Cat Losing Weight And Peeing A Lot

It is only natural for cat owners to worry when their cat starts losing weight. This article will discuss several causes for feline weight loss, including mild to severe medical conditions. Prompt veterinary evaluation is important to diagnose and treat weight loss in the cat.

For consultation, comprehensive testing and treatment of your cat’s undiagnosed weight loss, consider making an appointment with one of our board certified internal medicine specialists: call Atlantic Veterinary Internal Medicine in Annapolis at (410) 224-0121, Towson at (410) 828-0911 or Annapolis at (410) 441-3304.

Animals tend to eat less food when they are anxious or stressed out, and your cat could potentially be losing weight because of chronic stress. Here are some common signs of extreme stress and anxiety that you should look for in your cat:

Weight Loss In Cats

Minimizing or eliminating the stimuli causing your cat’s stress response is ideal. When this is not possible, making your cat feel comfortable and safe is key. You will likely also benefit from visiting a veterinarian, and, possibly, an animal behaviorist to help you and your cat through this process.

Dental disease, including a fractured tooth, severe gingivitis, and a tooth abscess, can cause oral pain and difficulty chewing. Your cat may lose weight from decreased intake as a result. Your veterinarian will want to examine your cat’s mouth to rule out underlying dental disease.

Like in people, GI tract issues could cause a reduced appetite in cats. Often, but not always, this will be accompanied by other symptoms of gastrointestinal upset, such as constipation, diarrhea, and vomiting. This can cause your cat to lose weight over time. There are number of medical conditions causing GI disease in the cat. Diagnostics usually include lab work, fecal, abdominal imaging, and, possibly, endoscopy or surgery.

Why Is My Cat Drinking And Peeing So Much?

Viral and bacterial infections can also cause a reduced appetite in cats, and this can cause weight loss if your cat has the illness for a while. This could potentially include stomach illnesses, respiratory diseases, and more. There are a number of different tests to diagnose infectious disease in cats.

Feline Diabetes can also cause for weight loss in cats. In fact, weight loss is one of the most noticeable sign of Diabetes. Many people also notice excessive thirst and frequent urination in their cats. If you notice these symptoms in your cat, then you should take them to your veterinarian as soon as possible; they will be able to diagnose your cat after taking some blood and urine tests that measure your cat’s glucose levels. Treatment for diabetes usually involves giving your cat insulin and feeding your cat a special diet that is low in carbohydrates.

Intestinal parasites suck all of the nutrients out of their host, so a cat could be eating normal amounts of food and still lose weight. Fleas transmit some intestinal parasites like tapeworms. Other intestinal parasites are more common in outdoor cats because they are transmitted through animal feces and dead infected animals. Your veterinarian will test for intestinal parasites through a simple fecal test.

Cat Losing Weight? Ways To Help Cat Gain Weight

Hyperthyroidism primarily affects older cats. Your veterinarian will diagnose this condition through a blood test that measures your cat’s thyroid hormone levels. Once diagnosed, cat owners have the option of treating their cat’s hyperthyroidism through surgery, oral medication, a special prescription diet, or radioactive iodine treatments.

Cats can lose weight because of systemic diseases, including kidney, lung, heart, liver and gall bladder disease. Diagnosis often requires blood work, urinalysis, radiographs and an ultrasound; additional tests may be indicated. Early symptoms may include:

Another severe case of weight loss in cats is cancer, particularly lymphoma. Although this is a fairly aggressive form of cancer in cats, it may be treatable with chemotherapy when caught early. Therefore, it is crucial that you visit your veterinarian promptly if you suspect that your cat has any kind of cancer. The four common symptoms of lymphoma include weight loss, a reduced appetite, vomiting, and diarrhea.By following these basic tips, you can help keep your four-legged, feline friends healthy--potentially for decades! But as cat guardians, you should also be aware of five “silent” killers in cats. By knowing what the most common silent killers are, you can know what clinical signs to look for. With most of these diseases, the sooner the clinical signs are recognized, the sooner we veterinarians can treat.

Caring For Older Cats

One of the top silent killers of cats is chronic kidney disease (CKD) (This is sometimes called chronic renal failure or chronic kidney injury). These terms are all semantically the same, and basically mean that 75% of both the kidneys are ineffective and not working. Clinical signs of CRD include:

Thankfully, with appropriate management, cats can live with CKD for years (unlike dogs where CKD usually progresses more rapidly). Chronic management may include a low-protein diet, frequent blood work, increasing water intake (e.g., with a water fountain or by feeding a grueled canned food), medications and even fluids under the skin (which many pet guardians do at home, once properly trained).

Hyperthyroidism is an endocrine disease where the thyroid gland produces too much thyroid hormone. This is seen in middle-aged to geriatric cats, and can result in very similar clinical signs to chronic kidney disease including:

Clinical Assessment Of Muscle Condition In Cats

However, as hyperthyroidism increases the metabolism of cats, it causes one defining sign: a ravenous appetite despite weight loss. It can also result in:

Thankfully, treatment for hyperthyroidism is very effective and includes either a medication (called methimazole, surgical removal of the thyroid glands (less commonly done), a special prescription diet called y/d® Feline Thyroid Health),  or I131 radioiodine therapy. With hyperthyroidism, the sooner you treat it, the less potential side effects or organ damage will occur in your cat.

Another costly, silent killer that affects cats is diabetes mellitus (DM). As many of our cats are often overweight to obese, they are at a greater risk for DM. With diabetes, the pancreas fails to secrete adequate amounts of insulin (Type I DM) or there is resistance to insulin (Type II DM). Insulin is a natural hormone that drives sugar (i.e., blood glucose) into the cells. As a result of the cells starving for glucose, the body makes more and more glucose, causing hyperglycemia (i.e., a high blood sugar) and many of the clinical signs seen with DM. Common clinical signs for DM are similar to those of Chronic kidney disease and hyperthyroidism and include:

My Cat Is Peeing Blood: What It Could Mean

Treatment for DM can be costly, as it requires twice-a-day insulin injections that you have to give under the skin. It also requires changes in diet (to a high protein, low carbohydrate diet), frequent blood glucose monitoring, and frequent veterinary visits. With supportive care and chronic management, cats can do reasonably well; however, once diabetic complications develop (e.g., diabetic ketoacidosis, hyperosmolar, hyperglycemic syndrome), DM can be life threatening. 

Heart disease is very frustrating for both cat owners and veterinarians. That’s because, while dogs almost always have a loud heart murmur (i.e., one we can hear with our stethoscope) indicative of heart disease, cats often don’t have a heart murmur present. In fact, it’s estimated that 50% of cats with heart disease have no auscultable heart murmur. Clinical signs of heart disease include:

Once cardiac disease is diagnosed (typically based on physical exam, chest radiographs, Cardiopet® proBNP Test,  and an ultrasound of the heart called an “echocardiogram”), treatment may include emergency care for oxygen therapy, diuretics, blood pressure support, and heart medications. Long-term prognosis is poor, as the heart medication does not cure the heart disease; it prevents cardiac disease from getting worse. The exception is when cardiac disease is caused by hyperthyroidism, which often gets better once the hyperthyroidism is treated!

The 9 Reasons Your Cat Is Losing Weight — Our Pet's Health

As dogs and cats live longer, we as veterinarians are seeing more cases of cancer. The most common type of cancer in cats is gastrointestinal cancer, often due to lymphosarcoma. Clinical signs of cancer include:

Once diagnosed, the prognosis for cancer is poor. For this reason, the sooner you notice clinical signs, the sooner diagnosis and treatment may be initiated.

Note that there are other common emergencies that can cause death in cats, including trauma, urinary obstructions, poisonings, and more. When in doubt, to keep your cat safe, follow these 5 simple tips:

Why Is My Cat Drinking A Lot Of Water?

When it comes to your cat’s health, make sure you’re aware of these common silent killers. The sooner you notice the signs, the sooner we can run blood work and diagnose the medical problem. The sooner we diagnose the problem, the sooner we can treat it!

If you have any questions or concerns, you should always visit or call your veterinarian -- they are your best resource to ensure the health and well-being of your pets.

Justine has more than 18 years of experience in the veterinary industry and is a board-certified emergency critical care veterinary specialist and toxicologist as well as the CEO and founder of Vetgirl. She is also a founding member of IDEXX’s Pet Health Network team.Over time, you start to know the normal size of daily urine clumps for your cat’s litter box. Suddenly, however, you notice the clumps seem to be getting bigger, and the waste bag is heavier each day when you scoop the box.

Incontinence And Weight Loss In Older Pets