Relentless Inquiry

Boo is 13 now, and will be 14 in June.  She’s been losing weight noticeably.   We had blood work done, and it came back with all ok– not thyroid, liver function, or diabetes, any of which can cause weight loss in older cats.   Meanwhile, her coat is still thick and glossy and soft, and when she was in for her annual in September, the vet and the techs all said she seemed like a much younger cat than her age.

I took Boo in for an x-ray today.  She’d lost another quarter-pound, in just 2 weeks, but nothing obviously wrong on the x-ray.  The doctor will call me tomorrow (her regular doctor wasn’t in).

The vet-tech said that she is not bony; she sees really emaciated cats and Boo is nowhere near there.  Boo was 13+ pounds over a year ago, and her weight has been slowly and steadily coming down since we took them off dry food entirely after the big pet-food recall.  It may just be that she’s been doing the equivalent of South Beach or Atkins for cats for close to a year now.

No need to panic unless the doctor comes up with a reason tomorrow.  We need to remember that Boo is not a huge cat, at least as far as bone structure.  Snark’s fairly muscular weight is still just around 8 pounds.  Boo is currently at 9 pounds, 12 ounces.

The vet-tech did suggest fewer treats so that Boo would eat her normal food better.  That will take care of itself when I am working offsite daily, I suspect.  In the meantime, I will only ‘treat’ a couple times a day, and give only 2 or 3 Greenies instead of 5 or 6.

I know they can’t stay with us forever.  Boo and Snark came to me as kittens in October and December of 1994.  Someday they will pass on, and it’s likely to be within the next few years.  Lots of domestic housecats who are primarily indoor cats live to be 16, 18, even 20 is not uncommon anymore.   We’ll just be extra-good to them and hope for the best.