"unexplained" weight gain

You may recall my long, drawn out post about Zach and his rx diet for struvite crystals.  We moved everyone to wet food and I assumed Zach would slim down a little bit since he's not on kibble anymore.

He started out a little on the bigger side (12.7 lbs - not fat, but not svelte and sneaky like he used to be), so he gets 1/3 can of Purina UR (it's a 5.5-oz can), twice a day.  I add water to fill him up and to make sure he pees a bunch to flush everything out.  We cut out snacks also.

Instead of losing weight, he looks even tubbier.  Haven't been back to the vet to weigh him yet and we don't have a scale that measures in 0.1 increments but when I see him, I think, "where are your shoulders?"

What's going on?

Does he go out?  If he does, he might be dining elsewhere as well.  If not, is he less active?

Is he sleeping more?

OrientalSlave said:

Does he go out?  If he does, he might be dining elsewhere as well.  If not, is he less active?

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I was thinking the same thing Oriental.  If he has indeed gained weight he's getting food from somewhere or possibly has a physical problem which has gone undetected.  MsH - Does Zach go outdoors?  Also, is his activity level the same or has he become more lethargic?  Does he behave normally ie: eating, drinking, litter habits?

I don't know what the ingredients in that food are. Maybe it's really high-carb? He's eating so little I don't think it's the amount.

Is it all over or just his shoulders?  Anyway to see what he is peeing out/if hes retaining water?

You have anyone in house? kids/visitors who are often over/dogs food or anything he can be getting into?

Website that has more info:

http://www.purinaveterinarydiets.com/Product/URUrinaryStOxCatFood.aspx

It's only about 11% carbs on a DMB basis. And the 5.5oz cans only have 179 calories.

He sounds like my Billy. We switched Bill to canned from dry (he's the reason we switched to canned - his weight gain). He didn't lose weight. We switched to raw. he didn't lose weight. He was eating just one ounce of food a day, three times a day. A 16 pound cat, eating 3 oz of food a day. Not losing weight. No carbs, no fiber. The vets are stumped. We're not starving him - he's doing well, getting enough nutrition, apparently. But his body is just in "starvation" mode, his metabolism adjusted to the food level. :dk:

Omega 3s are supposed to help cats loose weight. He's on 5-6 drops of a 1000mg salmon oil supplement at each meal. Not helping. Carolina's Bugsy is dropping weight on Krill oil, so we're going to try switching Bill to Krill oil.

But the consensus of the vets is ... I can't reduce the amount of food he eats further. So other than the O3, there's not much I CAN do.

MrsH, I'd chat with the vet. :nod:

Oh, my vet said cats don't get hypothyroid. I'm googling now, and see that's not true. It's "rare." But Billy's thyroid levels all came back normal.

Thanks for the replies.  Side note: one of the other cats has also gained weight on an all-wet (Friskies cans, Whiskas pouches) diet, but the third has not.  She's got some issues though.  Purina UR contains oat flour and rice.

1. He is indoor-only. No kids, no treats, separated from the dog and other cats during meal time.

2. His behavior is normal.  Same appetite.  Enjoys sleeping on his condo or in our bathroom during the day, does the scratching post, comes when I call him, super nosy.

3. Toileting habits are normal. I have two other cats so it's difficult to monitor the litter boxes, but we have not noticed any straining or crying since we started treating him for the stones.  DH does the scooping and he reports large pee piles in the litter.

4. He's not just chubbier around the shoulders.  His butt is bigger, too.  He doesn't have the same sleek shape he did when I adopted him.

Here is a photo I took today.  You can see that he is a naturally big cat, but he has a "roll" of skin behind his neck. Maybe I'm ridiculous and this is a normal shape for a big adult cat?  The others are naturally petite.

 

I'm not sure what fluid retention looks like in cats, but if it involves edema he doesn't appear to have that.  This is grabbable stuff.

He doesn't look fat to me. Maybe a loss of muscle tone, though. How old is he now? How old when you got him? It's natural for cats to fill out a bit as they get older, and if he's middle-aged or older, muscle tone loss isn't unusual either. Does he play much? Fishing pole, laser pointer, anything?

We got him at 18 months I think.  He's somewhere between 3 and 4 years now.  He wrestles with the dog, although not as much these days (they grew up together and when the dog was a puppy they wrestled all day, every day).  He enjoys a feather on a stick for a little bit but I think he's on to me.  (;

LDG said:

Oh, my vet said cats don't get hypothyroid. I'm googling now, and see that's not true. It's "rare." But Billy's thyroid levels all came back normal.

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My vet said that too. However, they can get "a little low" after receiving the I-131 treatment, which apparently is what happened to Emily.

It's very hard to see if he is overweight from the photo.  The best way is condition scoring.

http://vet.osu.edu/vmc/body-condition-scoring-chart