my mums cat *chutney* is 19 years old, over the last 3 months she has lost alot of weight she has gone deaf in the last couple of years, but in herself shes a cery happy cat. no other problems. she eats a fair amount including wet food and biscuits and drinks normally, shes eating whiskers food, i ordered some food from zooplus last week high in vitamins so hopefully this will help.

she goes to the toilet normally, has been deflead and wormed too. is there any particular food you could reccomend. my mother loves her cat to bits, shes been given her the odd bowl of milk too. thankyou fo rreading and any help greatly appreciated xxx

*wanted to add apart from being deaf she has no other health problems, she has all her teeth, shes feisty too i dont think its her time to go yet but she does look too thin x

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Im sure that the cat owners can advise you better, but just a thought are there any other symptoms that you might just be putting down to old age however milld? A friend of mine had an older cat that was losing weight and "scruffy" coat, and turned out to be hyper Thyroid. Its treated with tablets and can have great results.

•Increased Appetite
•Unexplained Weight Loss and loss of muscle mass
•Irritability or Nervousness
•Frequent Vomiting
•Unkempt-looking Coat
•Diarrhea
•Excessive Thirst (polydipsia)
•Weakness
•Lethargy

Can have one or two symptoms.

May not be relevant but I thought may be worth a mention. I would certainly get her checked out though anyway, there are lots of things in old age that can make then below parr, but with a diagnosis and some treatment can make them well again, so worth a check up if he/she hasnt had one in awhile.

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I agree that it's worth getting an MOT from the vet, just to make sure there isn't anything underlying.

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Debs

Lives with a wonderful husband, 2 adorable rescue kitties Harry and Sabrina, and a flock of pampered pet chickens.

Hi
I'm no expert but think a good quality high protein wet food would be best. As much as she wants really. I know a few of the dry feeds you can get for seniors but then you have the problem that they contain cereals which you don't want. Does she ever ear any raw food? Maybe people on here could advise some raw to be given as well as her proper meals to bulk her up, chicken perhaps?
Do you mean cows milk? This is really not a good idea for cats. You can get proper cat milk but to be honest a good quality wet diet will do more good I think.
I'm sure more experienced forum members can offer some more tips

I am not sure from your post whether the cat has seen a vet recently or not but as others have said before me it is really important that she does as soon as possible.

Any unexplained sudden weight loss needs to be investigated and it could be well that she has developed hyperthyroidism as SDH suggested. It is also important to keep an eye on her kidney function at her age. Again, this can lead to weight loss and any problems you really want to address as early as possible.

So please do not tinker with her diet just now but make sure she sees a vet promptly. If her medical stuff comes back clear than by all means make some dietary changes but I personally that wouldn't be my first port of action for now.

Hope that helps.

You all beat me to it. I was going to suggest hyperthyroid as well. And I wanted to add that when my Henry was diagnosed in October, his only real symptom was weight loss. His coat still looked great, he wasn't nervous or irritable, and he really didn't seem to have an increased appetite (although once he was diagnosed, he started eating like food was about to go out of style).

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thanks everybody , this cat belongs to my mum, she did take her to the vets but i think that was mosy likely earlier in the year.

i will encourage her to take her just incase there is anything. i cant think of any obvious symptoms her coat is very healthy no hair loss, the only think ive noticed is her sight isnt as good as it was, and ofcourse we know she is deaf, her toilet *motions* are all normal. she doesnt drink excessivly, my mother feeds her several times a day usually little and often and always leaves a steady supply of biscuits and water too. she doesnt seem to have any trouble eating her food

is there any particular brand that is best for nutrients?? id say over the last year she has gradually lost weight, the last 3 months i have noticed shes very thin. i know older cats can lose weight im just worried and want to help.

il make sure mum takes old chutney to the vets see what they think

thanks very much for the advice everybody

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Thyroid dysfunction is a nasty sneaky disease and can mimic so many other things minor as well as major. I got/have had several dogs with Hypo Thyroid
which weirdly enough dogs get and cats Hyper. Both are something thats easily missed or disregarded and yet so easy to treat, or its often missed in the dog, dont know if cats are any better to get diagnosed?

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Just to flag up - though it should be obvious that the thyroid function gets included because of her symptom -make sure that the blood works will contain the T4 etc for thyroid function (they aren't routinely included in standard blood works; or at least they didn't used to be).

Let us know how your mum and her little cat get on! And please make sure your mum takes her first thing on Monday.

If she gets a clean bill of health then read on -


I fed a neighbours cat whilst she went away for 2 and a bit weeks - the cat was/ still is 17 and very skinny - just old age said the vet. Whilst the owners were away she got the runs and was not eating her food (Felix) - I phoned the owners and asked them if I could try her on raw food. I did promise to take her to the vets if she was runny even one more time. SHe loved it - the runs stopped immediately and two weeks later her coat was glossier and she was brighter and she PUT ON WEIGHT! I couldn't believe the transformation in just 2 weeks -un fortunately the owners decided not to continue with the raw (NI minces that I had left for them to have - they were returned) and the poor thing looks old and skinny again.

Anyway, the point is raw might help her gain some weight.

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