Tiny is still chugging along. She has lost over 3 pounds and she’s tipping the scales at a bit under 15 pounds now. That was my goal, when I first started this thread, for the entire year and there are still 4 months left in the year. She’s not svelte yet, but she’s definitely dropped out of the morbidly obese range. 
One big milestone is that she has lost enough weight that she can clean her own backside now. She hasn’t been able to do that for about 8 years. She weighed about the same then as she does now, which means she is thinner now than she has been in a long, long time.
Starting Weight: 18 pounds - 4 ounces
Current Weight: 14 pounds – 14.5 ounces
Weight Loss to Date: 3 pounds 5.5 ounces = 18.3% of starting weight
8/15/09:15lbs-8.5oz.
8/16/09:15lbs-9oz.
I saw Tiny grooming herself and I think she was cleaning her private parts. That would be wonderful news if true because she hasn’t been able to do that for the past 7-8 years. Luckily, she has friends who help keep her clean or else I would have to do it for her. Unfortunately, when she noticed I was watching her, Tiny quit grooming, so I’m not certain if she was cleaning herself up or not. I’ll be keeping an eye out in the upcoming days.
8/17/09:15lbs-7.5oz.
I was looking through my cats records today because I had forgotten how old Tre is (13) and I found some of Tiny’s old medical records. Turns out she weighed 15.3 lbs in 2001 at the age of 2 and a half. Eight years later and she’s getting close to that weight again.
8/18/09:15lbs-5.5oz.
Tiny threw up her lunch today and then spit up several times. I think she was fairly dehydrated when I weighed her, which is why the weight dropped. She ate fine at dinner though, so hopefully it wasn’t anything major.
8/19/09:15lbs-5.5oz.
Tiny ate well today. No sign that she is feeling bad.
8/20/09:15lbs-4.5oz.
Tiny is still losing weight rapidly. This is puzzling to me because she has eaten well for the last 2 days and I haven’t seen any sign of her throwing up. For now, I’m just going to watch and wait. I’ve already been to the vet with her twice this summer to the tune of $600+ and none of the tests really showed anything wrong. For now, I’m just going to try to encourage her to eat and keep a close eye on her.
On a positive note, this weight is under the 15.3 pounds she weighed in the fall of 2001. That means Tiny hasn’t weighed this little in almost 8 years! I wish now that I hadn’t had such a “yeah, yeah, whatever†attitude at the time when my vet told me she was too big.
She’s also in a weight loss race with Thufir. She only weighs one ounce more than him, and that’s only because he has lost a pretty good bit in the last couple of days too. He’s a year younger and although he has a Ragdoll sized frame, he was skinny when I got him so he has never weighed more than Tiny. His ideal weight is probably about 3-4 pounds more than Tiny’s though, so hopefully she’ll pass him soon and stay under his weight from now on.
One other piece of good news is that I saw her grooming tonight and it definitely looked like she was cleaning her private areas. I bet that makes her happy.
I may just have to snap a picture of it to commemorate the occasion.
8/21/09:15lbs-4oz.
Three pounds down! It’s hard to believe she weighed 18 pounds and 4 ounces just 3 months ago. She also caught Thufir and for the first time ever, they weigh the same today.
8/22/09:15lbs-4.5oz.
Slight uptick in weight, which is actually good since I’ve been concerned she is losing too fast. One neat thing is that Tiny jumped up onto the desk (30†high) 3 times today while I was weighing the kitties. That’s a pretty big jump for her, so I’m impressed she did it 3 times in just a couple of minutes. Usually I have to lift her up onto the desk to weigh her.
8/23/09:15lbs-2.5oz.
Quite a drop today. I have mixed feelings. On one hand, it’s good that she’s losing. She seems to be feeling well. I watched her jump from the lower level of the cat tree today and it seemed pretty athletic. On the other hand, she’s almost losing weight too fast. Over the last 3 weeks, she has been losing an average of 4.8 ounces a day, or about 1.96% of her body weight each week. Over the past week, it’s been 5.5 ounces, or 2.2% of her body weight. That last is outside the safe 2% range (with closer to 1% being recommended) to avoid the risk of hepatic lipidosis. I decided to put out a cup of dry food tonight because I know she loves that. Last month, she started gaining when I fed one dry meal a day, so I think I may try feeding 1 dry meal every few days as needed to slow the rate of weight loss. Slow and steady wins this race.
8/24/09:15lbs-3.5oz.
8/25/09:15lbs-3.5oz.
It’s amazing what a difference just that 1 dry meal made. All of my kitties jumped up 1-2 ounces from their weights 2 days ago after eating the dry food. I suspect water weight is a big part of that since the dry food is designed to encourage them to drink more water. I just can’t imagine 1 meal of dry having that big of an effect otherwise.
8/26/09:15lbs-3oz.
8/27/09:15lbs-1oz.
And back to the weight loss. The dry food seems to have done a good job acting as a speed brake to slow the weight loss when it seemed too rapid. Her total weight loss for the week is now only 2.6 ounces, which is well under the 2% body weight per week I want to keep her below. She also, for the first time in her entire life, weighs less than Thufir does today. She’s now only my second heaviest cat.
8/28/09:15lbs-0.5oz.
8/29/09:15lbs-0oz.
8/30/09:14lbs-15.5oz.
Another big milestone! Tiny has now dropped under 15 pounds. My initial goal was actually to get Tiny to 15 pounds by the end of the year. Well, mission accomplished! And there are still 4 months to go for the year.
8/31/09:14lbs-14.5oz.
Today is the end of the month. Tiny is looking good and seems to be feeling good as well. I had my vet come over today for a house call to give 2 of my other cats their annual shots. She hasn’t seen Tiny since she was 18+ pounds and she thought Tiny looked thinner. Here’s a picture of the old girl:
Here’s what her weight loss progress looks like so far. You can see the big “shoulder†around the 1st of June when we really got it together and she started losing weight.
I decided to give everyone except Thufir some dry food before bed, but Tiny was completely disinterested in that, too. I pulled out a can of Fancy Feast and she started gobbling that down. Weird. Very weird. At least she ate the Fancy Feast.
Tiny is still eating well and with her taking meals segregated in the closet, I can really control how much she eats. I’ve been locking her in there for over a week and she has cleaned her plate every time. I’m crossing my fingers that that keeps up. My current feeding plan for my cats is as follows:
I hope everyone’s New Year is wonderful and filled with skinny kitties!
