Thread: First vet visit

The only "big" thing about hernias is if you planned to show him you couldn't do so any more. As Louise said, it can be done at the same time as neutering.

He is already neutered and no I'm not planning to show.

I am worried about his weight now - how do I get him to put on weight - he doesn't eat much I don't think. I am leaving dry food down for him all day which is Royal Canin Kitten food mixed with a bit of adult Applaws. Three times a day he gets offered wet food such as Felix as Good as it looks but he hardly finishes a pouch throughout the day. Any suggestions on what is best for getting him to put on some weight would be welcome. He is a very active kitty and we live in a fairly large house on three floors - he will race all over the place in the morning so perhaps he is burning it off?

This is a photo of him taken today on his new radiator bed I brought him for being a good boy at the vets. He just loved it.

Hi Karena, Harry was born with a hernia too, the breeder said it was nothing to worry about, he had been checked out when he had his innoculations and they said when we took him to be neutered our vet would probably do it at the same time as mentioned before in a previous post. I was told by the breeder that neutering should take place between 5 & 6 months and didn't realise that it could be done earlier ? hence the reason I haven't taken him before.

As for the food, i've tried various things, he was on royal canin 36, but as my older cat was on wet food and he kept trying to eat it, I have been feeding the dry food (available all day) and he eats about 3 - 4 pouches of felix (as good as it looks) per day. Although he is growing by the day he is still lean, but I think it was NCarver who said in a post previously about how they grow long and thin at first and then fill out later. (seeing the pictures Karena, he's gorgeous and looks in good health so don't worry !) xx

It is true that this weight--2.2kg or just less than 5lbs--does sound somewhat low based on our two current males. However, it may be that Simba is just not going to be that big. You might want to ask the breeder about the weights of the parents. Not all male MCs are 20 lbs (or up) when full grown remember. Also, they tend to be quite lean at that age.

The weight of our current 7mos old male at 16weeks (which is what Simba appears to be) was 6.5lbs (nearly 3kg). So our guy was around 30% heavier than yours at 16wks. That is quite a bit, but our guy is now 13lbs (5.9kg) at 7mos, which seems to be fairly heavy (and is more than our other male at that age).

I posted a thread with a growth chart that I found online for MCs. If you look at it, you will see that it predicts just 2kg at 16 weeks: Size Isn't Everything

If you want to try to get more weight on him because you feel he isn't eating that well, I would suggest trying some different brands (and flavors) of food. Some cats just simply do not like certain foods, and they probably won't eat them just because it is the only thing offered. Get on review sites and for most brands you will see some people talk about their cats gobbling it down while other people are saying their cats wouldn't touch it. We have tried a large number of brands that none or almost none of our cats would eat much of (or they ate a little once but then refused it the next time). This includes many expensive "high end" brands. They also didn't necessarily love what the breeder was feeding them. Experiment!

Thank you for your advice. I hope he won't be a small cat. His father is a Grand Champion - not sure what he weighs but he looked pretty huge to me. His mother is long a lean but she had just had a litter and his breeder said she always produced big cats. She had his half sister who weighs 15lb at 2 years old which I think is a good weight for a female. I have known puppies that have been the 'runt' of the litter grow to be bigger than all their litter mates though - so who knows - I will love him what ever size he ends up and I don't think he would ever look like a moggy to me.

Originally Posted by messyhearts

The only "big" thing about hernias is if you planned to show him you couldn't do so any more. As Louise said, it can be done at the same time as neutering.

May I ask, why after a hernia, a cat cannot be shown? I am confused by your statement only because, and in the same way as neutering, a hernia is an internal issue? ty*Roy

Yeah I thought the same Roy, but maybe messyhearts meant if the hernia was left unoperated on ?

I'm not intending to show so not worried. I can still feel the hernia but it's not very big. Does anyone know though if they ever just close up on their own or do they always get bigger?

Harrymc - you said earlier that Harry was eating 4 to 5 pouches of wet food a day - I could barely get Simba to eat one so now I have taken the breeders advice and cutting it out. Do you know how much dry food Harry is eating? I weigh out the amount I put down in the morning so I know how much and he seems to be eating about 80g a day. He is such a lazy eater - I often have to entice him to eat - the other day he was lying down near his bowl looking at it and I started giving him a biscuit from the bowl - he took it so I did it again - he ended up eating loads from my hand but wouldn't eat it out of the bowl - is that being lazy?!

yeh I think that could be classed as lazy.... maybe he doesn't like the bowl?

I'm not really sure Karena as having Poppy who is definately a grazer and eats when she feels like it, little and often it would be difficult to monitor it. I just weighed out 80gm of dry just to see what that quantity looked like and would say he probably eats about 50gm per day ? I weighed him at the weekend but only on house scales which tells you to the nearest pound and he was 7llb. Like I said before he is growing by the day but in length more than anything but is still lean.

I would prefer to give him mostly dry food with the occasional treat of wet, but he cries for it as soon as I walk into the kitchen and knows the cupboard where it is kept. I think the feeding from the bowl is more of an attention thing. He's putting on weight at a steady pace so I wouldn't worry about it too much. As you said before you can never tell how they turn out. When Poppy had her kittens a couple of years ago we kept Benson as he was the largest of the four kittens, when they were all fully grown he was half the size of the others.