Paddy's blood results are back.

[sugarpaws]

Did the trimming bother him more than usual? Lots of kissies are being sent his way for those pawsies.
I remember that Heidi did not mind the trimming, but I had a harder time being able to see the quick.

Good luck wih your husband's surgery also!
Marina

[Emeraldgreen]

Paddy and I just got home from the vet clinic and he received a complete head to toe exam.

I put a litter box in his cage just before we headed out because the last 2 times he's been in the truck, as soon as the wheels start turning, he poops! This time I was prepared though. lol And sure enough, he immediately had to go. It made for a very stinky ride over but at least he wasn't stepping in it and getting it all over him.

The vet and tech really thought he was a handsome fellow but were amazed at how BIG he was. He weighed in today at 21.10 pounds. The vet first looked at his nails and said that she didn't think they were the source of his tender feet. The reddish stuff at the base of some of his nails is dirt! She said that most cats clean the base of their nails but Paddy hasn't been doing this. I will help him with it tonight.

She thought that his weight was the main reason his feet have been painful because she said it's alot for him to carry around. I talked with her about the possibility of a thyroid problem and she said that in all her years of being a vet she has yet to see a cat that is hypothyroid. She said that if a cat has had a thyroid problem they have been hyperthyroid resulting in being too skinny, definitely not Paddy's problem.

She thinks that Paddy was probably fed alot of carbohydrates with his previous family for the 10 years that he was with them and she said she's fairly sure he is a 'carb addict'!!

I told her that Paddy had been in the SPCA for 8 months and then he was placed into a foster home because he was overgrooming himself and had this big bald spot on his side. The foster family was very strict with his diet for the 3+ months he was with them and when we adopted him he was about 15 or 16 pounds! Geez, we have really let him pack on the pounds since he's been with us. It's crazy though because we don't free feed him and give him a tiny handful of kibble in the morning and a spoonful of wet food and another spoonful of wetfood at night. But, when we recently went up North, we left food out for all the cats, including Paddy and he ate himself silly. He was quite a bit larger when we got home.

The vet thinks that his carb addiction is also related to the overgrooming. She recently took an acupuncture course and learned alot and she said that the area that he overgrooms is right where the digestive tract is and it is probably irritating to him to have so many carbs on board.

So, she did some bloodwork and is going to run a geriatric panel. I asked her to include a thyroid test just in case he turns out to be the first hypothyroid cat she's ever examined. She also wants to get him on some Metacam (anti-inflammatory and pain reliever) for a few months to help with the pain in his feet while we feed him a special low carb diet. Once he loses some pounds, we can wean him off the Metacam. The blood work will let her know if he is healthy enough to be on Metacam for a few months as it can be tough on the liver and kidneys. I have some left over that was prescribed for Tiger so I'll be able to save a little money there.

Paddy also had two dime sized lumps on him that I was concerned about and she felt them and was 99% sure they were cysts. She did a fine needle aspiration on both and they were cysts. She removed one with the aspiration and part of the other. I asked her why he might be getting those and she said she didn't know but that it wasn't anything serious.

Many months ago I posted a thread about Paddy and a dark freckle spot that I noticed he had on his forehead. I asked her to look at it and she said that it is just a pigmentation and the fact that it is not raised at all shows that it is nothing to be concerned about.

So all in all, our guy Pads is doing okay for going on 11 years old. I'm so relieved because we just adore him.

Now we have to get him down to a healthy weight to ensure that he doesn't get diabetes and so he can be more comfortable walking, running and playing.

I recently started feeding our cats Taste of the Wild dry food which I learned about from one of Krazyaboutkatz threads. All our cats love it and because it is grain free and high in protein and low in carbs it is a good food for Paddy. The vet gave me 4 cans of high protein wet food (two Medi-Cal cans of Reducing and 2 cans of Walthams low cal). I also picked up some cans of Evo grain free wet food and some Wellness grain free wet food at the pet store.

Hopefully he will be able to squeeze into the harness my brother sent him for christmas soon and then I can start taking him for walkies. In the meantime, we will encourage him to go up and down the stairs and play with toys and take him out to the outdoor enclosure every day for a few hours. The combination of low carb food and Metacam to relieve his foot pain should get him on the right track!

I will post his 'before-before' picture when we got him last year and his 'before' picture that was taken recently and then in a few months I'll hopefully post his 'after' picture once he's lost some weight.


Paddy's 'before-before' picture. This is when we adopted him last September, about a week after we got him when he was in pretty good shape. You can see in the pic that he has that hanging belly skin from when he used to be fat. But in the next pic, that poochy part is filled up with fat.


This is Paddy quite recently:

[Moesha]

I'm sorry Paddy. I had to laugh at your pictures. Morgan, who just turned 10 in May, was 19+ pounds at his largest weight. He is diabetic, but it is controlled strictly by diet. It's a low carb diet. He's lost over a pound in the year and a half he's been on the food without insulin. Hopefully that will work for Paddy. Morgan also has a cyst like that on his back. It was drained and has since returned. Like your vet, mine said not to worry about it.

We're looking forward to hearing how Paddy reacts to the new diet and pain meds.

[krazyaboutkatz]

I'm glad that all in all his vet exam went well. Hopefully his blood work will all come back within the normal range too. None of my cats except for Starr were overweight before I started feeding them a high protein diet and now they've all lost some weight so I'm sure that even Paddy will be able to lose weight on this kind of a diet.

I saw a show on Animal Planet last night which I've seen before. It was about overweight pets. One was an extemely obese male Tuxie and he weighed a little over 23lbs even though his owners said that they didn't feed him very much food. I really think that they were overfeeding him a bit.

They then put him on a strict diet and had to measure out his food. They also had to try to increase his excercise and they played with him before his meals. They tried to make him work for his food. In 8 weeks time he lost about 1 1/2 lbs which the vet said is a lot for a small animal like a cat. He was even starting to get a waistline.

I look forward to hearing about and seeing Paddy's weight loss progress. I know he can do it because he has two very dedicated owners and a very loving and caring home. Good luck.

[Catty1]

I'm glad to hear that nothing serious is happening with Paddy - except his new food!

That last pic you posted though - OMG LOL - I just had to repost this one from Cat General:



Looking forward to the After picture! Paddy, you will feel so much better!

[jennielynn1970]

I think Paddy is related to Calloway, lol. They both seem to have the chubby problem!

I changed everyone over to Innova's EVO about 1 1/2 months ago. It doesn't have any grains in it, so should be almost no carbs, but I swear Calloway has gained weight anyway!!! He seems to be in good spirits, and has more energy, actually all of them do except Furbee (I think she's just depressed). Their fur feels really nice too. It was soft before, but seems even softer now.

I hope you can find something that will help Paddy lose weight. I'm hoping Calloway will lose weight as well, because he is just looking very overweight.

[Emeraldgreen]

I think Paddy is related to Calloway, lol. They both seem to have the chubby problem!

I changed everyone over to Innova's EVO about 1 1/2 months ago. It doesn't have any grains in it, so should be almost no carbs, but I swear Calloway has gained weight anyway!!! He seems to be in good spirits, and has more energy, actually all of them do except Furbee (I think she's just depressed). Their fur feels really nice too. It was soft before, but seems even softer now.

I hope you can find something that will help Paddy lose weight. I'm hoping Calloway will lose weight as well, because he is just looking very overweight.

I hope that Calloway will be able to lose a few pounds too! I don't think Paddy will ever be a slim and trim guy but I want him to lose at least 4 or 5 pounds so he can move around better.
I was really interested to learn that Fancy Feast and wet food like it has fairly low protein in it and adds to the weight problem. I gave him a teaspoon of the Medi-Cal Reducing this morning and he LOVED it! The Wellness grain free wet food seemed to be somewhat popular last night but Paddy actually left some in the bowl! That never happens. I think it might have been a bit rich for him.

You wouldn't believe what I caught Paddy doing the other day! I walked into the room just in time to catch him munching away on the Swheat Scoop cat litter!! I Googled it and apparently some cats find this litter enticing because of the protein content. It is supposed to be non-toxic but in a few cases cats have been rushed to the vet because of the severe constipation it causes. Needless to say, that litter is no longer being used and we're back to the clay scoopable. I'm okay with that anyway because the Swheat Scoop ended up making the room smell like a giant hamster cage!

I'm hoping this grain free, high protein, low carb diet is going to work for everybody. It should help Jimmy's IBD and George's allergies and weight problem and Paddy's weight problem and everyone else should do fine on it. If these guys were in the wild, I suppose they wouldn't be eating many carbs anyway.

krazyaboutkatz wrote:

They then put him on a strict diet and had to measure out his food. They also had to try to increase his excercise and they played with him before his meals. They tried to make him work for his food. In 8 weeks time he lost about 1 1/2 lbs which the vet said is a lot for a small animal like a cat. He was even starting to get a waistline.

I'm going to try to definitely get him moving around more. The vet suggested that a couple of times each day I should walk to the opposite side of the house and put Paddy there so he has to walk back to the spot he likes to lounge around. She said it doesn't sound like much but that every bit does help.

Moesha wrote:

I'm sorry Paddy. I had to laugh at your pictures. Morgan, who just turned 10 in May, was 19+ pounds at his largest weight. He is diabetic, but it is controlled strictly by diet. It's a low carb diet. He's lost over a pound in the year and a half he's been on the food without insulin. Hopefully that will work for Paddy. Morgan also has a cyst like that on his back. It was drained and has since returned. Like your vet, mine said not to worry about it.

It is a funny picture. lol
The bloodwork done on Paddy will show if he's dealing with diabetes. I'm praying that he's not and I'll do everything I can to get him to a better weight than he is now.
The vet said that the cyst she drew the fluid out of will most likely just fill back up like in Morgan's case. I wish I knew why some cats get these. There must be a reason.



Thanks for posting that Cheezeburger pic Candace. Too funny and too similar! LOL