Heavy Thoughts

Some folks just have it easy.

A client brought two cats in last week for their annual exam, and as I started working on the first one, a huge red flag went off in my head. This cat weigh two pounds less than the previous year. Considering that this is a 9 year old patient, possible disease processes start running through my mind, and I conduct the physical examination looking for the usual suspects like kidney issues, hyperthyroidism and other "diseases of older cats."

Well, really this cat just looked great. While it had gone from 8.5 pounds to 6.5, it was in excellent body condition and no other problems were noted on examination. So I enter my notes into the medical record, and move on to the next cat only to discover it had gone from 20 pounds to 16! And then it clicked...

Time for a flashback:

It's the summer of 2003, and I am fresh out of veterinary school when I get a call from my mother. Being a new graduate, every day seems impossibly busy so the last thing I want to hear about is that she just backed the car over her cat and now it's not moving. My mom is interested in adopting a wait and see sort of approach, and I beg to differ. Cut to the chase, by the end of the week, her cat is doing much better, except that I had to correct a fracture by creating a false hip. Bottom line, the cat is going to do great, as long as it stays lean - excess weight will likely lead to chronic pain in this sort of situation.

So that was really the first time I had to sit down and construct a serious dietary plan for a patient. Hate to admit it, but my vet school put more emphasis on food animal nutrition than on feline nutrition. And even though one of my instructors actually wrote a widely sited (and in my mind revolutionary) article on the dietary needs of cats, somehow it was never chosen as a lecture at my school.

So I read it, and it blew my mind. And then I checked her references to find additional source material, and I got really excited. If what they were saying was correct, then we (veterinarians and the cat food industry) had been looking at things all wrong. I now had a plan. Now to but it into action!

Next time: Great expectations meet reality check.