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Cat Losing Weight


How To Deal With Cat Losing Weight

If your cat is losing weight, there are many causes easily corrected.  Among these are internal parasite, or worms.  They rob the cat of their food’s nutritional content, i.e. their calories.  Other reasons for weight loss or loss of appetite are changes in the environment – relocating, another pet’s arrival in the home, loss of another pet, and so on.  These changes can render your cats’ appetite nil. 

The appetite should return in no more than a week, when kitty has adapted to the new situation or family member.

One cause of concern about feline weight loss is feline diabetes.  In this condition, the liver is no longer processing your cats’ food.  The cat cannot flush toxins from its body.  He becomes dehydrated and thin, and will drink increased amounts of water.

Observe your cat if you have not done so, to determine if it is drinking a lot of water.  High water intake is a major sign of liver problems or diabetes. If you see this, or other unexplained weight loss, contact your vet.

They may be able to diagnose the problem by phone. If it isn’t’ serious that will elevate your fears and you won’t need an expensive vet visit.  

If the vet thinks is may be diabetes or liver malfunction, he or she will want to see the cat immediately, to prevent serious problems or death. Diabetes is not fatal if treated promptly and correctly.  The vet will do blood work and if needed, recommend special canned food, high in protein and low in carbohydrates or fillers.  This will stabilize the cat’s health and he or she can continue to lead a happy, long life.

If the diet is not adjusted, the cat could perish in a year or two.  For senior cats it could be a matter of months.

Panleukopenia is another serious condition that causes weight loss.  But it is due to loss of appetite. It is caused by the parvovirus, and is very contagious. Other names used in the past  for this virus are feline distemper, infectious enteritis, cat fever and feline typhoid.  Unlike diabetes, with this virus cats may sit in front of the water bowl without drinking anything, just staring at it.  Parvovirus damages the blood cells, and weakens the immune system so fluffy could get other illnesses at the same time. 

Other causes of loss of appetite, ergo weight loss are:

  1. Salmonella or Campylobacter infection
  2. Pancreatitis
  3. FIV - Feline immunodeficiency virus
  4. FeLv - Feline leukemia
  5. Poisoning
  6. ingesting a foreign object

All these afflictions have some common symptoms in addition to weight loss-including depression, lack of energy, and failure to relate to the family as their typical selves.  That is, if your cat is very affectionate and then ceases to show affection, one of these illnesses may be the reason.  Essentially, if your cat’s behavior changes it could be one of the things listed above. So if she is normally aloof and then gets even more aloof, or becomes more needy, that could be a sign of a disease or virus.

As always, a changed cat can be a sick cat.  If the change is environmental, it should clear up soon.  If not, get veterinary care as soon as possible.  All of these conditions are treatable if caught in time, and if the cat is not extremely advanced in years.


 

 

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