I took the gatito (gatita?) for her yearly check up at the vets yesterday. And they spent most of the time telling me how fat she is. But, but, but..., thinks I, she was just as fat last year. And the year before that too. Actually, she's a little bit thinner than last year, having lost 0.35 pounds thanks to my half-hearted dieting efforts. I thought I deserved a pat on the back for that, but no, they tell me she needs to lose 3 more pounds. Sigh. So they took lots of blood with dire warnings about diabetes and kidney failure, and how she's a geriatric now so I have to be extra careful. And they said she has bad teeth so I have to take her in for a teeth cleaning in the new year.
I exaggerate, actually. They were and are lovely, and I really like everyone there. And they're right - she is fat. Thing is, she was 7 when I got her, and was enormous then, and I felt like with the shock of changing families it wasn't right for me to make her lose weight too quickly. She's lost nearly 2 pounds since I've had her, but OK, I've had her for 6 years and I could have done a lot better. 1.5 pounds was probably lost in her first year with me, so I've clearly been slacking for the last 5 years. And they probably did mention the fatness last year, but I've probably glossed over it in my mind.
So Miss Kitteh is now on Atkins, per the vet's instructions. No more dry food, and no leaving food out for her. Not quite sure how this will work with my new crazy school schedule, but I guess it will just have to. We will just have to diet together, even if she complains bitterly. Incidentally, when I made that feeble little joke to the vet, he recommended Atkins for me too. Except when I said I was a vegetarian he just said "oh! It will be very hard for you to lose weight then." Ass. It's a good thing he's super nice generally, cute, and great with the animals, otherwise I wouldn't put up with it.
3 comments:
My mama dog is one of those naturally thin things that has trouble keeping weight on. Her daughter is tank-ish. Not overweight yet but you can see she has a propensity for it so we try to watch it. We also cook for them, a lot and they have always had free feed kibble.
Anyhoo last year I put them on atkins mainly for the daughter (Henrietta). I quit serving rice with the chicken we cooked and I changed their kibble to EVO which is an atkins type kibble. It worked and the mama dog has stayed the same weight and the daughter has lost over a pound.
Here is there link, I usually get it from a feed store.
http://www.evopet.com/
The one thing that surprises me about the vet is that is the cat has bad teeth then wet food is even worse for her teeth. Anyhow in case you want to stay with kibble I thought you might be interested.
Good luck.
I can't believe the Vet told you to lose weight. It's none of his business!
At least you can diet with your pet. Mine has the metabolism I wish I had. He's so lean people think he's still a puppy.
What about adding more raw food to your diet? When I did the raw food diet, I dropped 5 pounds in the first week. I need to get back on it. I wasn't hungry and fresh, healthy food tasted so good to me. :)
My Dude is 6 years old and weighed 16 lbs the last time I weighed him. He's not a big cat at all, he just likes his food. I'm pretty sure that I'd rather chew my own arm off than to make him diet. I think I might smack Mr. Atkins Vet for you. Atkins is so hard on your body it makes me crazy that people still think it is a good thing.
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