old cat

[honky-tonk]

he is about 15 years old and in the past 2 weeks he seems to have lost weight very thin at the back and i can feel his bones, he is still very active playful and eating. could this weight loss be due to his age

[newtron]

We have a cat that is 17 years old, and she also has become very skinny. Apparently, the main reason for the weight loss is a thyroid problem. We started to give her medicine, but it didn't seem to help too much, and giving her medicine is a pain in the butt. She's got six toes on each foot so that is four more claws than usual to deal with. LOL. Besides, she's already lived a very long life. I don't know how much longer the medicine would enable her to live. She still has plenty of energy, and she plays a lot. She does puke a lot, and we just discovered that she is quite deaf, but what do you expect. She is very old!

[wildwood]

Premusing it has been regularly wormed, it is probably a thyroid problem, as Newtron said.

Your vet will do a blood test and give you some medicine which the cat will have to take for the rest of its life. Whilt you're at it..... get your vet to show you how to give a cat a pill, it is really quite easy once you know how its done. You can also get a syringe-type instrument that only has to go in its mouth and will shoot the pill to the back of the troat so the cat has to swallow it.

If it is the thyriod you'll see a quick improvement in the cat's condition once the medicine is started. Good luck.

[Noweia]

It is most likely to be hyperthyroidism - basically an overactive thyroid gland. This will likely make your cat eat more and be more active, but as you have discovered they can get very thin very quickly!

The following link should tell you a bit more:
http://www.sniksnak.com/cathealth/hyperthyroid ism.html

Hyperthyroidism may eventually overwhelm your cat and his heart, so it would be best to take him to the vet for treatment. Your vet will also be able to rule out other causes of weight loss in older cats, including tumours, kidney failure and diabetes.

Hope this helps, let us know how you get on.

[EllyD]

My old cat is stone deaf and suffered from weight loss. As he was 18 at the time, I also thought it was old age but the vet took out one side of his thyroid and the difference was amazing. He is still deaf as a post but the operation was not too much for him and the result well worth it. He is now 21 and still going strong. Hope this helps and your cat recovers.

[emx384]

Does he eat dry or wet food? I adopted a very skinny 15 year old cat who had always been fed dry food. I started feeding her wet food (dry food left all the time and wet food twice a day) although she only licks the gravy or jelly on the wet food (leaving the chunks of meat behind!) she has now become quite a chunky cat! Other than that it may be worth getting his teeth checked? If he is uncomfortable eating he wont!