When one of your cats is in the "rabbit pose" and looks bigger...

[Liberal Veteran]

...than your thankgiving turkey, is it time for a diet?

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Is the belly draggin' on the floor? Mine aren't quite there yet

but they are close. *lol*

-----------------------------------
Would Jesus love a liberal? You bet!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/

[Search Party]

2. Nope, it's PLAY TIME! n/t

[TalkingDog]

3. for who?

the turkey, the cat or you?

seriously folks, I'll be here all week....

If you feed her dry kibble, start reducing that and upping her protein. Omnivorous and Carnivorous (dogs and cats) pets do well on a higher protien diet. They are naturally built for it. Think Atkins for your kitty.

Some dry kibble has a high protein mix for overweight cats, but it's expensive. Just give her some plain yogurt or inexpensive tuna. But mostly don't feed her so much. Only give her as much food as she'll eat in a sitting. Think one or two heaping tablespoons and only a couple of times a day. Yes, she'll bitch and moan, but she won't starve, trust me.

[morillon]

4. Don't let your cat lose weight too fast!

If the cat is really overweight, don't put her on a diet without your vet's supervision. I once lost a cat to hepatic lipidosis, also known as "fatty liver" disease, because she lost weight too quickly. She had always been a little chubby, and she developed diabetes. The vet was very slow to diagnose her with diabetes (we don't trust this guy for anything anymore). The kitty lost weight very quickly, and this really messed up her liver.

I weigh all my cats now on a weekly basis, and if anybody loses any significant amount of weight, he or she goes to the vet right away.

http://hhpcc.org/happenings/ocnode01/hepatic.html

[jukes]

5. sad story

very sorry for your loss.

& you're absolutely right. I had 1 that i was able to reduce slowly on my vet's advice; thankfully, he had many more years because of that.

EXCELLENT post, TX!!

[morillon]

6. Thanks.

Cats often hide illness until they're really sick, so weighing them is one way to find out early if something's going on. My second oldest cat was diagnosed about two months ago with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and we caught it extremely early because I took her in when she lost weight. The only way it showed up was in the white cell count. She seems to be responding well to prednisone and leukeran, and we hope she's in remission.