Complete Care for Your Aging Cat

by Amy Shojai

  calories. For pets that are more ambulatory, put the food at

  the top or bottom of the staircase so the animal always has

  to go up and down to get her food.” Even setting the food

  bowl at the opposite end of the house far from the cat’s

  favorite couch wil get her moving.

  Control ing calories is easier than getting the cat to

  exercise. “Avoid the tendency to ad lib feeding,” says Dr.

  Nelson. “That’s a major factor in causing obesity.” In other

  words, instead of just setting out the ful bowl of food for the

  cat to nibble al day long, switch to meal feeding of control ed

  portions.

  Moderately overweight cats may shed pounds simply by

  cutting out the treats and increasing play sessions. Senior

  diets typical y have fewer calories, and switching the cat to a

  more age-specific formula can help. “Lite” formula diet cat

  foods are available, but they aren’t magical. In fact, pets

  often gain weight on lite diets if they’re fed ad lib, or if the

  brand of food is different from the cat’s former diet. That’s

  because the lite designation only means the food is lower in

  calories than the same brand “regular” food—it’s a

  comparison within the same family of foods.

  Divide the food into four or even five smal meals a day to

  help keep her from feeling deprived. Multiple smal meals

  also tend to increase the body's metabolic rate, so she burns

  more calories faster and consequently loses the excess

  weight. Once she’s reached the target weight, serving meals

  twice-daily wil maintain her health.

  When cats are obese, medical supervision by the

  veterinarian, and often a special therapeutic weight-loss diet,

  is necessary. Several are available from different pet food

  manufacturers, and each offers innovative formulations that

  help the cat safely lose weight.

  Comfort Zone

  Treat Balls: When put on a diet, cats often pester

  owners endlessly, meowing for more food. “If the cat is

  interested in playing at al , you can put food inside

  these little bal s,” says Dr. LaFlamme. Most cats must

  be taught how to use commercial treat bal s. Once the

  cat realizes there’s food inside, and play makes it

  come out, you’ve solved portion control, exercise, and

  the pester factor al in one. “You can put a good portion

  of al their food in there, make them work for it, and it

  slows down their food intake. I think that is a great little

  trick.” There are several treat-dispensing bal s for cats

  available in pet products stores, including the Talk to

  Me Treatbal that records your voice message to

  entice your cat to play.

  Kitty Café: This is a handy trick for dealing with multi-

  cat households where a fat cat and skinny cat need to

  be fed separately. Basical y, a box is fit with a tiny door

  that only the thin cat can get through. The thin cat is fed

  inside the box, and the fat cat can’t get inside to swipe

  anything and must be satisfied with the diet food

  available on the outside of the box. “Until the fat cat

  gets skinny enough to fit in there, he can’t have any,”

  says Dr. LaFlamme. Make your own box from a plastic

  sweater container. This also works wel to keep dogs

  out of the cat’s food.

  Golden Moments: Pooh Shapes Up

  Pooh Bear, a blue spotted tabby domestic shorthair, was

  diagnosed with diabetes when he was 9 ½ years old. “I

  found some sticky stuff on the side of the tub where the cats

  go to the bathroom,” says Michel e West of Toronto. Pooh

  was in the hospital for four days, and came home perfectly

  regulated on 4 units of Humulin U insulin once a day. “Then I

  had to diet him down—he weighed 26 pounds.”

  He had always been a big boy, says Michel e, but she

  hadn’t real y noticed how bad he’d gotten. “Then one day I

  looked at him, and was horrified that I’d let that happen to

  him. I'm sure that if he hadn't gained so much weight, he

  never would have become diabetic. I could just kick myself

  for letting it happen.”

  She decided to put him on a strict but careful diet, hoping

  to gradual y slim him down and also help with his diabetes.

  She knew that trying to force weight loss too quickly could

  create fatal liver problems.

  She tried some of the commercial “lite” reducing diets, but

  the high fiber caused serious constipation problems. “There

  were a couple times I thought poor Pooh was going to have

  a heart attack just trying to go to the bathroom,” says

  Michel e. High fiber foods counteract diarrhea and

  constipation by normalizing the bowel movement, but fiber

  works a bit differently in individual cats.

  Michel e settled on a combination of three different

  brands: 50 percent Waltham Calorie Control, and 25 percent

  each of Hil ’s Science Diet Senior and Meow Mix. “Without

  the Meow Mix, he gets seriously constipated from al the

  fiber in the other two,” says Michel e. She says it took a long

  time to work out the perfect mixture for Pooh—and what

  works for him might not work for others. “It might take a

  couple of months to work out the right mix for your overweight

  cat,” she says.

  As a breeder of Scottish Folds, Michel e had two

  other cats in the household that needed a different diet: Toni,

  a breeding female, and an aging retired girl named Punkin

  with arthritis problems. “I needed three different foods for my

  cats,” she says. “The minute I knew Pooh had to go on a diet

  that was the end of free feeding in my house.” Before, they

  didn't like each other’s food anyway, so leaving it out al the

  time wasn’t a problem. But once he was on a diet, Pooh

  wanted to eat anything that didn’t move faster than he did.

  Once the diet started, Michel e locked up al the food in

  one-pound cottage cheese containers, labeled them for

  Toni, Punkin or Pooh, and kept a set for each cat by the

  living room chair, by the couch, and by her bed next to the

  desk where she works. “Wherever I am, I am close to food,”

  says Michel e. “For the girls, it was easy to teach them to

  come to the containers when they wanted to eat. I’d just open

  the right one when they’d rub against or sit by the container.”

  She says they get as much food as they want, every time

  they ask, so it’s stil very similar to the free-feeding schedule

  from before.

  To begin his diet, Pooh was given one cup of his mixed dry

  foods spread out over a 24-hour period. This amount was

  slowly reduced. “Now he’s holding at about half a cup mixed

  dry foods a day,” says Michel e. “He is always hungry and

  always begging for food. He has the biggest gold eyes, and

  he looks at me so sadly. But I had to learn to be strong.”

  Pooh is fed on a strict schedule around the clock, to keep

  his blood sugar as stable as possible, which has ensured a

  lack of complications from the diabetes. Each
morning

  Pooh’s daily ration of a half cup is measured into a cottage

  cheese container, and his meals are doled out every two-

  and-a-half hours throughout the day until the tub is empty.

  “I give him these dry food meals spread out in a large

  fifteen-inch round tray. It takes him longer to eat because he

  has to hunt al the pieces down,” she says. She’l give him ten

  pieces or so as a snack if he paw-pats her head to wake her

  during the night for a snack. “Then I fal right back asleep,”

  says Michel e. “Pooh is so used to his schedule, his little

  tummy-clock keeps perfect time.”

  For times when she must be out of the house, Michel e

  bought an automatic Cat Mate Feeder. Its two food

  compartments are on a timer and open only at prescribed

  intervals. “He always tries to break into it when I'm gone,”

  says Michel e. “I've even found it in a different room from him

  pushing it. Even if he did get in, he would get no more than

  his usual next tablespoon a little early.”

  Michel e’s method for locking up al the food works best for

  someone who works at home, or for people able to come

  home at lunch time. “My girls ask for food at least eight to ten

  times a day each,” says Michel e. “If you are home at meal

  times, this container system makes feeding different foods a

  breeze. It's so much easier than feeding multiple in different

  rooms, some on the counter and some on the floor. That's

  very difficult.”

  The system simplifies giving Pooh his insulin shot. “He’s

  so hungry that when he's eating at 11:00 a.m., I give the shot

  and he never even notices!”

  Pooh’s diabetes has been wel regulated for four years.

  Michel e’s diet system enabled him to lose ten pounds in one

  year until at thirteen-and-a-half-years old he was stable at

  sixteen pounds—and to reduce his insulin needs to one unit

  once a day.

  “I know I'm probably going overboard in my care for Pooh,

  but I love him so much and want him to be with me as long as

  possible,” says Michel e. “He's in perfect health now, and is

  more alert and lively than when he was younger. I hope he

  wil be with me another thirteen years.”

  Feeding For Health

  Some cats are able to lose weight simply by reducing the

  amount of their regular diet and increasing exercise. Most

  cats, though, need the extra help of a reduced-calorie food.

  Some “lite” products are available in grocery stores but

  obese cats usual y do best on a therapeutic diet dispensed

  from the veterinarian. Products designed for feline reducing

  diets include:

  Eukanuba Adult Weight Control Formula

  Hil ’s Prescription Diet Feline r/d

  Hil ’s Prescription Diet Felin w/d

  Iams Veterinary Diets Nutritional Weight Loss

  Formulas Restricted-Calorie/Feline

  IVD (Royal Canin) Select Care Feline HiFactor

  Formula

  IVD (Royal Canin) Select Care Feline Weight

  Formula

  Nutro Complete Care Weight Management

  Max Cat Lite

  Precise Feline Light Formula

  Purina

  Veterinary

  Diets,

  OM

  Overweight

  Management Formula

  Waltham Feline Calorie Control Diet

  PANCREATITIS

  The pancreas, a smal organ situated near the liver,

  provides digestive enzymes for the smal intestines, and

  insulin that aids in glucose metabolism. Inflammation of the

  organ, cal ed pancreatitis, disrupts the function and spil s

  enzymes into the bloodstream and abdominal cavity. That

  causes an array of subtle to severe symptoms.

  Pancreatitis has been recognized in cats only in the last

  decade. Most often, chronic pancreatitis affects middle aged

  and older cats. “Pancreatitis is a very frustrating disease in

  cats,” says Debbie Davenport, DVM, an internist with Hil ’s

  Pet Nutrition. The disease is hard to diagnose, and difficult

  to treat, and there are no good answers about what causes

  the condition. Since the organ is linked to the intestines and

  also to the liver, cats suffering from pancreatitis may have

  concurrent liver or inflammatory bowel disease. “It’s possible

  that an inflammation can actual y move from one organ to the

  other,” says Dr. Davenport. That makes the disease even

  more difficult to diagnose and treat.

  In dogs, feeding fatty table scraps, obesity, and injury are

  commonly incriminated. Fatty diets and obesity don’t seem

  to play a role in the feline disease, although the list of

  potential causes includes trauma, parasites and toxins, says

  Susan Little, DVM, a feline specialist in Ottawa, Canada.

  Despite these puzzles, more cases are being recognized

  than ever before. “Part of that is we’re looking for it, and part

  of it is the advent of abdominal ultrasound,” says Dr. Nelson.

  “Part of it is that I think for some reason, something has

  shifted, and it’s causing an increase in the prevalence of

  pancreatitis in cats. It’s become a significant problem.”

  Senior Symptoms

  Signs of pancreatitis in cats tend to come and go, and often

  are quite vague.

  Lethargy

  Anorexia

  Dehydration

  Low body temperature

  Vomiting

  Abdominal pain

  Diagnosis

  Tests diagnose pancreatitis very wel in dogs and people

  don’t work with cats because the disease reacts differently in

  the feline body. For example, Dr. Webster says humans with

  pancreatitis have certain enzyme levels in the blood that

  consistently go up. “That doesn’t happen in cats,” she says.

  Even the symptoms and test results are frustrating.

  “They’re just tremendously varied. It’s real y hard to hang your

  hat on anything,” says Dr. Little. “The blood work can be

  highly variable. The signs of il ness can be highly variable.”

  One of the more recent and promising tests is the feline

  trypsin-like immunoreactivity (TLI), but most times diagnosis

  is based on an ultrasound of the cat’s pancreas. Even then,

  the diagnosis may not be definitive, says Cynthia R. Leveil e-

  Webster, DVM, an internist at Tufts University. “Chronic

  pancreatitis is an old cat disease that’s real y hard to get a

  handle on without doing surgery and a biopsy of the

  pancreas.”

  Treatment

  Currently there is no consensus on the best way to treat

  feline pancreatitis once it’s diagnosed. Dogs usual y have

  acute disease and are supported with fluid therapy to

  counteract the dehydration, pain-relieving drugs, medicine to

  control vomiting, and fasting—withholding food for three or

  four days. Food stimulates the pancreas to continue

  releasing enzymes, so fasting helps break the cycle.

  But cats with chronic disease have symptoms that come

  and go. They rarely vomit, and fasting can cause life-

  threatening hepatic lipidosis. “It’s very diff
icult to safely fast a

  cat,” says Dr. Davenport. “Most people feed in the face of

  pancreatitis.” Other supportive care, such as fluid therapy, or

  drugs to control vomiting, is offered as needed.

  Cats that have a mild form of chronic pancreatitis often

  benefit from a daily dose of pancreatic enzyme, says Dr.

  Hoskins. A teaspoon of dried powdered extracts of beef or

  pig pancreas (Pancrezyme, or Viokase-V) can be mixed in

  the food given twice daily. If the cat refuses the treated food,

  the veterinarian may have other alternatives such as raw

  beef pancreas or a fish-based liquid supplement.

  Dr. Webster treats cats on a case-by-case basis. “If the

  cat’s vomiting every two hours I’m not going to shove food

  down the throat,” she says. “You can give it some parenteral

  nutrition through the vein for a couple of days until it calms

  down a little bit.”

  Parenteral nutrition—intravenous nutrition—does not

  stimulate the pancreas as much, agrees Dr. Davenport, but it

  requires constant monitoring. “If you overfeed calories—in

  particular, fat—to cats intravenously, you can predispose

  lipidosis, so you’re back to making the situation worse.”

  In most cases, she says veterinarians wil place a tube

  device either down the throat or directly into the stomach

  through the cat’s side. That is combined with fluid therapy to

  keep the cat wel hydrated. “Sometimes it just becomes a

  wait-it-out phenomenon,” she says. “You just have to keep

  the cat supported long enough for the pancreatic

  inflammation to subside.”

  Nurse Alert!

  When a cat refuses to eat due to pancreatitis, your

  veterinarian may need to surgical y implant a feeding tube to

  keep her fed so she’l recover from the condition. This may

  go down the cat’s throat, or through her side directly into the

  stomach. Often, cats improve more quickly and do better at

  home than in the veterinary hospital, so you may be asked to

  tube feed your cat. You’l be shown exactly how to do this—

  it’s real y quite simple.

  Usual y a semi-liquid soft therapeutic diet is provided.

  It should be slightly warmed to prevent cold food

  upsetting the stomach. A large syringe (without the

  needle) is often used to draw up the right amount, and

  this is squirted through the stomach tube to feed the

  cat.

  Keep the end of the tube clean and protected when