How to get a cat to lose weight
December 31st, 2008 Posted in UncategorizedMy clinic cat is fat.
Mel is overweight because she is a glutton and a thief. She steals food from the kennels of patients. She’ll rush in and gobble up their food after they have been discharged, if someone leaves the door open while they are cleaning the cage. Mel will break open bags that are for sale in our waiting room area and steal that too. Good thing she’s so cute and has such a great personality. I’ve lost count of the bags with tooth marks that I’ve brought home for my own pets to eat, donated to the Humane Society, or sold to clients for a substantial discount.
Mel’s obesity makes her prone to diseases such as Diabetes, Fatty Liver Syndrome and Arthritis. It can shorten her lifespan. I don’t want Mel to be fat. I want her to be healthy, and I want her to live to a ripe old age.
Also, Mel is ruining my credibility! I advise pet owners to keep their animals slim, but Mel is a poor role model! How can I expect my clients to take me seriously when my own cat is overweight?
I have tried taking Mel home for a couple of months to get her to lose weight. My staff jokingly tell clients, when they ask where Mel went to, that she is at Dr. Langlais’ Fat Farm.
I can get Mel to lose weight while she is at my house. How do I do it? Simple. I feed Mel apart from my two house cats Tino and Stitch, who are both slim and on a different diet. She and the boys get measured amounts of food (vs. free choice), twice daily. I lock Mel in the bathroom for 20 minutes with her food. That way she can eat in peace without the boys stealing her food (karma?), and she cannot eat their higher calorie diet.
However, once she goes back to the clinic, Mel goes back to her old habits and regains the weight.
Just when my staff and I were starting to get discouraged, Medi-Cal came to the rescue with their Slim Fit program. It is a program similar to Weight Watcher’s. We have quite a few patients enrolled in the Slim Fit program, and now Mel too.
We weighed Mel in at the beginning of the program. Using her starting weight and body score, the program calculated a target weight, and the calories Mel needs to eat to lose weight. We now know exactly how much canned and how much dry food to feed her, rather than using an approximate feeding guide. We know how long it will take her to reach her target weight.
We are checking Mel’s weight once a week. We enter each weight into the software, and plot her progress on a graph. We then know if we are on target, or if Mel is losing weight too quickly or too slowly. We can then make adjustments to her diet to ensure she continues to do well. Regular weigh-ins are important, so we can make changes as soon as they are needed.
In addition to a special weight loss diet, Mel also needs more exercise. Mel is a strictly indoor cat, so her exercise program consists of two five-minute play sessions every day. We throw toys for her to chase, or shine a laser pointer on the wall for her to jump at. All the staff has gotten involved, especially Sarah, my custodian (thanks Sarah!).
We are also “hiding” Mel’s dry food in several easy-to-find spots around the clinic, so she has to work for her meals. Pets like playing hide and seek too!
The Slim Fit program is available from all veterinarians who sell the Medi-Cal and Royal Canin line (most vets in this area do). Hills also has similar software for their prescription diets. Ask your veterinarian for more information, if your pet is overweight.
This time my staff and I are not giving up. Soon Mel will be her old, svelte self.
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