Weird things cats have done

My Master Mouser has a self inflicted health problem …. She weighs 20 pounds.   So the vet put her on a diet.  She has accepted it well. In fact, she barely eats the carefully measured and monitored portions I give her.  I am actually dishing out less food than the vet recommended. But, in the 2 months since the vet visit, her weight has remained the same.  No, she is not taking food from the other cats.  In fact, the only other source of food she may have access to that I can come up with is …. Mice!

So, now I have a problem.  I dearly love my MM.  I want her to live many more years.  She is very hard working. I appreciate her “ No Mouse Left Behind” policy. So now I have to figure out the solution to the problem of her losing weight and us being mouse free.

John F Dean wrote:My Master Mouser has a self inflicted health problem …. She weighs 20 pounds.   So the vet put her on a diet.  She has accepted it well. In fact, she barely eats the carefully measured and monitored portions I give her.  I am actually dishing out less food than the vet recommended. But, in the 2 months since the vet visit, her weight has remained the same.  No, she is not taking food from the other cats.  In fact, the only other source of food she may have access to that I can come up with is …. Mice!

So, now I have a problem.  I dearly love my MM.  I want her to live many more years.  She is very hard working. I appreciate her “ No Mouse Left Behind” policy. So now I have to figure out the solution to the problem of her losing weight and us being mouse free.

Have no fear John. MM will live a long time. I treat cats all over the world and THE number one consideration is the diet. The commercial cat food is not food. The prey they hunt is food. Sadly mainstream vets are not on board with this as they're trained by Big Pet Food, who can't be said to be without bias. Yet when you swap the commercial for quality raw (aka mice) EVERYTHING improves and many conditions disappear altogether. Including serious, chronic, auto-immune......
Being overweight on commercial is a BIG problem. Being overweight on raw is not. However, another hunter will help share the load of mousing!

I hope Madeleine Innocent reads and replies to this, perhaps she could give you some insight.  

My personal paranoia goes straight to "Could it be a tumor and not just fat?  A blocked digestive system or bladder?  Could his vet have missed something important?"  I hope it is nothing but excess fat, and that she manages to shed it back to a healthy level.  Perhaps she is eating mice who have eaten lots of fattening grains or something to fatten up for winter.  

My best wishes for your MM to get back to normal and have many more years of enjoyable life with you.  (If you end up with surprise kittens, be sure to post pics!)

EDIT:  she beat me to it!  My computer/internet didn't load her reply before I posted mine.

Donna Lynn wrote:I hope Madeleine Innocent reads and replies to this, perhaps she could give you some insight.  

My personal paranoia goes straight to "Could it be a tumor and not just fat?  A blocked digestive system or bladder?  Could his vet have missed something important?"  I hope it is nothing but excess fat, and that she manages to shed it back to a healthy level.  Perhaps she is eating mice who have eaten lots of fattening grains or something to fatten up for winter.  

My best wishes for your MM to get back to normal and have many more years of enjoyable life with you.  (If you end up with surprise kittens, be sure to post pics!)

EDIT:  she beat me to it!  My computer/internet didn't load her reply before I posted mine.

It can't be fat as wild animals don't have excess fat. The fat in the commercial is far too much. You could say pet food is a dumping ground for fat. And if it was fat, MM would not be the successful hunter he is. Mice don't want to be eaten so do have strategies to avoid this. Without seeing MM, I would suggest he is solid muscle and big framed. A successful hunter needs all their senses working in perfect unison, which would not be possible if they were suffering with something.

Hi Donna,

My MM was found as a half grown kitten in a Cookesville TN parking lot … hiding under a shopping cart… and terrified of the cars whipping past her.  She remains aware and grateful that I saved her life.  I made sure she visited a vet to be sure more strays were not created.

Her weight is pretty evenly distributed, so I doubt if there is a tumor. But, while I do like the vet, he is very much a small town Spencer Tracey type ( I bet I just lost 99% of the readers).  So, if the weight does not come off in a couple of months, we will take a trip to someone with more resources.

My MM was promoted to Queen Kitty and takes her responsibilities to look after her 5 subjects quite seriously.   Yesterday morning I woke suddenly as my MM bit me on my upper lip.   She then scampered to one of the three water dishes we have in the house ….God forbid…it was empty!  Of course, the other two water dishes were full, but that didn’t matter. The servant had failed to do his job.

Our old cat tree was getting pretty worn, so my wife bought a new one. It sat in its box until last night.  As soon as I opened the box and laid out the parts on the LR floor, our cats were inspecting it.  They knew what it was.  As each layer was assembled, each cat had to climb on it and inspect.   Anyway, the old tree is presently on the front porch and the new one is in place. Yes, the new one was approved by all.  Of course, with all the inspections, it took me 3x as long to assemble it as it should have.

John F Dean wrote:  Of course, with all the inspections, it took me 3x as long to assemble it as it should have.

Just because quality control slows some processes, doesn't mean it isn't critically important to safety! If only humans were so diligent about insuring top quality work goes into relatively tall, narrow infrastructure, we might have fewer bridge and high-rise failures!

Well, I spoke too soon. I should have waited for the final report.  My Master Mouser walked up to the new tree  this morning and said, “ Oh, I thought we were going to have both trees. I don’t know if we can use just this one.”   So, that cat tree that was having every cat in the house climbing all over it last night now sits unused.

Anyway this is the Permies site.  Does anyone out there have a need for fresh cat gut?

John F Dean wrote:Well, I spoke too soon. I should have waited for the final report.  My Master Mouser walked up to the new tree  this morning and said, “ Oh, I thought we were going to have both trees. I don’t know if we can use just this one.”  

The problem is the solution, give them back the old one too.
I'm on the cat's side, MORE CAT TREES  :D

We now have THREE cat trees in our tiny living room for our five indoor cats!

We can't let this lot out, unfortunately, as we live on a very busy street and they're all special needs. They're big cats and high energy, so tough on their cat trees.

Every time they break one, which happens regularly, we buy a new one, but hubby salvages the unbroken pieces from the old ones and combines them to create a new design. The cats love to "help" with the construction process.