I have a 6 year old cat who has gotten overweight. (17 pounds). He wasn't always like this and feel it is all my fault for not controlling the food. He has gotten more lethargic this year and it concerned me. Healthwise, he has confirmed colitis/ibd via scopes at internal medicine last summer, but nothing else. He is on 2.5mg of prednisolone daily to keep inflammation down - which did contribute to him eating more I know.
This past week I was very concerned about the lethargy so took him in for some testing. Bloodwork came back great. I had them do some Xrays to verify nothing was growing in there that shouldn't be. They came back great too. Showed me how all his organs looked normal and the extra space in the Xray....... fat. yeah. So the weight has to be why he feels so down a lot of the time.
I know the #1 thing is to lose the weight slowly. Reduce food very slightly for a while.
Challenges:
1. I live alone and need 8 hours sleep and go to an office for work 5 days a week for 9 hours. I can't feed timed portions over the day because I'm only available at limited times. No friends or family in the area that can help either.
2. The more challenging part is that I have another kitty who has GI lymphoma (almost 1.5 years into remission!). He needs to eat. Whenever he wants. He can have as much food as he wishes to keep his weight on.
So you see the issue. I have one kitty who needs to eat free and one who needs to slow down. But the fact that I'm at work or sleeping makes it hard to control things. I've thought about those automatic feeders that read chips but they are both so skittish, they'd probably be afraid of it. I tried some toy fish with holes that you put food into but they are not interested in trying the puzzles either. Both cats mostly dislike all wet food as well.
I hate to do this but the only thought is to separate them to control feeding. Maybe permanently until he loses weight. I really, really don't want to but I can't let him keep growing up and past 20 pounds.
The only good thing is that I wouldn't need to confine anyone to a bedroom. I am thankful to have a 2-story place where I can let one have the upstairs and one the downstairs. This separation would only be during the work day, at least I think..
Has anyone done anything like this successfully or does it sound like a good idea to you? I hate seeing him loaf around like a lifeless bump on the log I do get him to sprint down the hallway to chase toys a couple times but know this will get harder the older he gets.
My next problem is how could I best block off this passage at the bottom of these stairs? (The culprit kitty is in the photo! ha) Ideally it would be nice to think of something they can see each other through but sturdy enough they don't knock it down. I could remove the handrail if needed but hope to not have to drill many things in the wall to install anything, but if i have to, then I have to.
Thanks for reading!! Its upsetting to think I need to separate my cats for weight loss I can't think of anything else though.
This past week I was very concerned about the lethargy so took him in for some testing. Bloodwork came back great. I had them do some Xrays to verify nothing was growing in there that shouldn't be. They came back great too. Showed me how all his organs looked normal and the extra space in the Xray....... fat. yeah. So the weight has to be why he feels so down a lot of the time.
I know the #1 thing is to lose the weight slowly. Reduce food very slightly for a while.
Challenges:
1. I live alone and need 8 hours sleep and go to an office for work 5 days a week for 9 hours. I can't feed timed portions over the day because I'm only available at limited times. No friends or family in the area that can help either.
2. The more challenging part is that I have another kitty who has GI lymphoma (almost 1.5 years into remission!). He needs to eat. Whenever he wants. He can have as much food as he wishes to keep his weight on.
So you see the issue. I have one kitty who needs to eat free and one who needs to slow down. But the fact that I'm at work or sleeping makes it hard to control things. I've thought about those automatic feeders that read chips but they are both so skittish, they'd probably be afraid of it. I tried some toy fish with holes that you put food into but they are not interested in trying the puzzles either. Both cats mostly dislike all wet food as well.
I hate to do this but the only thought is to separate them to control feeding. Maybe permanently until he loses weight. I really, really don't want to but I can't let him keep growing up and past 20 pounds.
The only good thing is that I wouldn't need to confine anyone to a bedroom. I am thankful to have a 2-story place where I can let one have the upstairs and one the downstairs. This separation would only be during the work day, at least I think..
Has anyone done anything like this successfully or does it sound like a good idea to you? I hate seeing him loaf around like a lifeless bump on the log I do get him to sprint down the hallway to chase toys a couple times but know this will get harder the older he gets.
My next problem is how could I best block off this passage at the bottom of these stairs? (The culprit kitty is in the photo! ha) Ideally it would be nice to think of something they can see each other through but sturdy enough they don't knock it down. I could remove the handrail if needed but hope to not have to drill many things in the wall to install anything, but if i have to, then I have to.
Thanks for reading!! Its upsetting to think I need to separate my cats for weight loss I can't think of anything else though.
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