A few weeks ago, we took Sam and Milly to the vet for their boosters. We saw a young lady vet who we'd never seen before, and she decided (although we hadn't asked) to check them over and take their temperature at the same time. She told us Milly was overweight, and showed my OH the fur standing up around the end of her back, hips and bottom, saying it was sticking up like that because she was overweight and couldn't reach properly to groom herself.

I took this with a pinch of salt. Milly has been overweight in the past, when she kept helping herself to Sam's food and we didn't really notice the gradual weight gain until we saw a photo of her looking like a "triangle", and she has loose skin left from that time - actually, she has a saggy belly, and looks like she's had a few litters of kittens. Her coat is a bit greasy round her back end, but I put that down to laziness when it comes to grooming. She only grooms the bits she can reach while reclining in a chair, and my OH brushes her daily to help compensate. (She's always been laid back. Even when she was a kitten, she had to be encouraged to play, otherwise she'd just lounge around all the time.)

It's only in the last couple of days that I realised my OH was worried about what the vet said, when she saw me feeding them and said she thought I should be giving Milly less than the others because she's overweight. I felt Milly's body, something I don't tend to do because she doesn't really like her body stroked - just her head - and felt ribs, and also quite prominent shoulders and hip bones. I weighed her today, and she weighs 3.6kg. (For comparison, Sam is about the same size as Milly, weighs 4.6kg and was described by the vet as being in perfect health.)

Annoyed is an understatement. My OH has been feeding Milly less whenever she feeds them because the vet said she was overweight. It's no wonder she's been getting so hungry. I'm now trying to feed her a bit more to get her filled out a bit and get her weight closer to 4kg, but it's difficult with Milly because she has a sensitive stomach and can only handle small amounts of food at a time, or she sicks it up, which kind of defeats the object of feeding her more.

It makes me wonder how some people manage to qualify as vets

__________________
Proud Mummy to:

Sam (born June 1999, found August 1999)
Milly (born May 1999, adopted September 1999)
Eva (born 2010, adopted us August 2011)

I know everyone has to start somewhere but........

I wont see the young vet at our place ever again unless its an emergency. I took our old MC in he was'nt himself at all just lying around & she said he needed dental work & he was over weight 6.5kg is not fat for an MC, fine booked him in for the Monday his breathing was awful on the Sunday I rang the emergency & took him straight down, it was the vet we usually always see & Milo had to be PTS was nothing to do with his teeth he thought it was HCM I still think today if she'd got it right & he'd been given some medication he would still be here, he was only 10

__________________

All my children have paws!

3.6kg isn't overweight it's skinny! If you can feel her bones easily she's skinny - show your partner this thread and tell her to stop starving the poor cat.

__________________
please look at my website - www.finesthourcats.webs.com - for gorgeous GCCF registered RagaMuffins and Selkirk Rex

Definitely not overweight. My kitten weighs roughly 3kg and she's 5 months old. She's not even fully grown! And she certainly doesn't have a pouch or look overweight.

I've had the same problem with young vets. A very young vet seen Tiddles when she had an infection in her paw (at the emergency) and said that she'd possibly had a stroke ..... So she gave her a few shots and I took her in again on the Monday because there was no improvement from the Saturday... Anyway, vet at our usual place couldn't believe it (emergency is usually quite good according to them).. Checked her over and found the infection in her paw. The problem was then she couldn't be given certain shots because she'd been given other ones which slowed her progress down slightly.

Fortunately, she was fine though... But yes, try to see a regular vet that is used to YOUR cat. I always ask for the vet I dealt with 90% of the time. I trusted the odd other ones, but I had a preference for one particular one and I will be doing the same for Bella.

That's terrible. I haven't really trusted vets since an incident with Sam's teeth a few years back - nothing hugely major, but we ended up with a few weeks of stress over it - but you hope they can get it right when your cat's life is at risk. I'm so sorry you lost him.

__________________
Proud Mummy to:

Sam (born June 1999, found August 1999)
Milly (born May 1999, adopted September 1999)
Eva (born 2010, adopted us August 2011)

Well, this vet was young and she might not have seen an English moggy before. Spanish cats tend to be very slender (narrow at shoulders and hips) and have thin coats. Milly has a chunky build and a very thick coat - I'll be honest and say I didn't realise she was thin because she doesn't seem it from just looking at her. But that doesn't excuse the vet for just saying she was overweight without actually weighing her to check.

There are some good young vets. When I was 14, I went on work experience with the local vet practice because I had dreams of being a vet, and one day they sent me out with their new young vet, who I really liked straight away. He had a very calm attitude and took plenty of time to assess the animals before jumping to conclusions about what was wrong with them. It didn't matter how much of his time it took, he'd always get to the bottom of the problem. He never changed, he's now a senior partner at the practice, and the only time my family's animals have ever seen another vet was in an emergency if he wasn't available.

__________________
Proud Mummy to:

Sam (born June 1999, found August 1999)
Milly (born May 1999, adopted September 1999)
Eva (born 2010, adopted us August 2011)

God if that's overweight Eric must be obese! He's close to 5kg now!

__________________