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Cat Weight loss
How much weight loss is too much when talking about an older cat? Our kitty will be eight next month. She has been in our care since she was 11 months old and recovering from surgery due to abuse she suffered as as kitten (we adopted her from a no kill shelter, she was the only one of her litter to survive being shot by a bb gun multiple times).
In the past year she has gone from 13 lbs to 10.5 lbs. Now granted, she is getting more exercise because LO chases her and she has to jump over the baby gate to get to kid free land (where her food, bed, and two litter boxes are), but nothing else has changed. No food changes, no changes in water intake, no changes in fur, mood, or changes in her poop or pee.
she is not due for any shots until summer, but am half tempted to just schedule her to go to the vet just to make sure that nothing is wrong. I know that my childhood cats, two of them suffered from weight loss as they got older. One just due to age, the other due to diabetes which kitty doesn't have any signs of.
I guess I am just looking for insight and make sure I am doing what is right by her because she really is my first baby and I don't want to lose her.
Re: Cat Weight loss
It could be lots of things, including diabetes, kidney failure, thyroid issues, and others. Is she eating the same amount? Have you changed foods? Does she drink a lot of water?
I would take her in for a physical and have a blood work-up done as well. 8 is technically "old" but certainly not compared to many house cats, who can live up to 15-20 years. If she were 16, I wouldn't be as concerned, actually.
40/112
I would go ahead and take her in and have another blood work panel done.
As someone else mentioned, this weight loss could indicate several illnesses/diseases, including kidney failure. That's what happened to one of my older cats. She'd lost two pounds in a couple years, but we just thought it was from us making her exercise more. After weighing in at 8 pounds for an annual vet visit, she continued to drop another two pounds rapidly in the course of a couple months. Turns out her kidneys were failing =(
I wish I'd noticed the big weight loss before she completely stopped eating and drinking. She's stable now, but it took a lot of work to get here.
P.S. What kind of food do you feed? If her blood comes back fine, you could try switching her to a higher quality wet food.
she gets a can of blue wilderness a day as well as blue basics grain free. She also gets some cranberry gel every day (prone to UTI's w/o it), and I have been giving her some calorie booster gel--- Probably not the best food, but she has a grain sensitivity and is prone to UTI's so we are very cautious especially now with LO dropping food (though she seems to prefer to eat LO's unwanted veggies over pasta or grains).
and I was able to get her into a different vet today- her vet couldn't see her until the end of next week. Hopefully we will get some news.