Mickey, my 27 lbs foster and his journey back to a healthy weight

doomsdave

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I visited with Mickey at Charlie and Susan's house on New Years day. He continues to do great with them! They are still feeding him Fancy Feast 3 times a day and are carefully weighting how much he gets at each meal.

I tried to get a video of him chasing after a toy but in true kitty fashion as soon as I started to record he stopped moving.

Here's our boy at 17 lbs compared with 27 lbs when I first got him:


And here he is compared to 19 lbs:


Here he is just looking all cute and happy:

Oh yes, losing a "few pounds" is a lot for a cat. Nice to hear you can still monitor his progress, or at least could at the time the pictures were taken.
 

lalagimp

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I didn't even know this thread was around. I hate that cats have to go through this journey but at least I am not the only one. Tommy was 21 lbs and we took three years to get him to lose 8 lbs. He had to change what he's eating due to FLUTD and he's actually about .7 lbs under goal now so I'm working on trying not to lose any more. Vet tech took his measurements as a fat cat and said he should be 13.1 and last weigh in he was 12.42 but he's so alert on this raw diet. I caught Stewart earlier at 16 something and we got him down to 12 in a year and a half and his asthma has improved significantly.
 

doomsdave

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Here are my two large male cats. The Baron near the window and Big Boy in front.

Both are close in weight but BB is much leaner. Notice how big his head is. Baron's almost a pinhead by comparison.

BB was a bit wormy when I got him, so he was a bit underweight then; after treatment he's plumped up a bit. Baron had to have steroids for a while, which made him a bit skinnier, and friskier. No steroids now, still good.

They don't like each other, but they appear to be learning to suffer one another with reasonable grace.
 
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mschauer

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Thank you! Mickey is a great cat who deserved a better life. His new owners love him to death and he is doing great with them. I said it before and I'll say it again, this is a case where his previous owners turning him into the shelter was, sadly, probably the best thing they ever did for him.
 

orange&white

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This is an inspirational thread, especially for anyone trying to get their cat to drop a little excess "poundage". Can Charlie or Susan send you a current picture of Mickey?
 

lavishsqualor

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What a lucky cat!

Had he remained at his past weight he would be experiencing a lot of health issues now.

Mickey owes his life to you, mschauer.
 

ileen

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I just read this entire thread. I got so scared when I saw how old the original posts were & that it had come back to the top of threads here that there was bad news coming, but no. What a wonderful story. Mickey should be used on Fancy Feast commercials as a success story. Thanks for all your hard work, mschauer!
 

pushylady

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This is such an inspiring thread, and it's wonderful to hear that Mickey is still doing well.
 
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mschauer

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I found a picture I took of him back in '15 when he was about 14 lbs so I made a side-by-side with it and the one when I first got him.



I didn't find a cute one that I haven't already posted. When I see him again, which should be soon, I'll try to get one showing his adorable face.
 

orange&white

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What a huge improvement (no pun intended)! He looked great at 14lbs. My 1st stage goal for my orange cat is 14lbs. He's at 15.5, down from his top weight at 16.5. I'm ready for him to look like Mickey!
 

dhammagirl

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Inspirational! Especially the before and after pics. That was one obese kitty. My Zeke was up to a little over 20 pounds. I got him on a raw food diet and he's lost almost 4 pounds since January 2016. The vet says his goal weight is 13.5 to 14 pounds. So seeing how far Mickey has come is very inspiring. :clap:
 
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mschauer

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Congratulations on your success with Zeke! :clap2:

They have to be more comfortable without all that extra flab!
 

muffy

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Oh, that is absolutely wonderful. This is the first time I've seen this thread. You certainly did a good job of getting that weight off of him. I'm sorry to say that my Robbie got up to 25 pounds and he went into cardiac arrest at the age of 10 years and died. I'll never get over that guilt.

The two side by side pictures of Mickey is just adorable. Mickey looks just like my cat, Muffin. She was a little on the heavy side but she lived to be 18 years old.

Muffy
 
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mschauer

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Thank you!

Mickey is a very special boy and I'm so happy to see him doing so well now with Susan and Charlie.
 

MeganLLB

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This is a great thread. What an awesome story. I recently took in my mom's cat who is a little too heavy. She was in denial that she weighed too much and just said that she had extra skin that sagged after being spayed, but she wasn't fat. :headshake: Well that is true and all but she is also fat. She started out at 13.5 lbs, she now weights 11.5lbs and I would like to get her down to around 8lb.

All I did was stop free feeding dry food and giving her handfuls of treats every day and she dropped two pounds. If and when my mom is able to take her back, she will have a whole new kitty! She's already starting to become more active, and playing a lot more.

This is an inspirational story, so I know Little Kitty can do it too!
 

ileen

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MeganLLB MeganLLB Little Kitty must be truly little to be 8 lbs as a healthy weight. Luciano is about 13.5 lbs & he is skinny. I guess he's a large size cat, 39 inches from front paw to back paw when stretched out.
 
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