Older cat losing weight - any ideas?

[statisticsthicko]

I am taking her to the vets on Friday. She is 13.5. I am thinking it is either kidneys, or hyperthyroidism .

I have another theory though - we lost our old boy cat back in June. Since then our girl seems to have changed in a few ways. We have started spoiling her more - instead of just the odd pouch of cat food and good quality dried as her main food, we've started giving her one pouch in the morning and leaving the dried out. However, she is constantly holding out on eating the dried in the hope we give her more wet (we don't). It is also Whiskas we give her which I (now) understand is the heroin of cat food and not the best quality! Could she have lost weight in her constant quest for the pouches? She does eat the dried eventually, under duress but her intake of it has reduced. She is far more obssessed with food than before (sounding more like hyperthyroid I suppose..)

Like I say, I am taking her to the vets and I'm sure they will recommend a blood test etc but I would far rather it may be behavioural than her kidneys or thyroid gland packing in .

Is she drinking more?

Not particularly Sparkly.

it sounds more like thyroid than kidneys as my two who went to kidney failure just went down hill and didnt eat anything and when their kidneys are going their breath starts to smell like nail varnish remover, if it is thyroid its not too bad just one tablet a day i think

DCat drinks much more now her kidneys don't work so well. (She's on renal food, meds and vit injection, and doing ok atm).

The fact that yours isn't drinking more perhaps suggests kidneys less likely in your cat's case.

Top three causes of elderly cats losing weight hyperthyroidism, kidney failure, diabetes. All can be well managed.

Thanks all. She's certainly not 'ill' iykwim. Still very perky, affectionate etc. Off to the vets in half an hour.

Best of luck and let us know how she gets on. (Although if the vet (as will likely be the case) wants bloods and a urine analysis, you may not know today.)

How did she get on at the vets?

Hi Cozie, sorry I didn't come back sooner! They've taken blood for a full blood test including kidneys, diabetes & thyroid. He couldn't palpate an enlarged thyroid and her heart rate was within normal limits so hopefully nothing major will come back. What I was most surprised about was the fact he said she was 'very good' when they took the blood from her neck ! She must be mellowing with age!

She must be indeed. The vet has almost given up on getting blood from Seniorboy's neck in any sort of normal manner. He won't use teeth or claws but he can wriggle for a medal!

Let us know how her tests come out.