overweight Oscar - what do I ask the vet to do?

[gina]

I have a male cat (Oscar) who was neutered at 4 months of age. Immediately after that, he began putting on weight really quickly. He is a little over a year old, and it seems of late that he is gaining again. I am going to take him to the vet, but I am wondering what types of tests I should request to see if there is a physical cause. I don't have enough trust in my vet yet to know that she won't do unnecessary tests. Any advice is appreciated.

Also, has anyone had success feeding an overweight cat separately from your other cats who are normal weight? Is this the end of free feeding? I have always left dry food out for my other guy and our fosters. I have one momma cat right now who is quite underweight, so I need to have food available for her constantly.

Thanks in advance,
Gina

[Mona]

My advice would be to have bloodwork done to make sure Oscar is not hypothyroid or has any other problems. Then ask for a diet for him to help him not to gain more weight.

MOna, Chloe and HOneybun

[Traci]

Well it would be extremely rare for a kitty this young to develop hyperthyoroidism, but you might want to get that checked.....other testing would include a general health profile, mainly liver and kidney function. Might want to opt for x-rays if your vet feels something else might be going on.

If he's healthy, your vet may simply suggest a veterinary prescribed diet that is low in caloric content, but this must be done carefully, and slowly. Cats who lose weight too quickly, can succomb to liver failure or diabetes, so it's important that you and your vet work closely if a weight management program is initiated. If your vet suggests a commercial low-calorie food, dismiss that idea and request that you discuss a veterinary diet for this purpose. (commercial 'diet' foods are not really adequate for weight reduction or maintaining weight)

Unfortunately, you will have to seperate your cats at feeding times, because you can't risk your underweight female eating a prescribed reduced calorie diet. Also, when a kitty is on a prescribed diet, anything fed outside of that defeats the entire purpose. It's not too difficult to schedule feedings and amounts, but you might want to ask your vet about a proper diet for your underweight female as well, one that is higher in nutrient availability. (btw, why is she underweight? Does she have a health condition?). You mentioned she is a 'momma cat', so if she is still nursing, feed her kitten food only, it's higher in nutrients for nursing and lactating queens.

[Guest]

Thanks, Mona and Tracie. I am scheduling Oscar to see the vet very soon and now I know what to ask for if she doesn't mention it. I'm not looking forward to a separate feeding type of situation, but will do what's best for all. I assume if she requests a diet change, it would be for one of the Hill's vet diets that is specifically made for weight control. That must be what you mean by veterinary diet... what are the commercial low-calorie foods you referred to, Tracie? (so I'll know if she mentions them)

The momma cat I referred to is weaning 4 kittens, but I don't know her history. She is one of my fosters. She has actually gained a bit of weight since being here but still has a ways to go. Her kittens are almost 8 weeks old so they will be adopted out soon. The Humane Society will schedule her spay surgery after the kittens are adopted and she'll be with me until she's recovered.

Will the underweight kitty get enough nutrition (yes, I am feeding her kitten food) if I switch to scheduled feeding times? She seems to eat very small amounts at various times throughout the day. I also give her a kitty milk supplement (Healthy Essentials brand from PetsMart) that she really enjoys. I'll also ask my vet about her when I take Oscar in.

Thanks again for all your advice,
Gina

[Traci]

Gina, you can feed your momma kitty as much as she wants at this point, she needs extra nutrients, kitten food is ideal for that purpose.

I see your point about seperating, and momma kitty's requirements. I think it would be fine, as long as the amounts are sufficient each meal time. Ideally, Oscar is the one you have to be most concerned about as far as schedules are concerned, he will have to be fed certain amounts. IF your vet determines he is overweight, he will calculate a feeding schedule and amounts for you.

As for commercial brands, anything you find in your local supermarket, claiming low-fat, senior, or less active. These are fine for some cats as maintenance, but if your vet implements a weight management plan, he will want to prescribe a veterinary diet geared to get the weight off safely, and without kitty losing too much lean body mass. Some of the diets for this purpose can be found on my Dietary Page .... Your vet may carry more than one, or he may even special order for you, depending on his own recommendations. It all depends on Oscar's health status at this point, and how overweight your vet feels he might be.

[davet]

just an addendum but once in a while you will get an aniamal the becomes endocrinological over weight by the neutering process.. my own fat sloob of a golden was one of those...it happens rarely--in fact every time i saw a fat endcrine dog, i felt it belonged to a fat endocrine owners...wasn't a nice simily but i enjoyed it----didn't say it though... but this may be one of those and if so i think i would just accept the fact....by the time you try to correcct it you have an unhappy pet...better to have a fat happy pet....i am not saying that this is the case but it is a possibility.....

[Susan and the girls]

Gina - I wanted to say, too, that if Oscar really likes to eat, it really won't be easy to keep him out of the other cats' food when you do switch to scheduled feeding times.

I speak from experience..... I took Belle in for her last checkup in November, 02, and at that time her weight was 15 pounds. We started a "diet" for her. It was the vet's prescribed diet food from Purina, and I fed her exactly as I was told. Problem was, I have two other cats who don't have a weight problem (although Daisy's getting pretty chunky these days....), and so if they happened to leave some food in their bowls, I'd catch Belle nibbling the "good stuff." (I wonder if there's a big difference in the taste of "regular" food and "diet" food..... You'd think the regular food would taste better - kinda like the difference in human regular food and diet food.... Anyway....)

From November 02 til now, we've managed to "maintain" instead of lose. Honestly, after about 6 months of the diet food, seeing no weight loss at all, I kinda gave up and bought the diet food you can get at the store..... It had frustrated me to give $16 for a bag of prescription food that wasn't helping (because Belle could always get to the other food) when I could buy the stuff at the store for less than half that, so I started getting the over-the-counter diet food. I do realize that in my case, Belle's weight gain is more my fault than Belle's. She was a "free feeder" until her weight started going up and wouldn't stop. And I always found it interesting that Scarlett, my waif of a cat, always tried to eat Belle's diet food anyway. (She must be trying to maintain her skinny figure! )

Now, after just three weeks of living in our new (much bigger) house, I swear I can see a difference in Belle's physique. I think she may be toning up. Her favorite thing to do is race up and down the stairs then all through the house. (We didn't have an upstairs at the other house, and there was very little room to run & romp.) She's playing a LOT more here than she ever did at the old house. Maybe all she needed was a little room to exercise!

Let us know what the vet says about Oscar, ok?

[Gina]

Well, Oscar went to the vet this morning for a checkup and annual rabies shot and fecal exam. I asked the vet about his weight issues. He's 13 pounds at 1 year of age. She felt around on him and asked about his diet. She didn't feel it is necessary to do any further testing at this point. She did say I should consider starting him on a "lite" diet and do the separate feeding thing. She did not recommend a prescription diet at this point. I believe she came to that conclusion because of how healthy he seems to be (coat, eyes, etc.) and because she didn't feel anything out of the ordinary during the exam.

Traci, I know you mentioned that I should not do the "commercial diet" type of food. Would that include the "lite" Science Diet, Nutro, or Eukanuba? Are those going to give Oscar what he needs for a healthy rate of weight loss? Should I be more insistent that more be done or that we start a prescription diet?

Thanks,
Gina

[Tina B and crew]

Hi Gina....we went through this with Gizmo a few years ago. Our vet, rather than put Gizmo on a RX diet advised us to start feeding a high quality canned food and cut back, way back on the dry stuff. Gizmo was a free feeder at one time, now I know better. We simply cut down the dry stuff gradually and increased the wet food at the same time. Just that change got him on his way to losing weight. Unfortunately some stress in his life at the time caused him to go anorexic on us and he lost to bulk of his "overweight" weight due to hepatic lipidosis. So I can't stress enough that this must be a slow process. Since recovering from HP Gizmo has been able to maintain his weight on the canned food. I only feed food that is high quality...no fillers, no by-products. The cats would still love to eat the dry stuff, but only get a bit as treat on occasion. It did take some work to try to feed them seperate...still does because Gizmo roves from bowl to bowl to clean up what the others leave. So I simply feed him less and them more knowing they won't eat it all and he will finish theirs. Gone are the days of convenient pour it in a bowl and forget feeding...but the cats are much healthier.

Good luck with oscar...keep us posted on his progress

[Traci]

Gina,....without further comments from your vet, I really hesitate to advise. Apparently, she's not looking to reduce his weight, but rather maintain it. Lite food can serve the purpose of maintaining current weight, and possibly (not always), he may lose gradually, but if you are going to go this route, I would strongly advise a recheck in 3 months, or sooner if you notice him losing too much too fast. One can never predict if a cat will lose weight on a commercial "Lite" diet, rather than maintain, so it's always best when initiating such a diet, to get a followup soon after.

The diets you mention (save for Nutro, I won't recommend it, sorry), will be sufficient at this point, but again, it's impossible to say if he will lose or maintain, it depends on his individual metabolism, physiology, and activity level, etc. By all means, try to incorporate a small exercise program for him at home such as playtime, chasing strings, etc, but do NOT let him over-exhert himself with exercise or playtime. He will let you know when he's had enough.

Again, follow up with your vet in about three months (or sooner if you see problems develop, such as significant weight loss, constipation, vomiting, or excess weight)