My Cat's Not Fat!

Post by Zoe Forward, DVM, Dipl. ABVP (canine/feline)

Carolina Pets Animal Hospital

 

Do your friends and family ooohh and aaahh over the size of your cat? Does she seem to get bigger every year? If she was a person, would she be a contender for the Biggest Loser TV show? I'll bet you dread bringing her in to see the vet out of fear that she’s gone up another pound or two.

We should start a support group.  I’ve got a fat cat too…and I’m a vet. There are some cats out there that do tend to put on the pounds easier. It's not fair. There are also some cats that are taller and "bigger boned," but if your cat weighs more than 15 lbs no matter her breed, then...she's fat. :(  You may even feed the best high quality food, maybe even use the "light" version of that food and, yet, she still gains weight. Honestly, cat weight loss has to be the gosh darn hardest problem to resolve in an indoor-only kitty with little opportunity to go to the gym (and no motivation) and whose only challenge in life is to get off the bed to eat the next meal.

I feel obligated to list off all the reasons the weight is a life-threatening problem, and perhaps be a small motivation to get our cat’s weight under control before she reaches the age of five:

1. High risk for diabetes mellitus (treatment requires twice daily insulin injections)
2. Urinary tract disease (infections, stones, and idiopathic cystitis – which translates into urinating outside the box)
3. Arthritis
4. Poor quality of life (all she does is sit around and sleep; she’ll have shorter lifespan)
5. Inability to groom (yeah, as she gets older she’ll get greasier and matted on the back end…you’ll have to deal with that through daily brushing and probably paying to have her groomed on a regular basis...she's not going to like that)

So, what’s the problem (other than you feel your cat needs liposuction) and how do we fix this?

I wish there was a miracle cure...a magic pill that would resolve this without us needing to put in a lot of work and change how we feed our cat. We want to feed-and-go, not watch the cats eat and play referee. There are pills out there for overweight kitties, but they are certainly not miracle pills. Just like people the drugs require diet and exercise to have any chance to work. So, what is the real problem? Us! We feel guilty depriving our weight-challenged feline from that treat she loves and cutting back on the food (going to meal feeding) or even a prescription diet. To save our cat's life, though, we need to get serious and realize this is a life-threatening problem. We helped her get that big and have been in denial long enough. The only way to get it off is to feed that prescription diet food your vet has been hounding you to try for several years (not the “light” or “indoor” or “less active” grocery store or pet store brand food -- those don't work). These guys need the serious weight control food.  They need the weight loss diets that are grounded in research. Most are high protein (like Royal Canine Calorie Control) so the cat feels good on the diet (not starved, which is what we are very concerned about). Remember Weight Watcher's slogan (it applies to these diets): Believe, Because It Works.
I’ve tried all the diets on my larger kitty and had success with two of the weight loss prescription diets. It’s hard, though. I’ve got more than one cat, which means I have to meal feed and watch that big guy like a hawk. He’ll push out the thinner, perfect weight kitties out of the way  if there's even a chance he'll get one extra morsel.


We can win. Ask us. We can help. And we understand (truly) how hard this can be.