Cat, male aged 12 lost weight - help

momisa

Looking for advice/tips.

My boy, a silver haired chinchilla, weighed 3.2kg last November. He now weighs 2.6kg. He's been with me since he was 5YO and I do realise he's getting on. I've been taking him to the Geriatric clinic since he was 8YO :rotfl:

He will not tollerate being brushed so I have him shaved once a year during the summertime as he has to be sedated. I know this is drastic but I exhausted all methods years ago and this was the only solution to limit the matting of his coat. Yesterday he was shaved all over so now looks like a very small lion - hairy head, feet and tail, and is currently wearing a pink T-shirt to make sure he doesn't get cold.

After being weighed yesterday the vet called to notify me of his weight loss which I knew of but didn't know how much he's lost and was stunned. Whilst they had him they shaved him, did some dental work and also took some blood. All blood results were normal and he has fully recovered to his bouncy self.

He appears to be eating ok and his toiletting is healthy and normal. He'll be weighed again in a month as he now needs to be monitored.

My cats have both dry (James Wellbeloved) and wet food (Felix, Whiskas) pockets available at all times. They're not greedy but graze alot. I also give them treats twice a day. They occasionally have tuna and prawns.

I'd appreciate any suggestions or foods which I can give my boy in order for him to put on weight or to get him to eat more.

Thanks for reading.

Sharifa_2

It could just be an age thing. I really thought I'd have to have my old cat put to sleep on Monday night because she is skeletal and stopped eating. The vet kept her in, ran tests (all negative so far), put her on a drip and gave her appetite stimulants - now she's zooming round the house like a mad thing. I don't expect she'll ever put much weight back on though as she's 15+.

Might they appreciate some cooked chicken?

lil_me

HAve they done a diabetes test ? A cat I know has just been diagnosed at the same age, he'd also lot a lot of weight, I think they have to keep them overnight to test fully for it ? I know this little guy had to be.

Aldeney

When our cat was loosing weight we put him on Royal Canin Recovery food which our vet said was one of the highest calorie food we could give him. It's very palatable & our cat loved it so it might be worth asking your vet if this would be suitable for your cat.

momisa

I'm definately going to get some chicken and I'll go to the fishmongers to get some broken bits of fish to boil too.

I think part of the blood tests included Diabetes but I'll check later (I'm at work just now).

I'll also check Royal Canin Recovery food as suggested.

Thanks everyone for responding.

sandy2_2

Recently our 17yr old cat had a blood test as he had lost weight and wasn't eating, he was also tested for Feline aids and feline leukaemia, all the tests came back negative apart from a slight increase in creatin levels (which we would expect in anold cat) Thetests also included blood sugar level for diabetes. Unlike in the UK the vet showed me the results sheet. It turned out poor old guiness had a mouth ulcer which wasn't helping. Anyway to cut a long story short they gave him a steroid injection (he also had a touch of arthritis) and after a few days he perked up and is eating like a horse and regaining weight. We had been away on holiday for a couple of weeks and a friend had been looking after him, I think he stared pining and that ledm on to his weightloss etc
Our other cat at 18 was constantly misdiagnosed by the vet until her last week, when they finally agreed her pancreas had stopped functioning properly (despite blood test) which I had suggested on her first visit as she left little greasy marks on the floor when she sat down. By this time she was less wieghed about a kilo.

As your cats are being closely monitored I'm sure any thing untoward will be picked up. Royal Canin special food is good, but sometimes I think the vet can suggest a prescription diet or perhaps they could give something else to get puss' appetite to perk up.

HelzBelz

momisa wrote: »

My cats have both dry (James Wellbeloved) and wet food (Felix, Whiskas) pockets available at all times. They're not greedy but graze alot. I also give them treats twice a day. They occasionally have tuna and prawns.

Are these the senior varieties, if so try putting him back on normal adult food, as senior ones have fewer calories because the cat is supposedly less active (must try telling my two 11 yr old cats that)

~Chameleon~

sav4it wrote: »

Thyroid problem? The vet would have said something though.
edit: sorry, just seen blood tests were normal.

Thyroid function (T4) isn't routinely tested in a normal blood screening and would need to be specifically tested to rule it out, so maybe worth persuing with the vet.

angel

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

Thyroid function (T4) isn't routinely tested in a normal blood screening and would need to be specifically tested to rule it out, so maybe worth persuing with the vet.

I was just about to say this. The T4 test takes a week for the results to come back at my vet. You usually have to ask for it specifically.

You could try feeding Iams Adult Dry instead of JW as this tends to put on weight on far more than other dry foods that we feed at the cattery.

Good luck with it.

momisa

Thanks for all the replies.

All cats are on Adult food - not Senior.

Bought some fish yesterday and they all tucked into it. I watched over my boy when he was eating and noticed he preferred the second helping when I added some of the water to the fish - he lapped it up. I'm now wondering if he has a problem eating wet food ie keeping the food in his mouth so he can swallow it as he doesn't have alot of teeth. I think I need to look into getting a small blender (as used on cookery programs for making dips) so that I can mush up fish and chicken for him.

Because he had a tooth removed the other day I made a point of getting some pate style food from the vet which was wolfed down. I think it has Hills Science a/d

Do any of you know of a good pate style cat food? I'm happy to get chicken, fish or whatever but know that I can only do this a few times a week as he won't get all the correct nutrients.

Thanks again

sandy2_2

When Guiness, my 17yr old had a few problems the other week, part of the problem was a sore mouth. I gave him tinned tuna in water, but added more water to the flaked fish and mashed it all up a bit just using a fork, went down a treat. I tried him with baby food, fish paste, pate, mincemeat, even added water to his biscuits and mashed them down, but no tuna was what he wanted.(cheap Tesco own brand is the favourite)
Might be worth asking the vet to look at his teeth and gums again, just incase there's a problem there or the extraction hasn't healed properly