When Creamsicle (Sorry, no pics – Photobucket) adopted us about three years ago (next Monday), she weighed about 8.75 pounds. Last year, she was 10.5 pounds. Last June, she weighed 9.25 pounds. I took both cats to the vet today for their shots, and Creamsicle weighed 8.25 pounds.
The vet said that this is the time of year when cats tend to weigh less. (Not Tonka. He’s 14.75 pounds.) But she said to keep any eye on Creamsicle, and bring her in next month if she loses any more weight. I’ll probably take her in anyway, just to weigh her. If she’s still losing weight, the vet will test her for thyroid problems and diabetes.
Creamsicle’s behaviour has not changed. She’s still very affectionate, likes to be held, purrs when you pet her, hisses at Tonka when he wants to play, etc. She likes the IAMS indoor formula dry food, and tends to walk away from gooshy food. (Though she did get up in a cousin’s business when she and her husband came to visit on Wednesday. Cousin gave her a piece of pulled pork.)
Anecdotally, cats with overactive thyroid will just eat and eat and eat. My Camberwell discovered several foods she wouldn’t otherwise have bothered with. She took a particular liking for gnawing pork chop bones. Cats do also tend to lose weight as they age. Good luck to you and Creamsicle.
She doesn’t eat and eat and eat. She’ll have a few nibbles a few/several times a day, but she never seems to eat a lot at one time. Both cats seem to drink a lot of water.
My 17-year old Siamese, Papi, is losing weight. The vet did a thyroid panel with the rest of her blood work, but that came back normal. She did have slight pancreatitis, though, so she’s on prescription food. She was at 8.5 lbs at her largest, and has lost a pound.
It took the vet and two techs to get the blood. She’s small, but mighty.
My cat also lost a lot of weight this year (she was fat and on a diet but she significantly overachieved her goal weight and has dropped 3 lbs.) and it turned out she has severe bilateral otitis interna. We don’t know how long the infection was going before any symptoms showed, but it was probably awhile. Bloodwork and imaging have shown no thyroid or diabetes issues, no suspected tumors, etc. So I’m hoping that now that we’ve pinpointed an issue and are treating it, she’ll feel better and the slide in her weight will stop. She is off the diet portions, that’s for sure!
It’s stressful worrying about pets, particularly because they can’t tell you what’s wrong. And cats compensate so well. I cringe thinking that my cat must have been so uncomfortable for weeks without showing a thing. Best wishes for Creamsicle!
My cat was starting to lose a lot of weight a few months ago. It was kidney problems. I got him some meds, kidney trouble-adjusted food and a water fountain and he’s gained the weight back.
I’ve found it easy to keep track of his weight by carrying him with me on the scale, then weighing myself and substracting my weight from the total.
Whatever the case, a water fountain is problably one of the better purchases one can make for a cat’s health. They drink more which helps prevent kidney troubles. I wish I’d known that and given them access to a water fountain at the earliest chance.
She’s about five. The vet said to keep an eye on her, and bring her in if she loses any more weight. She said it’s normal for cats to lose weight this time of year. (But half a pound in two months is a lot!) If Creamsicle is still losing weight, the vet will draw blood to check for thyroid problems and diabetes.
Creamsicle’s behaviour hasn’t changed in the three years she’d been with us. Not as clingy as she was at the beginning, but same affection, activity level, etc.
She and Tonka are sleeping now. The vet said that the leukaemia vaccine would make them sleepy for a day. (They also got their FIV and rabies boosters.)
Yeah, be sure they check for kidney problems. Our lovely cat was losing weight last year, and the vet was dismissive and said not to worry about it. This spring she was diagnosed with advanced kidney disease, too late to do anything.
If/When we get another cat, we will find a new veterinarian.
My cat Baxter lost weight, and the vet and I were happy since he had been a fat dude (think Kliban cats). We had changed his dry food and cut back on the wet.
And then he kept losing weight, and his poo started to smell awful.
Turned out he had intestinal cancer. I found out when the vet did a necropsy, as we agreed that at age 12 there wasn’t a good reason to do the major abdominal surgery needed to test for intestinal cancer in cats.
First sign of a serious ailment is usually if the cat starts missing the litterbox, blood in stool and rapid weight loss, also a non-stop appetite or absent, and hanging out near the water bowl, even if not drinking from it. I had a great cat who went from 12lbs to 7 1/2 in a matter of 3 months and I thought it was just the change of food and that he was more active lately (he would go on the rooftop to play, and always would come back in). He was properly maintained and everything… bam… advanced kidney disease. I had to put him down so he wouldn’t suffer, it was too far gone to be treated… Not saying its anything major, but keep an eye on it. My cat also did a great job of masking symptoms for the most part, I only noticed small changes too late
Edit: It usually happens after age 10 with cats, and kidney problems are pretty common in really old cats.
Check her teeth, if they are infected it makes it painful to eat - having just spent lots of £ sorting out 2 of mine I can vouch that although this is perhaps not massively obvious, it turns out to be pretty common.
The vet checked her teeth as part of the pre-injection look-over. She said her teeth looked fine, except for a little tartar.
I gave Creamsicle a couple of teaspoons of gooshy food yesterday, in two servings. She normally doesn’t care for wet food, but she did eat most of yesterday.
She’s an indoor/outdoor cat, if I remember correctly. There’s a chance this is just worms. You can buy OTC de-wormers for cats (I’m thinking especially tape worms) or you can ask the vet about this possibility.
I’ll ask Mrs. L.A. to check Creamsicle’s feces. (The litter box is her job.) I have never seen either cat scooting across the floor on their butts, and they don’t pay extraordinary attention to their ‘asterisks’. Also, the vet found not ‘flea dirt’ ('fleaces?"). So I’d bet against worms.
