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Help Overweight Cats with Healthy Dieting

No one likes hearing their cat is fat. One of the things I learned recently while in a room full of veterinarians is that they dread having to tell you that your cat is overweight, too. But cat obesity is on the rise. A 1970s study found 6.5 – 12% of cats were overweight, while more recent studies report 40 to as many as 67% of cats are tipping the scales farther than they should. No wonder vets dread having to tell you your cat is overweight. They’ve had to deliver that news far too often recently.

Cats are considered overweight when they are more than 10-20% over their ideal body weight. In a cat who should ideally be 8 lbs, anything over 9.6 lbs is overweight. We’re looking at you, Ashton!

Being overweight brings health hazards you want to avoid for your cat, such as:

  • Type 2 diabetes
  • Heart disease
  • Arthritis
  • High blood pressure
  • Some abdominal cancers

Any human who has decided to diet knows that the principle of weight loss is simple: more exercise, less calories. Anyone who has tried their own diet also knows it’s never that simple.

First of all, see your vet before putting your cat on a diet on your own accord. Cats who do not eat, or who eat extremely little, can develop hepatic lipidosis, which is life-threatening. You need to be sure that you’re not restricting their calories too much, and your vet can help you figure out what a good goal weight. For obesee cats, this might be a weight higher than an ideal cat for a cat their size and frame. From that, you and your vet can agree on the daily calories for your cat.

The basic daily calories are calculated by determining the cat’s resting calorie requirement at their ideal weight.  The resting energy requirement formula is:

[70 x (ideal weight in kg)]3/4

This formula is an estimate of how many calories your cat needs to hang out around the house all day but doesn’t include any exercise. Your vet will help you calculate how many less calories than this are necessary for safe weight loss for your kitty, whether it’s at or under her resting energy requirement. (You didn’t want to do that math anyhow, did you?)

Avoiding the Things that Make Cat Diets Fail

Ashton and the cheez ballYou may have fallen off of the diet wagon in the past, so you know that diets can fail to produce the hoped-for results. Did you hope that the chocolate cupcake after midnight didn’t count? Unfortunately, it did. For your kitty, cat treats count. So do whatever they mooch from you while you’re eating your dinner. So does that cheez doodle your cat grabbed while you were packing your lunch. With a much smaller calorie intake necessary than ours, your cat’s cheating on their diet can cause it to fail without your realizing they are eating very much extra food.

Hungry cats can be whiny cats. If your cat learns you will shake “just a little” extra kibble into their bowl when they give you that forlorn expression and meow, your kitty has won, and the diet has lost. Using an automated feeder may help cut down on the begging between feeding times because you aren’t seen as the bringer of the food.

Pierre_Ashton_gonna_eat_that_xswmLHaving multiple cats in the house hold can present special challenges. The cat with a higher metabolism who isn’t prone to obesity may take longer to eat their larger portion and be bullied away from their bowl by the dieting cat, who seems to spend all of their time asking, “Are you gonna finish that?” Feeding in separate rooms or putting the non-dieting cat’s food in an inaccessible location can help. You can put the food up high in a location that the heavy cat can’t reach by jumping but the skinny cat can. You can even set up a cat door between rooms in your house that recognizes individual cats either by a collar tag or their microchip to only allow access to the non-dieting cat.

Finally, some cats are just couch potatoes. (Looking at you again, Ashton!) It’s time for your cat to get a little more exercise! As little as ten minutes of play a day chasing the laser pointer, a feather wand, or other favorite toy can make a big difference in your cat’s weight loss.

Talk to Your Vet

Every cat is unique, and their metabolisms aren’t all the same, either. The diet that your friend’s cat’s vet recommended for his cat isn’t necessarily the right thing for yours.  Calculating the resting energy requirement for a given weight is no substitute for a visit to your vet to discuss healthy diet options for your cat. So pay your vet a visit and be ready to have a chat about your cat being overweight. Your vet will appreciate how proactive you are, and your cat can be healthier and happier.

References:

International Journal of Applied Research in Veterinary Medicine, Prevalence and Risk factors for Obesity in Adult Cats from Private US Veterinary Practices
Preventative Veterinary Medicine,  A cross-sectional study to compare changes in the prevalence and risk factors for feline obesity between 1993 and 2007 in New Zealand

NAVC Conference Highlights

You know that your veterinarian trained when he or she was getting a degree, but what happens after that? How does your vet learn what is new in medicine for your cat? Continuing education is required for vets in most states, though the hours vary from state to state. One of the ways that vets get their continuing education is by going to veterinary conferences and attending seminars, such as the North American Veterinary Community (NAVC) conference that just wrapped up in Orlando yesterday.

welcome_to_navc_crop

At the NAVC conference, the 16,000 attending vets had the chance to take classes about a dizzying range of topics, from risk assessment and treatment of feline cardiac patients to the role of anxiety in feline house soiling. There are plenty of courses about other animals, too, from dogs to chinchillas to dolphins to horses. If your vet was one of the 16,000 who attended, they are returning with lots of information they can put to use right away.

Veterinary Products

expo2_wmLike most conferences, NAVC has an accompanying expo. It featured the vast array of products you would imagine, like pharmaceuticals, prescription foods, and medical supplies. It also featured some unexpected things like big trucks converted to create mobile veterinary practices.

Among the thousands of products featured at the expo were not one but two new FeLV/FIV rapid tests, Witness from Zoestis and the Abaxis VetScan. Neither of them require refrigeration, unlike the commonly used SNAP tests, so these could prove to be useful, especially with veterinarians who do outreach work for rescue organizations in locations without ready refrigeration.

Watson for Veterinarians

navc_standup_bear_xswmLIt’s literally impossible for your vet to read every study published in every journal. But a computer can sift through that information, if it’s programmed intelligently. Do you remember IBM Watson, the computer who won on Jeopardy?  IBM has teamed up with the new NAVC/AAHA joint VetFolio site to make Watson’s skill at answering questions work for veterinarians as well as game show audiences.

LifeLearn Sofie is an intelligent treatment support tool that uses Watson’s cognitive computing to assess and interpret vast amounts of data and perform research on demand. When a veterinarian asks it a question in natural language, Sofie will provide focused, evidence-based treatment options. With a tool like this, vets have a lot more resources at their fingertips than they can keep in their heads, just by asking a question. That’s an innovative way to use technology to help meet your cat’s health care needs.

Why This Matters to You

Your vet relies on the latest in knowledge and techniques to help make the best treatment decisions and have the best outcomes for your cat. Continuing education helps your vet be ready to provide better treatment options for your cat and more peace of mind for you.

No More Stubby Cat Scratching Posts

One of the pieces of advice that we often see given to people upset that their cat is scratching on their furniture is to give the cat an alternative item to scratch, like a scratching post. But that advice misses a key piece of information: how big the scratching post must be.

Often, scratching posts are barely as tall as an adult cat. Advertising or product packaging may have photos of cute kittens crawling and scratching on the post, which makes you not think about its actual height. But if you take that same scratching post home, your adult kitty is dismayed to discover that they can’t stretch out while they scratch on it.

Pierre shows that the well-used area of the scratching post is actually above his head when he is sitting next to the post.

Pierre demonstrates the scratching zone being over his head

The solution is to buy a tall cat tree at least one and one half times your cat’s body height to allow a good stretch while scratching. We cats think the taller the better, and we prefer scratching the 4 foot leg of cat tree rather than the 2 foot leg next to it.

Pierre shows how he scratches above his head level

Just keep in mind that the taller the cat tree, the wider or more sturdy the base needs to be to prevent it being wobbly or tipping over. A cat who has a tree fall over on them may never use it again out of fear or mistrust.

A little adjustment to the height of your cat tree can bring a big difference in your cat’s acceptance level of it as a good location to scratch. And your furniture will thank you!

DIY: Thinking Outside the Box about Litterboxes

One of the top reasons that people surrender their cats is for not using the litterbox. Even after being checked by a vet to be sure that there’s no physical reason for not using the box, some cats don’t use their litterbox because they don’t like the box itself, often because it’s too small. Cats prefer a litter box at least 1.5 times the length of their body, and some cats don’t like having their tail touching the side of the box while they do their business.

A recent trip to a local big box pet store showed that the largest litterbox for sale there, advertised as sized extra large, measured 16.5″ wide x 22″ long. If you have a big kitty, this may not be big enough for him to feel comfortable. But what can you do about it if it’s the biggest cat box manufactured?

Think outside the box and use something that wasn’t manufactured to be a litterbox.

Mortar Mixing Tray

Newton inspects mortar mixing tray next to his litterbox

Newton inspects mortar mixing tray next to his litterbox

A typical 26 gallon concrete mixing tray or mixing tub is 36″ x 24″ with a depth of about 8,” but they come as large as 60″ x 36.”  This width and depth increase may be enough to make your kitty more comfortable using the box. As a bonus, most concrete mixing trays have rounded corners at the bottom that make it easier for you to scoop the litter without things getting stuck in the corners. You can find them at your local home improvement store, and they are sold in different materials, some more durable than others.

Sweater/Blanket Storage Bin

litterbox_and_clear_bin_smLClear plastic sweater or blanket storage bins come in an amazing variety of sizes and shapes. Some are wide and low, intended for storing items under your bed. These long, somewhat narrow boxes may help you fit a larger litterbox into a smaller space like a hallway where you still need room to walk past. Tall-sided bins can make useful boxes for cats who don’t squat far enough when using the litterbox and end up going over the side. Make sure that if you choose a high-sided litterbox that your cat can comfortably get in and out. Small kittens and older, arthritic cats, may not be able to get in to take care of business if they have to make a jump every time.

At our house, we have both a regular litterbox and a clear plastic storage bin next to it.

Plastic Storage Tote

totes_in_hardware_store_smSimilar to the clear storage bin, plastic storage totes come in a number of shapes and sizes. You can get totes so large that they are marketed to store artificial Christmas trees. Like some of the taller storage bins, be sure that your cat can easily exit and enter the tote after it contains litter to prevent their avoiding it, too. Your local home improvement store has shelves and shelves of bins in all kinds of sizes.

Timmy Tomcat's custom litterbox made from a storage toteYou can use the tote or bin as-is, or customize it further by cutting an entrance into it to create a lower step-in entry but high sides. this custom-converted storage tote was made for our friend Timmy and his roomates.

Wading Pool

Hard plastic wading pools, intended for children to splash in during hot summer months, can offer big kitties lots of space. You can buy them at various big box stores and even some grocery stores during the spring and summer months, and they range in size from 36″ to 60″ across. Keep in mind that these can be hard to come by during the winter, and if you are worried you may need to discard your old pool and get another one, consider buying and storing an extra. Also, the plastic of these pools is unlikely stand up well if you try to relocate a full litter pool, so make sure you have a final location in mind before filling it with litter.

No matter what you choose, there are lots of options to make sure that your cat’s litterbox is big enough to keep him taking care of business in the right location!

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There are no veterinarians here. All health-related posts are the result of research and observation, but educational information is not a substitute for visiting your veterinarian. Do not self-diagnose your cat. For more information, see our disclaimer.

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