Older Obese Cat Needs To Lose Some Weight

[stiv]

Hi all!
My cat, Autumn, is nearly 12 years old, and weighed a little over 15 pounds at her last weigh-in at the vets office about 5 months ago. Her blood test came back with normal values, no diabetes, no thyroid condition. She has FLUTD and has a bit of arthritis, but otherwise is in good health. I monitor her FLUTD like a hawk.
I'm having trouble properly putting her on a diet because I'm a very neurotic person, and fear that I may end up giving her hepatic lipidosis. The vet gave me some advice last time, but I know I need to schedule a proper weight loss consultation ASAP. I have three cats and the other two eat wet food 2x a day. I was feeding them sheba, but they discontinued the 3oz cans and the only other thing they will touch is Friskies' pates. At least they're eating wet food at all. Autumn will mooch a couple bites off the Friskies, but she won't eat enough of it to sustain herself. She's unfortunately addicted to kibble. Autumn eats purina's proplan urinary tract health, which was recommended by my vet after she turned up her nose at the expensive rx food. I'm a bit wary of it because corn gluten is the first ingredient, but it does wonders for her. She hasn't had a single FLUTD flare-up since I switched her to this food. She won't touch the canned urinary tract health, and when I first offered it on a separate plate next to her dry food she hated it so much she wouldn't touch her dry food that day, even after I took away the wet food, which worried me. I give her a 1/4 cup meal 3 times a day for now and am slowly reducing the middle meal teaspoon by teaspoon until it's all gone.
I know her being fat is my fault, and that's why it's my responsibility to fix it with professional assistance. I got her when I was 13 and I was ignorant about cats' dietary needs,and ended up free-feeding her. She's always been a bit chunky, ever since she was a kitten, but in her senior years she's really blown up. She at one point tore a ligament in her leg because she got super excited about running up and down the stairs one day, and after that her activity level has decreased and she has a slight limp sometimes. Another challenge is that I work night shift, and my roommate isn't the most trustworthy when it comes to feeding Autumn her premeasured 'lunch' when I'm at work.
I know she's not as fat as some of the cats that have been discussed on this forum who successfully lost weight without getting hepatic lipidosis, which gives me hope.
I fear that she's gained a little weight since her last appointment. So what I've done is switched her food, gave her a feeding schedule, bought her more toys, and I give her lots of affection when her food's run out between meals and she's begging me. Absolutely no treats. What I've just started to do is feed the other two cats on the kitchen table and moved all the chairs so she can't sneak extra food. I try to feed her separately but sometimes she doesn't eat all of her food and my youngest cat will try to steal it. It's pretty hard to make it so food is only accessible to an overweight cat. She doesn't like people food at all, so that's never been a problem.
Should I be taking away food that she hasn't eaten after a certain amount of time? I know a lot of people recommend buying a baby scale to monitor weight at home, does anyone have any suggestions as to which ones are best? Since she's eating a couple bites of the friskies, should I try transitioning her to wet food again by buying extra and offering it to her alongside her dry food? I know that wet food is better for cats with FLUTD, is urinary tract health wet food even necessary? Am I worrying too much about HL or is my concern valid? I'm also trying to find toys that will get her to get up and move, she is unresponsive to laser pointers.
I'm sorry for rambling a bit and asking so many questions. I adore my cat and I am disappointed in myself for letting her tip the scale like this, and I want to try and make it so she's healthier and happier and lives a fuller, longer life. I don't believe in the idea that an animal is "too old" to help. I'm planning on taking her to the vet for a weight loss consultation the next time I have few nights off, but I would like to know if there's anything I can do for her in the meantime.

 

[orange&white]

Bless you for being so concerned about her health. No, your concerns about hepatitis lipidosis are not neurotic; they're quite valid. She needs to lose weight slowly. A few vets think 1 pound a month is all right. I think that's too fast and don't want my own fat boy losing more than 1/2 pound per month. He's been dieting 13 months and got "stuck" for a while at 15 pounds, but is slowly losing again. I'd rather the diet take a little longer than have him "crash diet" and have his liver fail.

Since you are aware of the risks of HL and you are committed to help her lose weight, the biggest road block I read in your post is that your roommate may not be compliant in keeping Autumn on her diet. Your roomie needs to thoroughly understand the additional health risks that overweight cats have (diabetes, kidney, arthritis, etc) and be as fully committed as you are.

My vet's diet advises is simple and direct: Weigh the cat once a month and measure the calorie intake carefully. If the cat has gained weight, cut the calories a bit. That's the advice I've given to people, but my vet said it much more succinctly.

I'm a bit compulsive and weigh Tangent every Sunday. His meals are packaged in daily portions, so a tub is exactly the calories I want him to have for a day for that week in between weigh-ins.

I opted for a postage/shipping scale instead of a baby scale. Baby scales take a lot of room and you can't really do much else with them except weight cats, and babies. The shipping scale allows me to weigh food and pets, and doesn't take much space. I set it on the floor on weigh-in day, put a cutting board on top for a larger platform, and set the cat carrier on it. I like the Ultra-Ship scale because the display pulls out from the scale and it has an A/C adapter (optional) so I don't burn through a bunch of batteries.

 

[MissMolly08]

I personally don't have the funds to buy a baby scale so I weigh my cat on a regular bathroom scale. I hold her and weigh us together, then set her down and weigh just myself and take the difference as her weight. I know it may not be quite as accurate but it's been working for us.
My cat started at 16.4lbs and we have been working on weight loss for a little over 2 months. She's down 1 lb. I am currently feeding some dry food until I use up what I have and she's been losing fine with a mix of wet and dry. I know all wet is even better though so we are moving towards that.
As long as you keep a close eye on your cat's weight throughout the process and increase calories if you notice her losing too quickly, I would not let the risk of HL deter you from helping your kitty become healthier! Good luck!

 

[lalagimp]

If you're worried about both urinary and your cat is addicted to kibble, and want a program that's easy to follow, Hills makes a Metabolic Urinary formula Hill's Prescription Diet Metabolic + Urinary Chicken Flavor Dry Cat Food
I started the boys on their weight loss with a prescription program and moved them off onto a different calorie restricted diet without vet's supervision after 2-3 years. They even offer this formula in a canned variety.
But if you can't get a scale right now I'm not sure if you'll appreciate the price of the Metabolic. Getting the cats into the program at the vet was free and I got a scale so I didn't have to take Tom to the vet every month.

 

[ReallySleepy]

I personally don't have the funds to buy a baby scale so I weigh my cat on a regular bathroom scale.

Bathroom scales typically go beyond 200 pounds. They may be quite inaccurate if you weigh a cat of 15 pounds. I use a luggage scale for my own cat. I put him in the carrier, weigh and subtract the weight of the carrier.

But even a luggage scale will typically allow for weights up to 80 pounds. A hardware store or gadget store may suggest a scale on the same principle that is more appropriate for a cat of 15 pounds. A luggage scale costs less than $10.

 

[mservant]

It's hard going isn't it, and you feel SO mean when they're meowing and yeowing and looking like the most pathetic cat specimine every time you go near the kitchen but don't feed them.

Mouse and I were sent off to our vet's 'cat weight management clinic' this year when we went for the annual check up and vacinations - he weighed in at 6 kilos (just over 13 lb, a full kilo more than he had on his last visit). I had to send the vet nurse precise details of how, when and what I was feeding Mouse plus go through our daily routines so they could work out what changes we had to look at. We are just 3 weeks in and had our first check up with the vet nurse. Mouse is doing super-well and right on his target with 200 gram weight loss but it's hard work. He is 6 1/2 but safe to say he's not the most active 6 1/2 year old cat I've met....

We've had a change in our living arangements over the last few months and this resulted in Mouse moving from being free-fed dry / kibble food to only having a few biscuits put down at a time and any he didn't eat being put back in a container for later. His food gets measured in the morning and put in a tin so more than one person can feed him and he will only get the amount of food he should. It is much easier for anyone feeding him to see if too much or too little seems to have been got through for the time of day too. Interestingly I think this controlled feeding has helped because he is less aware of how much food he has and has had to get over his fear of an empty bowl. His not showing interest in any food other than his own kibble is a big help and one I think it's worth taking advantage of stiv .

The main advice the vet nurse gave us was to change from measuring out Mouse's dry food in a cup to using scales. This gives a much more precise measure and makes sure he is getting the amount he should - not more, or less. She also adjusted the amount I was feeding slightly as that had been a maintenance quantity. It was only a small proportion of what he gets each day, but measured out with scales it is certainly working. That combined with each day's food being put in to a little tin for everyone to feed him from have definitely helped us to stay on target.

Good luck - I know our next 3 weeks are going to be a big challenge.

 

[stiv]

Wow! I've gotten a lot of good advice here.

Bless you for being so concerned about her health. No, your concerns about hepatitis lipidosis are not neurotic; they're quite valid. She needs to lose weight slowly. A few vets think 1 pound a month is all right. I think that's too fast and don't want my own fat boy losing more than 1/2 pound per month. He's been dieting 13 months and got "stuck" for a while at 15 pounds, but is slowly losing again. I'd rather the diet take a little longer than have him "crash diet" and have his liver fail.

Since you are aware of the risks of HL and you are committed to help her lose weight, the biggest road block I read in your post is that your roommate may not be compliant in keeping Autumn on her diet. Your roomie needs to thoroughly understand the additional health risks that overweight cats have (diabetes, kidney, arthritis, etc) and be as fully committed as you are.

My vet's diet advises is simple and direct: Weigh the cat once a month and measure the calorie intake carefully. If the cat has gained weight, cut the calories a bit. That's the advice I've given to people, but my vet said it much more succinctly.

I'm a bit compulsive and weigh Tangent every Sunday. His meals are packaged in daily portions, so a tub is exactly the calories I want him to have for a day for that week in between weigh-ins.

I opted for a postage/shipping scale instead of a baby scale. Baby scales take a lot of room and you can't really do much else with them except weight cats, and babies. The shipping scale allows me to weigh food and pets, and doesn't take much space. I set it on the floor on weigh-in day, put a cutting board on top for a larger platform, and set the cat carrier on it. I like the Ultra-Ship scale because the display pulls out from the scale and it has an A/C adapter (optional) so I don't burn through a bunch of batteries.

A pound a month DOES sound a bit extreme - especially as weight goes down, that becomes a higher and higher percentage of their weight being lost every month. I once had a cockatiel who had hepatic lipidosis after 'nursing' her babies and it was really upsetting, I'd hate to see my cat go through that.
I'll be giving my roommate a pep talk about it, he likes my cats well enough that it shouldn't be too hard once I explain exactly why I'm doing what I'm doing.
I hadn't even thought of a luggage scale, but that seems like a really good idea, especially considering the advice given to me by mservant to start measuring her food in ounces rather than cups. I'll probably have to feed her a few more times a day with smaller meals so she eats it all at once so my youngest, Moxie, doesn't get into her food. Moxie is about a year old and is in her defiant 'teen stage,' she knows full well it's not her food and runs away if I so much as say "HEY" to her while she's trying to eating it, but she tries to sneak into it anyway, but I also don't want to close her out of my bedroom all day every day because she needs a lot of attention (she is a rescue). This will be a bit of a challenge because I work 10 hour shifts and sleep during the day, so I'm really going to have to talk to my roommate about this and possibly adjust the feeding schedule because I'm doing it in 8 hour intervals right now. I'm part-time, so the nice thing about the long shifts is I only work 2-3 days a week depending on need, so I am home most of the time. Once I get the scale, I'll be measuring all her food for the day in ounces and divide it up. I would love it if she would just eat wet food, but that's going to have to be a slow transition. It's like she's an alien or something, I've never before had a cat who snubbed wet food like this! I've looked at Dr. Pierson's pages on catinfo and she actually has an entire article about transitioning kibble addicts, so I'll take another look at that and start slowly.

If you're worried about both urinary and your cat is addicted to kibble, and want a program that's easy to follow, Hills makes a Metabolic Urinary formula Hill's Prescription Diet Metabolic + Urinary Chicken Flavor Dry Cat Food
I started the boys on their weight loss with a prescription program and moved them off onto a different calorie restricted diet without vet's supervision after 2-3 years. They even offer this formula in a canned variety.
But if you can't get a scale right now I'm not sure if you'll appreciate the price of the Metabolic. Getting the cats into the program at the vet was free and I got a scale so I didn't have to take Tom to the vet every month.

I actually work in the kennel of a big box pet store, and until October 1 I am entitled to an extra 50% off of the Science Diet brand on top of my 15% employee discount (some sort of brand promotion thing), so I may buy some this week to see if she'll eat it. I think they may also have a low-calorie option for the urinary food, but I may be thinking of royal canin, which I've also looked at. The price may be an issue in the future because half of my income is fixed income (I'm disabled), and I only make so much more at work, but if it ends up working for her I could make an attempt at budgeting that in, as a higher quality food means that she will be eating less of it to begin with. And my vets are pretty cheap, I have never once had a bill over $350 and most visits are in the $75-$100 range (their practice's motto is 'compassion, not business,' and when Autumn had to go under for xrays and other tests after she tore her ligament, they cleaned her teeth for free!), and they're both excellent at what they do, although the male vet is clearly a dog guy and I prefer the cat lady, who spends most of the appointment fussing over how pretty Autumn is. So they're worth a visit for further information, because they can tell me stuff like what weight is appropriate for her as an overall goal based on her build, and what a good initial weight goal would be.
I'll also have to see about getting her more active. She loooves string, and I saw one of those electronic toys that you just hang on a doorknob and it flings string repeatedly. that might be worth investing in if I can find out more about the quality and longevity, as it's about $30 which is pricey for a cat toy, but if it's durable, it might be what gets her off her butt and makes me worry less about not being able to play with her when I'm at work to promote weight loss.

Thank you all, this is some really helpful, supportive, and comforting advice. I check her eyes and ears for signs of jaundice every single day because I know that's a major sign of HL. She is the most easygoing, not-easily-stressed cat I've ever owned (she's moved around to 3 different living arrangements in the past couple of years and was no worse for wear, she doesn't really care as long as I'm there too), so the main risk factor for HL for her aside from weight and age seems to be how much I feed her.

 

[terestrife]

the best thing i did for my two cats was to spend the money and buy each one a surefeed microchip pet feeder $150. it does not keep wet food cold, but it does close when the cat is done, so the wet food lasts me for many hours fresh.
i have one cat that eats it all in one gulp and a grazer. this machine saves me sanity. its costly, but its worth it for me.

all you need is either a chipped cat, or to put a collar on your cat, it comes with a tag that responds to the machine.

you program the machine to open to a specific cat(s)

 

[di and bob]

15 lbs is not THAT overweight in a senior cat. I have two right now that weigh 16 lbs and although they are chunky I know from experience weight comes and goes in phases. I would give frequent low cal 'treats' to fill your little one up and to keep her happy.Weigh her often and adjust the food accordingly, there are many low cal cat foods out there too. My cats love shaved deli turkey breast, low cal and good for them. Increase exercise whenever possible. Play with her with a wand and get a kickeroo on Amazon to encourage bunny kicks. Go slow at first and increase over time to help her adjust and to avoid injury. Senior cats do lose their appetites eventually , through loss of smell and other senior changes, so having a little extra doesn't hurt. From experience these changes usually occur around 15 or so. so make sure you are alert to any changes. Good luck and you are a wonderful person to be concerned now and taking steps to help her have a long and healthy life.

 

[stiv]

the best thing i did for my two cats was to spend the money and buy each one a surefeed microchip pet feeder $150. it does not keep wet food cold, but it does close when the cat is done, so the wet food lasts me for many hours fresh.
i have one cat that eats it all in one gulp and a grazer. this machine saves me sanity. its costly, but its worth it for me.

all you need is either a chipped cat, or to put a collar on your cat, it comes with a tag that responds to the machine.

you program the machine to open to a specific cat(s)

My roommate actually forgot to feed her again tonight (grr), so I was thinking about a robo-feeder anyway. the $150 one may be a little out of my price range, but I found some brand of feeders when I was looking a while back that retailed about $40-70 depending on how high-flutin it was. Autumn's not chipped anyway (I know this isn't the best, but she's absolutely not interested in the outdoors, she's gone out on the porch and then looked around and marched right back in on numerous occasions, so the vet said it probably wasn't necessary) and she will try to tear absolutely anything I put on her neck off, so that one doesn't sound compatible with her!

15 lbs is not THAT overweight in a senior cat. I have two right now that weigh 16 lbs and although they are chunky I know from experience weight comes and goes in phases. I would give frequent low cal 'treats' to fill your little one up and to keep her happy.Weigh her often and adjust the food accordingly, there are many low cal cat foods out there too. My cats love shaved deli turkey breast, low cal and good for them. Increase exercise whenever possible. Play with her with a wand and get a kickeroo on Amazon to encourage bunny kicks. Go slow at first and increase over time to help her adjust and to avoid injury. Senior cats do lose their appetites eventually , through loss of smell and other senior changes, so having a little extra doesn't hurt. From experience these changes usually occur around 15 or so. so make sure you are alert to any changes. Good luck and you are a wonderful person to be concerned now and taking steps to help her have a long and healthy life.

Eh, she's definitely pushing a 5 on the cat body weight chart, 15lbs is pretty overweight for her frame. I know most spayed cats have a bit of a belly/that skin flap, but hers nearly hangs to the floor these days. It didn't used to.
I just took a picture of her (with lots of effort) to show this, and then I have an older picture of her sitting next to Moxie, who she dwarfs (Moxie is a pretty small adult cat anyway, but her mama was feral, so that's pretty typical):

Can you all tell I like torties the best? But yeah, definitely not the best she could look. I found some pictures from around 7 or 8 years ago where she looked much smaller, probably around 11-12 pounds, and they made me sad because of just how much weight she gained. But they've at least given me a pretty realistic goal weight - I highly doubt that she'll ever weigh less than 10 pounds, she hasn't weighed under 10 pounds since she was a kitten.
Treats sound like a great idea for Moxie, she's very lean and her hobby is to run around the apartment growling like a demon multiple times a day (the name suits her well) so I'm not really concerned with her calorie intake. I just checked out the kickaroo - I'll definitely have to get her one of those, it's cheap enough that it wouldn't even matter if she ended up not using it, but she loves bunny kicking her toys AND crinkly stuff, so she's almost certainly going to play with it. Thanks, I may have just found her new favorite toy!

 

[orange&white]

Haha! If the two cats were in the same picture, they could almost be "Before" and "After" diet shots. They are, of course, both beautiful.

If she looked great at 11-12 pounds, that is a realistic goal.

I'm taking Tangent in steps, or a series of small achievable goals. He started at 16.5 and I know he looked great around 12.5-13 pounds when he was younger. He may never get there again, but I shot for 15 lbs first, now 14, then we'll go for 13.5 lbs. At 13.5 I'll assess whether or not he needs to lose more or if I want to try to maintain him between 13-13.5.

 

[foxxycat]

My pumps is overweight and I started measuring out a days food in a baggie and instructing my partner to only put half of the baggie in the dish in the am and the rest in the afternoon and not to fill the bowl at night. She gets tuna mush in the mornings and is now finishing it-she won't touch any other food and we need to get supplements into her willingly so this is how we do it. I give a table spoon of dark tuna-mash with fork add 1/4 cup water with supplements. Heat up water so it's mouse temperature..she loves it. been doing this all 13 years of her adult life. Before the bf was filling the dish way too much with food and she is also on pred so it doesn't help. Blood work came back yesterday perfect. So I measure 2/3 scoop of their biscuits and each cat gets one scoop. Only one cat gains weight-the other one runs around chasing mice and I don't worry about her. The older kitty has arthritis and she doesn't go far enough to burn calories...so for now it's only been day 4. she doesn't wake us up to feed her in the middle of the night...I will weigh her once a week to see if there's any progress.

 

[mservant]

In my limited experience, as cats mature it definitely gets harder to get most of them to run about when they play to burn off their calories. They perfect the art of watching and waiting. At least Mouse is still generally fit and no arthritis or anything yet - one of my previous cats did.

200 g works out at just under half a pound for weight loss and my vets weight clinic reckon that is about right for loosing over a 3 week period - not more. They say even the half pound is hard to achieve with cats and were pretty impressed that Mouse had achieved his first goal so no one should be disappointed if the loss is slower. Important thing has to be keeping at it for as long as it takes. I like orange&white's approach, that you look for what is achievable and take it in stages. Sensible if you want to avoid stress and disappointment that your cat is likely to pick up on and make everything you want to happen harder to achieve.

Kickaroo used to be a firm favourite with Mouse stiv , and it's great for cats that like bunny-kicking. It also works well for interactive play with your cat for more active play like bunny-kicks without your arm or leg ending up as the bunny.

Autumn is gorgeous, if working a little too hard on being a spherical cat - like Mouse has been doing too. Very sweet little calico face there. Ruffle that belly fluff for me - I bet it's super soft.

 

[stiv]

It does almost look like it could be a before and after shot! When I first got Moxie I saw their coats were so similar I feared I may have a little trouble telling them apart. Luckily they have completely different body types but sometimes that doesn't even help at first glance! She loves belly rubs and it is so, so soft.
I'm shooting for losing 200g first, then I'll move onto the next 200g, and on... I'll be looking into the luggage scale as soon as I get paid next, the flat ones like the one I would need are also a little cheaper than baby scales (sometimes by as much as $15 - I guess they can mark up anything so long as it's for a wedding or a baby ). I've got lots of things to buy for her to make this easier for her, but since I have to take it as slow as I can that's not an issue. Really have to thank orange&white for telling me about the luggage scale!

Good luck with pumps, foxxycat ! I have a similar issue - out of the three cats I have, only Autumn is overweight. I inherited my mom's cat, who is only a year younger than Autumn but still very lean and active. I got Moxie after I fostered my grandmother's young cats after she couldn't care for them anymore because she was just so bored when they went to a new forever home. They play with each other but Autumn wants NOTHING to do with it. The most important things seem to be patience and perseverance.

So I think what I'll do is keep doing what I'm doing for now, and after I get the scale, go on to weigh her every week AND measure out her food, and cut food by small amounts accordingly. Definitely going to get her a kickaroo. I will probably keep at least offering her wet food but keep her current weight in mind, I would at least love for her to eat a partially wet diet if not completely because of the FLUTD and lower amount of carbs. I'll try different foods. She may never get to a completely wet diet, she's lovely but probably the most stubborn cat I've ever owned, and I think that's really saying something.

 

[foxxycat]

how is it going stiv ? my girls are getting used to only filling the bowl once a day...they don't seem to be bothered by empty bowl at night other than Honeybee crawls up on my partner and licks his face at 2am until he gives her treats

 

[stiv]

I actually switched Autumn to meal feeding way before I made this move to count her calories - as little change at a time and as little stress as possible, as stress can help bring on HL. She made it through a very unavoidably high stress year with me just fine but any easily avoided stress just isn't worth the risk for me, or her. I'm so glad your girls adjusted to not having a full bowl all night already - they adapt much faster than you'd think! Autumn was freefed most of her life and I thought she would be a pest, but she kinda "got it" right away. I *can* get her to eat it all at once by pointing out she has food repeatedly but eating all at once upsets her tummy, so I leave it out and only give measured amounts every 8 hours. I had a tight week and haven't ordered the scale yet but will be so happy when I get it; it will put a damper on some of my concerns. After that it's off to the vet to confirm her weight goal.

 

[stiv]

OK, today's problem was with the other two, Moxie and Jet. They've suddenly decided they hate the food I'm giving them. An hour after I fed them Jet came in to bug me, as if I had never fed them, wet food's untouched. Tried putting it on a different plate, no dice. Nothing else seems to be wrong - Jet immediately went to town and ate 1/4 cup of kibble when offered because I was worried Thank goodness I had just ordered a different flavor of food - I'll probably have to start buying multiple flavors at a time because this isn't the first time they've tired of a certain food. That package will arrive before they're out of this one. Autumn seems to be interested in this one, so I'll keep the extra cans and offer them to her alongside breakfast and dinner.