth. So took her to the vet for a teeth cleaning, they did a blood test and found out she had diabetes. Had to give her insulin shots and such.

[Pirian]

When my dog got older we started mixing in some warm water with the dry food to make it easier on his teeth. Not enough to make it a soup, but just enough to get it to absorb and soften up (we always mixed the wet and dry food together in order to get him to eat dry food because he preferred wet food. It worked for a while but eventually he would eat each individual piece slowly and lick off the wet food, then put it outside his dish, so when he was done eating he would have a stack of dry food outside his bowl, lol)

[Lyrai]

Wetting the dry food is recommended more than feeding wet food, as wet food is extremely bad for teeth. You can try switching to a kitten formula which will have more calories if you're concerned. It could be feline diabetes, but would need to be checked for. You can also try a higher protein food, (kitten food will be higher protein and higher fat) but other brands such as Blue make one called Blue Wilderness which is high protein low carb, similar to a lot of prescription diets. There's also high calorie supplements available that come in a tube.

[Francisco]

Does your cat ever "chew" without actually eating?

I once had a cat who did this... and didn't want to eat dry food. Turns out he had a bad tooth.

Had the tooth extracted, and he started eating just fine... and actually wound up being a fatass.

[Wulfgang]

Feed her more wet food according to my lady; although I will echo Francisco perhaps, we just had like 6 teeth taken out of our cat from some gum disease that is pretty common and she was much happier afterwards

[Fiddle Sticks]

I did not read all the thread, sorry if this is pointless. Almost the same thing happened to my dog a few years ago. He started losing weight like crazy and would not touch his dry food, only wet soft food. After a year of going to the vet and having them tell us several different things, we finally found the problem. The dog had a tumor in his throat. He could not hardly swallow because of the tumor. I had to put him down shortly after that, it started getting worse and I did not want him to suffer anymore. I could have tried surgery, but they said he only had a 10% chance of living and it would cost almost 3k, so I had to put him down ; ;

I was unable to feel the tumor or any lumps on his throat, only way we found it was with an x-ray.

I hope that is not whats wrong with your cat, and I hope she gets better soon! Good luck!