Cat losing weight - down one pound.

[falloutboy14]

A few years back, my cat ate/swallowed a shoelace we used as a toy. It got stuck in his intestines and went from a healthy weight to near skin & bones. After a we noticed his weight, none of us could remember giving him food/emptying litter box in a few days, so we're not sure how long he went without eating. Fairly sure the treatment was to give him a shot, like a B-12 shot or something like that. He passed the shoelace (up till that time we weren't sure what it was) started eating, was fine in a few days.

I remember having to switch from dry to exclusively wet at some point, but not sure if it was related to this event or him getting cancer. In fact I think it was this, because we gave him human food for a day or two (tuna, ham etc) when we connected the dots and we think that's maybe what gave him cancer. Suppose one day he decided he's done with dry food, and in his hunger went for the shoelace. If this sounds close to your situation I can ask family for more details.

[Militant]

tapeworm?

[Vandole]

A few years back, my cat ate/swallowed a shoelace we used as a toy. It got stuck in his intestines and went from a healthy weight to near skin & bones. After a we noticed his weight, none of us could remember giving him food/emptying litter box in a few days, so we're not sure how long he went without eating. Fairly sure the treatment was to give him a shot, like a B-12 shot or something like that. He passed the shoelace (up till that time we weren't sure what it was) started eating, was fine in a few days.

I remember having to switch from dry to exclusively wet at some point, but not sure if it was related to this event or him getting cancer. In fact I think it was this, because we gave him human food for a day or two (tuna, ham etc) when we connected the dots and we think that's maybe what gave him cancer. Suppose one day he decided he's done with dry food, and in his hunger went for the shoelace. If this sounds close to your situation I can ask family for more details.

eating a shoelace/giving human food does not cause cancer....?

[Mertron]

Steroids.

[Senoska]

No diarrhea so no worms. No blockage because her poop is apparently not hard according to the vet, he felt her stomach and was able to tell, apparently.

[Senoska]

I guess I'm just going to have to get the bloodwork done. I have a really undercut website job I can take for $150 and I'll just put the rest on a credit card or something. I'm worried about my cat.

[Snick]

Ask /b/ for financial assistance. Since it's for a cat

[Vandole]

I guess I'm just going to have to get the bloodwork done. I have a really undercut website job I can take for $150 and I'll just put the rest on a credit card or something. I'm worried about my cat.

have you not tried the waterbottle yet?

[aduidarnenye]

You could also go onto Reddit to ask for help with the money. They like that sort of thing. If you PM me your address I'll send you $10 to put towards the cat.

[LinktheDeme]

if you pm me your address i'll let reddit know since adui says they sound like helpful people. Honestly though aren't you the person who always claims to be rich because of your elaborate schemes to make moneyz? can't' you just fork it over

[Cesaria]

Worms? One of ours went like this with a tumour in his throat that you could feel by stroking him. Our current cat dropped a tonne of weight this time last year and went right off her dry food - stress of a house move coupled with her just deciding to be a lil bugger meant she'd chopped and changed what she would eat for a while (recovered fine and went back onto dry when her weight was back up)... or bad teeth - the stuff I'm thinking of as possibles.

[hey]

Honestly though aren't you the person who always claims to be rich because of your elaborate schemes to make moneyz? can't' you just fork it over

Don't think he's ever claimed to be rich, just better off than most his age.

Also, how did hitting it with a water bottle go? Did that help at all?

[Brutala]

http://www.halopets.com/pet-educatio...d-disease.html

http://www.messybeast.com/cat-food-industry.htm

So basically read labels, stop feeding it too much carbs (especially sugar according to this second link) and have it exercise. Don't resort to insulin shots until after you've tried a non-shit diet for awhile.

Is it a house cat? If so, you need toys and those climbing props or w/e they're called. I just let mine out whenever they want at the risk of them getting teh aids.

Even if it's not diabetes all of the above should at least prevent it.

Did you feed it something different this past month and has it been moving or going outside more? If the cat in the right pic in the OP lost a pound of fat and no lean mass over one month, I wouldn't worry until it started to actually lose muscle. You're supposed to be able to feel a cat's bones with only a very thin layer of fat.

[Sepukku]

My first thought was diabetes... not very unheard of for cats... one of my socom clan buddies has to give his cat shots all the time and he says his cat doesn't fight it or mind it at all. But if $270 for the blood tests is a bitch, insulin is also gonna be pricey.

[Boyiee]

This happened with one of my cats who recently died...

Lost about a pound, but still seemed to be eating drinking, no prob. Seemed fine. Then day I noticed inside of his ears had a tint of yellow as well as his gums, great, jaundice, liver failure. Sure enough he was dying and only had like 3 months. He made it like 5, lasted through christmas, but got sicker and weaker and skinnier until he finally passed in his sleep.

Really nothing the vet could do. Once the yellowing of the gums happened, thats it. You can only make them comfortable or put them down.

Try different foods, try wet foods, try table foods, get your cat to eat. Cats are assholes and are picky about everything. They wont shit in their litterbox if there is shit in it already, they wont use the litterbox if the washer is on or someone is in the room, they wont eat even if they're starving. We tried to feed them healthier food once, all 4 lost about a pound and didn't eat the entire week. Assholes.

[Amelya]

You could try applying for Care Credit. It's basically a credit card that is used only for health issues. I think it's 6 months interest free.

[GentaiShinigami]

You could try feeding it some Royal Canin dry food. That stuff is awesome and like crack rock to cats. It's really expensive, but if you are lucky pet smart will have some 50-75 percent off if its about to go out of date soon. We tried to move our strays outside up from whiskas to avoderm however and they wouldn't touch that shit. They would rather starve than eat it. I was kinda surprised since it's like top-tier food (at least price-wise), but nope all my cats would rather starve than eat it so I recommend avoiding it. Also, Innova is top-tier wet food, and the biggest cans of the wet food aren't that much more than buying cheapo wet food (the friskies type stuff). I'd buy it some of that as well to try and put some healthy weight back on, and warm it up a little before serving it to make it more appetizing.

So yeah get some nice Royal Canin dry food for long-hairs or older cats, and feed it some Innova wet food. You can get both at Pet Smart. Good luck, and I really hope your cat gets better!

[Surealistic]

first off, your cat was 8lbs, no where near fat, no where in the general vicinity of fat, 8lbs is normal weight, my cat is 10lbs and looks fine, my parents have a 20lb cat who is a monstrous fatass

secondly, he lost 1lb, if he went from "fat" to skin and bones, 1lb will not do that

vet said he was "fine" cept for the abnormal weight loss, guess what, cat is most likely fine, i get it that your worried, but i think your going overboard a little, he is most likely just being picky for some reason, give him a little bit, see if he comes around, im guessing he will

[Midnightjade]

Hello Senoska,

I'm a college professor in NYC these days but I used to be a veterinary surgeon in London. I am still qualified to see patients in the UK, Commonwealth (eg Canada) and Europe but have worked professionally as a veterinarian in many years so ymmv.

Loss of weight like this is not usually normal. A serum biochemistry screen might be a good idea to look at kidney and liver function. Kidney damge is common in older cats - design fault in the species I guess. Therapy is supportive - a special diet and anabolic steroids. Hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid) is also a possibility but usually in older cats - it makes their metabolism speed up and so they get thin and cranky, and it also damages the heart. An enlarged thyroid can often be felt by an experienced vet, but needs to be confirmed by blood test. For hyperthyroidism, surgery is usually curative but may need thyroid hormone supplements afterwards (they are cheap to buy). The surgery is simple and I used to do it all the time.

If you could provide some more details it would help. Does your cat go outside, or is it an apartment cat? Male/female? If male, does it fight with other cats? Has it been vaccinated for feline leukemia? Has it been tested for FIV and feline leukemia?

Hope this helps, also going to post as a PM in case you have abandoned this thread.

Best,

MJ

[Rhinox]

We have a vet on BG? That's awesome