Thread: Advice please

Originally Posted by claudel

Poor Harry looks as if he's wasting away.

MC Elvis is 21 months old now ( 13 lbs at last "official" weigh in ) and is still mostly head & tail & fur.

He gets all the food he wants, but he is still skinny enough to feel his ribs & backbone.

It seems as if his bones ( and feet ) are still growing faster than he can put meat on them.

Vet says he's OK as far as health issues so I'm not worried.

They do seem to have growth sperts as opposed to steady weight gain, and it would seem that every cat is different. Harry is definately one of those who seems to stay the same for a couple of months and then bang, on it goes !

Lol thanks Candes, will try that, Harry isn't the easiest boy to photograph, he won't stay still long enough, with the 5 or 6 photos I posted of him earlier, I actually took about 20, most of which were blurred and he certainly did look like a fur ball that had an electric shock !

Originally Posted by candes

Those blasted furries can always fool ya. My very large Cleo looks very fat. And I find it very insulting that everyone comments on our fat kitty. But if you hold his fur in he is actually thinner than most.

That also describes my previous MC. It was especially noticeable when bathing him -- he was incredibly skinny!

17 pounds is a not unreasonable weight for a large 15 month old MC. Our boy Zephyr was over 19 lbs by then, Remy was more like 15 lbs. Most of the male MCs that we have had and have seen are much stockier than the females. Does your vet have a male or female MC? I think people familiar only with female MCs would be astonished at how much larger and how different physically the males are. You said he had put on 4 lbs in the previous 5 months. Did you mean 4 lbs or 4 kg? 4 lbs is exactly what Zephyr put on between 9 and 14 mos. If you actually meant 4 kg, then I would agree that sounds excessive. Since male MCs can vary quite a bit in ultimate weight, the best way to tell if they are getting fat is by feeling of their bodies. You should be able to tell if he is getting fat and flabby, or just big and solid.

Well quite, that was why I was confused. It was 4lbs he gained, which seemed to me to be ok. My vet has a female yes, but again my confusion arose from the fact that surely he would know that there can be a considerable difference in the weight between the two sexes, surely most owners know that, let alone a vet ? The most worrying to me was when he said that he doesn't want to see him increase in weight any more before we start doing something about it.

If he's carrying any extra weight it is on his under carriage, again difficult to see, but you can feel the beginnings of it. (bit like a female that has had kittens) but you can still feel his spine quite easily and his sides like Candes asked are flat.

My other theory, don't know whether this could be the answer is that when he was born he had a hernia, which was repaired when he was neutered, could this possibly be the reason for it ? Just guess work now.

Thanks for all the feedback, it is appreciated

A hernia should make no difference at all,basically all they are doing is suturing up the very small hole that could have at some time become a problem if the "innards had come through" & got strangulated.I think the vet is making a big thing out of nothing at the moment like others have said,just as you say a bit of a worry when vet in question should know more about the breed as he has one himself.They do all tend to differ though,Pansy P eats well & has a super trim figure,her brother Bruce eats little & as expected trim figure no undercarriage hanging,Merlyn is a pig hence a very careful watch on his diet because by the age of three it was obvious he had big weight problems,thats was when we packed up leaving food down all day for them & that was mostly wet, he lost a good kg but can still look rotunded in the belly when he walks but after a bath or if you hold the furr down he looks fine, he has got "boobies"though,had them from quite an early age & think they will always be there,Wellynton Boots eats for England,has his own & then everyone elses that he can get,he is small,slim & taut undercarriage his brother Shimba eats very little,rarely even wants brekkie now , loses half of his "small" supper to bruv Welly but he is big boned,big in stature but worse of all he has got jelly belly underneath,now where has that come from,he should be the smallest undernourished bag of bones MC ever,no reasoning to any of it,what I do try & get Merl & Shims to do though is chase the laser beam up the wall,I think if they stretch upwards it just might help tighten the flab underneath,perhaps could see if they could manage sit ups & press ups as well,might help a bit as long as mum is not expected to show them how....!
Don't worry at the moment Harrymc,sounds like normal weight gain for his age,he most probaly will start slowing up a bit now anyway but he will still have growth & weight spurts,you are aware just keep an eye on things but like us they all tend to differ a bit on the "figure front"....x