I have a 12 year-old cat who has a bigger frame - definitely not a main coon but he's a bigger guy. He has always been in the 12-13 pound range. At his annual checkups, the vet generally says something like "he's a little overweight but given his size I'm not that worried." His last official weigh-in at the vet was in October and he was 12.5 pounds.
When I weigh him on our home scale, which of course has caveats when comparing to a scale at the vet, he's about 10 pounds now. So he lost about 2 pounds in maybe 3-4 months which is obviously a lot. I wonder if some of that is the change in activity level - in October he had a dental cleaning with extractions - nothing major just a few very wiggly teeth - and I noticed afterwards a rebound in his energy levels in terms of playing with our other cat and running around. Total speculation that he probably spent a year or two with some mouth pain and the extractions relieved it, but even still he's at a historic low weight. He's on Friskies wet food and Purina Pro Indoor dry food. He seems to have leveled off and hasn't been losing any more weight, he's been stable at about 10 pounds or slightly over for about 2 months now.
He also doesn't seem "hungry" in terms of asking for food. As far as I can tell, he has a healthy appetite, we have an auto-feeder so I can tell how much he's eating. When the food drops he doesn't sprint the bowl, he's a grazer. And he is not shy about banging on the cannister when he's ready for more but he doesn't really do it much and if I give him a little extra he will walk away before finishing it all, so he doesn't seem "hungry" - he's also still running around so seems to have energy.
Maybe I just got used to him being overweight but I want to make sure he's not underweight. Curious if you all think he looks normal and can wait for his next annual checkup 4-5 months from now to discuss with the vet. Photos attached, thanks!!
When I weigh him on our home scale, which of course has caveats when comparing to a scale at the vet, he's about 10 pounds now. So he lost about 2 pounds in maybe 3-4 months which is obviously a lot. I wonder if some of that is the change in activity level - in October he had a dental cleaning with extractions - nothing major just a few very wiggly teeth - and I noticed afterwards a rebound in his energy levels in terms of playing with our other cat and running around. Total speculation that he probably spent a year or two with some mouth pain and the extractions relieved it, but even still he's at a historic low weight. He's on Friskies wet food and Purina Pro Indoor dry food. He seems to have leveled off and hasn't been losing any more weight, he's been stable at about 10 pounds or slightly over for about 2 months now.
He also doesn't seem "hungry" in terms of asking for food. As far as I can tell, he has a healthy appetite, we have an auto-feeder so I can tell how much he's eating. When the food drops he doesn't sprint the bowl, he's a grazer. And he is not shy about banging on the cannister when he's ready for more but he doesn't really do it much and if I give him a little extra he will walk away before finishing it all, so he doesn't seem "hungry" - he's also still running around so seems to have energy.
Maybe I just got used to him being overweight but I want to make sure he's not underweight. Curious if you all think he looks normal and can wait for his next annual checkup 4-5 months from now to discuss with the vet. Photos attached, thanks!!
