Geriatric cats

I've always just thought this was due to her age, but China Doll has no "meat" on her, she has a fat middle, but her spine and legs don't have much muscle and fat on them. I know at some point in her life she was a very fat cat, due to the excess skin on her chest.

Right now she's on hard food, we've been feeding her purina cat chow since we purchase it in bulk for the feral cats. Is there a brand or specific type of food that's made for older cats. i.e Purina Kitten food, vs Purina cat chow... is there a Purina old lady chow of some sort? Also where would I get it?


Here's what she looks like (sorta) from the top. Her spine isn't as noticeable because she has medium length hair, but if I didn't know she's been checked at the vet and fed daily with water supply I would think she was getting emaciated

Originally Posted by ChinaDoll

I've always just thought this was due to her age, but China Doll has no "meat" on her, she has a fat middle, but her spine and legs don't have much muscle and fat on them. I know at some point in her life she was a very fat cat, due to the excess skin on her chest.

Right now she's on hard food, we've been feeding her purina cat chow since we purchase it in bulk for the feral cats. Is there a brand or specific type of food that's made for older cats. i.e Purina Kitten food, vs Purina cat chow... is there a Purina old lady chow of some sort? Also where would I get it?


Here's what she looks like (sorta) from the top. Her spine isn't as noticeable because she has medium length hair, but if I didn't know she's been checked at the vet and fed daily with water supply I would think she was getting emaciated

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Just how old is your kitty? Yes, older cats, like people, loose muscle and tend to get thinner. When was she seen at the vet? What tests were done? Was there blood work? Is she drinking more water? Two things I would be concerned about would be hyperthyroidism and diabetes. Things can crop up very quickly in a kitty. I would talk to your vet about your concerns. It could be something as simple as a food change, but dry food is high calorie. I have senior cats that are "portly" and they eat wet food. So, again, I think you need to talk to the vet.

Good luck and for your sweet girl. She is lovely.

I agree with farleyv, I would test for Hyperthyroidism, that jumped off the page at me, your kitty looks SO much like my beloved Miss Pooh Bear who passed away this past January. Have you thought of changing her food? Purina is not the greatest food, and since Nestle bought them, the quality has gone down even more.

When was last vet visit? If over 6 months ago Please redo any blood , urine tests

Her age estimate when we got her was 13, so now she's 15. And she's always had this sort of muscle. Our past vet did bloodwork the first day we got her, three months after that, and six months after the three month check to check her liver panel and her blood count. The six month check said she was no longer in liver failure and only one count was a little low but "not worrisome with her progress" and that the other ones were normal. She was no longer anemic after the three month test.

I'm making her an appt to have her checked again by another vet. I just was wondering if it was normal for her to be so thin and what foods to give her for her age. We were feeding natural choice but Mars bought them out so we went back to purina.. Didn't know that purina was going through the same situation!

would hyperthyroidism be treated with medication? there are a lot of medications that our emergency vet kept trying to avoid (when she had seizures last december) due to her heart murmur.

Originally Posted by ChinaDoll

Her age estimate when we got her was 13, so now she's 15. And she's always had this sort of muscle. Our past vet did bloodwork the first day we got her, three months after that, and six months after the three month check to check her liver panel and her blood count. The six month check said she was no longer in liver failure and only one count was a little low but "not worrisome with her progress" and that the other ones were normal. She was no longer anemic after the three month test.

I'm making her an appt to have her checked again by another vet. I just was wondering if it was normal for her to be so thin and what foods to give her for her age. We were feeding natural choice but Mars bought them out so we went back to purina.. Didn't know that purina was going through the same situation!

would hyperthyroidism be treated with medication? there are a lot of medications that our emergency vet kept trying to avoid (when she had seizures last december) due to her heart murmur.

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Hyper T is treated with a daily pill or whatever the vet decides is the correct dossage. I have had two hyper t cats. They did get thin. So she has had issues in the past.

I would call for an appointment today. The sooner you get her in the better. Your vet would be the one to recommend food in light of what is wrong, if anything. It seems that at your cats age, that all kinds of things start to become a possibility. Just as in humans.

I have two seniors one with hyper t and another with diabetes. Both are very common is older cats.

I hope you can get her in soon. You are a good person to be so concerned for your sweet girl. I hope it is nothing that cannot be dealt with.

Please keep us posted Many

If a cat has been at an ideal weight or hefty for some time, being that thin is a cause for concern and I agree with others to have her checked at a vet. Losing weight for no apparent reason is never a good thing.

Of my 2 cats over 14 years old, one is still at the general weight that he's had all his life so I don't worry about him. The other has slowly lost weight over the last 2 years, going from his prime of 13 pounds and dropped as low as 7 pounds. We've run every bloodwork, x-ray and ultrasound test on him and the only conclusion is that he has a very slow growing cancer. They see shadows on the films but they aren't getting worse since we started those films. I guess my point in this is to prepare yourself to keep looking for issues and don't get discouraged if you don't find anything right away. I get aggressive with testing whenever he starts to drop weight (he's been stable since early this year) and do at least a bi-weekly weight on him to monitor him. He's also on a 6th month complete blood test schedule - more often if he starts to drop weight.

Ok I'll try and find a good vet around here to get her in soon. To clarify, she has gained weight since we rescued her (she was living in a hampster cage at a flea market) so I believe the weight loss (which is apparent due to the excess skin) happened before we got her. She went from weighing 4lbs to 7lbs, her last weigh was two weekends ago when she was being treated for over-grooming.

As for getting discouraged with testing... we've already spent over 6,000 dollars helping her survive her anemia, liver failure, heart failure, a flu-like virus, and seizures. So I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of this with no problems