Fat Cat!

It’s a saying we use to describe someone who has enjoyed success. In the cat world though, it means what it says…obese.

If you were asked to name the two most prevalent non-infectious problems veterinarians see in cats, would you believe they are dental disease and obesity?

Surveys have shown that between a quarter and a third of all household cats fall into the obese category. Veterinarians assess a cat’s body condition by looking at the fill of the tissues over ribs and spine, and the girth around the middle including the fat pads that hang down under the belly. The most common system of body condition scoring is a 9 point scale, and on this scale a cat with proper body condition is in the 5-6 range. Once a cat gains about 10% of their weight above this ideal, we refer to them as overweight or over-conditioned. At 20% above ideal, they are considered obese. At 50% above the ideal weight, the cats are considered morbidly obese. A typical cat weighs 8-12 pounds, though some of the purebred cats such as the Maine Coon, and the Norwegian and Siberian Forest Cats normally weigh much more. Some of the smaller breeds such as the Singapura, Rex Cats, and the Burmese weigh less than a typical cat on average.

A cat with ideal body condition has a bit of a belly fat pad, but the belly does not hang down. If you pass your hands over the ribs and spine while applying pressure appropriate for petting, you should just be able to appreciate their presence. They should not be standing out (thin condition), or be covered with a layer of fat so deep that they cannot be felt.

Why should you care about your cat’s waistline?

Those extra pounds are associated with chronic health problems such as lameness, diabetes, liver disease, chronic constipation, and increased risk of bladder problems. As well, cats that are very overweight cannot turn around and groom the area around the tail base and anus properly, so chronic dandruff and poor haircoat, and soiling of the back end can result. Poor tolerance of heat will also develop as the weight increases.

Why so many fat cats?

Weight gain occurs when more calories are taken in than are needed to meet body maintenance and exercise output needs. Modern diets are tasty! So tasty in fact, that if you do not limit the meals, a typical cat will tend to eat more than is needed. Couple this with a sedentary lifestyle (cat couch potato sound familiar?) and you get weight gain!

The best approach is prevention because weight loss in cats needs to be carefully done, and typically, takes a long time.

Sudden weight loss can be associated with development of Fatty Liver, a potentially life-threatening condition. Professional supervision of dieting is essential. Fat cats must be weighed regularly during the program, and intake adjusted to provide very slow weight loss. It may take a year or two to bring a morbidly obese cat back to normal weight!

Newer approaches to weight loss include the use of high protein, low carbohydrate diets. These diets help to provide the most natural balance of these nutrients, and favor slow weight loss, with maintenance of muscle mass. The compound carnitine is now often prescribed as a nutritional supplement. This nutraceutical has been shown to help burn off calories.

Adding two short play sessions every day will help to increase activity levels, and this also helps to improve fitness, and favors further weight loss by burning calories. You can even teach your cat to walk on a leash.

“Snackies” must be closely controlled—low calorie treats are available but daily meal intake must take into account any additional snacks. Sometimes small volumes of highly palatable fiber sources such as pumpkin are added to the food to help keep calorie density down. Prescription diet foods traditionally have had less calories per bite and so less energy is taken in when a set volume of diet food is given compared with regular maintenance food.

Your veterinarian will help you adjust the food intake until slow weight loss occurs—keeping a diary or marking observations on the calendar will be a part of this process.