Cat is losing weight, vet is stumped
July 14, 2023 1:34 PM   Subscribe

My 10 year old cat has lost about 4 pounds in 6 months with no other symptoms, and tests are coming up with nothing. I trust my vet but am wondering if anyone else has been through something similar.

Miles is a 10 year old tabby (seen with his brother here). About 6 months ago he started losing weight with zero other symptoms other than a sudden mild interest in human food. I didn't think too much of it since was eating/drinking/pooping fine and his energy level was good. It started getting really noticeable, so we went to the vet. He had dropped from a lean 13.5 pounds (he's a very tall/long cat) to about 10 pounds. The vet did a full blood panel, fully expecting him to be hyperthyroid, but it all came back perfectly normal. We dewormed him and scheduled a follow up. 6 weeks later we went in and he had dropped another half a pound. We did a full ultrasound of his whole abdomen, this time to rule out IBS or lymphoma (or some other more serious cancer) but it also came back normal.

We have him on a steroid trial for 4 weeks just to see if it helps, but obviously I'm concerned. The vet says that *something* is going on, he just isn't sure what. Is there something else I should be considering? Symptoms that maybe I am not noticing? Thanks!
posted by tryniti to Pets & Animals (9 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
IANAV, glad you trust yours, second opinions are never a bad idea.

I’m assuming the blood panel included checks on his BUN/creatinine (kidney disease) and glucose (diabetes), but I’m mentioning both anyway, because they’re common enough.

With both, you might see polydipsia (can’t stop drinking water) and polyuria (peeing all the time), but the ‘betes can also make them ravenous. If the litter box is flooded after a day, you might have a kidney problem. If you notice ants around it, or an odd stickiness when you scoop, it could be diabetes.

If none of that applies, and he’s eating normal amounts but getting pickier about texture/viscosity, see if the steroid helps. Could indicate stomatitis, which is an autoimmune gingivitis.

I’ve also seen cats drop a lot of weight quickly due to end-stage FIV and feline coronavirus — again, the panel might have screened for those, but it can’t hurt to mention.

Keep us posted! A good vet won’t be offended if you seek a second opinion.
posted by armeowda at 1:47 PM on July 14, 2023 [1 favorite]


In particular, if there’s a veterinary college near you, maybe your vet could give you a referral to their small animal hospital. Vets are absolutely amazing in the breadth of their knowledge and expertise, but for things that are too far out of the norm, a specialist may be able to help. (Eg. the kitty cardiologists that treated my cat worked some miracles.)
posted by eviemath at 2:40 PM on July 14, 2023 [3 favorites]


(From your profile location, maybe here?)
posted by eviemath at 2:42 PM on July 14, 2023


In my decades of cat ownership it's only happened once, but I've had blood tests come back that said one thing one day, and when we came back weeks later for a follow up they were, well, completely different. Impossibly different. My vet (who I trust 1000%) was very perplexed. The third set mirrored the second, so the assumption was the first set was just inaccurate for whatever reason. So, that said, the weight loss and desire for human food screams hyperthyroid to me (as it seemed it did to your vet as well), so I might almost want to run a second panel just to be super sure.
posted by cgg at 3:53 PM on July 14, 2023 [2 favorites]


Have they gotten a dental exam/x-rays? Our cat was losing weight partially because her back teeth were resorbing and some of her front fangs were also bad and needing to be removed. She was hiding all this pain very well, but looking back she was drooling a bit more. After some teeth extraction and recovery, she started eating more and the weight loss has slowed a bit. She also as she has become older started not wanting to get up to get food if she is in a warm spot. Even if it seems like cat food is being eaten, she is not visiting the food bowl as often. If I put food next to her so she doesn't have to get up at all, she will usually eat some.
posted by lizard music at 3:55 PM on July 14, 2023 [3 favorites]


Sore teeth? My cat had feline resorptive lesions and it made him lose weight. We had the bad teeth pulled and he ate much better. If you do this, make sure to ask for pain patches - syringing pain medication into an unwilling cat's sore mouth is awful.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 5:43 PM on July 14, 2023 [2 favorites]


We helped our hyperthyroid cat regain weight by giving her kitten milk replacer in addition to her regular food and water.

While that wouldn't address whatever the root cause is of your cat's sudden weight loss, it might help mitigate additional health problems caused by losing too much weight too fast.
posted by Jacqueline at 6:47 PM on July 14, 2023 [1 favorite]


Vets have recovery formula which is formulated for animals recovering from surgery or similar and needing to gain back weight relatively quickly but also in a healthy way. From what my vet described, kitten milk can be hard for senior cats to digest, whereas recovery formula is easily digestible.
posted by eviemath at 8:42 PM on July 14, 2023 [1 favorite]


Anectodally that was the first sign of multiple myeloma in my much older cat. Very much a zebra kind of diagnosis but my clinic had two of them at the same time. The blood signs are arcane (specific biochem spike), but the other two tests are spinal x-ray and eye exam. It's stabilisable if you catch it early, so treatment is well worth pursuing.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 1:41 AM on July 15, 2023


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