I'm hoping someone might have some insight or experience with this. My cat is 15 years old and has been having rapid weight loss. She was a 13 pound cat in here prime and now is 6.8 lbs. I take her to a vet practice that only treats cats, very reputatable. They have done a lot of blood tests and she does not have diabetes. Her thyroid was slightly low so she is now on thyroid medication. She continued to loss weight so they put her on steriods (medrol) in case it was some sort of inflammatory bowel disease which they said is hard to diagnose. Still continued to loss weight. Then they put her on an appetite simulant and she still is losing weight. She was very constipated recently and had to give her an enema. They now have me giving her fluids at home every other day. She is still losing weight. They did an xray looking for tumors etc. Found a small round mass which they said does not look like cancer. It could have been there since she was little they said. So that is not definative.

She is not acting sick. She eats, not too much but she always comes for her food. She is still active and able to jump on the bed. She always is on my lap. (point is she is not acting like a sick cat)

Anyone have any advice or experience with something like this?
Thank you so much for any help you can offer.

i dont know if it is of any help, but i had a 16 year old ragdoll who, like your cat, within about a year went from 8.6kgs to 4.2kg.
he is was tested for kidneys as he was drinking alot. the vet couldnt find anything wrong with him. unfortunately i lost him in the end because he was simply an elderly cat. he had ulcers in his mouth and couldnt eat or drink.
i think because she seems to be fine in herself, she obviously is still enjoying life. its when they cant eat anymore then i think you have to face up to the fact that there is not alot that can be done.
it could just be that her age is probably catching with her.

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6 years ago that is EXACTLY what they did with my cat!! (died at the age of twenty) I have just taken my younger cat (now17) with the SAME symtems and they have put him on medication for thyroid prods"" but still awaiting confirmation re blood tests!

did they take blood tests from your cat??

Sorry - can be of litlel help - BUT the are a lot of catty folk on here that will give you some advice!! but they are perhaps all in bed now - so shall bump your thread up - BUT please keep checking back!
DT

Hi there and welcome to PF,

Over what period of time has she lost all this weight? Apart from hyperthyroidism which is easily diagnosed and treated weight loss can be a sign of more serious illness and frankly I'm a bit surprised your vets haven't been able to get to the bottom of it yet.

Firstly just to clarify a few points. When you mention she's on thyroid medication is this for overactive thyroid? If this is the case then the T4 must have been high and not low as stated. Methimazole? This is the more likely of the two since hypothyroidism is rare in cats and usually as a result of concurrent illness or over-medicating.

The other thing I'd like to know is the location of the mass they identified on X-ray. Regardless of what it 'looked like' I think it's important to rule out things like cancer since this could well be the cause of this significant weight loss.

Any other symptoms like vomiting or diarrhea/soft stools? Untreated Inflammatory bowel disease can cause weight loss owing to malabsorbtion of nutrients. However it can show up on X-ray. Since you mention dehydration have the vets ruled out pancreatitis as this is a common symptom? You need a separate fPLI tes of this.

Sorry more questions than answers I'm afraid. Just a few things I would be discussing with my vet if it were my cat.