Cat Chat Feline Forum

(posted on behalf of a friend who has no computer!!)

Hello,
I'm hoping that I might get some ideas to pass onto a friend, who's vet appears to be running out of ideas...

They have a neutered male cat, who is FIV positive, estimated to be around 12 years old. He has always been quite a chunky boy, but last summer (2015) they noticed he appeared to be losing weight. Visits to their vet revealed nothing obviously wrong, and as he appeared otherwise well, they hadn’t worried too much. However in recent weeks they've noticed he's lost even more weight, and in their words now looks quite skeletal, very unlike his past chunky self, and they are sure something is wrong. The vet has taken various blood tests and ruled out Diabetes and Hyperthyroid. He doesn’t have worms, and is not anaemic. His red blood cell count was normal.

He still has a very good appetite, in fact eats more than most cats, and seems happy and well in himself, but is still getting thinner. I’ve been told that they are still awaiting the result of the most recent blood test taken on 2nd Jan, (which they think was for something to do with his stomach, but they weren’t entirely sure). They are really worried that there is something wrong that’s not being identified, or something their vet hasn't thought of. The only other thing of possible significance is that he often licks the patio slabs outside. It sounds like this latest blood test should be back in the next couple of days, but if that shows nothing, their vet seems to have run out of ideas. So I said I would post here to see if the good CC forum peeps had any other ideas?

Any suggestions will be gratefully received and passed on. Thank you!

Have they tested for CKD? Tommy was a big, chunky cat before CKD struck. He lost a lot of weight quite quickly.

What are the paving slabs made of? Has anything been spilt on them. Antifreeze is quite sweet and attractive to cats. In large doses it kills, in small doses it can cause kidney failure.

It is such a worry when older cats start to lose weight, and it sounds as though the vets are testing for all the right things but I agree that it's worth asking about testing for CKD. It also might be worth suggesting they ask the vet about changing his diet to something that his system might find easier to digest. My Pugwash was an elderly ex-stray with all sorts of gut problems, but his malabsorbtion issues were much helped by feeding him a prescrition (Royal Canin) gastro-intestinal diet that his system was better able to deal with.

Are they able to examine his stools, as they might help give some clues as to what's going on. I really hope they manage to help him.

Thanks for those suggestions.

I will pass on the advice to test for CKD, that's a good thought. I'll also suggest the poo sample idea, not sure if they've done that or not.

It sounds unlikely there's anything spilt on the patio causing the issues, as the garden is enclosed away from any road, and they don't have a car. There were thinking more along the lines of him licking the slabs to get minerals of some sort, if he had a deficiency maybe? We have heard of cats licking walls for that reason due to anaemia, but the vet has already ascertained that he's not anaemic. Even so they did wonder if there were other deficiencies that would make him lick the stones. Or that may be a red herring altogether!

Thank you!! I will report back any news or update.

xxxxx