Advice Please - Weight Loss In 2 Year Old Cat

dle22

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Hi everyone,

I appreciate any advice people can give on my baby boy. My 2 year old cat, Hugo, is very long-haired and seems like a big cat but actually I know he is very skinny. You can feel his back bones and his ribs. His weight loss has been quite steady over the course of a year and I am booking him into the vets as I am concerned something sinister is going on. In the meantime however, I would appreciate any advice. For his first year of life, Hugo was a pretty care-free cat. He ate ANYTHING was not particularly fussy however at this time, I was uneducated in cat nutrition and he was on commercial food. I usually did however feed my cats a high quality pet food (but not raw). Hugo did however have an addiction and literal obsession with Dreamie treats – when I say obsession, he would SPRINT to the cupboard, commandeer any visitors or family members to the cupboard to get his treats. He then started to refuse his food as he knew that one of us would put Dreamies in it as it encouraged him to eat it. I had an issue with this as someone who is very concerned with nutrition myself, I also want to feed my pets properly. My other half was far more keen to give our cats treats. After researching, I became very adamant that I wanted my cats on raw, my half-Bengal took to it like duck to water but Hugo was very fussy about it. In the end I started giving them Bozita cans that I ordered online. For a while this was fine – and he was still having Dreamies most days. My son was then born and Hugo I believe did find the adjustment difficult. He stopped sleeping on the landing outside of our room for instance. Soon after he also started to exhibit allergenic symptoms- constant itching, LOTS of hair loss and malting. I again did some research and I decided to try him on some allergenic food as I learnt about cats developing allergies to particular proteins – especially processed chicken which is in ALL commercial cat foods and the Bozita which I was giving him. The Dreamies were stopped there and then and he was being fed James Wellbeloved Turkey sachets which he really liked. The scratching/hair loss/excessive malting stopped within days. I was however still keen to transition him to raw and I had tried and tried. Unfortunely, it now seems he has developed an allergy to turkey – possibly as it was the only protein he was getting. If he now has a sachet of James Wellbeloved, the malting starts within hours. The issue I have though is that he just will not eat the raw food properly- they are currently on Natural Instinct. He will turn his nose up/walk away and strangely, sometimes I catch him eating it an hour or so after and he seems to be on edge whilst eating it and runs away when he sees me – as if he doesn’t want me to see him eating it?! It is very strange. The thing is, I know if I put down Whiskars or even a higher-quality commercial food, he would gobble it down but then excessively scratch and itch. What do I do? Keep raw down in the hope he will eat it but I know he has lost a lot of weight or give him food that he will eat but it is making him suffer with allergies. Or does anyone think this is stress related as it does all coincide with my son’s birth. I have read about thyroid issues but this seems to only affect older cats and now I am beginning to consider something awful is happening to him L either way, he is going to the vet asap but I just wanted some advice from other cat owners. Also it might be worth mentioning that his stomach is VERY sensitive. Even as a kitten he often had diarrhoea and this is massively affected by his diet now.
Despite all of these things, he seems to be energetic, bright eyes, shiny coat etc.
Thanks so much
 

1CatOverTheLine

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D dle22 - While Hugo was on a raw diet, how many milligrams of Taurine per kilogram of his body weight were you supplementing, and in what form? Since you're accustomed to feeding raw, you doubtless know where this question is pointed - Taurine is a sulphonic acid - basically a sulphuric acid in which a single hydroxyl group has been replaced by an organic hydrosubstituent - and as such, sulphur sensitivity can become an enormous factor in some cats. Where a cat might thrive on a wild diet, a raw diet supplemented with pseudo-organic Taurine may cause untold problems in a cat with sulphur sensitivity.

You're right to take Hugo in to the vet to have his blood panel, chemistry and electrolytes compared with the baseline values which were taken before you commenced feeding raw. The comparison will almost undoubtedly illuminate the cause(s), and provide for a remediation of the problems.
.
 

valentine319

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Yes do the vet visit with Blood panels. Maybe this would help with the eating. Purina Fortiflora Feline Nutritional Supplement Box, 30gm
My cat is allergic to fish, turkey and maybe chicken. What fish oil was being used while on raw? Were you preparing raw or premade raw?

Reason I ask, if i give regular fish oil my cat is scratching and ripping out fur. She must have a molecularly distilled fish oil. Basically the toxins and the fish protein is removed from the oil.
 
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dle22

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I use pre-made raw food - Natural Instinct - I am in the UK. The ingredients are: British beef heart (49.5%), British chicken with bone (44.5%) British beef liver(5%), Scottish salmon oil, sea kelp, bilberry powder, Brewer's yeast

Despite being allergic to chicken protein in commercial it is a problem but not with raw.
Interesting re the fish oil...
The problem is also that he will hardly eat any of the raw anyway. He is turning his nose up at anything raw - he will only eat cheap, commercial food that he is obviously allergic too. So my problem is finding something he CAN and WILL eat.
 
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