Senior cat losing weight?
Hi there!!
TLDR: Senior cat had lost one and a half pounds since December, but is acting normal. His last bloodwork (also December) was normal, as well.
Now for the whole spiel ... I took my 13yo cat (male, neutered) to the vet this morning to get him started on adequan.
He's been doing great and acting like himself — eating, drinking, using the litter box normally, pestering the dogs, playing, begging for treats — but has started having some trouble making higher jumps, like floor to counter (I pull out chairs for him to use, but he still tries to fling himself straight up, sigh). He's also been a little stiff, especially when it's damp or cold ... so my vet thought he'd be a great candidate for monthly adequan injections.
But they weighed him first, and he's lost 1.5-ish lbs since his last check-up in December. He'd had a bad run of constipation in November, so they did repeat blood work mid-December to make sure nothing else was going on and everything came back within range. His weight has steadily decreased as he's gotten older, but in that month (Nov-Dec), he put on a whole pound, putting him at 13.8lbs. Today, he was about 12.4lbs.
We decided to hold off on starting the new medication, and instead did a full senior blood panel with triglycerides, along with a urinalysis. The vet listened to him and did a quick exam, and everything seemed fine.
They encouraged me not to freak out til we have more information, but this cat is my world and I'm obviously worried.
Could this just be normal aging? Or is there likely something more going on here?
Thank you!