Hi everyone,
I posting this out of desperation with the hope that you folks might be able to offer some insight. My partner and I recently adopted a cat (Buddha) when he was going to be given to the shelter. He's a really sweet cat and wants nothing more than to cuddle. We are hoping to be able to help him, but his habits are kind of destructive property-wise so we really need some advice.
Some background on Buddha:
Buddha is severely overweight (30 lbs.), has been an outdoor cat for a majority of his life (at least according to his previous owners), lived in a multi-cat household, and was given up due to the fact that it gets cold in the winter and he has bowel movements outside of the litter box when he's inside. We are committed to rehabbing him by helping him lose weight through a combination of specialty diet food and exercise. He seems to drink a lot of water (more water than I've ever seen a cat consume) and while he does eat most of his food he definitely isn't ravenous. In fact, he'll often leave his food in the bowl for hours at a time before finishing it.
When he walks he sort of waddles and he doesn't seem to have a very much energy. Additionally, when he eats it sounds like he has difficulty breathing so this might be why he doesn't eat a lot at once. I've also noticed that when he walks or sits on his back legs he puts all of his weight on the tarsals and metatarsals of his leg rather than on the phalanges. It looks really odd and makes me think he might have arthritis
We've only had him for about a week now and we have been slowly introducing him to our 6 year old female cat. Its been going pretty well since he really isn't a dominant cat and our female is.
In order to address the fecal elimination problems right off the bat, we provided him with his own litter box without a lid so he'd be able to fit and we've been keeping him largely separate from our other cat until he adjusts. So far he has peed inside the litter box, but for some reason he poops immediately outside of it or wanders into other areas of the house to poop. This morning he waddled into the front room and farted really loudly while straining before pooping on the carpet.
I've done a bit of research already and his symptoms don't seem to indicate anything in particular to me. Then again, I'm not a vet and I'm not that knowledgeable about this sort of thing so I thought I'd reach out to the community of cat lovers. The poor little guy is so sweet and loving and we are literally heart broken about his weight and the accompanying health problems that this will undoubtedly entail. We'd really appreciate some insight into the problem in terms of possible causes and solutions to the problem. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.
I posting this out of desperation with the hope that you folks might be able to offer some insight. My partner and I recently adopted a cat (Buddha) when he was going to be given to the shelter. He's a really sweet cat and wants nothing more than to cuddle. We are hoping to be able to help him, but his habits are kind of destructive property-wise so we really need some advice.
Some background on Buddha:
Buddha is severely overweight (30 lbs.), has been an outdoor cat for a majority of his life (at least according to his previous owners), lived in a multi-cat household, and was given up due to the fact that it gets cold in the winter and he has bowel movements outside of the litter box when he's inside. We are committed to rehabbing him by helping him lose weight through a combination of specialty diet food and exercise. He seems to drink a lot of water (more water than I've ever seen a cat consume) and while he does eat most of his food he definitely isn't ravenous. In fact, he'll often leave his food in the bowl for hours at a time before finishing it.
When he walks he sort of waddles and he doesn't seem to have a very much energy. Additionally, when he eats it sounds like he has difficulty breathing so this might be why he doesn't eat a lot at once. I've also noticed that when he walks or sits on his back legs he puts all of his weight on the tarsals and metatarsals of his leg rather than on the phalanges. It looks really odd and makes me think he might have arthritis
We've only had him for about a week now and we have been slowly introducing him to our 6 year old female cat. Its been going pretty well since he really isn't a dominant cat and our female is.
In order to address the fecal elimination problems right off the bat, we provided him with his own litter box without a lid so he'd be able to fit and we've been keeping him largely separate from our other cat until he adjusts. So far he has peed inside the litter box, but for some reason he poops immediately outside of it or wanders into other areas of the house to poop. This morning he waddled into the front room and farted really loudly while straining before pooping on the carpet.
I've done a bit of research already and his symptoms don't seem to indicate anything in particular to me. Then again, I'm not a vet and I'm not that knowledgeable about this sort of thing so I thought I'd reach out to the community of cat lovers. The poor little guy is so sweet and loving and we are literally heart broken about his weight and the accompanying health problems that this will undoubtedly entail. We'd really appreciate some insight into the problem in terms of possible causes and solutions to the problem. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.
