Fat Cat

[Steffi Loves Her Fuzzbuckets]

We have this fat cat named Lizzie.
I'm not kidding.. She's huge, and most of the time we feel sorry for her, because we know it's hard for her to walk, She can't clean herself no matter how hard she tries, and she just looks miserable sometimes. Oh, She's a happy cat, we just know she's in pain because of her weight crushing her organs, including her poor heart.

When we got her she was a stray and she was a VERY feisty kitten, biting, scratching, leaping out and latching onto your leg. Hahh, It was very ammusing.. Painful.. but ammusing. xD
Her stomach had this hanging skin that would just swing around, we asked the vet, they said she would grow into it, Well..She did.

We've tried everything. We only feed her twice a day, with limited food, She's staying the same in her weight.
Lizzie didn't eat more than the other cats, We are pretty sure she has a thyroid problem, or diabetes.. Some disease that could effect her weight.

How can she get healthier?
Will a natural diet help her lose some weight?

[Heather]

Yes,
First you must rule out health issues. You cannot starve a cat and the fatter they are the more likely they will go into organ failure if they're dieted. Diabetes, won't cause her to put on weight, she will loose weight but diabetes can be the result of being too heavy. Diabetes in cats is harder to control than dogs or ferrets (ferrets are difficult but cats are very difficult to do, at least that's what my vet informed me)
Once you rule out health issues then you can start trying to switch her to a healthier diet. You also have to increase her activity level. For her even getting her to move from one room to another more times than she does will be a good start. Cutting her food back is no longer an option, and I've used diet kibble (over 10 yrs ago) without a positive result, my cat died (total liver failure) and my dog never took the weight off until I got him on a raw diet. My experience anyway
ciao

[ccretarolo]

My Calypso used to be a fatty too. The heaviest she got was 21 pounds when she had an anal gland impaction. After that problem was resolved (there was also an antibiotic reaction afterwards), she became more active and started to lose a little weight. After a year though, I found out that her weight had leveled off at 17 pounds and that she was still dangerously overweight. My vet was starting to push diet foods on me and I refused to buy them since I knew something else was going on.

When I got Hermes in December, she was as active as she had been as a kitten so I was again hoping that she was about to lose more weight. It ended up taking Hermes to have runny poop for a month (and getting me scared about the possibility of IBD) to switch over to a raw diet. Hermes and Calypso have been all raw for a little over 3 months now and the results are great. Calypso is now down to 15 pounds and is now in the process of forming solid muscle to replace her fat. Hermes is nothing but muscle. He weighs about 9 pounds but has the skeletal structure of an average 5 pound cat. He's going to be a tiny boy but I figure there's nothing wrong with that.

About the hanging skin: It's called a dewlap and most cats have it as a defense mechanism to keep them from being disemboweled by other cats. My Adonis is the only cat I've eve known that doesn't have one but I think that's because he's got a ton of hair to protect him. Even my little Hermes who will never be overweight has one.

I'm going to agree with Heather and say that you need to get her checked for underlying problems before going natural. The switch can send a cat's body into chaos and can bring any problems to the surface very quickly. It'll be better for you to know what's going on beforehand.

Calypso never ate very much. My current vet (I changed vets when they started pushing diet foods on me) let me know that she was probably never able to process carbohydrates properly which resulted in her body just storing them as fat. Her mother also has the same problem so her owner is also giving a natural diet a shot.

[bluedove]

I'm in the middle of switching 3 cats to raw right now.
Hopefully your Lizzie is not the kibble addict that my Peepers is! One thing you can begin to do now is offer her canned cat food... because it's made with more meat and much less grain and starch than kibble, many believe that the even the cheapest canned cat food is better for them than the "highest quality" kibble! And I know of no health condition that would prohibit adding in canned food to your cat's diet.
Read your labels and look for a brand that doesn't use soy protein or gluten, if you can. Big name brands like Friskies are LOADED with vegetable proteins! Surprisingly, the stuff with the highest meat content was the cheaper store brands around here, but there are good more natural brands with higher quality meats as well.

I have found this yahoo group helpful:
pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/rawcat/
as well as this site:
www.rawfedcats.org/practicalguide.htm

I would also recommend having blood work done to look for some issues before you begin a switch to raw... you might want to ask the folks at the rawcat group for what to look for. But I would NOT advise that you go in there and say "I want to switch this cat to a raw diet... is there any reason I shouldn't?" Not many vets are raw diet supportive and most will probably tell you you're killing your cat if you try it!

[Steffi Loves Her Fuzzbuckets]

Thank You all so much for all the information, We Greatly appreciate everything, and we are looking into this in great depth; We want our Lizzie to be Healthy and Happy, and right now she just isn't.
I think she's about.. 28 pounds. I haven't weighed her recently though.. So, First things first, find out any health issues.. We'll get on that; It's going to be hard though, those high vet bills. ><