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Old August 20th, 2010, 10:43 AM
amandabanana amandabanana is offline
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Cat is losing weight

My cat is 9 years old and in the past few months she has lost weight. She had also been vomiting hairballs a lot, so I took her to the vet. The vet did some blood tests to check her kidneys, thyroid, check for diabetes, etc and everything came back negative. She gave me some pills to give her to help settle her stomach and also laxatone to give her for the hairballs. I went through all the pills and have continued to give her the laxatone, and she hasn't vomited any hairballs but a few times she has vomited a little bit of food. I had been feeding her all dry food w/hairball treatment, but decided to start giving her pouch food that I hoped would help her gain weight. I've noticed since I've been giving her the pouch food that she doesn't eat the dry food as much, so I've just been giving her 2-3 pouches a day, which she shares with another cat of mine. So she's been eating a lot and drinking water, I can't understand why she keeps losing weight. She looks so skinny and it hurts me to see her like this. She was originally 8.7 pounds last year when she went to the vet and this time at the vet she weighed 7.4, and today I weighed her and she weighs just over 6 pounds. I'm worried that something's wrong and the vet can't find it and I don't know what to do.
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Old August 20th, 2010, 10:59 AM
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14+kitties 14+kitties is offline
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Has the vet done extensive blood work and checked for thyroid conditions? That may be a start.
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Old August 20th, 2010, 10:46 PM
amandabanana amandabanana is offline
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Yes the vet did bloodwork and checked for that and everything was negative. I'm wondering if there's a different kind of food that might be higher in calories and fat to help her gain weight? Right now I have Science Diet w/Hairball Control for the dry food, and I've been feeding her Friskies pouch food.
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Old August 20th, 2010, 11:02 PM
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luckypenny luckypenny is offline
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Hello amandabanana .

I think your cats would benefit from much better quality foods than what you're currently feeding . Have you seen this incredibly informative site yet? http://catinfo.org/
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Old August 21st, 2010, 11:12 AM
amandabanana amandabanana is offline
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Thanks for the link, I'll check it out and find a better quality food to feed them.
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Old August 22nd, 2010, 05:34 PM
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PumpkinPal PumpkinPal is offline
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Welcome amandabanana!

Dry food really isn't the best for them. Wellness is the best wet food.
There are no by products or grains. The quality of the protein is very
good.

Sometimes the kidney issues don't show on the tests right away.
My Sampson's numbers were fine twice before it was diagnosed. If
your vet has already done a full blood work up, I would take her
back in a month or so, sooner if she is rapidly losing weight.

Is she still vomiting? Do you see excessive urination? Did your vet
perform a urinalysis?

Please keep us updated. Hope she gets better.
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Old August 22nd, 2010, 06:39 PM
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Change of food to quality canned will do her a world of good. That luckypenny posted is so rich with cat info.

My two favourites are Wellness, canned, grain free and Nature's Variety Instinct. There are a few others, but I haven't tried them with my cats.

I did find that my cats, especially Puddles pretty much stopped vomiting after I changed her food, and she gained some muscle mass. Hopefully that is all that your kitty needs too .
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Old August 22nd, 2010, 11:11 PM
amandabanana amandabanana is offline
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Thanks, I'll get some wellness canned food tomorrow and see how that goes. She hasn't been throwing up very much lately, maybe once in the past week, which is really good for her. I think the hairball treatment the vet gave me to give her is helping with that. If she continues to lose more weight over the next few weeks I plan on taking her back to the vet for more bloodwork and to see what else can be done. Thanks for all the info guys! The only concern that I have with the canned food is that sometimes during the week when I'm at school I'm gone for around 9 hours, and I don't have anyone else that can feed my cats. Do you think it would be okay to just give them the dry while I'm gone at school?
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Old August 23rd, 2010, 12:20 AM
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Marcha Marcha is offline
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I would give food just before you leave, and then a new bowl of food when you come home. Dry food really isn't good for cats. It's better to have them go without food for a few hours than to give them dry.

Fingers crossed your kitty will be gaining some weight soon. Oh - and has the vet given a dewormer?
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